Assuming you live on this planet, then you know that Batman v Superman (BvS hereafter) has been all the rave for the past few days, in every place where there is a meeting of minds (likely with a large male demographic), from thousands of chat rooms and social media pages, from playgrounds to your local bar, there have been passionate or dispassionate discussions about this movie for obvious, good, bad or ugly reasons, the most befitting notion(s) however is entirely up to you.
BvS premiered a couple of days before its worldwide release with a lucky few getting to see the movie before its 25th of March worldwide release date, the first reviews were positive and encouraging, but then the critics saw it a few days after and oh my God, did they roast it! They were mostly bad reviews, these critics were out for blood, there was only one singular intention between them as far as I could tell; to kill this movie.
I was unfortunate to stumble upon the Rotten Tomatoes score of the movie a day before actually watching it, and suffice to say it was anything but encouraging, it was given a measly 30% on the critic website, luckily for me I’ve never been one to pay much attention to Rotten Tomatoes reviews, I mean these are the same guys who scored ‘The Force Awakens’ a massive 92% considering how disappointing that movie was for me, I shrugged it off and went back to my giddy state of mind, I wasn't going to let some critics ruin this one for me. No way, Jose.
So on the 24th of March myself and my band of misfits went to see the special screening that evening, I came out of the theater not with the most satisfying, epic, mind blowing experience but it was enough to put a smile on my face, I was one of the happy ones.
So without further ado, here is my review on BvS, after all I am free to share my own opinion with the world right? ‘Some might ask, there are so many reviews out there already, why do we need another?.......’simple, because I can’.
BvS started towards the end of Man Of Steel (MOS hereafter) the tempo was average and then relatively slow, almost reminiscent of MOS, it does however pick up in the 3rd act of the movie which was late for most viewers. Its an improvement on its prequel and it is, if taken as its own movie (and not the movie you’ve been imagining in your head for the past 3 yrs), a good movie, its not a popcorn movie, which is the direction that Marvel have decided to go with their films, No, what it is, ladies and gentlemen, is certainly a DC movie. The movie had its elements, lets discuss these, spoiler free of course...
What I Didn’t Like
Lex Luthor Jr: I wasn't very much thrilled with the casting choice of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, mostly because I thought he was too young (Lex Luthor is about the same age with Batman and Superman or generally middle aged), but then it has been debated that this isn't The Lex Luthor we’re familiar with but his son Lex Luthor Jr, However I saw this as perhaps a fresh take on the character and decided to look at it with fresh eyes, after all I initially wasn't thrilled at Ben Affleck either. His version of Lex was quite an unhinged one, with some semblance to a Joker or Riddler type (which he portrayed excellently) more than a Lex Luthor. I’d like to think this is really Lex Luthor Jr, that being said as I mentioned earlier, its a different take to the character and if viewed with fresh eyes, a very intriguing one.
Doomsday aka The Ultimate: Well I’m sure we’ve all seen Doomsday in the movie’s second trailer by now, and everyone knows Doomsday does not look like a troll from LOTR mistakenly jumped in a boom tube and found itself in the DCEU. Also his origin story was severely tampered with, he was watered down to more of a Frankenstein’s monster really, created to do his master’s bidding, Doomsday deserved more.
The Justice League Story Arch: We were basically force fed the JL story Arch and it happened so fast you had little time to digest it properly. I am aware that WB do not have the luxury of introducing us to every member of the Justice League with a solo movie, however the attempt to give us a brief introduction to these characters could have been much better. Why not introduce them to the audience alone? Aquaman could have been shown saving Atlanteans or sea life when the Kryptoninan world machine from MOS was terra-forming the earth, it was in the Indian ocean after all, which would add to his disdain for surface dwellers. (like Orm in the Throne of Atlantis story arch) The flash could have been introduced as a blur that saved people during the Kryptoninan attack but whom people only believe that those he saved where delusional and didn't know what they saw.(some of the ideas I played with). I however loved the dream sequences showing the ominous coming of Darkseid. Personally for me I think the Justice League could be a 2018 project, with a Wonder Woman and Flash or Aquaman movie coming out next year, but then again I’m no movie exec.
Editing/Sequencing of Scenes: This was perhaps the most essential issue with BvS, with Snyder going for a comic book-esque approach to the scenes. With so many stories being told, some scenes felt rushed, crammed and slow to digest, it became difficult to tell when a dream sequence started and when it stopped. The average comic book fan may not see this as a problem due to prior knowledge of these stories, but the average movie goer might be lost on the idea, finding it somewhat confusing, The final editing and cuts no doubt contributed to this.
Some Parts of the Plot: While I think the general plot of the movie was okay, I found some of it downright unsatisfying; implying too many things which could easily have been shown, some of the dialogue was poor, add a number of plot holes to these and its clear that the trio of Snyder, Terrio and Goyer should have done much better, going with the source materials that inspire this movie (The Dark Knight Returns 2 & The Death of Superman) my brothers and I could have brainstormed a better story.
What I did Like
Everything else!, from the acting, costumes, CGI, cast, action Scenes, soundtrack and its vision to explore the humanity of these characters it was all really good!!!
Batman/Bruce Wayne: Ben Affleck was awesome! as Batman and Bruce Wayne, a mix that hadn't really been mastered by his predecessors, save Christian Bale. I cant wait to see the Solo Batman movie, there was a moment when he was throwing beat-downs to armed thugs it felt like I was holding my Xbox controller, it was total Arkham!
Wonder Woman/Diana Prince: Gal Gadot was great, she totally owned it! I wish she had more lines though, but thank goodness we are getting her feature length next year.
Superman/Clark Kent: Henry Cavill reprised his role perfectly, it was beautiful to see the very human side of Kal-El being explored in this one.
Alfred Pennyworth: Now this was the Alfred we had been waiting to see, not a baby sitter but an accomplice, I loved Jeremy Irons’ Alfred and I’m looking forward to seeing him in a solo batman movie alongside Ben Affleck, I think they had real chemistry.
In The End
I’m not sure we’ll ever see more divisive opinions as we have seen over the last few days about a super hero movie or any other movie at all. This turned out to be a critic vs fan throw down, fans with years of emotions invested in these characters and critics whose job is to criticize the works of others (must be a very fulfilling job).
In my opinion BvS is one of those movies that really grow on you after more than one viewing, just drop every expectation you have and go into it with fresh eyes, It comes in with a 7/10 score for me.
Was it a good movie?......Yes.
Am I going to see it again?.......Way ahead of you.
Was it all I thought it’ll be......No, it could certainly have been better, but lets hope Zack Snyder takes a lot from this experience in making Justice League a better movie.
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