Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Well, I’ll give Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this much: it’s better than director Zack Snyder’s preceding film Man of Steel (my dislike for which has grown since my initial reaction). And the distinction of making the worst Batman to ever hit the silver screen still probably belongs to Joel Schumacher. If that praise isn’t faint enough already, I’ll add that that’s strictly on a filmmaking level. As bad as Schumacher’s two gaudy, nipply incarnations were, there’s still arguably fun to be had watching them and laughing at their total goofiness. Fun is a quality mostly absent from Dawn of Justice, what bit there is mostly getting suffocated. Not by relentless darkness and grimness—despite its gloomy aesthetic and what you might have heard, it’s not as dark as Christopher Nolan’s recent take on the character (it even has some humorous quips that would have been out of place in the Nolanverse)—but by tedium.

Like too many blockbusters these days, the movie is less a full, proper narrative than a franchise primer. It’s no secret Warner Brothers wants to build a film universe with its DC characters to compete with Disney’s Marvel juggernaut. Instead of playing Marvel’s long game by building that universe through single-character films, however, Dawn of Justice attempts to instantly jump-start the DC franchise all by itself. Packaging that with the prospect of finally filming the big Batman-Superman fight from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns seems like little more than a transparent attempt to get butts in seats, and maybe steal a little thunder from Marvel before their characters turn on each other six weeks from now.

The film is set a year-and-a-half after the destruction of Metropolis in Man of Steel. Superman (Henry Cavill) is a figure of controversy over whether he’s a hero or a threat. An older, more unhinged Batman (Ben Affleck), whose alter-ego Bruce Wayne witnesses the Metropolis carnage in a prologue, is firmly in the latter camp. Billionaire Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), obsessed with destroying Superman for reasons unexplained, plays the two against each other, while also using Kryptonian technology to resurrect the deceased General Zod (Michael Shannon) as the monster Doomsday, just in case the Dark Knight fails to bring down the Last Son of Krypton.

Oh, there’s more than that. In an attempt to unilaterally build universe continuity, the film introduces so many conflicting storylines that it plays like the filmmakers badly stitched together scenes from several different movies. Some of which are pretty good in and of themselves (a few Batman sequences would have been awesome in a solo film if the material hadn’t been so thoroughly mined already), but none of them get a chance to go anywhere, and few of them intersect. There are also several attempts to relate what we’re seeing to the real world (the 9/11 imagery is, again, quite apparent), but in very simplistic ways that are empty beyond the surface level. There’s a lot of heavy-handed talk of hero roles and responsibility that goes past subtle meditation to self-important lecturing (and awkward insertions of Miller’s DKR dialogue). Even if you know the DC universe enough to not get completely confused, it’s rather boring. As for future film teasers, there’s literally a clip show of the rest of the Justice League instead of any attempt to tie them in naturally.

The whole cast is pretty stiff, but this at least suits Affleck’s portrayal of the Caped Crusader. Where everyone else merely slogs, he seethes. It’s a fresh and interesting take on the character, more realistically depicting Batman as obsessive, mentally unstable, and cruel instead of heroic. But like every other germ of an idea in this thing, there’s little time to explore this angle. Also, he conveniently has an abrupt change of heart late in the action, lest the Justice League get started on a less-than-sympathetic foot.

Cavill, on the other hand, still doesn’t seem like Superman at all. When the film has him doing classic Superman things, he looks disinterested and uncomfortable, and the mood is dour instead of hopeful. In fact, the ultimate outcome feels like an admission from Snyder that he doesn’t get the character and won’t even bother trying anymore.

Eisenberg’s Luthor lacks any clear motive or menace, an annoying retread of his Mark Zuckerberg portrayal with none of the sad, sympathetic depth and many times the self-satisfied superiority. Other supporting players, like so much else in the picture, aren’t given enough time to be anything besides functions to the plot. And Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is only worked in so her appearance during the finale isn’t completely out of nowhere. That said, placing her front and center in the final battle works. Well enough that the viewer briefly forgets her role here is little more than blatant advertising for her solo film next year.

In spite of all this, Dawn of Justice stands as a net improvement over Man of Steel. I can’t explain it. Maybe the bar was just really low. Maybe its problem is comprehension (it has potentially good ideas, just too many at once) instead of incompetence. Maybe it’s just that the action sequences aren’t as totally indecipherable and skull-shattering loud as Man of Steel’s. They’re still far from spectacular or out of the ordinary, but they seem enough like dumb fun after a slogging 90 minutes or so (even though the big fight between the two leads is ultimately underwhelming and secondary). Or maybe it’s just that while the film is indeed quite flawed, it’s averagely unexceptional, not the once-in-a-decade, franchise-killing kind of bad that it was christened by the Internet at every point in its production.

So, the DC film universe begins with a big, gaping yawn. But I suppose that’s better than loudly running the characters into the ground at the speed of sound. So….success?