2016 Movie Review: Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice

Summary:

 Batman V Superman Summary

Movie Review:

My Rating: 5/10. And it pains me to have to give it this score.

I still remember the day that this movie was announced in Hall H at ComicCon.I remember seeing that Superman Logo followed by the Batman Logo engulfing it followed by some very loud cheers. Finally, the world gets to see two of the most iconic super heroes fight it out against each other.

The potential on this film was so high and I came out of the movie almost disappointed and a little bit confused on what I had just seen. The movie itself had glimpse of greatness and the scenes were generally all filmed in the Zach Snyder way. However the editing and flow of this film just felt really off. It felt like a lot of scenes were mashed together and perhaps the fact that the original cut of this movie was almost 4 hours long would explain this. However, the movie played in the cinema simply did not live up to expectations.

What DC has done in this film has set up their cinematic universe in a decent way. We have the Justice League foundation set now and a great Batman in Ben Affleck. I have seen the film 3 times now and I feel he was the standout of this film alongside Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. However with that said, Lex was a little too crazy for almost reasons that were really not communicated.

Henry Cavill as Superman was OK. I feel that this film was suppose to be his second film however he had little to no character development so it felt. Batman's character was given most of the focus and since it was his first appearance in this universe, I felt it was done well.

Gal Gadot. She is a beautiful woman, there is no doubt and people who complained about her figure maybe not be up to par to what the comics depict her, you guys should just shhhhhhh, My issue with her was that I felt like her acting chops are not quite there yet. She gave some wooden lines and I generally didn't like her performance all that much, but I think she can improve for sure.

The found footage introduction... Really? The Flash's was cool but a part of me was said it was The Flash from CW's TV series. Aquaman... maybe could have used a few more seconds at least. Cyborg just kinda sucked...

The Dream Sequences. Why? I understand that these dreams all mean something but did we need to see all of them to understand that?  I felt the time could have been used elsewhere or just cut and replaced with other footage edited out from the original directors cut. The fight scenes were so obviously choreographed with bad guys coming at him one by one, and then he sticks his hand out to another guy who fell and then stuck his hand out... oh I kind of cringed. Moving on.

The Warehouse Scene. Yes.... give me more of that. Definitely the best Batman fight scene I have ever seen. An almost John Wick style ass kicking that we all know Batman can do.

The Doomsday. I had no issues which how he looked, but the entire fight sequence and the orange radiation(?) thingy and the dark tone of it really did not get me into the movie as much as I would have hoped. I do feel that DC are rushing their villains a bit too fast here using Doomsday in a movie that should really have focused on Batman AND Superman. The closest experience I can draw to this movie would be how the Amazing Spider Man 2 tried to do. They tried to cram way too much into a single movie and it just ended up being a not so great film.

Now.. the death of Superman... we did not need to see the Inception ending with the dirt starting to float up. I think its safe to say Superman will come back. The meaning of his death was completely flat. I understand the point, the sacrifice.


My Favorite Moment:

My favorite moment was definitely when Superman lost his powers and tried to punch Batman and gave him a "wtf" face when his punch was stopped. That was pretty priceless.

My Not-So-Favorite Moment:

My not so favorite moment... definitely the found footage Justice League introduction.... I just cringed...