Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is directed by Zack Snyder and stars Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Jesse Eisenberg, Holly Hunter, Amy Adams, Jemery Irons and Gal Gadot. The second instalment in the DC Extended Universe, Batman v Superman is a vast narrative encompassing multiple stories: the titular rivalry between Batman and Superman; Lois Lane's detective work which leads her to Lex Luthor; Lex Luthor's rise to power; the world entering a stage of controversy over Superman and a half-Justice League formation to defeat a new threat (and setting up Justice League).
This superhero extravaganza has been met with mixed responses, and for good reason. Much like the Transformers franchise or the Star Wars prequels before it, Batman v Superman is an underwhelming disappointment with occasional great moments and aspects wedged awkwardly between hamstrung, incoherent messes. To start nicely, there are the aforementioned good components, the Darth Maul lightsaber fight for every Jar Jar Binks, as it were. Ben Affleck is without a doubt the most well utilised player as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego. This take on the character is different to any other: darker than usual and much, much more violent than useful who has decided to brand criminals and even KILL several. Yes, Batman kills people. But Affleck defies the exuberant amount of pressure that was placed on him and delivers one of the best, of not the best take on the role. This Batman's combat skills are also much more satisfying and true to the character than the sometimes wooden combat scenes of Christopher Nolan's trilogy; the main example being Batman beating the shit out of two dozen cronies in a matter of minutes- one of the most engaging scenes of the film. The whole Batman sections of the film are the most watchable; Jeremy Irons is a breath of fresh air as his Alfred delivers some witty lines of dialogue amongst the very dark and depressing narrative.
The opening scene is also clever, taking us back to Superman and Zod's obliteration of Metropolis but seen from Bruce Wayne's perspective, almost like Back to the Future Part 2 where the previous climax is nothing more than a backdrop for the sequel. Zack Snyder's trademark visual flair does have some beauty to it but it is set too much at night. And yeah, that's the good stuff: a main performance, a secondary character's performance, a fight and the opening scene.
Now for the bad stuff. The film is trying so hard to be amazing, to show rival studio Marvel that DC films are just as good, if not better, that the movie embarrassingly fails. The saturated story just has too much going on that isn't interesting. Lois Lane's adventures should be saved for a Superman film and the numerous dream sequences are injected in horribly and needlessly. And even worse, every silly subplot is stitched to another with awful editing which has just taken scenes from each story and spread them out along the massive 151 minute runtime, making it hard for the engagement part of your brain to keep up.
Another unnecessary addition is Lex Luthor who is completely miscast. Jesse Eisenberg is hilariously bad as the string puller who sets up the confrontation. His little suppressed hiccups he throws around in his monologues is incredibly off putting and he is trying way too hard to become the next Joker or Loki with these peculiar mannerisms. Fans were wrong about Affleck, but they were right about Eisenberg.
The script also doesn't help the actors a great deal where only Affleck (again) manages to make the 'dramatic' lines less cheesy. In a film where one character says, "I'm not a women, I'm a journalist", you know this is going to be a messy film, from the literally and visually messy CGI Doomsday to the whole Doomsday arc which is suddenly thrust into our faces.
Character development is also fairly minimal, making key dramatic moments just lacking that little bit extra emotion. There is barely any investment in these characters to care. Wonder Women does show up and whilst Gal Gadot is fairly decent in the role and her theme song is pretty nice, there is no change of character or much care for her.
The finished result of the film could be summed as this: take a DC comic, rip out the pages and stick them in somewhere else, scribble over some pages, add another hundred characters and inject it with steroids and then testosterone. The teenage boy part of your brain will scream at you to like it because the actual fight is good, but the rest of your brain will be so worn out from this caffeinated, adrenaline rush of a film to pay attention.
