tippy2k2 tells you what to think; Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice

[tippy2k2]

Throw the damn towel!

I have a confession to make; I liked Man of Steel. I thought that the more "realistic" version of Superman was an interesting take on the hero and I was hoping for the follow up to be good too. How wrong I was...

NOTE: I go into more spoilers than I usually would. I have the personal belief that if it is not in the first twenty minutes or so or not in the trailer, I will refuse to talk about it. However, the film basically shows you everything in the trailer so I will talk about it.

The very first scene we see is one of the only things the movie does right; it's a flashback scene to Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod fighting from the first movie. During said fight, we see Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) doing all kinds of stunt driving through the city that is being devastated by the fight. One of Wayne's towers gets destroyed, killing a number of Wayne's friends/employees. It's a very cool scene from a perspective that have always just been kind of swept under the rug in action movies; all those poor bastards in the city that is being destroyed by the epic fight. Unfortunately, this scene is about the only good thing in the movie.

Fast Forward three years later. It's stated that Batman has been doing his Batman thing for twenty years so I'm not sure why Batman and Superman have never crossed paths considering that Gotham and Metropolis are across the river from each other (at least according to this movie) but they haven't. After what might be the dumbest frame job in the history of everything, the world is getting sick of Superman and his all powerfulness. The push to create a weapon to fight him is being led by Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) as he argues that if Superman wanted to, he could destroy the world and there wouldn't be anything anyone could do about it. More frame jobs happen to make Superman look bad and Batman decides that he needs to kill Superman now because Superman might one day decide to destroy the world? Revenge? Because he had nothing better to do that day? Oh, and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) shows up for some reason too.

Frankly, the reasoning doesn't make a ton of sense as the movie just stumbles from scene to scene showing Wayne investigate Lex Luthor and Lois Lane (Amy Adams) investigate the frame job against Superman earlier in the film. A lot of investigating happens and it's all super boring. I also can't help but mention again how incredibly stupid the frame job against Superman earlier in the film is; I just can't emphasis that enough. I actually had misunderstood what she was investigating at first and my misunderstanding made waaaaay more sense than the actual frame job.

The only actor worth writing on here is Ben Affleck (and I'm not sure if he's good or if he's just good compared to everyone else so he looks like he's good). Henry Cavill is boring, although they don't give him a lot to work with. Jesse Eisenberg is doing some weird Joker-Light impression or something and just kind of chews the scenes up. Gal Gadot might be good but she isn't in the movie for all that long and she's got some weird accent thing going on that makes it hard to tell what she's going for.

The fights are actually pretty good so I have to at least give the film a little credit for that. The Batman V Superman fight works a lot better than it should have (and yes, it does explain why Superman wouldn't just snap Batman in half like a twig). Batman uses his brains and gadgets to good effect and it's one of the few highlights in the movie. The later fight when everyone teams up to fight Doomsday is alright; it's not awful but the Batman V Superman rumble is the best part.

Ultimately, the only reason to watch this movie is curiosity and that's about it. It's nowhere near Nolan-Batman quality and it's not bad enough to be loved like "Batman and Robin". It's just plain old not very good and the only saving grace is that the fights are pretty cool...

6.0/10; Google the fights and save yourself a movie unless you insist on seeing the beginning chapter of what is expected to become "The Justice League" movies.

Last Review: Star Trek Beyond [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.940909-tippy2k2-tells-you-what-to-think-Star-Trek-Beyond]

 

[Hawki]

I don't really disagree with any of your comments, but 6/10 is still too generous for me. By my scale I gave it 2/5 (note that I don't do decimals. At most, by a ?/10 scale, I'd probably give it 4.5. 4th worst movie I've seen this year.

If there's one thing I disagree with in this review, it's the fight scene comments. Neither of the final fights are that good. Bats vs. Supes is a scenario where their reason for fighting is that Bats wants Supes dead for understandable, if not fleshed out reasons, while Supes goes from "I need your help" to...um...Martha?" It's like he just throws in the towel and decides "screw it, I'll just kill this guy and hopes Lex honours his word." It doesn't last nearly long enough for the title to accurately describe the movie, then we get Doomsday, which amounts to explosions, explosions, and more explosions. Zod vs. Supes worked in the previous film because they were defined characters, with Zod having a defined, even sympathetic goal. Doomsday is just some mutant who wants to destroy stuff because...um...does Doomsday actually count as a character?

So, yeah. The film's bad. It chugs along, the characters are ill defined, and the best thing I can say is that it looks absolutely gorgeous, and may have given us the best live-action Batman to date. Oh, and Wonder Woman I guess.

Edit: Since you 'confessed' to liking Man of Steel, I will join in such 'confessions,' as I liked it too, flawed as it was. But I think MoS shows how darkness works, and why BvS doesn't.

MoS is 'dark,' in as much that it deals with dark subject matter. You have a man struggling to find his place in the world. You have alien beings who've lost their world, who are defined by the expectations of their genetics/culture, and have come to Earth in the knowledge that they can recreate their race, at the expense of another sapient species. It's a situation that isn't irreconciable (e.g. Supes is a kryptonian who's managed to live), but it's a difficult situation all the same. It's a case of either 'us or them,' where Supes has to choose between two races flung together into a bad situation, where violence is an outcome that is perhaps natural. One race (humanity) comes up on top, but at heavy cost, with the kryptonian race being made functionally extinct. It's a dark tale, but in the sense that it reflects its subject matter, so when hope does shine through (e.g. Supes saving the soldiers or flying for the first time), it's all the more effective.

BvS, on the other hand, isn't nearly as effective. It's dark in the sense that Bats is a murderer (which is touched on, but not nearly as much as it should), that it looks dark, and...that's it. It's dark only in the sense of its presentation, with nothing behind it. No gravitas, no themes, nothing. Which sucks, because I feel that BvS kind of drags down MoS, in that both are 'dark' films, but only one of them has some 'meat' to it.

 

[tippy2k2]

I don't really disagree with any of your comments, but 6/10 is still too generous for me. By my scale I gave it 2/5 (note that I don't do decimals. At most, by a ?/10 scale, I'd probably give it 4.5. 4th worst movie I've seen this year.

Yeah, that's a terrible habit of mine and one that I really should try to break. Since I started doing these little review things, this has been the lowest score I have ever given (with Jurassic World [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.878238-tippy2k2-tells-you-what-to-think-Jurassic-World] being the only other film I have given less than 7 to and I think World, for everything I hated about it, is better than this movie).

As to the fights, I also should have gone more into detail about what I thought worked in that Batman V Superman fight to justify why I liked it. I 100% agree that it is way too short so it's not nearly enough of a payoff for having to sit through the rest of the movie. The later fight I didn't think was all that great but rereading what I wrote, I can see why it comes off as a fight that I thought was good.

BvS, on the other hand, isn't nearly as effective. It's dark in the sense that Bats is a murderer (which is touched on, but not nearly as much as it should), that it looks dark, and...that's it. It's dark only in the sense of its presentation, with nothing behind it. No gravitas, no themes, nothing. Which sucks, because I feel that BvS kind of drags down MoS, in that both are 'dark' films, but only one of them has some 'meat' to it.

Which is a shame too because I feel like BvS had such potential. I thought that the first scene with Wayne tearing through Metropolis while all hell is breaking loose around him was an excellent scene and showed just how dark superhero films could be if you applied a bit more realism to them (didn't the Avengers 2 state that like...200 people died throughout all those fights in the Marvel universe up to that point (assuming I recall that correctly)? So they touched on that but if only 200 people died in those fights, an army of Jesus Medics must have been on the ground resurrecting people and only the people who were literally obliterated couldn't be saved by Jesus Medic).

 

[Glongpre]

I was so excited when I saw that superman vs zod flashback scene. It was so well realized, with the destruction, and it gave Batman a good foundation to oppose Superman staying on Earth.

But then the rest of the movie happened...

The plot was just terrible, it had way, way, way too much going on. You got Superman vs Batman, then add Lex, then add finding other Justice League members, then add Doomsday fight just because. I feel like I am missing some, wow...Oh yeah, they killed Superman. They fucking threw in the death of Superman. Are you fucking kidding. Second movie for Supes, and we are already going to have to resurrect him. Jesus Christ.

Just the Superman vs Batman storyline would have been great. Batman learning about Superman, and coming to understand what he stands for.