Fight Night

After weeks of attempting to make it out to the movies I finally made it to see Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Through that wait, I was exposed to many many negative reviews and a 27% rotten tomatoes score. The reviewers I heard had gripes about the dark tone, lack of humor, plot holes, length, slowness, and the amount of death portrayed in the movie. I think all the bad press made the movie seem better than expected, and faster paced than anticipated.

Yes there are some problems with the movie. Not all of the motivations of all of the characters are handed to the audience. I'm pretty sure I followed what Lex Luthor was up to, but some of it is left as a mystery. There's some time jumping that seems to happen in the plot where it seems he was compensated for killing a congresswoman with the access to the alien ship, but at the time in the movie where he negotiates this access, it seems like he has made demands when asking for his shipment from the Indian Ocean which doesn't make sense at the time. It's not fully clear if he intends Superman to kill Batman or if he wants Batman to do the hard work of killing Superman, or if he wants Bruce Wayne killed because of business competition. In the end, the acting of Jessie Eisenberg is so unhinged that maybe he just wants to take take down power so he can be the most powerful person around.

What I liked

I like how Superman is seen often in wide shots to give a sense of awe. It makes him look more graceful and magical and doesn't look like other superheroes on screen (although Vision is shot kind of similarly). Wonder Woman is very interesting in this movie and makes me look forward to her stand alone movie. The actress plays the part well and the theme music when she is on screen is quite exciting. Ben Affleck does a nice job as Batman although it's daunting to follow up the performances from the Christopher Nolan films. I think a lot of the guff this movie got is simply because it was not directed by Nolan. I like this Superman actor, he is very interesting, but I also was turned to like him in Man From UNCLE after disliking the last Superman movie.

I think this movie will not always be considered a terrible movie as it is perceived right now. I think it is on par with X-Men movies as far as the dark tone and it opens up for more interesting sequels. All in all, for a Zach Snyder movie, it's closer in quality to Watchmen than Sucker Punch, and has better pacing than Watchmen and I might like it more than 300.