Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (Review)

By far one of the most anticipated films of 2016 Batman V Superman fails to fix Man of Steel's mistakes but manages to raise its bar slightly with the help of Batman and Wonder Woman. Man of Steel lacked all the essential motifs of Superman; Truth and justice the American way is the main one. Like Man of Steel I found it excruciatingly difficult to like it's characters and it's bland direction.

The movie opens with Bruce Wayne's point of view of the events of Man of Steel (after the opening credits re-tell Batman's beginnings). From there Batman doesn't like Superman and the same goes for a lot of other people. Meanwhile Lex Luthor gains access to Kryptonian technology left over from Man of Steel and is creating something dangerous.

Batman V Superman is a return the emotionless, puzzling directing of Zack Snyder. While watching the action scenes all I could think of was Mad Max: Fury Road and its jaw-dropping action scenes. Most of the action scenes don't blend together well and it makes me wonder if Snyder knows about montage theory and other basic editing skills. However when it comes to Batman's hand to hand combat it's an improvement.

I was OK with Man of Steel being titled Man of Steel and not Superman because we didn't get a superman movie. This time they made minor improvements in the film with Superman and Lois Lane's character is built upon what made her standout from Man of Steel.

At 2 1/2 hours long I didn't think Batman's character was explored enough. We all know that Bruce Wayne is a tortured soul but her we are shown so in the same way several times. They do open up possible story points for solo Batman films of which will be written and directed by Ben Affleck himself.

Wonder Woman was surprisingly one of my favorite parts of the movie. While only in handful of scenes the character kicks ass (pardon le french) while in action and while wearing a dress at a party.

The movie is slow, especially to begin off with and I wish they could've sped it up but when they introduce the extended cut on DVD I think it will slow down the movie even further. I saw the movie in the Imax in Sydney, which happens to be one of the if not the largest movie screen in the world and the picture had a very noticeable grain in the image. The special effects too might have not worked on the screen that size and I might re-watch it on a smaller screen to judge the quality better.

Other performances in the movie include Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons and Jessie Eisenberg. While each character is interesting they don't get the screen-time they deserve.

Now to what makes the movie such a weak one. The script, every major actor in this movie is a great one and it saddens me that these actors are wasted on a terrible script and characters. Don't expect the movie to be anything like a Marvel one. The movie lacks the fun of a Marvel movie but there is more humor than what was present in Man of Steel. The screenwriters, you think would've learned from Man of Steel but no. They destroy too many buildings just like the predecessor.

I'm glad I didn't watch Destruction Porn 2: Introducing Batman and Wonder Woman at a midnight screening but it was an improvement over Man of Steel and it's a must watch for any superhero movie fan. The movie did make me look forward to other DC films, just not the Zack Snyder ones.

Overall Score: 6.2/10

What did you think of this movie? Did it make you want to be batman the way Nolan's movies did?

Batman V Superman will be released on 24th of March in a wide release in Australia.

Director: Zack Snyder

Written By: Chris Terrio and David S Goyer (also there are rumors Affleck did some re-writes)

Starring: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Jessie Eisenberg and Jeremy Irons

Cinematography: Larry Fong

Editor - David Brenner

Music/Score - Hans Zimmer/Junkie XL

#2016 #ZackSnyder #BenAffleck