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'Batman v Superman': watchable but lacking depth
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice provides good action scenes despite lacking the character depth of previous DC Comics movies.
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Ben Affleck (left) and Henry Cavill are pictured in a scene from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. (Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP/-)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice provides good action scenes despite lacking the character depth of previous DC Comics movies.
The Dark Knight trilogy set a high standard for superhero movies. Director Christopher Nolan dug deep into the hero, a genius villain with strong motives, big actions and a puzzle that required deep thinking.
Meanwhile, Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder, who successfully rebooted Superman in the Man of Steel, utilizes three main protagonist plus one villain to build his story – Superman, Batman, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. The movie's opening scenes are strong, explaining why Bruce Wayne hates Superman, and featuring Lois' brave quote, "I'm not a lady, I'm a journalist".
After that there are interchanging scenes between those four characters but nothing that allows them to support each other in one overarching plot. The story does not tell us why the government hates Superman, it makes us question why it takes a long time for Batman to figure out the meaning of “White Portuguese” and Superman just seems blindly in love with Lois.
The dream scenes, despite being Easter eggs – references to existing DC stories or teasers – add to the disconnected feeling of the plot. It is hard to make a non-fan understand what the Easter eggs mean. DC rival Marvel Comics has also used the concept after the credits in several movies to describe the next big villain.
Ben Affleck does a great job as Bruce Wayne and Batman. He looks like a man who has been through a lot of combat, using detective skills both as Batman and Bruce Wayne. Things that seem strange are the use of a gun and Bruce drinking a lot of liquor.
Alfred (Jeremy Irons) is amalgamated with gadget inventor Lucius Fox and computer operator Oracle. It seems strange at first but fine later on. The writers are experimenting with Alfred by depicting him as more than just a butler – in the Beware the Batman and Gotham TV series he is an ex-MI6 agent.
Amy Adams and Henry Cavill as couple Lois Lane and Clark Kent/Superman are good but unfortunately their relationship is not exploited much, despite a "Lois is the key" hint. Maybe this is because of limited screen time. If the movie skipped the death of Bruce Wayne's parents and gave more time to Lois' investigation, it could balance out Bruce Wayne's investigation.
On the villains, Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor is a major drift away from the usual Lex, in a bad way. Why does he follow Heath Ledger's Joker formula? It is not clear either why this Lex hates Superman so much. Doomsday? It seems to be added just to accommodate a muscle battle, though without Doomsday we would not see Wonder Woman. The movie features good fight scenes, and Wonder Woman's entrance to the battle is cool, supported by Hans Zimmer's battle theme.
Two supporting roles from Holly Hunter as Senator Finch and Scoot McNairy as Wallace Keefe are praiseworthy. Both of the high-class actors are able to trigger viewers' emotions and give a human perspective to the movie. However, their screen time is relatively short and their characters are underused.
Overall, there are positives and negatives, but the movie is watchable – even twice because it contains hints that need to be decoded by the audience. (bbn)
