Friday, March 25, 2016

Batman v Superman: Doesn't do it Justice!

OK, first of all this movie is not as bad as a lot of critics made out. It is watchable and decent popcorn fare. I didn't dislike it but that being said I didn't love it either. A lot of what I'm about to say is likely personal preference but for a spoiler-free review, here goes. 
 

Firstly, Lex Luther is too wimpy and flimsical ( I think I just made that word up - a hybrid of flimsy and whimsical). Jesse Eisenberg is playing a slightly deranged Mark Zuckerberg. I don't like it for Lex Luthor. It's not the Lex Luthor of the comics to me. Sure its decent acting but it is just bad casting. Jesse Eisenberg does not fit the profile of Lex Luthor and so we end up with a Lex Luthor who is more Joker than Lex Luthor - madly delirious rather than megalomaniac schemer.


Then there is Superman. Director Zach Snyder continues the analogy of Superman as a Messiah or a God but now the world of Metropolis is starting to question whether they really need him.  That isn't a bad direction to take the underlying themes if it weren't for the fact that with this Superman it seems more and more justified. Superman is supposed to be the Captain America of DC comics - his goodness was always his true power - but Zach Snyder is making him almost Hulk angry and unlikeable!
 

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman does just enough to impress the traditionalists and the feminists but I can't help wonder if she may have been better served being introduced in a solo movie first rather than here as a competent but constricted cameo.

Finally, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne is ok but I love him as Batman - he brings a lot more weight and physicality to the dark knight. Batman was always dark but most movies have made him more flashy playboy than a tortured vigilante (that being said I always enjoyed Bale as Batman but after seeing Batfleck maybe it was Nolan's universe I enjoyed more than Bale himself).  
Many will say that this movie is a little too serious for a genre that has thrived on Marvel's quipping and recently went through the roof with Deadpool's fourth wall sarcasm. The lack of both the Joker and the Riddler who were originally rumored to be in this movie speaks volumes to Snyder's intent to stay ultra-bleak but in the many wandering-through-fields-brooding-taking-itself-too-seriously scenes you can almost hear the Joker whispering "Why so serious?".




Again its not that the movie is bad but you just come out feeling like you got less than you hoped for. In short Dawn of Justice doesn't do it justice!



I think it's worth it for the new Batman, the fight scene between Batman and Superman and for Wonder Woman.
I'd give it a 7-7.5/10