Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2016

As far as I am concerned this is the ONLY version of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that exists. That other thing that Warner Bros. released in theatres is good but isn't a patch on what Snyder originally created. Snyder took an awful lot of flack for the theatrical release, but whatever you think about him as a film maker, you will have sympathy for him once you see how the studio took a hacksaw to his movie. This Ultimate Edition isn't simply another scene or two which adds 30 minutes but doesn't change the movie, it is a sprinkling of expansions to scenes throughout that solve its much maligned choppiness and lack of flow. Apart from the improved editing which allowed the film to breathe, this version of the movie makes you care about the characters more, especially Superman. Following the journey of Clarke Kent in more detail, seeing him actually do some investigative journalism, and understanding his motivations makes a huge difference. This is especially the case in his death at the end of the movie. Without earlier shots of him doing "Superman" things such as helping people after the Capitol Building bomb, as was the case in the theatrical release, I simply didn't care when he died. With the added tidbits in the Ultimate Edition, Supermans sacrifice brought me to floods of tears. Even though I knew what was coming, the gut punch was overpowering! This character expansion also benefited his nemesis Lex Luthor, who with just a few additional scenes (that he isn't even necessarily in), transforms from a spoilt brat into a criminal mastermind. While it was previously suspected, it now becomes clear that he has his fingerprints on everything, from the Africa scene by blackmailing the witness, to intercepting Wallace Keefe's cheques from Bruce Wayne, and Keefe himself being an unknowing puppet of Luthor carrying a bomb in the led lined wheelchair so Superman couldn't see it. Overall, my recommendation if you haven't seen Batman V Superman yet, or if you saw it in the theatres and hated it, is to give this version a watch. I loved it.

Thoughts after leaving the cinema but before reading critics reviews: The plot actually very coherent, I had no problems following it whatsoever. Things happened for specific reason, they were deliberate choices that moved the plot along as opposed to randomly contrived events. Not only that, the narratives that were occurring concurrently made for a comprehensive movie that was multi-faceted and set up the future movies well. Complaints on my end were negligible, really not worth mentioning.

Thoughts after reading some critics complaints: I'm sorry that you don't have the brain capacity to sit down for 2.5 hours and pay attention to a movie with multiple narratives to tell a story. I'm sorry that you don't like films that deviate from common Hollywood narrative structures. I'm sorry that you keep comparing it to summer-blockbustery Marvel movies that are meant to reel in everyone and their dog and have become so formulaic and vanilla that my 9 year-old brother is getting sick of them. I'm sorry that you're not comparing it to Watchmen. I'm sorry that you wanted to hate this movie from the beginning.

My reconciled thoughts: All of this aside, I thought it was a comic book movie through and through. It's a real service to the fans who pay for comics and keeps the industry alive (also see Amy Robinson's review on BvS). Despite some deviating creative choices, for me, the essence of the characters stay true and pure to the heart of who they are and what they represent. Henry Cavill's Clark Kent/Superman rings to what a modern day iteration of him would be, not whatever New 52 has done with him. They really captured the depth and breadth of 75 years of Lois/Clark's love in the movie. Even the tension between Bruce and Diana is right on the money and calls back to the awesomeness of the pairing that is Batman/Wonder Woman that we all got a taste of in JLU and Blackest Night. Batffleck's Batman/Bruce is the Bruce after Jason's death, before Tim came along, y'know? The movie leaves a whole lot of room for the future Justice Leaguers and maybe even beyond to legacy movies where mantle is passed on.

Also, if we got like 5 minutes of Jason Momoa's Aquaman instead of 10 seconds I would have died and gone to heaven right there on the spot.

Let's make one thing clear, the phrase "it's a movie for fans", is not an argument, let's go to the point.
Director Zack Snyder confirms here that he is a bad director, he doesn't know how to tell stories, he is so desperate to introduce the Justice League that the movie ended up being totally overstuffed and nonsense at some point. The montage of the movie is just HORRIBLE, like... one scene there's some tense moment and then suddenly, the screen turns to black and cut to a stupid scene of Lois Lane investigating something or Diana Prince checking her e-mail. Bruce Wayne's nightmare sequences are just empty, stupid and pointless.
The dark tone of the film is not necessarily bad, is not meant to be a joyfull film.
I still don't understand WHAT THE F*** is Laurence Fishburne doing in this movie, basically the same thing in "Man of Steel", nothing.
The movie it's so rushed for a 2 hours and 40 minutes that the epic battle between the 2 greatest heroes ends up being nothing but disappointing, and almost laughable at the end. Transposing scenes from the comics to the big screen is cool, but where's the context on them ? it's a buy fan ticket.

Doomsday........... Horrible, terrible, a visual rape, an insult to the cinema.
Lex Luthor................ no words worth it.
Wonder Woman: 5 minutes in the film and 5 as Diana Prince. But Gadot does a good job
Superman, it's actually better than in the previous film.
Batman is the best thing from this film, a bloodthirsty dark knight who can finally move his neck. It's the batman i've always wanted to see in the movies. Nice work Ben Affleck.
The other good thing from this film is Hans Zimmer's glorious score... Hans Zimmer is the god from this movie.

Conclusion: Could be the best superhero movie of all time, but ends up being worst as many of.

I'm not going to take the film's title into account here, but now it seems fitting. This movie started and I kept thinking that, while certainly not without flaws, people are being overly harsh. Overall I liked the first two acts decently enough. One scene in particular was really strong and interesting around the halfway point.

But then the final act showed up and all the smaller issues I had suddenly grew larger and more severe. They felt just like the boss battle because as I judged the problems, it took in that problem to become a bigger, stronger problem. I wish I had had kryptonite to kill the growth.

Oh well. Superman is still portrayed really well, Wonder Woman looks pretty interesting for a future film, and I like the new Alfred. I did not care for Lex Luthor much at all. I don't always want to see another crazy villain. I liked him before because he is normally written as a super smart jerk who has reasons.

And then there's Batman. He never does anything that I outright despise I suppose, but at the same time he never really does anything interesting either. In case you didn't know how this went down, we do get yet another monotonous recall to his parent's death.

Oh, geeze, I just gave away a huge spoiler there didn't I. Now Batman is going to show up and shoot me to death with a gun, since apparently this Batman is cool with that.

It sucks, even though not as much as I would have thought. Snyder’s kitsch aesthetics and bombastic directing style work well with this kind of material, if he only tried to make things entertaining for once. Why does it always need to be so lifeless...

The biggest problem is that he tries to do too many things and set up too many stories at once, only to end up failing at each. The buildup to Batman and Superman’s fights makes no sense, and its resolution is even more ridiculous. Not to mention that what is supposed to be the climax is one of the dullest monster fights ever.

Affleck works strangely well as an older, dumber, and far more tired Bruce Wayne. His Batman has little to do with the character’s usual traits, but I am alright with each film adaptation giving a different twist. His introduction scene was good, even though he looked like a shabby wrestler in his costume. Gal Gadot’s acting is distractingly awful, but the biggest problem with her character is that she serves no use to the plot. On the other hand, Jeremy Irons earned himself a sticker for his sharp and charming take on Alfred. We are tired of the teddy bear butlers we have seen up to this point.

I've always been more attracted to DC Comics than Marvel. Which is why it's been a bummer that other than Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy, DC has under-performed. I did like "Man of Steel". Its scope and incredible action, to the point of almost being too much, was memorable. Its scenes have stuck with me as much as any other action movie of recent years.

I've never gone into a super hero movie expecting an incredibly tight story but always with an expectation of amazing sights and effects. And that is exactly what Zach Snyder serves up here. The positives of the film far outweighed the negatives for me. The opening action that follows Bruce Wayne racing through Metropolis, a scene stitched into Zod's terraforming attack from "Man of Steel", was inspired. And I have to say, Ben Affleck's portrayal of Bruce Wayne and Batman is nothing short of fantastic. I thought that Batman would be flat and uninteresting here, but he's been positioned as a capable member among the gods being assembled for the Justice League. I loved his hand-to-hand fights with mob members. There's a great moment when a police officer spots the Dark Knight clinging to the ceiling of a darkened room. Batman is truly scary here and called the Devil by the very people he's saved.

Superman has his own set of problems. Time has passed since the destruction in Metropolis and many blame him for the thousands killed during his battle with Zod. The political underpinnings and moral dilemmas presented here weren't exactly heady, but were accentuated by the sheer rage of Bruce Wayne and his suspicion of Superman's motives. Or at least what Superman would be capable of if dissatisfied with something or anything occurring in the world.

Yes, the fight between Superman and Batman is memorable and worth the price of admission. The performance of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jr. is not. While superheroes fly at supersonic speeds, deflect pummeling with iron and concrete, and even survive nuclear explosions, the most difficult thing to believe was that this version of Lex Luthor could plan a trip to the bathroom much less the destruction of Superman.

The final battle doesn't live up to the first half of the movie, even though Superman and Batman are joined by a feisty and very satisfying appearance from Wonder Woman. She practically steals the final scenes as she attacks the final "boss". She gets hammered but shakes it off with a smirk, clearly enjoying the chaos.

I'm going to be a bit disappointed with a lot of the criticism this movie will receive. There are some problems with story continuity, not to mention the sloppy way that the recruitment of future Justice League members is staged. Personally, I'm not exactly overwhelmed with the film, but I find myself repeatedly impressed by Zack Snyder's ability to convey amazing sights and action. I guess I'm stating that I will dismiss some loose ends for the adrenaline rush of great action and exciting visuals.

"Tell me, do you bleed? You will".

"Well, if it bleeds, we can kill it".

Superman has become the savior of Metropolis - but also a threat to many who fear his god-like abilities could lead to disaster. Gotham City's own Batman is among them, and he goes to confront the Man of Steel - but as these two titans clash, a new evil arises - one that poses a far greater threat to mankind.

The wait is finally over everyone, but was it worth waiting three years for? kind of. But how amazing is it that two of the most iconic superheros of all time are finally facing off with each other in one single movie. Unfortunately, not everyone was excited for it after the very mixed 'Man of Steel', as fans either loved it, liked it or hated the movie. Everyone was Curious, but also worried about Zack Snyder directing this movie, since he normally choices style over substance in his movies. Everything got worse when it comes to news, as the movie kept getting delayed, some casting choices that people got really angry over and the fact that movie was too crowed with it's characters. But hey, maybe Snyder has learnt from his mistakes from Man of Steel and might actually give us the faithful Frank Miller adaptation we've been waiting for.

After seeing the movie myself and letting it sink in for a while, I don't think this movie was terrible or good, but it could have been much better then the one we got. Batman v Superman has many problems with the plot, pacing and characters, but there's also some good things in it as well that I will get to later on in the review.

I think Zack Snyder took a bold move by taking the biggest criticism of "Man of Steel" was that Superman lets way too many people die (or just wasn't heroic enough), into the main story line of Dawn of Justice. I think it's a great way of replying back to the biggest problems fans or moviegoers had with Man of Steel, as it shows that you are aware and care of what people say. In this movie, Snyder sure dose make it as close as the comic when it comes to visuals and making it seem like the comic is leaping out of the comic book page on to the big screen, but sadly, Zack Snyder did what I feared he would do and that's doing the style over substance, with pretentious symbolism and very messy directing. Just when I thought he would fix the problems from Man of Steel, but instead make bigger problems in this movie. Now I don't want to give off the impression that I'm disliking Zack Snyder, because I don't want to, as I think he is a brilliant visual director with many ideas that doesn't always work out. I'm not a hater Snyder, but I had to be honest with you.

Ben Affleck as Batman was probably the biggest "WTF" casting ever and even I was a bit turned off by it when it was first announced, since at the time I wanted Josh Brolin to be cast as Batman. But just like Michael Keaton as Batman, Daniel Craig as James Bond and Heath Ledger as The Joker, we were all wrong to judge something without seeing it and that's once again the case here, as Ben Affleck wasn't the worse part of this movie, but rather the best part. Ben Affleck absolutely nailed it as Batman and I'm glad he proved everyone wrong. It's always a pleasure seeing annoying fanboys being proven wrong (like always). I can't wait to see that solo Batman movie starring Ben Affleck.

The fight scenes between Batman & Superman was really short and I wish it was a little longer, but it was enjoyable. Jeremy Irons as Alfred was excellent and perfect casting choice. Henry Cavill did a decent job playing Superman and the music in the film was pretty good. Gal Gadot did fine as Wonder Women, but her acting was a bit wooden and I hope she dose improve in the upcoming Wonder Woman movie that's coming out in 2017.

Now for the problems: Jesse Eisenberg was god awful as Lex Luther. I don't understand how some people think he's performance was good in this movie, because he was really cringe worthy and laughable. People will find away to defend his performance and over analysis the sh*t out of it to the point where it's really reaching for it. I don't put all the blame on Eisenberg, since it's mostly the directing and the writing that's the blame. It's awful to see a good actor like Jesse Eisenberg sadly being miss cast in a role that should have went to someone else.

Doomsday is in this movie and this isn't a spoiler as it's already been spoiled in the trailers and advertisements. Doomsday is one of the best villains in DC comics, because it's best known for being the one that killed Superman, but in this movie he's nothing but a big CGI monster that was shoehorned in the last few minutes. Also Doomsday looks like that troll monster from Fellowship of the Ring mixed with a Ninja Turtle. It's that bad.

The film itself is joyless and kind of dull at times, because every superhero movie (Mostly DC films) always try to be that dark and gritty movie that it's never going to be. This is 2 hours & 22 minutes of DC trying to catch up with Marvel, now I'm not comparing this to Marvel movies like some critics are, but it's very noticeable that this movie is leeching off the Marvel formal of setting up future movies.

Overall Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a very messy movie that really dose lose focus on what it's doing. This is called "Batman v Superman", how is this movie not the most awesome thing in the world? it's kind of disappointing just thinking about it. If you like this movie and disagree with me on the problems I had with this movie, then that's fine and I'm glad you enjoyed the movie better than I did.

This movie is the superhero equivalent of watching a WWE match.
It's dumb, theatrical, fake, sensationalist and schlocky, but it presents itself as hard, cool and meaningful.
So, it's really no surprise that critics trashed this, and certain portions of the audience embraced it.

Pros:
- The action sequences that don’t involve a lot of CGI are great.
- Ben Affleck’s performance as Batman & Jeremy Irons as Alfred. I’ll also say that I like Cavill as Superman more than most.
- Some visual flair at a few points
- Score, especially the Wonder Woman theme.

Cons:
- Incoherent. It has too many threads, many scenes don’t connect to each other or don’t progress the ‘story’. We know it’s possible to do a narrative that resolves around a bunch of subplots, but in that case you need a strong throughline. Just look at Infinity War and how Thanos & the infinity stones tie the entire movie together. This film just has no structure to it, and whatever structure that might’ve been in there at some point is removed through the inclusion of things like Wonder Woman, Doomsday, unnecessary dream sequences, etc.
- Some really nonsensical story choices. I’m not just talking about the Martha scene and how that becomes unintentionally hilarious because of its execution, or the spear scene with Lois, or the death of Superman which has no dramatic weight. Let’s also not forget how the (hypocritical) motivations they’d built up for the two heroes became irrelevant when they decided to just have the villain kidnap Superman’s mom and thereby force him to fight Batman.
- Mischaracterized & underdeveloped main characters. Especially Batman and Lex Luthor aren’t faithful to the spirit of what those characters should be.
- The final action sequence is a visual assault on the eyes, and I don’t mean that in a positive way.
- Jesse Eisenberg’s acting is awful, and his performance doesn’t fit with the tone of the film. Gal Gadot’s also pretty bad, but she isn’t in the film that much, so I have less of a problem with that.
- Visually ugly. Yes, I know that’s unpopular to say, and I acknowledge that there are some visual highlights, which look great in a clipshow or trailer. However, when you take out a scene, especially one that takes place during daytime, it’s not exactly a good looking film.
- I respect the tone that this film was going for. I’m perfectly fine with taking a more realistic approach to these characters. We’ve seen it work in The Dark Knight trilogy and the Daredevil show. The difference is that they still knew how to keep the pace up, despite having a more serious dramatic tone. This film is painfully slow.
- Some of the dialogue is really overwritten, trying too hard to be lofty and deep.

3.5/10

It seems ironic to have the word ‘Dawn’ in the title of Zack Snyder’s latest superhero epic, given how little light there is the film, both figuratively and literally. There is a lot of moping about, and a perpetual vibe of ‘oh no, this is the end of the world,’ as if Snyder is cribbing from his Dawn of the Dead remake (there’s that word again, dawn, implying a source of light that is tragically absent from any of Snyder’s auteuristic affectations). The iconoclastic treatment of Superman owes much, also, to a previous entry in Snyder’s visually stunning but incoherent oeuvre, Watchmen. The core visual inspiration for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice comes from The Dark Knight Returns comic series by Frank Miller, whose 300 was also turned into a film by Snyder earlier in his career.

Those first three blockbusters by Snyder, Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Watchmen, were all pretty much lifted from existing works of visual storytelling, be they a film or a comic book, and all Snyder had to do was add his intolerable grainy close-ups and slow motion blood splatter. When left to his own devices, we get the incomprehensible Sucker Punch, which is a series of big budget dream sequences distracting from a rather tawdry pastiche of Girl, Interrupted and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest told almost entirely in a paradoxically shiny yet dirty toilet. He also gave us Man of Steel, and rather than use some of the incredible Superman stories already told on screen or in comics, he decided to plough his own trough with phallic spaceships, a Kevin Costner transplanted from Field of Dreams, and a climax cribbed from one of Toho’s Godzilla movies.

In his search for inspirational visuals to jam into the ponderous script for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (yes, I am going to use the entire title every time I reference it, because the unwieldy moniker is a delicious metaphor for this stupidly overblown film) Snyder has become tragically self-referential. There is a scene early in the movie where Amy Adams as Lois Lane slithers around in a bathtub that appears to be in one of the leftover gleaming but grimy bathrooms from Sucker Punch. The titular fight between the heroes takes place in a toilet that is equally grubby, but is only glistening from all the water splashed around. (I’m not even going to begin to examine the homoerotic undertones of two icons of masculinity writhing around in onesies on the floor in a urinal). It’s not just the bathrooms, either, as during the dreary first NINETY MINUTES of the nearly three hour film, there are no action sequences, save for those experienced by Batman when having a nigh nighs; yes, that’s right, a string of big budget dream sequences a la Sucker Punch.

Being a sequel to Man of Steel, it can’t help but borrow the visual language of that film, most notably in the opening sequences where Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne interacts with the human cost of the destructive climax to the previous film. Also, Snyder has another crack at his ‘Superman as Jesus in space’ image, while simultaneously paying homage to one of the more affecting moments from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. It’s this kind of confused layering that hampers much of the film. During one of the many unnecessary dream sequences (which feel like they’ve been jammed in as an ersatz defibrillator to the floundering story) Snyder uses images from Grant Morrison’s Batman 666, Rock of Ages and Final Crisis stories as well as nods to Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman/Perez), the New 52 Justice League (Johns/Lee) and the video game Injustice.

The now-ubiquitous Batman origin gets yet another airing, Snyder’s over-graded, CGI treatment of it reminding me more of the risible TV show Gotham than Nolan’s or Miller’s understated efforts. The overuse of these reliable, and in some cases very worn, elements gives the whole film a sense of deja vu, and over the unnecessarily long running time, you start to wonder if you haven’t seen this film already. There is an explosion taken from Emmerich’s Independence Day; Eisenberg’s hammy performance as Luthor could be any twitchy genius villain in any number of cheaper films; the CGI monster at the end looks like it has been pasted in from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings or Letterier’s Incredible Hulk; the excruciating capital-D dramatic dialogue in the script by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer is painfully reminiscent of Ang Lee’s Hulk; and all of this added to the fact that there is little of the film that wasn’t shown on the internet in the desperate marketing push, means you probably HAVE seen it all before. In fact, the only scenes in the film not aired in a trailer or on a talk show are the scenes of the fight between Batman and Superman, which also isn’t a surprise, because THAT’S THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE. Although, they did wrong-foot me a little with the title, because there’s no dawn, and there’s no justice. If there was, Zack Snyder would not be allowed to make movies.

Martha!

Now since that is out of the way, I kinda liked this more than I remembered. I think I'm going to bump it up from a 6 to 7. I saw the original cut in theaters and I saw the Ultimate edition as soon as it came out and it didn't really change my opinion on the movie. Now that I've had a year to forget about it and I'm getting ready for Justice League I'm starting to think this movie is alright. Now I'm not saying it is great but it can be entertaining. There are so many small things that are wrong with the movie that keep it back from being one of the better superhero movies. Lex Luther still sucks. I really wish they would of cast Bryan Cranston and gone a different direction with Lex. It was so lazy to introduce all the other heros with 30 second clips. Snyder couldn't think of any way better. Come on I mean the subtitle is called "Dawn of Justice". Wonder Woman is great but I forgot how small a role she has in this movie. Luckily she has her own movie to shine. Also Batman's line "I thought she was with you" has got to be one of the stupidest lines. HE LITERALLY EMAILED HER LIKE 2 HOURS AGO.

As I write this review I have just had a thoroughly disappointing movie experience and it so just happens that I have some strong feelings about the source material for this movie so be prepared for a bit of ranting and a few more “adult” words than usual.

I have to say that I bought this movie only because I felt I wanted it in my collection just for it to be complete. I was really expecting to be, shall we say, not impressed. A movie about Batman and Superman, heroes that I grew up with, fighting is not my kind of movie.

In the end I realized that my expectations of crappines was not enough. I really disliked this movie. In short succession this movie turns several of my childhood heroes to bad guys and the greatest superman bad guy into a unstable hippie-like jerk that goes through the movie behaving like he is a drug addict. So basically this movie went drown the drains for me straight away and then I have not even gotten started about the plot. Actually I felt so annoyed over this crap that I actually spent time taking notes while I was watching.

Let me see what I noted. Lex Luther is a fucking joke. Alfred, the same. Jimmy Olsen a fucking CIA agent? You got to be fucking kidding me! And not only does he screw Lois Lane but gets himself shot after a few seconds of screen time.

Same stupid nonsense about XXX being too powerful, is a threat and needs to be government controlled that has been used in hundreds. if not thousands, of crappy low and high budget action movies. I hate that crap. It is stupid, stupid, stupid.

Weird and totally uninteresting dream scenes, what the fuck did the writer smoke? If they wanted to pad the movie it a) was a crappy way of doing it and b) why? With over three hours (Ultimate Edition) it is way too long for such a crappy movie anyway.

Oh, here is a (somewhat) positive note at least. It was indeed rather funny that they had chosen CNN to spew out the nonsense conspiracy theories about Superman being responsible for the bomb in the wheelchair. Fake news anyone?

I had a little bit of enjoyment of the movie during the last part of the movie when it finally turned into a bit of action. Batman’s car and plane was cool. The action, once Batman getting knocked on his head enough to get to his senses again, was a nice chunk of CGI goodness. That I have to admit.

Okay, after three, mostly painful, hours the movie finally comes to an end. And what an end. Meh!!! Not only was it a crappy ending but they managed to drag it out forever with excruciatingly boring scenes.

I am sure a lot of the above can be said to be subjective. For instance my dislike of the way my childhood characters where treated. I am not a professional reviewer though so this is my personal take of the movie. If you don’t like it, fine with me and good for you but do not feel obliged to tell me about it.