There are four things I should tell you before I start going into the meat of my review, namely:
- Don’t watch Trailer #2
- I think Winter Soldier is the only good MCU movie
- I didn’t like Man of Steel
- I am not a comic book fan and I know little about superheroes
Walking into the theatre, I had low expectations. I almost thought about skipping the movie, especially since the last superhero flick i saw (Deadpool), only made me bored and angry. These low expectations persisted after I had to rewatch a recap of Batman’s childhood tragedy. Two and a half hours later I walked out of the packed cinema, surprised and overjoyed. What happened?
I am not going to go too much into depth with the plot, but this is not to say the narrative is weak. On the contrary, Oscar-winning Chris Terrio (Argo) has provided us with a mature and satisfyingly complex three act structure that hits most of the right notes when it has to. Essentially, Batman and a good deal of people think Superman is too strong and a potential threat, while Superman struggles coping with his large responsibilities, and Lex Luthor tries to take advantage of the rivality to create a playground of destruction that he can have control over. What results is a political thriller-esque struggle for power that escalates into a showdown of massive and destructive proportions, with some hints at deeper philosophical quandaries. And yes, Wonder Woman is in it too!
Zack Snyder had an exceedingly difficult task ahead of him when he took on the role as director of this movie. It might seem easy to do whatever you want when you have 250 million USD on your hands, but he was responsible for creating the gateway film to DC’s own cinematic universe, and had to deal with studios breathing down his neck for the entire production. The result is an epic extravaganza that might stumble over it’s own ambitions more than once, but is thoroughly satisfying and wonderfully exhilarating. In the past Snyder has had problems when he is left to write the script, but this time he was left exclusively to direct; a wise choice.What this means is that Batman vs Superman is a substantially more fulfilling experience that it could have been.
For starters, Hans Zimmer (Interstellar) and Junkie XL’s (Mad Max Fury Road) collaboration on the score yielded phenomenal results. Zimmer’s melodical engineering combined with Junkie’s thumping energy perfectly reflected the grandness of the visuals. Next, Affleck, Eisenberg, and Cavill slipped seamlessly into their respective roles, with special mention to the first two. Affleck gave Batman a gravitas that matches Bale in Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, and Eisenberg’s eccentric, jittery, oddly charismatic, take on the genius Lex Luthor might have some naysayers, but to me it was the right choice and was very fun to watch.
Unlike many superhero movies, BvsS also takes it’s time with developing its characters, even giving some of them arcs. This is a welcome breath of fresh air that defies the lethargic treatment the MCU gives to its heroes. I actually cared about the people I was watching, and was invested in how the narrative affected them. Speaking of narrative, the film strikes a good balance between drama, thriller, and action that is rarely seen in this genre. There are both loud and quiet moments, both handled with skill, which gives a proper amount of diversity to the story. Rivalries flare and ideologies clash and are questioned both in dialogue and well choreographed action.
And Snyder does the action justice. He doesn’t resort to quick cuts or shaky handheld and instead opts for a smooth series of swoops, dashes and pans that glide around the battlefield. Each moment is connected to another with great precision and never feels disorientating. Internal logic in maintained in fights too, another often forgotten aspect of superhero movies. BvsS, just like Snyder’s other films, is dripping with visual flair. The best way to describe the color palette here would be dark, metallic, slick. CGI is used to great effect, blending well with the onscreen carnage. Simply, everything looks magnificent. These might be the most imposingly spectacular state of the art graphics yet seen in the history of superheroes on screen. These are 250 mil USD that are worth buying a ticket for.
As for issues, yes they are present here, and they are not just trivial. BvsS had the potential to be significantly better with a number of changes.
Firstly, there are copious amounts of padding in the film that dilute its runtime by providing unnecessary and poorly handled exposition. It was most certainly uncalled for to repeat Batman’s backstory, and at the beginning of the movie, we are switching rapidly between an assortment of locations around the world without much weight to the circumstances at hand. One involves are poorly explained and confusing militia organisation with access to restricted weapons. Adding onto this, in the last third, there are a sequence of action-interrupting cuts to provide an attempt at emotional impact, but their jarring nature only serve to irritate the viewer by momentarily stopping the excellent final fight.
Second, the screenplay drifts towards being rather amnesiac at times. It might introduce ideas and plot points that it only refers to half heartedly later on, and never fully develop. One of these is Batman’s emotional response to the turmoil, but the more offending aspects are that of the handling of Lois Lane and Wonder Woman. The former is rather important in the first third, but fades into obscurity and is relegated to an annoyingly stagnant side character whose character arc is left in the dust. The latter isn’t explored at all and introduced too late. I was thrilled to see her in battle (her theme is INCREDIBLE), but she felt too underdeveloped compared to Superman, Batman, or Lex Luthor. An extra five minutes could have solved these issues and provided her with an interesting personality and maybe a quick explanation of her origin story. Alas, by the time she arrives for her major contribution, it is too late.
Despite this, the 151 min runtime flew by me. I was being constantly entertained and there was rarely a dull moment due to the nicely paced nature of the story on screen.
Batman vs Superman isn’t near perfect, but don’t listen to the lukewarm reviews on this one. If you want a well rounded superhero epic of the biggest size you can order, look no further, Snyder has you covered.
8/10
OneFlowmotion 