Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: A DCEU Retrospective (Part 2)
Rating – 3/10
**SPOILERS
Welcome back to my DCEU Retrospective, a series exploring the ill fated DC Extended Universe before the beginning of James Gunn’s DC Universe this July. Previously, I looked back at Man of Steel, Zack Snyder’s bold if flawed adaptation of Superman, and the somewhat shaky start it gave to this new franchise. Man of Steel did not necessarily give Warner Bros. the franchise it wanted out the gate, as it was immediately divisive among fans, and more significantly did not generate Marvel sized profits. It would be three years until the follow up would be released.
This is where things start to get very chaotic.
Despite coming out almost 3 years later, Batman v Superman was announced in November 2013, not long after the release of Man of Steel. Obviously people got excited. This would be the first time these two legendary characters shared a screen in live action, in a versus movie no less. Even if Man of Steel wasn’t quite the success Warner Bros wanted, this was a genius way to get people to really pay attention. People were hyped. Later, they would announce not only a slate of 11 upcoming films, but also the new cast members of their most forthcoming project.
This is where things first went wrong.
Right away, fans rejected the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and Jesse Eisenberg as Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor, for reasons that can be pretty much summed up as they weren’t intimidating enough. Affleck in particular was met with demands that he be removed from his role. This was all before anyone had seen any actual footage. While BvS was getting attention, I suspect Warner Bros. would grow concerned by the controversial nature of it. Hype however remained strong. I mean Batman was going to fight Superman, how could it not?
As for the film itself, I find it to be a very different movie from Man of Steel. This is not really a sequel to that movie. It’s its own thing. Zack Snyder of course returns to direct, which doesn’t feel promising considering how I called him part of the problem with the last movie. However, there are definite improvements this time around. Snyder’s style feels reigned in and better utilized here. The color grading doesn’t feel out of place this time, as the ugly blues are used in scenes where they overall fit better, and Snyder’s direction of action scenes is still just as strong if not better (he finally stopped using that annoying camera zoom thing). Snyder‘s heavily contrasted style isn’t in conflict with the scenery this time, and there are far fewer shots covered in CGI. Snyder feels more comfortable and settled into this universe, and I have a theory as to why.
Zack Snyder really just wanted to make a Batman movie all along.
Batman is by far the best served character in this film. Snyder knows how to shoot his scenes to make him powerful and intimidating, if not straight up threatening, and Ben Affleck is a huge help there (he’s also built like a tank in this, Jesus). He really captures the vibe of being a normal person and seeing Batman. It’s cool as hell but you would be terrified to see him coming at you. Ben Affleck absolutely proved why he was cast in this role, creating a more aggressive Batman than we’ve previously seen, as well as an older one, far more bitter and worn down by a history of fighting crime. Affleck’s facial expressions in particular allow us to glimpse a past we don’t hear too much about, but can understand that it has been painful and demoralizing. After several excellent portrayals of the character, this is a good way to make Affleck’s stand apart.
Snyder however is still deconstructing heroes in this film, and takes it a little too far. This Batman is openly a murderer (for the uninitiated, one of the most important rules of Batman is that he doesn’t kill. It’s a whole thing about his morals and history with his parents’ death and all). Batman is constantly using guns, he stabs people, he snaps necks and blows people up. I can almost buy it from this Batman being aged and broken by the time we meet him, but watching it today, it is jarring to watch him be this violent. Snyder does not care in the slightest, however:
"If someone says to me ‘oh, Batman killed a guy’, I’m like ‘f–k…really? Wake the f–k up’.
"Once you’ve like lost your virginity to this f–kin movie and then you come and say to me something about ‘oh, my superhero wouldn’t do that’, I’m like ‘are you serious?’ because I’m down the f–king road on that.
“It’s a cool point of view to be like: ‘My heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn’t f–king lie to America. My heroes didn’t embezzle money. My heroes didn’t commit any atrocities.’
“That’s cool, but you’re living in a f–king dream world!"
This lovely little quote was taken from a Q&A Snyder did in 2019, and it really explains a lot of the problems here. Snyder is extremely nihilistic about the idea of heroes, and while Batman mostly gets by in his vision, Superman suffers here. Snyder expands on threads established in Man of Steel about the world’s reaction to a godlike figure (oh don’t worry the Jesus symbolism is still going strong in this movie) who acts on his own accord, forcing us to trust that he will do the right thing. This is fine. There are absolutely ways to do this right. But Superman here is this dour sad sack full of self doubt. Any humor or charisma established previously is gone, and he questions if he should bother saving people who don’t want him. Most damning of all, this Superman threatens people, telling them how easily he could severely injure them. It feels wrong. Snyder either misunderstands or willingly ignores the entire point of the character: he has godlike powers and isn’t of our Earth, but he was raised by human beings who showed him the value of humanity, and helps people purely because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. In terms of abilities, he seems like a god, but in terms of who he is, he’s really just a farm boy from Kansas. There were glimmers of this in Man of Steel, suggesting a marriage of Snyder’s vision with Superman’s roots, and I was mostly on board then. But now, Snyder rejects the character for what he thinks is reality, and it’s depressing, cynical, and downright frustrating to watch.
(Note: despite the disclaimer at the top of every review, I try to avoid spoilers, but I don’t know how to discuss this movie without acknowledging most spoilers. So here’s a real warning. But like honestly most people know what happened in this movie so you’re probably fine)
Of course, Superman would be helped if he were given more screen time. BvS’s focus is all over the place, and Superman feels a little lost in the shuffle, almost like a secondary character. There are plot lines about Superman being held accountable in the world and the government scrutiny, Clark Kent’s self doubt about his place in the world, Amy Adams’ Lois Lane investigating a weird bullet, Batman investigating a weapon for Superman (while also growing a rivalry with Superman), both of these investigations leading to Lex Luthor, who’s doing his own thing with a crashed spaceship from Man of Steel, but also doing stuff with the government. There is a lot going on here, and these threads are very rarely intertwined. This causes the plot to jump between them every other scene, making the film extremely difficult to follow, and causing a lot of Snyder’s deeper character work and themes to get utterly lost. Snyder wants us to ultimately come to conclusions such as “men are still good” and Batman realizes the humanity of Superman, but with so much to keep track of, these moments lose their weight, and struggle to evoke any real emotion. I do think Snyder and writers Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer had strong ideas and character arcs, but they got too ambitious, and there’s too much going on for most of them to have a real impact. Not to mention, the execution is brought down by some very odd choices. I can think of one very good example.
It’s time to talk about the movie’s best known scene.
As the titular fight gets underway in the third act, it lasts for about 9 minutes and ends with Superman begging Batman to “save Martha” which ends the fight. Because Superman is asking Batman to save his mother, Martha, who shares a name with Batman’s mother. And so the fight ends.
This is probably the most famous scene in the film for all the wrong reasons. Ridiculed and defended by an equal amount of people, at face value it is a bizarre way to end this huge conflict the whole movie is named after. A lot of people find it really goofy that Batman decides to not kill Superman because their moms have the same name. It kind of is. But people do defend the scene, and I think I’ve finally worked out what Snyder was going for here. Throughout the film Batman (or Bruce Wayne) talks about his legacy, how little he’s affected crime, and how many good guys have been lost. He seems to doubt his own goodness, and wants to kill Superman to do something that matters. However, when Superman asks him to save his mother, he not only reveals to Bruce that there is humanity behind the god, but the shared name allows Bruce to feel a level of redemption. He can save Clark’s mother when he couldn’t save his own. After 9 years I can finally see that this is a good idea, but the execution is all wrong. There’s so much going on in the film that Batman’s deeper arc can be completely lost in the sea of plotlines, and putting so much emphasis on the realization that the mothers’ names are the same comes off as ham fisted and goofy. I genuinely believe if Superman had said “please save my mother”, it would solve so many issues here (also who the hell refers to their mother by their first name like that? How the hell was Bruce supposed to know who Martha was?).
Even in addition to the many pre-existing plotlines, there’s even more to go over in the film. Throughout it all, BvS also introduces several members of the Justice League, DC’s Avengers equivalent, that Warner Bros was clearly trying to build up to. This comes down to the return of the DCEU’s fatal flaw. By forcing even more characters and setup for future movies into BvS (remember, this is also our introduction to Batman) you can tell Warner Bros is desperately trying to catch up to Marvel, trying to skip the patient build up that Marvel spent years doing to make their films more cohesive, and cramming all their characters into an already massive film. Once again, by measuring themselves against Marvel and trying to match their success, Warner Bros shot themselves in the foot and turned BvS into a more bloated mess than it probably already was. Frankly, this is one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the DCEU.
Clearly, a lot should have been cut out of this movie, including Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. While the other controversial castings worked out, Eisenberg just does not work as the intimidating, iconic supervillain. He’s this awkward, weird, jittery nepo baby who makes lots of weird noises and forced philosophical speeches about gods and man and whatnot. I’m not inherently opposed to Snyder’s reimagining of characters, but this is a very ill suited casting choice. Not to mention his convoluted plan makes the movie even harder to follow, and revealing him as someone manipulating Batman and Superman into fighting removes the agency from both characters. It just makes both heroes look dumb, especially Superman, who now seems to have less control over his actions on top of having few emotions beyond “sad” and a neglected character arc (Superman got done dirty in this movie, man). I think if Luthor was gone, you’d lose a lot of convoluted storytelling, the worst casting in the film, and the film could be far more focused on Batman and Superman building their rivalry (fun fact, they actually spend very little time on screen together), and giving more payoff to the resolution of their conflict.
This is easily the longest review I’ve written so far, and I could really keep going. But for the sake of your time, I’ll conclude. Batman v Superman has good ideas, but they’re bogged down by an overly elaborate script with too many subplots, a studio trying too hard to replicate the success of other franchises, and a director who’s clear disinterest in Superman makes him a miserable shell of himself. Snyder’s nihilistic tendencies to deconstruct heroes make jarring adaptations that further prove he was the wrong man to lead the DCEU in its first years. BvS would manage to be even more divisive than Man of Steel, fueling what I remember to be angrier debates between fans praising DC’s more “mature” approach to superheroes over Marvel’s, and others who were frustrated by the poor creative choices behind it. I believe this reception drove moviegoers away from what should’ve been a billion dollar hit. While it made more than its predecessor, Batman v Superman did not make as much money as Warner Bros. hoped, likely sending them into a panic that would be felt with several future releases. BvS is still a fundamentally frustrating watch, so much so that it can’t even be helped by the nostalgia that boosted my opinion of Man of Steel. I would absolutely not call it one of my favorites in the series. I would however call it the DCEU’s defining movie: messy and confused, trying too hard to beat Marvel at their own universe building game, and influencing the direction of the franchise for the rest of its existence. In the next installment of the DCEU Retrospective, we’ll see the first victim of that.
A quick speed run of all the weird and annoying things I didn’t get a chance to mention:
Bruce encountering a weird bat monster in a dream
Lex Luthor hand feeding a man a Jolly Rancher
The weird, post apocalyptic dream (?) sequence that Batman has. It’s like a vision of a future where Superman goes bad, but it just kinda comes out of nowhere and also ends with a time travelling Flash (Ezra Miller jumpscare!) telling Bruce vague things about being “right about him” and “Lois being the key” that also might not be a dream.
Lex Luthor possibly pissing in a jar and giving it to a senator
Superman watching a room full of people explode around him and having absolutely no reaction
Warner Bros or Snyder forcing in an adaptation of the Death of Superman arc from the comics, even though no one would buy that they were going to permanently kill Superman in the second movie
The absolutely wasting of Doomsday, the aforementioned Superman killer who is reduced to an ugly gray CGI blob
Warner Bros spoiling Doomsday and by extension the Death of Superman in the trailers
Lex Luthor creates Doomsday to kill the destructive and dangerous Superman, apparently not realizing he unleashed something way more destructive and dangerous to do it
Warner Bros trying to release this movie on the same day as Captain America: Civil War, before chickening out and changing the release date, in a hilarious vote of no confidence for a movie about Batman fighting Superman
