Ensign Lestat's Film Log, 17.08.2016
I finally plucked up the courage to watch the extended version of 'Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice', and well... it's a little more coherent but still a lot of a mess.
BVS does what it says on the tin - pits Batman against Superman. It just doesn't do it right or well... ever. In the beginning it feels encouraging; we see Supes and Zod's Metropolis battle from the ground up, from Bruce Wayne's point of view as the people in his office die and others are maimed. It's a promising start that dwindles into a complicated plot. Some spoilers will filter into this review, so if that's a bother, I'd recommend wasting your 3 hours first before reading this.
After the Battle of Metropolis, the film separates into multiple people investigating multiple things - Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is investigating shady leaders in fictional African nation Nairomi, a Russian mobster, US weapons in Nairomi, then Lex Luthor; Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) starts off by investigating a football game, then goes on to Batman and his vigilantism; Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) is investigating Superman, a Russian mobster, something called the White Portuguese, Lex Luthor and eventually Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) for a brief time. It all leads to the same place, but meanders as it does.
At least in the extended cut, the characters' actions make sense and are coherent. It was impossible to make out what people were up to in the theatrical release. It makes me wonder why the studio even bothered with the theatrical cut. Or why they allowed Zack Snyder and his writers to write a 3-hour long superhero film. Hollywood has come full circle with run times - Oscar nominees are no longer compact 90-minute nuggets of artistry; you'd be hard-put to find one that hits anywhere less than 120 minutes nowadays.
And the same is true for superhero films. What should be about 100-odd minutes of action-packed fun, is now a long-drawn out drama of nothing less than 145 minutes. And for the most part it's full of unnecessary padding of storylines and characters, usually at the detriment of the main storyline and character.
BVS suffers greatly from that. Desperate to establish its new Batman, it foregoes the already introduced Superman and the characters from 'Man of Steel'. MoS had problems, lots of them, yet it worked on many levels, not least because of its likeable cast of characters. All of them are put on the back burner as we meet vengeful Bruce Wayne and the world's worst rendition of Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg).
Supes becomes an extra in a film essentially supposed to be his own sequel. The theatrical release has him speaking 40-odd lines (apparently), fewer than those spoken by Spider-Man in his cameo appearance in 'Captain America: Civil War'. And it felt like it. The extended version feels like it gives him more to do - more focus, more dialogue, more of an arc. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond all of us, Cavill spends the entire film with his face scrunched up like he's walked into a stinker - well, he's not wrong. The trouble is it is hard to take him seriously when he looks like that. Considering the fact that he's always been a capable actor, I can't understand this particularly bad performance from him. Maybe it was how he coped with the unshed tears of the realisation that his film was being taken away from him.
His chemistry with Adams is superb, and I'd say that one of the few things the writers got right was how well Lois and Clark know each other and how easy they are together. That doesn't mean it makes sense for them to have an existential conversation while she's naked in a tub - only a guy would think that's a normal scene to put in. But the way she relaxes and unhands her captor so that Superman can take him out, or how she knows Supes is intent on taking down Doomsday by himself show that the writers at least tried with this relationship.
Trouble is, while Lois, especially in the extended version, comes across as a journalist with grit and ability throughout the film, she needs Superman to rescue her a record 3-4 times. That's a crazy amount of times to make your lead female character a damsel, and put her in situations she definitely cannot get out of by herself.
In Nairomi, after the world's worst version of Jimmy Olsen turns out to be a CIA spy and gets shot, Lois is captured by the village leader and doesn't look like she has any idea how to get herself out of this mess. For a woman who is brilliant and has been in many hairy situations before, it seems beyond me that she wouldn't try to talk her way out of it or at least stall for time while she figured out how to get help.
Later, Luthor throws her off a helipad assuming (correctly) that Supes will save her. What I don't understand is, does Supes have a homing beacon or heart monitor on Lois? He's far way during both the Nairomi and Luthor incidents, yet rescues Lois in a heartbeat.
At least the time when Lois gets trapped in a pond under huge pieces of stone he is in the area and hears her banging against the stone and hence is able to leave the boss fight to save her. That one made sense, but the other times? How could he possibly have known? And does Lois spend all her time getting into impossible situations assuming that Supes will always be there to save her? It's another case of poor writing in this film. It's not thought out at all. Also, Amy Adams is incredible and deserves to play Lois as a badass. I love that she's a no-nonsense business-like journalist, and her best scenes are when she's on the job. She comes alive during them. But as part of the action scenes, Lois is a detriment, and Adams doesn't deserve that.
Let's be honest and say that no one was happy about Batfleck. Aside from the studio who realised it would give them good industry creds, most fans knew better. Affleck is a superhero film's kiss-of-death. But given that we're in the golden age of sucky cinema, he's not only going to stick around for all upcoming DCEU films, but he's getting his own trilogy as well.
Affleck has no expressions and zero charisma. If Henry didn't look so much like he'd smelled a skunk, I think Affleck would have shown up even poorer in the film. Also, it's hard to get behind the Bat when he spends every other encounter with Supes ignoring every word Supes is saying. Listen, mate. Just listen.
For the majority of his screen time, Affleck seems to be hidden in his Batsuit - hidden is the word, he doesn't seem to belong in there or able to give his Batman any personality. He's better as Bruce Wayne, though the entire time he's only on investigations in the Batcave. Or he's exercising. Weird combo.
Eisenberg's casting put me ill at ease, and his eventual performance as Luthor is a nightmare come true. I read an article recently about how Hollywood loves latching on to a good thing and duplicating it. Heath Ledger's Joker in 'The Dark Knight' gave comic book film's a rare Oscar win in the acting category and that's meant a lot of copycats.
BVS' Luthor is one such copy. He is needlessly insane, spouting rhetoric and allegory for no apparent reason. He's a frustrating and aggravating addition to a universe that has left common sense and logic behind. If we want crazy, we'll turn to the Joker and the Riddler - who will turn up (the Joker already has) in the numerous Batfleck films that are slotted in for the near future. No need for Luthor to also be mad.
His madness has no method, nor motivation, and this is where the character's adaptation fails. Why is he after Superman? It's evident from the start (especially on second viewing) that Luthor is well aware of Supes' actual identity. How he acquired that knowledge we are never told - nor does anyone ask him about it. Why he waits a good two years to use it is also beyond us.
He also knows Batman's identity, but uses it to send hard-hitting messages on Wayne Enterprises cheques - cheques that Bruce never even sees. So, not a good plan.
What Luthor will achieve through this superhero deathmatch that he has set up, is also unclear. Is it that he wants to unleash Doomsday after Supes and Bats are gone - well, he does that while they're still alive and loses as well. Is it that he's in cahoots with Steppenwolf (who we briefly meet in the extended version), which thereby signals the entry of Darkseid and worse and wants to unleash them once the big two are dead? Who knows!
Luthor is also the only one to know about other meta-humans and has film trailers of the Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg (complete with designer logos). We're talking about one character with the entirety of DCEU's information. And he uses it all for a celebrity death-match, that anyway lands him in jail and will see him in Arkham Asylum. And then DCEU fans wonder why the film has such a poor rating. An all-knowing villain ineptly written is basically useless, and Luthor is thus.
We have a number of bit part players, all of whom could have been played by actors of colour, but aren't, because Hollywood. Holly Hunter plays a democracy-spewing Senator, who looks to always be at the brink of an emotional meltdown. If the democracy talk wasn't so on-the-nose, it may have been easier to root for her.
I liked the character of Kahina Ziri (Wunmi Mosaku). She is more fleshed out in the extended version, but there's always only one ending for her. Her arc is poorly handled, and again another sign of how the production of the film was confused and haphazard.
Let's not forget Jeremy Irons as a jaded and resigned Alfred Pennyworth. He is amusing at times, mostly because he appears to be the only actor aware of the sh*t-show he's got himself into. He has no arc, nor personality, serving more as a human Jarvis than the man who mentored and raised the boy who would become the Bat. He lacks personality and distinction - always at the ready to do his master's bidding, but not there to be his friend. I think we got used to Michael Caine's imposing presence in the Christopher Nolan trilogy. Curtailed his role may have been, but he was not without character.
Diane Lane's Martha Kent is hard done by in this film. She could have been an impressive mentor figure for both Clark and Lois, but she's introduced just so that she can be captured and used as leverage by Luthor. Her performance, if you can call it that, is better than in MoS, where she was particularly bad.
Jena Malone is in two scenes as some kind of analyst. The role could have gone to anyone, so I don't know why she's in it. It is even less than a cameo, because it has no bearing on the characters at large. Maybe she's a character from the comics, who knows - and who cares.
The rare supporting character to make any impact on the audience is Laurence Fishburne's Perry White. Okay, it's Fishburne so of course he's going to be memorable. But his Perry White is even funnier than his MoS one. He's cantankerous and critical, not to mention cutting and no-nonsense. But he gives Lois her due, which I don't think the other Perry renditions have done in the past. He is the sole reason we get to laugh (or at least giggle) during this unnecessarily (that word again) dark adaptation. Here's to more Perry White in the coming films.
The only good thing to come out of this film is Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. Though never mentioned by name, she is mesmeric. Even though her initial scenes see her as a party guest in pretty ridiculous outfits, she meets the overbearing Bruce Wayne toe to toe and gets what she wants. She puts him in his place while showing off how knowledgeable she is.
And her grand entry in the boss fight with Doomsday - spectacular. She doesn't have time for witty repartee and retorts. Supes and Bats are confused as to who she's with, but what I like is that she doesn't use up precious time to explain her presence there. The world needs saving and Wonder Woman is here to do it. She's fearless against Doomsday, aggressive and tactical. There's a smirk in the middle of the fight (improvised by Gadot, apparently) which gives her more personality than Bats and Supes put together in the whole film. She was such a delight to watch - completely owning this character and the part given to her. One can hope that in the hands of a woman director she will shine in her first ever solo film.
Because the pacing of the film is so poor, it feels more like a mess. It is hard to be sure of timelines when Lois has unravelled the mysteries of LexCorp while Bruce and Clark spar at a Luthor party. The most obvious pacing issues crop up during the boss fight.
Just as Bats and Supes get ready to battle Doomsday, we take time out to watch Wonder Woman watch the DCEU trailers. How come her email didn't load all that while, because it's obvious Bruce wasn't sending her 200MB hi-def video attachments from an isolated port while Doomsday was on a rampage!
Add to that Lois seems to take forever to find a place to throw the Kryptonite spear, only to figure out that she needs it back - all while Doomsday trashes everything in sight.
But pacing is but one component of poor writing and directing. In a world full of pop culture fans, what made Snyder et. al. believe it was necessary to include a Batman origin sequence? 11 Batman productions later we all know what went down. 'Batman Begins' is just over a decade old, and TV's 'Gotham' started off with Bruce's origins not 2 years ago. The shooting of the Wayne parents in the film immediately says the makers don't trust or know their audience and puts the film on the defensive.
BVS isn't helped by the unending Jesus imagery. Most Superman renditions show him as a Christ-like figure and MoS had a lot of Christian rhetoric thrown in - not least Superman finding answers in a church.
In the film, young Bruce is carried to the light by bats, while he is in the Christ the Redeemer pose. A major in the army makes a point of crossing herself before a nuke goes off. A member of the Wayne board says a prolonged prayer before unnecessarily dying during the Zod battle (the guy was an idiot - he refused to let his people leave the Wayne building, which was bang in the middle of all the Metropolis destruction, until Bruce Wayne ordered him to [because, who wouldn't want to die needlessly in their billionaire boss' office building], and then promptly doesn't leave after the evacuation, and dies when the place collapses on him. And because of him, Bruce decides he hates Supes and ta-da, we have this dumb movie to put up with).
Add to that the many 'white saviour' scenes. The survivors of the decimated Nairomi village turning to Lois for help, the Day of the Dead-celebrating Mexicans reaching out to touch their saviour, Superman - these are the kind of annoying micro-aggressive scenes that sneak into Hollywood films and alienates people who aren't straight, white, Bible-thumpers.
And then we have dream sequences as exposition. I thought that went out with the 60s. Bruce Wayne has way too many telling hallucinations, and it makes a person worry about his mental health. He sees giant bats breaking out of his mother's tomb; he sees a Knightmare (as people are calling it) where evil Superman owns an army of beings waiting to kill the Bat (this was a particularly well-made sequence, but it didn't fit in with the rest of the film at all).
What is worse is that Bruce wakes up from the Knightmare to enter another dream where the Flash is telling him that Lois is the key and that he must find 'them'. Why couldn't that have been reality? Him waking up after meeting the Flash just makes the entire sequence look worse. And guess what - none of it added to the film's story in any way. Bruce wakes up to find out about the meta-humans on his own. He never meets Lois, however, so that part didn't even need to be included.
All the dreams just padded up the runtime and allow Snyder to boast that he made those. That's not how you introduce your league of characters though. To do it right you need to turn to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or DC's TV-verse. Those crossovers work better than anything in this film.
And let us not forget the ridiculous 'Why did you say that name?' scene. If fights could be solved so easily, then there would be no wars. Why couldn't the writers think of a better conclusion?
We also have a superhero death, which we know isn't permanent, yet we continue to waste valuable time and celluloid on prolonged funeral and tragedy scenes. One of the fantastic things to come out of Superman's prolonged death scene is that we get to see Wonder Woman carry his dead body and present it to Lois. I mean, whoa! She's super-strong, and it is so awesome to see her casually take the body from Batman and lay him down to rest.
Superman's death is one of the stronger parts of the film as it finally makes all the characters act like people. Perry and his team are subdued and respectful when they enter the Kent home. Martha is almost giddy, which doesn't fit with her character at all, but I wonder if that is because she knows Clark will come back, or because her final worst fear has come true and all she can do is laugh to keep it together. Lois is shattered but instead of bursting into hysterical tears when Martha presents her with the engagement ring that Clark had ordered for her, she smiles, probably remembering their happy times together. Even Bruce Wayne gets to have some personality finally - half-heartedly admitting he was wrong, while also wanting to carry on Superman's positive work. Diana's the only one who is unmoved by it all - she comes across as practical and I'm sure she's seen enough to not mourn a singular soldier's death. She also doesn't know any of these people, so why would she be in tears. Surprisingly Wonder Woman is the only consistent character in the whole film.
BVS has been one of the more polarising superhero films of recent years. It's a jumble of intentions, desperate to capture the magic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The thing with the MCU is that they've done some thorough planning for a long time to come up with a cohesive world full of disparate heroes. Marvel doesn't always get things right, nor does it do justice to enough characters or storylines, but DCEU has been late to the party and hasn't been that organised with its catching up.
The fact that DCEU couldn't even incorporate its far superior, successful and better made television series characters into the film series is a sign of how disjointed their thinking is. DC fans complaining that critics are out to get DC's live action films don't seem to get that into their heads, but it's true, and BVS, in a year that's seen some poor superhero films make money at the box office, is a symptom of it.
Is there any bright spark left in DC? The critical bashing of 'Suicide Squad' says no. Hopes are pinned on 'Wonder Woman', but how much can she achieve given that Warner Bros. and DC Comics are notorious for interfering with their films. We can hold out hope, but it's evident that DCEU like to have Znyder around, even though he is unable to make anything good out of all this power. They have to do a lot right to redeem themselves in the eyes of critics and fans alike. Till then, we wait.
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| Are we... supposed to fight? |
BVS does what it says on the tin - pits Batman against Superman. It just doesn't do it right or well... ever. In the beginning it feels encouraging; we see Supes and Zod's Metropolis battle from the ground up, from Bruce Wayne's point of view as the people in his office die and others are maimed. It's a promising start that dwindles into a complicated plot. Some spoilers will filter into this review, so if that's a bother, I'd recommend wasting your 3 hours first before reading this.
After the Battle of Metropolis, the film separates into multiple people investigating multiple things - Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is investigating shady leaders in fictional African nation Nairomi, a Russian mobster, US weapons in Nairomi, then Lex Luthor; Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) starts off by investigating a football game, then goes on to Batman and his vigilantism; Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) is investigating Superman, a Russian mobster, something called the White Portuguese, Lex Luthor and eventually Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) for a brief time. It all leads to the same place, but meanders as it does.
At least in the extended cut, the characters' actions make sense and are coherent. It was impossible to make out what people were up to in the theatrical release. It makes me wonder why the studio even bothered with the theatrical cut. Or why they allowed Zack Snyder and his writers to write a 3-hour long superhero film. Hollywood has come full circle with run times - Oscar nominees are no longer compact 90-minute nuggets of artistry; you'd be hard-put to find one that hits anywhere less than 120 minutes nowadays.
And the same is true for superhero films. What should be about 100-odd minutes of action-packed fun, is now a long-drawn out drama of nothing less than 145 minutes. And for the most part it's full of unnecessary padding of storylines and characters, usually at the detriment of the main storyline and character.
BVS suffers greatly from that. Desperate to establish its new Batman, it foregoes the already introduced Superman and the characters from 'Man of Steel'. MoS had problems, lots of them, yet it worked on many levels, not least because of its likeable cast of characters. All of them are put on the back burner as we meet vengeful Bruce Wayne and the world's worst rendition of Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg).
Supes becomes an extra in a film essentially supposed to be his own sequel. The theatrical release has him speaking 40-odd lines (apparently), fewer than those spoken by Spider-Man in his cameo appearance in 'Captain America: Civil War'. And it felt like it. The extended version feels like it gives him more to do - more focus, more dialogue, more of an arc. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond all of us, Cavill spends the entire film with his face scrunched up like he's walked into a stinker - well, he's not wrong. The trouble is it is hard to take him seriously when he looks like that. Considering the fact that he's always been a capable actor, I can't understand this particularly bad performance from him. Maybe it was how he coped with the unshed tears of the realisation that his film was being taken away from him.
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| You smell that? |
Trouble is, while Lois, especially in the extended version, comes across as a journalist with grit and ability throughout the film, she needs Superman to rescue her a record 3-4 times. That's a crazy amount of times to make your lead female character a damsel, and put her in situations she definitely cannot get out of by herself.
In Nairomi, after the world's worst version of Jimmy Olsen turns out to be a CIA spy and gets shot, Lois is captured by the village leader and doesn't look like she has any idea how to get herself out of this mess. For a woman who is brilliant and has been in many hairy situations before, it seems beyond me that she wouldn't try to talk her way out of it or at least stall for time while she figured out how to get help.
Later, Luthor throws her off a helipad assuming (correctly) that Supes will save her. What I don't understand is, does Supes have a homing beacon or heart monitor on Lois? He's far way during both the Nairomi and Luthor incidents, yet rescues Lois in a heartbeat.
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| The indomitable Lois Lane. |
Let's be honest and say that no one was happy about Batfleck. Aside from the studio who realised it would give them good industry creds, most fans knew better. Affleck is a superhero film's kiss-of-death. But given that we're in the golden age of sucky cinema, he's not only going to stick around for all upcoming DCEU films, but he's getting his own trilogy as well.
Affleck has no expressions and zero charisma. If Henry didn't look so much like he'd smelled a skunk, I think Affleck would have shown up even poorer in the film. Also, it's hard to get behind the Bat when he spends every other encounter with Supes ignoring every word Supes is saying. Listen, mate. Just listen.
For the majority of his screen time, Affleck seems to be hidden in his Batsuit - hidden is the word, he doesn't seem to belong in there or able to give his Batman any personality. He's better as Bruce Wayne, though the entire time he's only on investigations in the Batcave. Or he's exercising. Weird combo.
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| Hello darkness, my old friend.... |
BVS' Luthor is one such copy. He is needlessly insane, spouting rhetoric and allegory for no apparent reason. He's a frustrating and aggravating addition to a universe that has left common sense and logic behind. If we want crazy, we'll turn to the Joker and the Riddler - who will turn up (the Joker already has) in the numerous Batfleck films that are slotted in for the near future. No need for Luthor to also be mad.
His madness has no method, nor motivation, and this is where the character's adaptation fails. Why is he after Superman? It's evident from the start (especially on second viewing) that Luthor is well aware of Supes' actual identity. How he acquired that knowledge we are never told - nor does anyone ask him about it. Why he waits a good two years to use it is also beyond us.
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| Make him go away!!!!!!! |
What Luthor will achieve through this superhero deathmatch that he has set up, is also unclear. Is it that he wants to unleash Doomsday after Supes and Bats are gone - well, he does that while they're still alive and loses as well. Is it that he's in cahoots with Steppenwolf (who we briefly meet in the extended version), which thereby signals the entry of Darkseid and worse and wants to unleash them once the big two are dead? Who knows!
Luthor is also the only one to know about other meta-humans and has film trailers of the Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg (complete with designer logos). We're talking about one character with the entirety of DCEU's information. And he uses it all for a celebrity death-match, that anyway lands him in jail and will see him in Arkham Asylum. And then DCEU fans wonder why the film has such a poor rating. An all-knowing villain ineptly written is basically useless, and Luthor is thus.
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| Aren't trailers usually before the movie? |
I liked the character of Kahina Ziri (Wunmi Mosaku). She is more fleshed out in the extended version, but there's always only one ending for her. Her arc is poorly handled, and again another sign of how the production of the film was confused and haphazard.
Let's not forget Jeremy Irons as a jaded and resigned Alfred Pennyworth. He is amusing at times, mostly because he appears to be the only actor aware of the sh*t-show he's got himself into. He has no arc, nor personality, serving more as a human Jarvis than the man who mentored and raised the boy who would become the Bat. He lacks personality and distinction - always at the ready to do his master's bidding, but not there to be his friend. I think we got used to Michael Caine's imposing presence in the Christopher Nolan trilogy. Curtailed his role may have been, but he was not without character.
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| Hello, Jarvis. I mean, Alfred. |
Jena Malone is in two scenes as some kind of analyst. The role could have gone to anyone, so I don't know why she's in it. It is even less than a cameo, because it has no bearing on the characters at large. Maybe she's a character from the comics, who knows - and who cares.
The rare supporting character to make any impact on the audience is Laurence Fishburne's Perry White. Okay, it's Fishburne so of course he's going to be memorable. But his Perry White is even funnier than his MoS one. He's cantankerous and critical, not to mention cutting and no-nonsense. But he gives Lois her due, which I don't think the other Perry renditions have done in the past. He is the sole reason we get to laugh (or at least giggle) during this unnecessarily (that word again) dark adaptation. Here's to more Perry White in the coming films.
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| Newsflash: DC films suck. In other news: Water wet. |
And her grand entry in the boss fight with Doomsday - spectacular. She doesn't have time for witty repartee and retorts. Supes and Bats are confused as to who she's with, but what I like is that she doesn't use up precious time to explain her presence there. The world needs saving and Wonder Woman is here to do it. She's fearless against Doomsday, aggressive and tactical. There's a smirk in the middle of the fight (improvised by Gadot, apparently) which gives her more personality than Bats and Supes put together in the whole film. She was such a delight to watch - completely owning this character and the part given to her. One can hope that in the hands of a woman director she will shine in her first ever solo film.
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| You're messing with the wrong hero here. |
Just as Bats and Supes get ready to battle Doomsday, we take time out to watch Wonder Woman watch the DCEU trailers. How come her email didn't load all that while, because it's obvious Bruce wasn't sending her 200MB hi-def video attachments from an isolated port while Doomsday was on a rampage!
Add to that Lois seems to take forever to find a place to throw the Kryptonite spear, only to figure out that she needs it back - all while Doomsday trashes everything in sight.
But pacing is but one component of poor writing and directing. In a world full of pop culture fans, what made Snyder et. al. believe it was necessary to include a Batman origin sequence? 11 Batman productions later we all know what went down. 'Batman Begins' is just over a decade old, and TV's 'Gotham' started off with Bruce's origins not 2 years ago. The shooting of the Wayne parents in the film immediately says the makers don't trust or know their audience and puts the film on the defensive.
BVS isn't helped by the unending Jesus imagery. Most Superman renditions show him as a Christ-like figure and MoS had a lot of Christian rhetoric thrown in - not least Superman finding answers in a church.
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| I am |
Add to that the many 'white saviour' scenes. The survivors of the decimated Nairomi village turning to Lois for help, the Day of the Dead-celebrating Mexicans reaching out to touch their saviour, Superman - these are the kind of annoying micro-aggressive scenes that sneak into Hollywood films and alienates people who aren't straight, white, Bible-thumpers.
And then we have dream sequences as exposition. I thought that went out with the 60s. Bruce Wayne has way too many telling hallucinations, and it makes a person worry about his mental health. He sees giant bats breaking out of his mother's tomb; he sees a Knightmare (as people are calling it) where evil Superman owns an army of beings waiting to kill the Bat (this was a particularly well-made sequence, but it didn't fit in with the rest of the film at all).
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| What... what is this? A dream sequence! In 2016! |
All the dreams just padded up the runtime and allow Snyder to boast that he made those. That's not how you introduce your league of characters though. To do it right you need to turn to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or DC's TV-verse. Those crossovers work better than anything in this film.
And let us not forget the ridiculous 'Why did you say that name?' scene. If fights could be solved so easily, then there would be no wars. Why couldn't the writers think of a better conclusion?We also have a superhero death, which we know isn't permanent, yet we continue to waste valuable time and celluloid on prolonged funeral and tragedy scenes. One of the fantastic things to come out of Superman's prolonged death scene is that we get to see Wonder Woman carry his dead body and present it to Lois. I mean, whoa! She's super-strong, and it is so awesome to see her casually take the body from Batman and lay him down to rest.
Superman's death is one of the stronger parts of the film as it finally makes all the characters act like people. Perry and his team are subdued and respectful when they enter the Kent home. Martha is almost giddy, which doesn't fit with her character at all, but I wonder if that is because she knows Clark will come back, or because her final worst fear has come true and all she can do is laugh to keep it together. Lois is shattered but instead of bursting into hysterical tears when Martha presents her with the engagement ring that Clark had ordered for her, she smiles, probably remembering their happy times together. Even Bruce Wayne gets to have some personality finally - half-heartedly admitting he was wrong, while also wanting to carry on Superman's positive work. Diana's the only one who is unmoved by it all - she comes across as practical and I'm sure she's seen enough to not mourn a singular soldier's death. She also doesn't know any of these people, so why would she be in tears. Surprisingly Wonder Woman is the only consistent character in the whole film.
BVS has been one of the more polarising superhero films of recent years. It's a jumble of intentions, desperate to capture the magic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The thing with the MCU is that they've done some thorough planning for a long time to come up with a cohesive world full of disparate heroes. Marvel doesn't always get things right, nor does it do justice to enough characters or storylines, but DCEU has been late to the party and hasn't been that organised with its catching up.
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| MCU so far. |
Is there any bright spark left in DC? The critical bashing of 'Suicide Squad' says no. Hopes are pinned on 'Wonder Woman', but how much can she achieve given that Warner Bros. and DC Comics are notorious for interfering with their films. We can hold out hope, but it's evident that DCEU like to have Znyder around, even though he is unable to make anything good out of all this power. They have to do a lot right to redeem themselves in the eyes of critics and fans alike. Till then, we wait.
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