Overall thoughts and impressions
Before the film I was concerned about the balance between
the two title characters. I heard the movie was drawing inspiration from “The
Dark Knight Returns” by Frank Miller (1986), which is both one of the best
Batman books, and the worst Superman representation written. This book is what
started the stereotype that Superman was Un-intelligent and weak compared to
Batman’s vastly OP’ed representation in the book. When Zach Snyder said the
movie would focus a lot on Batman more than Superman, my concerns grew.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie was very evenly
split between the two characters. Unknown to the audience initially, “The Death
of Superman” was also a strong influence in the movie, more than making up for
any bad representation of Superman in other source material. Along with that,
the fight between Batman and Superman made sense and didn’t detract from either
characters abilities or motives. The movie built up the characters so well that
when batman pulled out all of his prepared weapons and tactics, it made sense
that he would.
Every great story is based on the characters that are in it.
This movie was not on a shortage of characters, so I will highlight just a few.
In order for a character to feel strong in a story, you need to be able to tell
a story using that character, or in other words- the more main characters you
have, the more story arcs you need. This movie, for the most part, seemed to do
that satisfactorily.
Batman/ Bruce Wayne
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| Batman was really a dynamic Character type, having changed his beliefs of the world from negative to hopeful. |
Bruce Wayne has a dream where the bats pull him up to the
light, bats represent his symbolic journey and light representing his true
desires. He calls the light a “Beautiful lie” when he sees Superman for the
first time, thereby gaining a feeling of powerlessness. This weakness grows in
Bruce to where, as batman, he stoops down to branding the villains and being
much more brutal to them overall. This downward spiral pushes him to where he
would fight Superman. Just as Batman is about to kill Superman, he is reminded
of his mother Martha. This pushes batman to change his decision and go save Martha
rather than end Superman. Batman makes a conscious choice to sacrifice a life
to save “Martha” and symbolically turns himself around to his own personal
redemption. When Superman sacrifices himself to save Batman along with the
world during the fight against Doomsday, Batman has gained full trust that
there is still good in the world.
Superman/ Clark Kent
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| This movie was a faithful continuation of Man Of Steel. touching on things such as Jor-El's prophesy of how people will Join Superman in the light, as well as fixing some issues I had with Man Of Steel such as Johnathan Kent and Clark's lack of character portrayal. I guess MOS was a set up and BVS is really the start of everything. |
Superman has been leading the life he has felt he should
live, and it’s been good for him. He has a great relationship with Lois, he has
a job that he loves, and generally people appreciate the service that Superman
offers. This changes when he is framed for killing a bunch of terrorists in the
Middle East. Later, a former employee of Wayne enterprises defaces the Superman
statue and causes a controversy as to whether or not Superman is a good guy.
Clark is hurt that people would not only fear him as Jor-el said, but they
consider him an enemy. Clark then tries to expose the actions of a vigilante in
Gotham who has been terrorizing the people there, but even his job won’t let
him work out the angle. The people, the government, and his job have all lost
faith in Clark and he takes it hard. Turns out Lex was behind all the set-ups
and forces Superman to fight Batman to save one of the only two people that
still love him as a person. Hard decisions. Superman puts most of his effort
into trying to get Batman to help him save Martha Kent. Batman agrees. This reaffirms
Superman’s faith that he can help people turn to the light and do the right
thing. Doomsday fight happens and Superman sacrifices himself to save the
planet, seeing as how this world- though it is hard on him sometimes- is his
home. And Lois is his reason for learning that. Superman dies, in the process
saving the world and inspiring the world to live a higher standard.
Lex Luthor
This part, as far as I can figure, is the arc that was
mostly cut out of the movie when warner bros. told Zach Snyder to cut out 30
minutes. With a deleted scene that was released on You Tube shortly after the
movie was released in theaters, I think we get a clearer picture as to what Lex’s
motivation and plan really was. I do have some thoughts on why this arc seems
to be so full of holes that I will express later on.
Wonder Woman
Gal Gadot was, controversially, cast as the Amazonian
princess. Her role was not the biggest, but it was important for her to be
there as it set up Justice League without having to go into another half hour
in the next movie explaining how Batman found everyone. It was nice to see the
DC trinity on screen and I’m excited to see what Gal does with the role in the
upcoming Wonder Woman movie. I think it was a smart move on Zach Snyder’s part
to keep her role smaller, since the movie wasn’t really about Wonder Woman, but
it was about the Dawn of the Justice League.
The other Leaguers
I don’t actually believe that any characters outside of the
DC trinity needed to make an appearance. Seeing their folders on the computer
was enough to set up that these characters will appear in the next movie. Zach
Snyder had to cut out 30 minutes of film, otherwise the movie would have been
an unbearably long 3 hours (I would have loved it, but I do have other things I
need to do with my life).
Movie systematics:
Overall I would consider the Acting to be top notch. I’m
going to have a hard time thinking of anyone other than Ben Affleck as Batman
now, you can almost see how much his heart was pouring itself out in the film.
Henry Cavill played an excellent and emotional Superman, but the award goes to
Jesse Eisenberg who played Lex Luthor. Props to him! I loved the Luthor buildup
and I’m excited to see what stuff we get from him in the future.
| with 30 extra minutes cut from his movie, can we even judge his directing too hard at this point? I don't know. |
Directing- though it did have some holes, I’m not sure if Zack
Snyder is to blame so much. I still have that question of the extra 30 minutes
hanging over the movie, waiting to drop and fill in any holes it might have. That
said, Zack knew that there would be some editing done and he should have
planned for that better. Rather than focus on seeing how much controversial
stuff you can cram into the movie, focus on what is the basic stuff you need
for the movie to work and then put some of the Easter eggs and non-essentials
into an extended edition. I don’t have an incredible answer to how to fix this,
but it’s there.
Addressing the critic’s problems:
Pacing of the narrative:
One of the biggest complaints I hear from critics and people
I talk to is that the narrative was a mess, and the movie was hard to follow.
Consider this:
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| what another great Superman batman story? pick up Public enemies and "Supergirl from Krypton" to get a complete and comprehensive story of the two heroes |
In “Superman, Batman: Public Enemies", Lex Luthor has come up
with a plan to ruin the reputations of both of the title characters. He gives
you a half-baked explanation of his plan and you don’t get any clues to his
motivations. Now some may say “that’s just a poorly written story”, but this
particular book was written by the great Jeph Leob. Lex Luthor’s plan doesn’t
fully manifest itself until after he has been defeated and several issues
later.
In comic books, stories are written in such a way that you
can follow it, but several story lines may be happening at the same time. Then,
as well, the story may not finish itself until long after the villain has been
defeated. Man of Steel and Batman V. Superman both had this type of writing as
opposed to the writing of Marvel movies where each film stands by itself and
doesn’t affect how much you understand a different film (there are a few
instances where this is different, but for the most part you can skip Thor or
Ant Man and still have a full understanding of what is happening.) I guess you
can say there are “comicbook movies” and “movies based on comic books”. DC is
going for “comicbook movie” where in order to understand all of Lex Luthor’s
plot in Batman V. Superman, or all the effects the Kryptonian battle had in Man
of Steel, you have to see Justice League, and you have to go backwards to Batman
V. Superman to understand everything from Suicide Squad. Comic readers,
particularly in the modern era, understand this concept. Casual movie goers,
even “Make Mine Marvelites”, do not have this kind of set-up.
 |
| how is it that the formula that made this film so great, is what critics complain most about Batman V Superman? |
I thought this movie was a nice breath of fresh air. The
problem I have with most super hero movies coming out as of late is that they
are becoming increasingly diluted. They are starting to become the same thing
over and over (look at And Man’s fight against Falcon. Their costumes are so
similar it’s hard to tell who is who. Even Spider-man is getting a darker blue
to fit into the “Black, Red, silver” color scheme that makes up the scarlet
witch, iron man, war machine, Hawkeye, black widow, Bucky and Captain America’s
“Winter Soldier” costume). The stories are all the same and there are no
consequences for actions (Coulson lived. He didn’t need to. Iron Man lived
after being dead for all of 17 seconds. No consequences lasting through
movies).
Anyway, this complaint is interesting as these are the very
things that made “the Dark Knight” so beloved by fans across the board.
Who is this movie for?
If you are expecting an overly cheerful movie, this is
probably not your film. This movie was based around serious issues of the
definition of justice, good and evil, the question of whether there are still
good people in the world, and how grim and cruel people can be to one another.
Is it for kids? I would suggest that parents see the movie
before bringing younger children to see it. This movie delves into the
relationship between Clark Kent and Lois, there is a scene where you do not see
anything, but they do not hide the fact that Lois is naked in a bath tub.
General Zod’s body is examined by Lex Luthor, Zod is also nude (nothing is
shown), and just based off that I would be EXTREMELY cautious about kids in the
theater. Some scarier scenes with flying demon creatures and jump scares may
frighten children as well as make you drop your popcorn.
There are also some themes discussed about the nature of God
and whether or not he is all powerful or all good. While it is intriguing, I
desire for parents to be able to teach their children correct principles. If you
think you and your family can understand that some people, particularly villains,
don’t have some of the same beliefs as you do then this should not be a
problem.
In short, I really did like this film. I would go as far as
to say that this movie was my favorite Batman movie as well as my favorite Superman
movie. The characters had real emotion, the fights had real emotion, and the
effort on the part of both actors was great. Lex Luthor made Superman villains
stand out among the crowd in the DC pantheon of characters, and the way the
movie was written and presented made me extremely excited to see how it all
pans out when Justice League hits theaters next year.
Thank you for joining me for this special edition of Theory
Thursday. Starting next now, the blog will return back to normal with normal theories
and analysis on Thursdays and regular Noun v. Noun fights in Saturday Showdown.
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