Not the movie we deserve, but the movie we have right now.

Greetings, faithful readers!

So, I just got home from watching Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice. After the credits finished, all I can say is that the reviews I read were too harsh. The movie certainly had it's issues, but it's also not without it's merits.

Beware, below there be spoilers. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS


The movie has a few problems.

Yet another take on the Wayne murder. FFS, folks, we know they were murdered in an alley, with young Bruce staring on in horror. Seriously, Sony got the picture with Spider Man and their announcement to not do "Yet Another Spider Man Origin Story." It's more than kind of done. Let's give it a rest. It's one of the things Gotham does right. Once, and done.

Batman seems to have more problems than usual. In this movie, he seems to love alcohol. And guns. BATMAN HASN'T USED GUNS SINCE LIKE THE 30s. And what the heck is with the branding and reckless violence and murdering? Batman, even in the darker iterations that I've seen, doesn't go around snapping necks and smashing cars against each other. He certainly wouldn't brand criminals, even the nastier ones, which it seems to be common knowledge that THIS IS A DEATH SENTENCE IN PRISON. (Which is odd in itself. I could see the inmates trying to one up each other on how close they got to beating him, or who got away with the fewest injuries. But killing people Batman has branded? O.o)

On that note, Zach Snyder and his people don't actually have a grasp on the characters. Superman is kind of apathetic and selfish, Batman is wantonly violent and slightly murderous, and doesn't see Lex's manipulation coming from a mile away, and Lex is kinda spazzy and a bit of a doof. He's not so much an Nth level super genius as just a guy who's  a bit clever as well as a twit. Perry is less the iconic stalwart of the little people, and more the stereotypical editor of a big paper. Even Martha Kent tells Superman that he doesn't owe the planet anything. Lois is the only one they seem to get right. She dives headfirst into a dangerous militant conflict in the Middle East, she can push Perry around, and blindly supportive of Superman.

The score is kind of disjointed and weird. It's trying so hard to convey the dire nature and epic scale of the events. It even gets a little weird at times, like Lex going into the crashed Kryptonian ship that the government is studying in the middle of Metropolis. The music as he's walking in is almost quirky, which is very off putting.

I don't do subtlety well, so I don't have a problem with a lack of subtlety. But I've been told that Zach Snyder's about as subtle as a bulldozer full of dubstep DJs. So his attempt at foreshadowing things is basically "Hi, here's what I'm going for!"


The movie DOES have some positive points.

The actors give their all, despite the odd pacing and tenuous grasp of the characters. While I may not be a huge fan of how Superman, Batman, Lex, et al were written, the actors did their best.

The motivations, while somewhat flimsy, in most cases are linear and can make some sense. Lex doesn't believe in a truly altruistic action, so he's working to prove that Superman is not the angel from on high that half the world thinks he is. Batman being Mr Guilt/Anger, watching all the people in the Wayne building in Metropolis, is upset about all the death and destruction. Lex knows both of their secret identities, and has been tearing at Bruce for the 18 months between Man of Steel and Dawn of Justice. He uses Wally (Mr Victim Guy, who was the focus in the early immediate aftermath of the Metropolis fight, lost his legs due to falling girder, and has appeared a time or two, in a wheelchair and bitter)  to egg on Bruce's anger and guilt, stoking it into near-unthinking hatred of Superman. Meanwhile, Lex has been working on Superman, by sending him evidence of Batman's descent into rage, with photos of the Bat-branding and comments asking if this is justice, which is egging Superman's distrust of Batman.

Superman is the most linear, in that Zach Snyder just can't understand him. Or maybe refuses to, who  knows? Superman's view is a continuation of Snyder's vision in MoS, in that he's doing it for his dad (Kevin Costner who was kind of being an asshole) without really internalizing it, and acts like a hero because it's a thing to do, unless it affects him personally, then he becomes an asshole.

The fights were really nice. Batman prepared as well as could be expected against an opponent who really outclassed him, without it just being ridiculous. Superman flat out told him "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead already." Doomsday was a nice touch, even if he was the one of the poorest-kept secrets of the movie. I was kind of weirded out by his explosive regeneration, but it wasn't enough for me to dislike him





All in all, I did go into the movie with mediocre expectations. In some places, it failed to meet them, and in others, it surpassed. It's not the Batman and Superman that most of us know well, based on most current media, but, in the end, it is *A* Batman/Superman movie, and it is leading to a Justice League movie.