Bad movie

Batman V Superman is a movie that was bound to do well in financial terms. That being said as a fan of DC comics and someone who has been looking forward to Snyder’s latest venture since that night in August when it was announced that Affleck would be succeeding Bale(my favourite batman/actor), I was hoping that the movie doesn’t become another ‘Transformers’ franchise because from what I’ve seen and learnt, these are very interesting characters with intriguing stories that need to be justified on the big screen. I remember I couldn’t sleep for a while that night because I just didn’t feel affleck could or would fit. As it turns out, the ‘Batfleck’ would turn out to be the least of the movie’s problems. In fact, even though nowhere near Bale’s broken version, Affleck does a good job as Wayne. He isn’t given much time as the Batman but that’s something that could’ve been easily forgiven had the movie not been an ugly orgy of various subplots that never really come together in a cohesive manner.

The movie starts with another depiction of Bruce’s parents dying in that alley. The scene is touching and it manages to deliver emotional impact. From what I saw, it was a great start to the movie- seeing wayne’s perspective of the destruction, his office destroyed. The movie manages to properly flesh out the motivation Batman needed to destroy this ‘Alien.’ Sadly though, once we move to present day, there is no clear direction to the film any longer. Some very interesting themes with great potential  such as the need of an alien on the planet are explored but they are deserted midway in this shitfest in pursuit of CG driven action.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Snyder’s work. I enjoyed sucker punch, 300 and his criminally underrated ‘Watchmen.’ Possibly that is why I was fine with him being given another shot after Man of Steel.But that’s it. The 150 minute event is just a very dull, sombre and joyless affair. Even though Man of Steel was boring, it did make a very good attempt to humanise Kal-El. Batman V Superman fails even here. Apart from Wonder woman,who gets a very badass entrance by the way, I just didn’t care about the leading heroes. When Wonder woman is the  best thing in a movie titled ‘Batman v Superman’ you know that there are problems. Cavill’s Superman never evolves and rather becomes this two-dimensional character it’s hard rooting for and that is just sad given that Henry Cavill is a fine superman. He brought innocence to the role but isn’t given much to do here.

That being said, the movie has some moments. Hans Zimmer works on his already thrilling Man Of Steel score and delivers another incredible one. ‘Beautiful Lie’ as well as the wonder woman theme in particular were excellent and reflect Zimmer’s better work. Batman is given some killer one-liners, the starting as previously mentioned is very captivating and a few scenes in the titular fight are straight up fantastic. It’s just sad that the bad far outweighs the good. Doomsday is brought down to a simple killing machine which is just sad. ‘Smallville’ did a better job than this. Character motivations change in a heartbeat, the final resolution to the fight will make your heart ache, it’s that ridiculous. Eisenberg tries to pull off a ‘Heath Ledger’ by taking his character in a new direction but it failed miserably leading to some unintentional laughs. Speaking of laughs, in my second viewing i actually counted the movie making exactly 7 attempts at humour, 4 of which were unfunny.

Batman V Superman is a very average film. Affleck and Gadot do a good job. The spectacle is one to behold and there are moments scattered here and there but there is constant feeling of confusion associated with the movie. If you’ve seen the trailers-all 4- you know the entire plot of the movie which didn’t have a lot of subject matter to begin with. Doomsday is very underwhelming and Eisenberg’s Luthor never feels like a threat. Ultimately the epic showdown of arguably the two most iconic heroes of all time tries to kick off but is dragged down by the many shortcomings.