The essence of a thing is what it is said to be in respect of itself. Aristotle said something along these lines about 2,400 years ago, and it’s a fundamental aspect of metaphysical arguments about identity. When someone defines a thing as a thing, it’s predicated on associating a collection of qualities and characteristics which are unique to it. Ever get a feeling things seem off and aren’t what they should be, whether in looking at an antique that’s not really an antique or reading a story about well-known characters done poorly? Well it’s because on some level it doesn’t match the qualities either an individual or society has associated with those things. Thus, they don’t fit their identities.
Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which builds off of 2013’s Man of Steel, is a critical lynchpin in Warner Bros’. attempt to establish a cohesive D.C. Comics cinematic continuity with their characters and catch up with Disney and Marvel's success. The movie made a small fortune over the weekend and dominated the box office. However, reportedly Batman v Superman needs to gross a $1 billion just to break even.
One of the big criticisms of Snyder's interpretation of Superman for Man of Steel was he betrayed the essence of the character all the way down to the conception of Ma and Pa Kent (e.g., In almost every continuity, Superman’s values are a function of his upbringing with the Kents, but how does that jibe with a Pa Kent that tells Clark maybe he should of let a busload of kids drown to protect himself?). And yes, the qualities most people associate with Superman are that he's strong, fast, and nigh indestructible in blue and red pajamas, but the character is also a representation of goodness. He's the "big blue boy scout." The argument then becomes that trying to tack on the Christopher Nolan model of angst, darkness, and grit for the sake of realism, as Metropolis is destroyed all around Superman, doesn't work. This becomes especially true when trying to highlight a contrast between Superman’s and Batman’s outlooks and views of justice, when they’re in similar places.
Batman v Superman continues down this road, while introducing a version of Batman who’s a bit more flexible on his “one rule” and probably the darkest incarnation ever in a movie that’s being used to sell toys to children; an interpretation of Lex Luthor which sees him as a sort of coked-out supervillain version of Mark Zuckerberg that uses a jar of piss to make a point; a dour Superman cloaked in a Jesus allegory; and Wonder Woman thrown in for the hell of it. It’s all surrounded by a plot which requires iconic characters to make dumb decisions in order to set up the titular fight.
However, the film’s biggest sin is that it forgets to be fun.
Batman v Superman is based on merging three story ideas that don’t really mesh well together. One is something I can’t really discuss without getting into spoilers, but overall the movie is supposed to be an origin story for the Justice League—since Warner Bros. wants to match Marvel’s success with their own superhero continuity—and takes many elements from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns for its core plot.
Miller’s story is a seminal work in pushing the Batman character into darker places, questioning Bruce Wayne’s psyche, and reassessing the relationship between Batman and Superman. But using it as the framework for Batman v Superman creates problems, since The Dark Knight Returns has a clear contrast between what Batman and Superman believe justice and order to be, while Batman v Superman couches the disagreement in manipulations, misunderstandings, and things not said like a bad romantic comedy where people fail to declare their love.
Set 18 months after Superman’s battle with General Zod in Man of Steel, the destruction in Metropolis has made Superman (Henry Cavill) a figure of controversy. Some see him as a messiah that saved the world, while others think he’s a “false god” who’s a threat to humanity’s existence. This leads Clark/Kal-El/Superman to—again—question his place in the world.
Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) was in Metropolis on the day it was nearly destroyed. The event has left him deeply suspicious of Superman’s motives. Conversely, Superman sees Batman as a vigilante that tramples on civil liberties and “thinks he’s above the law.” The audience witnesses young Bruce seeing his parents gunned down in an alley for what seems like the twentieth time in film history, and we learn Wayne has been operating as Batman for almost two decades in Gotham City. Batman is a bit more flexible on using guns and murder to achieve his ends than previous incarnations of the character. This Batman brands pedophiles and sex traffickers with the Bat symbol, which we’re told is a mark that means almost certain death in prison. Playing on Wayne’s apprehensions about a flying man that can turn cities to rubble is one Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg hamming it up), who is manipulating events to destroy Superman.
While this is happening, Diana Prince (a.k.a. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman) is investigating information stored on LexCorp’s mainframe, which brings her to the attention of Batman. Luthor has gathered data about metahumans that many comic book fans will find familiar. The revealed existence of these metahumans coincides with Bruce Wayne having recurring visions/dreams of a dystopian future where Superman is a dictator and a giant omega symbol is visible.
The major problem with all of this is that, even with a running time of 155 minutes, the movie feels like it’s stuffed to the gills with shoehorned characters and concepts, but it has no time to actually breathe and examine them. Instead, it’s only filler till the point when a lot of things explode around weightless CGI with a Hans Zimmer score.
And this in itself could be fun, but it isn’t.
The ideas and themes surrounding vigilantism, or depending on a great savior, have been fodder for comic book stories in analyzing ideas of fascism, authoritarianism, and cultural stagnation for decades. But the movie doesn’t really buy into any of that or care about discussing it. In fact, it uses the scenes with Senator Finch (Holly Hunter) as a means to an end to set up a disagreement which could be averted if only anyone could rationally discuss the issues. Because the entire fight the film is set up for is based on a character called “The World’s Greatest Detective” refusing to see the writing on the wall.
Moreover, a significant part of the finale involves Batman and Superman learning that their mothers share the name “Martha.” It’s meant to be a humanizing moment which bridges the two characters. However, in the theater I was in, a man’s audible reaction was: “Come the fuck on!”
There’s been a lot of debate about Affleck as Batman, but he does pretty well with what he’s given, which is to be a brooding, burnt out cynic for the majority of the movie. Cavill is blank and stoic as Superman, which works to the idea of people being suspicious of him, but continues to intentionally lack the warmth and charm of the Christopher Reeve portrayal. But Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman checks all the right boxes. The only problem is she sort of comes in and out of the movie whenever the plot demands it. But the biggest disappointment is Eisenberg’s Luthor, who seems to be doing an impression of Heath Ledger’s Joker as Luthor.
This is a Zack Snyder film, and it definitely has Snyder’s aesthetic. As he did in 300 and strangely in Watchmen given the source material, Batman v Superman imagines superheroes as gods walking among us, with the fights being CGI-choreographed inanity. Once I’ve seen Superman shove someone into a building, am I supposed to be in awe when he does it for the fourth time?
From this point forward I’m going to get a little spoiler-y. So if you haven’t seen the movie yet, and don’t want to know important plot details, avoid the bullet points below.
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Sen. Patrick Leahy is the Stan Lee of the D.C. Universe?: Leahy is a big Batman fan and appears in this film as Senator Farrington when Superman is called to Capitol Hill to answer for his action. Leahy has appeared in almost every Batman movie since Batman and Robin.
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Metropolis and Gotham are twin cities: The location of Metropolis and Gotham City change depending on the iteration. For example, in Smallville, Metropolis is a major city in Kansas, whereas in the original Christopher Reeve Superman films, Metropolis is an alternate version of New York City, since the Statue of Liberty exists there. In Batman v Superman, Metropolis and Gotham City are depicted as being separated by a bay. And similar to New York and Jersey City, or San Francisco and Oakland, one has a reputation for wealth and status, while the other is more associated with crime and the working class.
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The end of the beginning: The big reveal at the end of the movie is the creation of Doomsday and the death of Superman. Doomsday was created for The Death of Superman storyline from the early 1990s. Here he’s a creation of Lex Luthor’s using Kryptonian technology and General Zod’s body. Again, this is a situation where the three natures of the movie don’t serve this plot line well. In its original comic book form, the death of Superman was a major event that took time to play out (e.g., the Justice League futilely chased Doomsday across the United States, unable to stop his march towards Metropolis), had major repercussions, and was analyzed within the story as to what a world without Superman would mean. Here, similar to how Star Trek Into Darkness killed off a character based on one of the property’s most cherished moments and couldn’t really even keep the character dead within the film, Batman v Superman can’t really take seriously Superman’s death because in the back of people’s minds they know he’ll be back for the Justice League.
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The alien menace that ties it all together: The “Knightmares” Bruce Wayne experiences throughout the movie are hints that eventually add up to pointing towards Apokolips and Darkseid. This is also revealed to be the impetus behind Lex Luthor’s actions, since he knows a new alien threat is coming to Earth. Shot in a similar style to Snyder’s Sucker Punch, the winged beings in the visions are reminiscent of Parademons who are the shock troops of Apokolips and Darkseid. The character of Darkseid is also similar to Marvel’s Thanos within the D.C. universe, and Thanos just so happens to be the “big bad” of Marvel’s film continuity.
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The others: The film briefly features Ezra Miller as The Flash, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg. Luthor is already aware of their existences, and Batman v Superman ends with Batman convinced he needs to unite with them and Wonder Woman to confront the threat which is coming.
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Never referred to by name: Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is never referred to by that name, except in the credits. She is always Diana. Also, in this iteration, Diana is the Amazonian daughter of Zeus, seems to be functionally immortal since she’s lived for thousands of years, and soured on humanity after her experiences during World War I. More will be revealed in the Wonder Woman film which will debut in June 2017.
From Nicole Sperling at Entertainment Weekly:
Directed by Patty Jenkins (Monster), Wonder Woman will be an origin story illustrating the transformation of a young Princess Diana into the greatest female warrior of all time.
She will need some help getting there, though. Preparing her for a world of men are three regal women ... This trio of immortals is responsible for both raising and training Diana — the only child on this estrogen heavy isle — but they don’t always agree. Hippolyta, a revolutionary leader, longs to shelter her beloved daughter from the outside world, but Antiope, the Amazon responsible for Diana’s training, wants to prepare her. “She is the only child they raised together,” says Jenkins, calling from outside London, where she is deep into the film’s production. “And their love for her manifests in a different way for each of them.”
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Wayne Manor has been destroyed: Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth live in a much smaller, more modern home on the Wayne Estate. What happened to turn Wayne Manor into ruins is never explained.
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The moment which broke this Batman?: While never explained, it’s implied the Jason Todd version of Robin has been killed by The Joker (Jared Leto, debuting in Suicide Squad), since what appears to be a Robin costume defaced with graffiti saying “ HAHAHA Jokes on you Batman” is shown in the Batcave. There are multiple fan theories as to how this might explain the nature of The Joker within Suicide Squad, since Affleck will appear in the movie as Batman.