Batman VS. Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

Batman VS. Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

13th April 2016 Off By Justin Chew

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (BVS) represents a problem with DC Comic’s live action movie, particularly with its storytelling element.

When watching this movie you are presented with a complicated string of confusion that would leave you in a state of disarray wondering: “what did I just watch?”

Rather than feeding the campy superhero stereotype of punches and kicks, BVS instead attempts to take a more philosophical approach. It brings up topics of humanity, spiritual, god-complexes, loss, and the price of freedom. All of which is actually a good idea, unless of course, the movie tries too hard with philosophy and not enough with its storytelling which it did in this case.
This ended up being BVS. A philosophical debate and commentary of humanity with action scenes peppered in between, and moody soundtrack and flashy shots running concurrent.

Does this sound familiar? Remember a movie called Sucker Punch? If you know it, you’d get fair picture right away of BVS is like. There’s lots of talking, a weird storyline that doesn’t seem to go anywhere, heavy CGI, and cool action at times. As Zack Snyder directed both, the comparisons are understandably uncanny.

As with the case with Sucker Punch, audience entered in to watch one movie, and got something else entirely. Did they get a better than expected experience? Maybe… However, what they did get was a different movie than the trailer promoted.

Henry Cavill and Amy Adams returns as Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane from Man of Steel. As usual, Lois is the damsel in distress, who somehow gets entangled in the plot, even though she does nothing much to move it forward.

Clark Kent once again behaves as the tragic hero, determined to save the world and do good even as his reputation is scrutinised and undermined by the villain of the movie Lex Luther.

Jesse Eisenberg is a newcomer in the franchises as the infamous Lex Luther. However, you would not notice if you weren’t looking out for it. Because instead of the menacing, genius, criminal mastermind, we instead get an Adam Sandler type wealthy man child who is constantly annoying.

Eisenberg’s portrayal fails to fit the image of Luther at all. No one would be afraid of this whinny big star wannabe type character in real life, so why would the audience? Of course, none of this is really the actor’s fault. There really isn’t much anyone can do to save the role if it was written this way. Eisenberg was simply miscast for the role.

This is going into spoiler territory, so feel free to skip if you like.

Another glaring fault of the character of Lex Luther is simply his motivation. In that, there is none! The movie doesn’t actually answer that question, so it can be construed as being left up to the audiences’ interpretation.

The movie shows to some degree that he is trying to prove a point through his actions, but it’s so vague and not discussed in any kind of exposition and that reinforces the problem.

To sum it up, BVS is a popcorn movie. Watch it with some friends, gag about it, and look forward to Captain America: Civil War. Marvel hasn’t failed us yet.