(Note: This review is based on the Ultimate Edition edit of the film.)
With the release of Man of Steel in 2013, it appeared that Zach Snyder and Warner Brothers had successfully launched a shared film franchise based off of DC Comics. Man of Steel, after all, had been a solid 21st century take on Superman's origin story (minus its superfluous fourth act Superman vs Zod battle at any rate). So a follow-up film was much anticipated, even as it added on extra elements that took it away from being a Superman film and into a larger dip into franchise territory.
And that was where everything went wrong. Even with the Ultimate Edition adding 31 minutes to the film, leading it to run ust over three hours. Because if this was an improvement over the theatrical cut, it can't have been much of one. Because this thing was a mess.
Reviewing Snyder's 300 shortly after its cinema release, I noted that Snyder's previous films are visually stunning but otherwise hollow. Elsewhere, I've noted (half-jokingly) that he's only ever read three comics: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and 300. All of which comes into play here, as well. Because BvS is a combination of bad DC character fan fic, labored 9/11 allegory, and with Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor being quite possibly the worst performance I've ever seen out of a professionally made film. One that misses the point of its title characters (turning one into a bloodthirsty murderer and the other into a sulking, brooding parody of himself) while taking elements from both The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman without understanding what made them work in context. Snyder's pacing issues persist, including stopping the film for minutes at a time for a nightmare sequence and so Wonder Woman can watch some videos emailed to her on the eve of the film's titular fight (the latter eating up nearly five full minutes of the film). It's also a film weighed down by Affleck's one-note performance or the rightfully well-ridiculed "MARTHA!" twist.
Which isn't to say Batman v Superman doesn't have its moments and pluses. The cast beyond Affleck and Eisenberg is solid but largely wasted (including Cavill and Amy Adams, the actress I spent years waiting to see be Lois Lane). The titular fight and Batman's subsequent warehouse fight is well-realized as an action piece and homage to Frank Miller's work on The Dark Knight Returns (even if the latter sequence has Batman killing left, right, and center). Indeed, it's no surprise that so much of the action seen in the trailers in 2015 came from those sequences as (along with the climactic Doomsday fight) are the only major ones in the entire 182 minute runtime. The Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL score alternates between brooding and near-epic, though never hitting the peaks of Zimmer's work on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Finally, in keeping with Snyder's previous work, it has some wonderful visual moments, however fleeting they are.
In the final analysis, I've rarely seen a film do so much to have so little to show for it. Batman v Superman's (and the DCEU in general, for that matter) biggest problem was that it tired to AstroTurf a franchise in the wake of the 2012 release of The Avengers, using what should have been either a Man of Steel sequel or a solo Batman outing as the springboard for it. As a film, Batman v Superman might well have been a casualty of that, given it throws everything and the kitchen sink into the mix with a convoluted plot with enough reference, subplots, and endings for about three or four different films thrown into one. Part of that, too, being down to Snyder's bloody and brutal fan fic vision of who these characters are and the world they inhabit.
A vision that clearly resonated with some fans, but this reviewer isn't among them.
With the release of Man of Steel in 2013, it appeared that Zach Snyder and Warner Brothers had successfully launched a shared film franchise based off of DC Comics. Man of Steel, after all, had been a solid 21st century take on Superman's origin story (minus its superfluous fourth act Superman vs Zod battle at any rate). So a follow-up film was much anticipated, even as it added on extra elements that took it away from being a Superman film and into a larger dip into franchise territory.
And that was where everything went wrong. Even with the Ultimate Edition adding 31 minutes to the film, leading it to run ust over three hours. Because if this was an improvement over the theatrical cut, it can't have been much of one. Because this thing was a mess.
Reviewing Snyder's 300 shortly after its cinema release, I noted that Snyder's previous films are visually stunning but otherwise hollow. Elsewhere, I've noted (half-jokingly) that he's only ever read three comics: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and 300. All of which comes into play here, as well. Because BvS is a combination of bad DC character fan fic, labored 9/11 allegory, and with Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor being quite possibly the worst performance I've ever seen out of a professionally made film. One that misses the point of its title characters (turning one into a bloodthirsty murderer and the other into a sulking, brooding parody of himself) while taking elements from both The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman without understanding what made them work in context. Snyder's pacing issues persist, including stopping the film for minutes at a time for a nightmare sequence and so Wonder Woman can watch some videos emailed to her on the eve of the film's titular fight (the latter eating up nearly five full minutes of the film). It's also a film weighed down by Affleck's one-note performance or the rightfully well-ridiculed "MARTHA!" twist.
Which isn't to say Batman v Superman doesn't have its moments and pluses. The cast beyond Affleck and Eisenberg is solid but largely wasted (including Cavill and Amy Adams, the actress I spent years waiting to see be Lois Lane). The titular fight and Batman's subsequent warehouse fight is well-realized as an action piece and homage to Frank Miller's work on The Dark Knight Returns (even if the latter sequence has Batman killing left, right, and center). Indeed, it's no surprise that so much of the action seen in the trailers in 2015 came from those sequences as (along with the climactic Doomsday fight) are the only major ones in the entire 182 minute runtime. The Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL score alternates between brooding and near-epic, though never hitting the peaks of Zimmer's work on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Finally, in keeping with Snyder's previous work, it has some wonderful visual moments, however fleeting they are.
In the final analysis, I've rarely seen a film do so much to have so little to show for it. Batman v Superman's (and the DCEU in general, for that matter) biggest problem was that it tired to AstroTurf a franchise in the wake of the 2012 release of The Avengers, using what should have been either a Man of Steel sequel or a solo Batman outing as the springboard for it. As a film, Batman v Superman might well have been a casualty of that, given it throws everything and the kitchen sink into the mix with a convoluted plot with enough reference, subplots, and endings for about three or four different films thrown into one. Part of that, too, being down to Snyder's bloody and brutal fan fic vision of who these characters are and the world they inhabit.
A vision that clearly resonated with some fans, but this reviewer isn't among them.