Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Evil cannot be defeated without collateral damage. The damage may be physical, as in the absurdly glutinous destruction on display in the final hour of Zack Snyder's 2013 Man of Steel, or it can be emotional as witnessed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Fear not, the appetite for destruction is no less Rabelaisian in Snyder's follow-up and, as with its predecessor, it lingers on ruminative appetisers before serving up an orgiastic main course of CGI-enhanced calamity.
Man of Steel was unsubtle in forefronting its protagonist's origin story as one of assimilation and identity reconciliation, how to be both Kal-El and Clark Kent in a world that accepts the ordinary but distrusts the different. Was Superman saviour or invader? In the end, he proved a bit of both - he saved Metropolis from Zod's attempted domination, but it was Superman who triggered the signal that allowed Zod and his army to alight upon the Earth. Superman lost a bit of himself in killing Zod to protect the innocent, but such is the conflict of a superhero - one is bound to have blood on one's hands.
Accountability is one of the themes that scaffold Batman v Superman. That and the differing ideologies of its title characters. Having seen the damage firsthand, Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman (Ben Affleck) is resolved to neutralise a figure he perceives as a false god. After two decades of fighting crime in Gotham City, he knows all too well how men with good intentions can be overtaken by darker impulses. His faithful servant Alfred (Jeremy Irons, dryly humourous as the most exasperated employee in the DC Universe) warns that his own good intentions, borne out of the powerlessness of witnessing his parents' deaths as a young boy, have led Batman to a questionable brand of vigilantism.
Nevertheless, the Caped Crusader is determined to go to war with the Man of Steel, and he believes the crashed spaceship, Kryptonite, may provide him with his best weapon to defeat Superman. So does Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), the CEO of a giant tech company who has imported a large chunk of a glowing green substance with the intent of weaponising it. Luthor is opposed by southern Senator Finch (Holly Hunter), who is heading up a Congressional committee taking Superman to task for his exercise of unilateral power. She advises the American people to stop focusing on what Superman can do and instead question what he should do.
There's an awful lot of narrative threads in the film, most of it structured to ratchet up the tension for the main superhero showdown. It should thrill, this epic battle between these hallowed heroes, these gladiators, these costumed slabs of beef, these two Mommy's boys. Yet it doesn't. There are only so many times one can watch two men smash each other through and against floors and walls before it becomes tiresome. DC is obviously playing catch-up to Marvel, but they would have been wise to duplicate Marvel's method of introducing and integrating its characters. Iron Man, Thor and Captain America each had their own films before being assembled in The Avengers; that long game allowed the characters and their relationships to one another make perfect sense and possess dramatic weight. One gets to see the alliances and misunderstandings develop, and that is one of the main reasons why the upcoming Iron Man-Captain America clash in Captain America: Civil War will be far more impactful than the one observed in Snyder's film.
Though the filmmakers have distanced themselves from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan's work still defaults as a point of reference because Batman seen here has lived through those trials and tribulations. Is Affleck a better Batman than Christian Bale or Michael Keaton? Not necessarily, but he is good and capable as the Batman depicted here even if he doesn't quite convey the weariness and underlying cynicism that anchor Batman's motivations. He and Cavill square off well, though they are both blown off the screen by Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. Alluring and formidable, Wonder Woman is hands-down the best thing about the movie. Even her theme asserts itself from the bombastic score by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL. If nothing else, Batman v Superman stokes ample interest in next year's solo Wonder Woman.
Snyder once again goes balls to the wall for the hourlong finale, dispensing all ties to logic and moralising though not quite letting go of Batman vs Superman as an apologia for the first film. If Man of Steel had a complete disregard for public safety, then Batman v Superman goes out of its way to remind viewers that the intergalactic mayhem is confined within uninhabited areas. That nod to mindfulness certainly does not hamper the battle royale, which matches its predecessor bloat for overwrought bloat. Snyder literally does throw everything and the kitchen sink in there. There is no denying that Batman v Superman can be ponderous, replete with terrible dialogue, and probably a deserving target for the fanboys' vitriol. Yet, as with Man of Steel, it is also a tremendously watchable and often entertaining mess of a film.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written by: Chris Terrio, David S. Goyer; based on characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, Tao Okamoto, Kevin Costner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Harry Lennix
