Dan's Review
After the ridiculous amount of cash Marvel's Deadpool has taken since it's release date all the way back in February, the world's fixation on live-action comic book blockbusters clearly has hit an all-time high with it being only a mere month before the release of the latest superhero cash-cow, DC's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a film which not only has a hell lot of future investment riding on it, with it essentially being a stepping stone for the creation of the DC Universe in which films like Wonder Woman and Justice League can exist, but also suffers fundamentally from an extreme amount of hype and expectation deriding not only from hardcore fans but from the head executives at Warner who know if Dawn of Justice goes down the pan, the optimistic future, one in which is obviously a frivolous attempt at rivalling the overly addictive and highly successful Marvel's Cinematic Universe, may start to look as dark and murky as the colour palette that embraces Zak Snyder's behemoth of a blockbuster. With The Dark Knight trilogy's Christopher Nolan to help him out, Snyder clearly had the blueprint of Man of Steel to follow on from with Dawn of Justice yet the sad and underlying truth of Dawn of Justice brings with it a deep sense of disappointment, with Batman v Superman being a incoherent and bloated CGI-fuelled mess, something of which doesn't come across as the tent-pole of the future it was indeed meant to become.
Let's start with the good shall we? The set-up of the underlying plot behind Dawn of Justice, one in which the ambiguity of Superman's capabilities forces Batman to engage in means to stop him, urged by the Iago-esque doings of Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor and the chaos that occurred during the final act of Man of Steel in which Metropolis was well and truly given a hammering by our Krypton visitors, is definitely an interesting concept, one which gets to introduce the newest incarnation of Batman, with Ben Affleck's take on the caped crusader being a riveting success. Where Affleck succeeds is unfortunately where Cavill fails, with his performance as Clark Kent being one of dire and utter dullness. Wet fish anyone? Cavill aside, Dawn of Justice only lessens in quality throughout it's 150 minute run-time, a run-time which in itself results in a film bloated with extreme plot lines, plot lines that either make no sense whatsoever, with endless dream sequences set to leave many scratching their heads, or plot lines that seem to be there only for dramatic effect rather than any real purpose or meaning, with the scene in which Lois Lane discards and then attempts to get back the Kryptonite spear being rife with utter stupidity to say the least.
Where Man of Steel eventually began to lose steam was indeed during it's final climactic act, one in which attempted to use as much CGI as possible in order to come across as epic but ultimately resulted in a 40 minute period of intense boredom and brain-melting digital effects. Well if Man of Steel was painful to watch at times, that has nothing on Dawn of Justice, a film so reliant on CGI effects to portray its' action, you simply beg for for George Miller to come in and beg for proper real-life thrills, thrills that were evident within Nolan's The Dark Night trilogy yet remain completely absent throughout the entirety of Snyder's snooze-fest. When we finally arrive at the titular battle at around the two-hour mark, its' sheer laziness and sleep-inducing reliance on CGI is just poor and wholly underwhelming. Oh yeah, and we then have an extra 30 minute fight scene featuring a CGI monster. Wow. What else is poor? Wonder Woman is on-screen for all of 5 minutes, whilst both Jeremy Irons and Diane Lane are criminally underused, yet the real crime is the sense of Nolan having no say on this film whatsoever as producer and the film being controlled completely by the effects ridden mind of Snyder, a man who simply cannot continue as the spearhead of DC's project of the future. Batman v Superman is not exactly Fantastic Four, it just seems like it is for now, with the heavy sense of disappointment leaving me with a strange sense of pessimism regarding the future of live-action DC movies, a genre which still has the credence to declare The Dark Knight as the best of the best. As for Marvel, they are most definitely still in control. Let's see what Captain America: Civil War brings. Excellence, I can only hope.
Dan's Score: 4/10
Pete's Review
So we know Dan hated it. I however felt it lived up to my very
minimal expectations. I really enjoyed Man
of Steel but Zak Snyder is as constant as a broken clock and he really did
a number on this one. So let’s rattle off what is good about BvS. Firstly, Batfleck. His structure,
costume and general portrayal was one of the more true to life Batmen that I've
personally seen and he doesn't sound like he needs a lozenge and some honey tea
(Apart from the laughable bat scene). Gal Gadot was a brilliant Wonder Woman,
albeit for only a short period, and she really did kick ass with her costume really
being on point, unlike her back story, which wasn't so much whilst, as we are
all aware, Doomsday makes an appearance, one that is once again fantastic one
that looked pretty damn good. I could sit here and rattle off a few more
characters and names of those I've enjoyed as there is very little else that
really made the movie. Sure, the action was good but the story was a mess of
comic book Meta with events that are left unexplained and severely confusing
for those out of the loop.
For instance (COMIC BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD), we know that Robin is
dead, killed by the Joker. Or so we thought. The reality is that the recent
Arkham Knight game reveals all and its’ main villain is actually Robin himself
who felt betrayed by Batman and seeks revenge. So his appearance bursting out
of a screen in a dream sequence in a costume that looks like Red Hood/Arkham
Knight was jarring to say the least (Turns out it was The Flash for some
fucking bizarre and ridiculous reason but I preferred my view). Everyone knows
of the Joker and a lot may know of the Injustice series. The fighting game
illustrates this series well as the Joker blows up Metropolis with a nuclear
bomb killing many of the Justice League and Lois Lane. Superman goes ape shit
and takes over the world and puts it under martial law while Batman leads a
resistance against him, thus explaining the desert scene and all of the crazy
costumes and military tech. Without rattling on more, you see that Zack isn't
looking at the typical consumer. He was targeting the followers of the comics
which in a way is great but financially, is not viable and still requires prior
knowledge to a film that is launching a new series.
As a general consumer, what else are the issues? My biggest gripe
sits with Hans Zimmer. A fantastic composer who has done some astonishing
pieces of work but his work on BvS
was awful. It felt like cheese was leaking from the speakers, with a corny
guitar rift ruining the atmosphere of what should have been an incredibly tense
and violent action sequence. Visually, the movie was alright, Doomsday looked bad-ass and his special effects were pretty good but Batman's movements didn't
look human in the slightest and looked more like Spider-man with a permanent blur
across him whenever he had to make any semblance of haste. Also, why does have
to approach people in desperate need of help in an overly dramatic and
incredibly slow fashion? Alright,
Clark. Pack it in you prick. This house is about to float down the river. I can't quite understand the need
to constantly portray yourself as a god but complain when people see you as just
that. But Clarky boy has nothing on the particularly annoying Lex Luthor. Sure,
it may have been a decent performance but I'd like to clarify that I don't ever
remember seeing Lex Luthor act so bizarre. Perhaps he was doing his best
impression of the Riddler and was trying to reinvent himself as a clown without make-up. The sharp, slick and calculated psychopath that I remember has become a
crazy Joker goon with incoherent babbling at the top of his agenda.
Thus we come to the story; A convoluted mess with links so frail,
a fart from the most petite of butterflies would send them careening through
the museum of very expensive, fragile artefacts of a long lost world with the
discretion of Russia in the Ukraine. Think of it as an origin movie. Something
to whet the appetite for the future stories within the universe and yes, it
does set that ground well but for 150 minutes, it sure did drag on. I look
forward to seeing Jason Mamoa tackle Aquaman and finally (hopefully) give the
character justice for the years of ridicule and watching Gal Gadot’s take on
Wonder Women in what will be a very important milestone in her career. Not to
say I didn't enjoy it, it was a fun movie and hopefully it’s just a minor
hiccup that will give the next instalment a bump in motivation to produce a
better, more flowing piece. But this is Snyder, so piss in a bucket and call it
Granny's peach tea for all he cares.
PS - If anyone has that damn sexy note the Batmobile makes I want
it now. Kthxbye.
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