BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE - FILM REVIEW

B A T M A N V S U P E R M A N : D A W N O F J U S T I C E

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dir: Zack Snyder

★

FILM | Luke Whitticase

WHOEVER WINS, THE AUDIENCE LOSES...

Zack Snyder’s 2013 Superman reboot, Man of Steel, was a film of questionable virtues with a divisive reception to say the very least. Intended as the starting point of Warner Bros. very own DCEU (DC Extended Universe), posited to challenge the box-office throne that’s been held by Marvel for almost a decade now, critical response to the film was mixed due to the film’s poor characterisation and terrible plotting, but mainly because of the dour and disheartening tone that the film used to depict one of the most heroic and hopeful superheroes in comic book history.

Right off the bat, this semi-sequel attempts to address many of its predecessor’s condemnations head-on, and expand upon its universe in a drastic manner in order to establish itself as a major player in the genre. The inclusion of fan favourite Batman into the story, as well as multitude of other cameos stuff the film with iconography in a desperate attempt to prove its worth against the strategic planning, world building efforts and decidedly more forward-thinking structure of its arch-rival the 'MCU' – and spectacularly fails on every conceivable level to leave the impact that was intended.

"A calamity on every conceivable level;

a monstrous, boisterous and mangled mess

of a film that squanders every ounce of it's

plausibly interesting premise"

The impossibly named Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a calamity in every way possible; a monstrous, boisterous and mangled mess of a film that squanders every ounce of it's plausibly interesting premise through some of the roughest and most convoluted storytelling and filmmaking techniques in recent blockbuster history. At times it feels like an extended reactionary fan film to appease critics of the original film, but spends so much time desperately trying to set up a believable universe and hierarchy filled with flimsily coincidental connections that it completely loses track of what it even wants to be. At once a talky political drama with loud musings on the ‘reality’ of such figures existing within the real world, yet so too is it an explosively obnoxious and silly superhero picture that drags the very worst elements of the genre kicking and screaming into the light.

Even with rewrites at the hand of Oscar-winning Argo scribe Chris Terrio, the exhaustive self seriousness of Snyder’s vision – merged with veteran Bat-writer Goyer’s seemingly prevalent contempt for the source materials he’s working from – mean that there is little gratification to be had anywhere in the screenplay – which is itself a long-winded and obscenely dull story that cannibalises the works of two of the most significant storylines from the DC comics (Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and 1992’s The Death of Superman storyline).

It's storytelling is unforgivably poor for a production of this scale; nothing but plot, franchise maintenance and setup for future productions with little interest or focus on telling a singular story. The centre conflict of the title is pushed aside for detours into business magnate Lex Luthor’s (a risible Jesse Eisenberg) obscenely complicated plan to destroy Superman, which in term ropes Lois Lane (Amy Adams) into proceedings while Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) wanders around the edges in waiting for her introduction into it all.

A better film might have been able to recover from the nature of such a sprawling succession of events, but even from the most clear-cut aspects of the medium this is just bad filmmaking. Snyder is not a bad director by any means – in fact, speaking from strictly an aesthetic viewpoint this has the benefit of actually looking and feeling like a Zack Snyder film, thanks to the returning contribution of regular collaborator, cinematographer Larry Fong – but this is by far and away his worst feature to date. The erratic editing structure doesn’t help the already scattershot screenplay, and it feels like a lot has been held back from the theatrical release for time’s sake – even when taking into account an already ludicrously bloated runtime of 153 minutes.

"Speaking from strictly an aesthetic viewpoint, this

has the benefit of actually looking and feeling like

a Zack Snyder film, thanks to the returning contribution

of regular collaborate, cinematographer Larry Fong

- but this is by far and away his worst feature to date"

The worst sin at play though is that for all the content that’s being chewed between the teeth of this whale of a picture, for the most part it’s just an insufferable bore to sit though. The heavy handed dialogue and overly simplistic imagery weigh the entire production down as its stilted statuesque characters ponder their own mythological importance through a seemingly endless amount of clunky dialogue exchanges. Any notions of fun or enjoyment in the traditional sense of the words are stamped out in favour of upholding its desperately bleak tone and orchestration, alongside Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL’s stilted and monotonous score.

The action sequences are held back until way too late into the game, by which point the cumulative exhaustion with the whole thing will leave you wondering just why on earth these people are fighting to begin with. The titular fight of the title, while appealingly designed and choreographed, is shockingly brief with an insanely daft resolution that will leave many aghast with pure disbelief, after which the film continues to labour on with climax upon obnoxious, shoddily CG'd climax until the whole production just decides it has ran out of things to distract you with.

The best work in the film, from a performance perspective at least, falls on the broad shoulders of Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Affleck is great at channelling Wayne’s pain and frustration, while as Batman he tears up the screen with physical dominance in what is unquestionably the greatest Batman costume ever put to film. Even Jeremy Irons works well as Alfred when he’s around. Henry Cavil still struggles to bring much to the character of Clark Kent/Superman beyond an astonishing physical resemblance to his counterpart, but it doesn’t help that Clark is written with an approach as similarly depressing as Batman’s, numbing the very essence of their ideological conflict that’s supposedly at the core of the film.

Jesse Eisenberg’s performance as Lex Luthor is one so fascinatingly awful – yet almost enjoyably so – that it cannot be looked away from, as if his only direction was to channel as much of his Mark Zuckerberg character into him as possible - which is great considering that the character himself is an utter cipher, with his incentives changing at will with such rapid pace that they never really get to the point of his true motivation. Actually, nobody’s motivations are really made all that clear beyond vague navel-gazed gestures.

"Jesse Eisenberg's performance as Lex Luthor is

one so fascinatingly awful - yet almost enjoyably

so - that is cannot be looked away from."

It’s the women of this film and its universe that ultimately come out with the short end of the stick (which is saying something!). Gal Gadot gives what she can to a thankless role as Wonder Woman, whose presence in the film’s final movement comes as a brief blast of delight as the only person to crack a smile in the entire movie. It’s hard to tell how good the performance is because she’s given such little to do – one can almost feel her being little more than a well placed marketing tick and glaring franchise 'Coming Soon!'. In fact, none of the woman have much of anything to contribute beyond offering support to the male leads, including such fantastic and capable actresses as Diane Lane and Holly Hunter. The recognisable efforts to give Adam’s Lois Lane a sense of agency only makes matters even worse, as (just like before) the script has to literally invent new ways of placing her in peril so that Superman can save her and make her not feel like the extraneous flake that she is.

The Über-masculine approach that Snyder lathers over everything makes the whole film feel like an astonishingly reductive dinosaur in an age striving for equalised representation of the sexes onscreen. Not only in the manner in which he glorifies the male form, but as with much of his filmography it is practically bursting with overwrought testosterone to such an extent that it approaches parody. This is a world in which the men handle the weight of the narrative to prove their masculinity to each other (“I’ll show you what it means to be a man”), while the women occasionally race in to support them in vain attempts to register their value.

While there are some minor improvements over its predecessor on show, and some admittedly spectacular aesthetic flourishes in its favour that evoke the works of esteemed comic book artist Alex Ross, somehow this actually comes out worse than the sum of its parts. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a disastrous breakdown for not only the studio (who will have to do some serious restructuring to salvage the wreckage on display) but for the legacy of superhero films in general. It’s an emotionally cold and aggressively narcissistic construction with no identity of its own beyond killing time before the next movie arrives, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a worse studio blockbuster in 2016.

MUSINGS

+ Affleck silences any naysayers with one of the best depictions of Batman ever put to screen. Somewhere in here is a half-decent Batman film waiting to get out.

+/- Gal Gadot briefly brings a spurt of joy as Wonder Woman, though she is hideously under-utilised throughout

+/- The title fight, whilst well handled and shot, is over all too quickly and robbed of any real relevance by the time it arrives

- An otherwise game cast struggle against the weight of one of the chunkiest screenplays of the past year

- Terrible characterisation, flailing plot threads and some honestly confusing moments of tonal obscurity

- Thunderously boring by any standards and a torture to follow - the storytelling chops have rarely been weaker in this genre

- Its over glorified cameos and references to upcoming Justice League movies are jarring and lazily placed

- Whatever Jesse Eisenberg is doing here defies understanding; a performance so terribly misguided it is almost mesmerising in its bemusing awfulness

- The typical Zack Snyder bro schtick by this point isn't just tired, it's practically archaic in its respective gender representation

- A bloated, convoluted series of climaxes peppered with some awful standards of CGI

Release Date: Friday 25 March 2016

Run Time: 153 minutes

Format: Theatrical Release

Official Website: www.warnerbros.co.uk/movies/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice

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