Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

http://batmanvsuperman.dccomics.com/

Where do I begin? Anyone who follows this blog will know that I am a huge Marvel fan. Having said that, I very much enjoyed the recent Bale/Nolan Batman movies and have been a life-long fan of Superman - up to the release of Man of Steel. For anyone who missed my thoughts on that you can read them here. 

Despite my loathing of Man of Steel, and despite my trepidation for what Ben Affleck would bring to the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne, I wanted to see Batman V Superman. After all, I cannot critique a movie I have not seen. And after seeing said movie, I can tell you I didn't hate it.

That's not to say I liked it, there was a lot that I took issue with. The continued underdevelopment of Clark Kent as a character, some absolutely appalling dialogue that made me angry rather than just having me shaking my head, and some very unnecessary dream sequences. But on the whole, it was a much better movie than Man of Steel.

Ben Affleck actually isn't awful in the Bruce/Batman role. But Christian Bale he is not. So you really have to go in there with a fresh slate in mind. If you can do that, he does an admirable job. Gal Gadot was surprisingly good in the Diana Price/Wonder Woman role, even if she doesn't have a lot of time to create those much needed foundations for her character (this is still a Zack Snyder movie after all). All those reviews that say this is 3+ movies rolled into one, are all correct. But it's watchable. Even enjoyable in parts.

For me, Jesse Eisenberg didn't work at all as Lex Luthor. And I'm not one of those people who thinks he's annoying in everything he's in. I grew up watching Lex Luthor being portrayed as a very powerful man. He may not match Superman in physical strength, but you always felt he was fiercely intelligent and matched him in other ways. I do not feel this about Eisenberg's portrayal. And I do think that is one major chink in the movie's armor. 

I am trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, so I will end with this. There is a moment at the end of the film where you are compelled to feel something for Superman. I say Superman because in this Snyder led world  there is only really Superman, because he's not bothered to introduce us to Clark at all (we're two movies in and I still don't feel I know Clark at all in this universe). 

As I sat there, knowing that I was supposed to feel something, I recalled all of the previous versions of Clark that I have known and loved, and I did feel the thing they were striving for. But it was not as a result of the writing or directing that made me feel those emotions, but rather the memories of the Clark's that came before. Because ultimately, the way to make your audience care about Superman is to have them fall in love with Clark. Maybe not in the traditional sense, I'm not saying that all the little boys who looked up to Superman were really in love with Clark, but what I mean is that without introducing Clark to the world, a guy we can all sympathise with and connect with, the world doesn't care about Superman. 

Someone really needs to explain this to the writers before they make their Justice League movie. If you don't get to know the men and women behind the masks and capes and tights, you're not going to care about the invulnerable heroes either.

After thinking about this a lot in the hours that followed my viewing of BvS, I decided to re-watch Lois and Clark, the TV show that really solidified my love of Clark Kent, and in turn Superman. The special effects may not have held up but the storytelling certainly has, the characterisation, especially of Clark, has. I just wish Zack Snyder and David Goyer had watched that, or any of the preceeding Superman movies before they made the monstrosity that was Man of Steel, and continuing their legacy of under-appreciating their characters further in Batman V Superman.

A 'better than Man of Steel' but still disappointing 6 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 28th March 2016

UK Release Date - 25th March 2016

Cast Overview:

Ben Affleck ~ Bruce Wayne/Batman

Henry Cavill ~ Clark Kent/Superman

Amy Adams ~ Lois Lane

Jesse Eisenberg ~ Lex Luthor

Diane Lane ~ Martha Kent

Laurence Fishburne ~ Perry White

Jeremy Irons ~ Alfred

Holly Hunter ~ Senator Finch

Gal Gadot ~ Diana Prince/Wonder Woman 

Michael Shannon ~ General Zod

Kevin Costner ~ Jonathan Kent

Director ~ Zack Snyder

Writer(s) ~ Chris Terrio, David S Goyer (Written By).

Bob Kane and Bill Finger (Batman Created By)

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (Superman Created By)

Man Of Steel

http://manofsteel.warnerbros.com/

Many who know me will tell you that I was apprehensive about Man Of Steel for a good long while. I was pleased as punch for Henry Cavill, who I've thought was a bit of a dish since I saw him in The Tudors, but I was nervous about the movie overall. This was not helped when I discovered that the director of the movie was going to be Zack Snyder, who had previously not managed to impress me with 300 or Watchmen. I approached the movie with caution and refused to be excited about it nor anticipating it to be terrible. I was as open minded as I could be going in to see it.

As Man Of Steel is a reboot, the story is somewhat different this time around. As such, I will give you a run down, but I'll try to keep it brief. *Be warned that there are spoilers from here on out* We open on the planet Krypton, and are given insight into the first natural birth the planet has seen in some time; the birth of Kal-El to Jor-El and Lara. The planet is on the verge of collapse, literally, and not wanting all their hard work to go to waste, Jor-El plots to send Kal-El to earth, having embedded a code in his genes that will preserve the Kryptonian race. Meanwhile, power mad General Zod overthrows the council of Krypton, believing he can save the planet. Jor-El manages to complete his mission to send Kal-El to earth, but pays for his disloyalty to Zod with his life. Zod is captured and brought before the remaining council members who imprison him and his team in the Phantom Zone. Back on earth we see a grown Kal-El as he tries to make his way in the world, he flits from place to place under different names, any time he does something heroic and is close to being discovered, he moves on. We also see his life as a boy, being brought up as Clark by Martha and Jonathan Kent in flashbacks. Clark discovers a ship in the ice in the arctic and takes a job with the salvage team so that he can take a closer look, believing it may be from his home planet. Once on board Clark activates a hologram of Jor-El who tells him about his origins. Little does Clark know that when he activates the ships programming, it sends a homing beacon to other Kryptonian vessels and draws them to earth. Meaning that Zod and all those who were imprisoned with him are making their way to earth, with vengeance on their minds.

I will preface what I'm about to say by stating that while I am a fan of Superman: The Movie, I tried really hard not to compare Man Of Steel to that film. Despite the fact that they are both origin stories, they are very different beasts, and tell very different stories of very different men. The only similarities really are the character names.

That being said, I didn't feel like the changes made to the story, or to the characters, were to the benefit of this film, or the Superman franchise overall. When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman they wanted him to be an immigrant, as they were, an outsider. I believe that the reason they gave him human parents was to allow them to instill in him a sense of humanity, of what's right and wrong, good and bad and so on. The audience can't connect to a superhuman alien, but they sure as hell can connect to a boy from Kansas, who's been brought up well and wants to believe in the goodness of people, who grows up to work in the big, bad city and falls in love with a girl who's out of his league. We can connect to that because on some level we've all been Clark, we've all experienced the things he has. The problem here is that we don't ever really meet adult Clark, we see childhood Clark and teenage Clark in flashbacks, but as an adult we meet the drifter with no name who happens to have super strength and can do weird lazer things with his eyes. We don't get to know the human Clark before we get the alter ego, and more importantly neither does Lois. She meets drifter Clark and immediately is presented with his super powers. At no point in this movie does she not know who he really is. And I just couldn't get on board with that.

The other thing I had massive issues with were the fight scenes at the end of the movie. There were way too many of them and they're all really similar, so you just feel like you're watching one gigantic fight, which gets boring and repetitive. Of the majority of reviews I have read, everyone seems to think the fight scenes are good because there was no action in the last film (Superman Returns - a film I happened to think was not all that bad). But what everyone seems to be forgetting is that Clark is supposed to be a peaceful person, he's been brought up to use diplomacy, not his strength. He's not the guy who beats the crap out of everyone with no regard to the fallout. And fallout there is. There is so much destruction caused by the fights, and Clark, Kal-El, whatever you want to call him, doesn't seem to care. So in turn, the audience doesn't really care. 

And what was with all the metallic shape shifting stuff? I felt like I was watching The Matrix, not Superman. Oh and then Morpheus appeared... It was just all wrong.

The one thing I did like were the flashback scenes. I thought Kevin Costner and Diane Lane were well cast as Jonathan and Martha Kent and that those scenes added much needed weight. But those scenes felt so disjointed because we only saw them in flashbacks. I wish it had been better. Cavill, Adams, Crowe, even Michael Shannon, who I didn't know until recently and who I've now seen in three films in as many weeks, were all decent. I just wish it had been a movie more deserving of them.

I think if I'd never seen a Superman movie and knew nothing about the story, I'd have thought it was passable. But I have and I do and as such, it just wasn't for me. 4 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 15th June 2013

UK Release Date - 12th June 2013

Cast Overview:

Henry Cavill ~ Clark Kent/Kal-El

Amy Adams ~ Lois Lane

Diane Lane ~ Martha Kent

Kevin Costner ~ Jonathan Kent

Russell Crowe ~ Jor-El

Ayelet Zurer ~ Lara Lor-Van

Michael Shannon ~ General Zod

Antje Traue ~ Faora-Ul

Harry Lennix ~ General Swanwick

Richard Schiff ~ Dr Emil Hamilton

Christopher Meloni ~ Colonel Nathan Hardy

Laurence Fishburne ~ Perry White

Director ~ Zack Snyder

Writer(s) ~ David S Goyer (Screenplay and Story), Christopher Nolan (Story), Jerry Siegel (Superman Created By) and Joe Shuster (Superman Created By)