Batman v Superman: Dawn of SPOILERS

[WickedLiquid]

Spoilers for Dawn of Justice are in full effect. So if you clicked this accidentally then now is the time to click back before you read on. For spoiler-free reviews check the movie thread.



Now what was up with that dream Bruce Wayne had. Was that The Flash visiting him from the future? Or maybe an alternate universe following the comic/video game Injustice? You've got Superman pissed off over the death of (probably) Lois Lane to the point where he is now a killer.

Speaking of killer, holy shit was Batman brutal in this. I was able to accept it since this is just another version of Batman, but it's odd to see someone with a no-kill rule act so violent. The Batman I grew up with would use rubber bullets, knock out gas, etc.

Also the whole final act with Doomsday didn't quite work for me. There was so much going on in the movie that it didn't feel like it was building up to this moment. It felt so out of place like "ok now we're doing The Death of Superman comic."

As for Superman, it felt like there was so much missing from his story arc. The film asks some great questions like "do we need a Superman" but the movie doesn't have room to dive any deeper than just asking. And what was up with the suicide bombing? It happens then it's never addressed again...

I was disappointed but I still want to see the solo Wonder Woman movie. I feel she was given zero character development due to the fact the film stuffed too much in.

 

[UrbanMasque]

Now what was up with that dream Bruce Wayne had. Was that The Flash visiting him from the future? Or maybe an alternate universe following the comic/video game Injustice? You've got Superman pissed off over the death of (probably) Lois Lane to the point where he is now a killer.

I thought that was Cyborg.

Speaking of killer, holy shit was Batman brutal in this. I was able to accept it since this is just another version of Batman, but it's odd to see someone with a no-kill rule act so violent. The Batman I grew up with would use rubber bullets, knock out gas, etc. .

I was ok with it too, but hated the amount of butthurt the fanboys had. At this point Batman is older, and he's dealing with Gods not men, so he doesn't have time for the BS. Also, I'd always imagined he killed a thug accidentally in the videogames, because some of those punches and stomps were brutal.. who knows, one of them could've had a heart condition.

Also the whole final act with Doomsday didn't quite work for me. There was so much going on in the movie that it didn't feel like it was building up to this moment. It felt so out of place like "ok now we're doing The Death of Superman comic."

Thats Fair.

As for Superman, it felt like there was so much missing from his story arc. The film asks some great questions like "do we need a Superman" but the movie doesn't have room to dive any deeper than just asking. And what was up with the suicide bombing? It happens then it's never addressed again...

It didn't need to be addressed again. Its a modern crime, and definitely something that fits into that world of setting up Sups. I didnt have an issue with it at all.

I was disappointed but I still want to see the solo Wonder Woman movie. I feel she was given zero character development due to the fact the film stuffed too much in..

I dont think she was meant to be a part of this film, in the same way batman wasn't in Man of Steel. It was Batman v Superman - and on that front they delivered. I'm sure they'll dive more into her, but it didn't need to be addressed in this movie. I thought it was great.

 

[Master_Craig]

I wasn't too fond of the movie. I mean, I enjoyed it, but I was disappointed by it.

Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne / Batman was awesome. He is my new favourite incarnation of Batman (aside from the voice of Kevin Conroy in the video games and animated series/animated films). Admittingly, I found it strange to adjust as to how brutal Batman was... I mean, yeah he's brutal in the comics and games, but to me it looked like he was allowing people (the bad guys of course) to die, e.g. shooting his batmobile / batjet's guns and stuff, explosions etc.

That being said, I can imagine Batman would have accidentally killed bad guys in his career of crime fighting, considering how brutal he is. To a degree this does make sense... in this film, Bruce has been Batman for twenty years and he feels that he hasn't accomplished much, if at all. As he says, every time he puts someone away, another one comes. It's also evident that he did have a Robin, whom was killed in action.

Then there's also what Alfred says,

"That's how it starts. The fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men... cruel."

So... it was an adjustment, but it makes sense!

I will admit though, Batman wasn't really much of a "detective" considering he was essentially manipulated by Lex Luthor. But then again, the argument that could be used was that Bruce was blinded by his own anger and determination to get rid of Superman.

The other cast members did a good job, in my opinion. Lex Luthor though... he was strange. He reminded me of Heath Ledger's Joker, but maybe it was just the hair. I do applaud them for taking a new, different approach to Luthor.

In my opinion, the weakest link of the cast was Henry Cavil as Clark Kent / Superman. To me, he felt very plain, very wooden. I found him boring.

I found the story to be all over the place. It was difficult to follow. The pacing wasn't very good and I found that while the movie had lots of cool action and good special effects, there were a lot of long, slow and boring moments.

Wonder Woman was very well cast and I think she was a great character, but she was under utilized... in all fairness, this is "Batman V Superman", not "Batman V Superman Ft. Wonder Woman".

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is not a bad movie. For me personally, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. However, apparently Ben Affleck is scheduled to write and direct his own stand alone Batman movie... I am down for that.

 

[madster111]

However, apparently Ben Affleck is scheduled to write and direct his own stand alone Batman movie... I am down for that.

Yes please

 

[Longo_2_guns]

As for Superman, it felt like there was so much missing from his story arc. The film asks some great questions like "do we need a Superman" but the movie doesn't have room to dive any deeper than just asking. And what was up with the suicide bombing? It happens then it's never addressed again...

It didn't need to be addressed again. Its a modern crime, and definitely something that fits into that world of setting up Sups. I didnt have an issue with it at all.

Well that and it was entirely a set up for Lex 1) getting Superman out of the picture so he could 2) use it as the last straw to convince Batman that Superman HAD to be eliminated. Also it wasn't really a suicide bombing, since Lex sort of admitted he forged the letters and the guy didn't apparently know the bomb was there.

It made sense.


Though I agree that including Doomsday was dumb. It should've been Bizarro instead.

 

[Paradox]

I did like this movie. That being said, I feel they could have easily peeled off about twenty minutes of the film. At times, I felt like I was watching stuff that would have been in the deleted scenes section of the home release. For example, do we really need to spend five minutes watching Clark talk to Kevin Costner's ghost on a mountaintop? While I know the home release will have an even longer three hour rated R version, I'm at least excited about that as I hear the R rating will come from flashbacks related to The Joker and scenes pulled from The Killing Joke. Also possibly the death of Jason Todd, judging by the defaced Robin suit.

I liked Wonder Woman (although I hated the shrieky music that played everytime she showed up near the end). I'll also say Affleck is the best live-action Batman.

The armored Flash time travel sequence felt shoe-horned in, but I like how seeds for future films were planted with it. On the subject of The Flash, the intel videos of the future Justice Leaguers were pretty cool. Flash subtly using his speed to stop a crime, Aquaman cavitating through the water, the Mother Box creating Cyborg - all awesome.

While Warner Bros should do things as they feel they need to, one thing they need to learn to emulate from Marvel is the sense of fun those films have. Regardless, I'm too much of a fan so I'm sure my butt will be in a seat for each film as they come out.

 

[COMaestro]

The movie was okay. I felt the dream sequences could have been cut from the movie almost entirely and things would have been better for it. Honestly, the one with Clark talking to his dad felt like the most important one in the movie, unless you count Bruce's one with the Flash cutting in, as it is intended to set up future events.

Luthor was...weird. At times, I loved the character and how he was being portrayed. Twitchy, as if he had a million thoughts running through his head and had to really put in effort to maintain focus on a conversation. But then he had some really stupid lines or some other things that just made him feel like a joke character. Also wasn't sure how he determined Superman's identity as Clark Kent, though it wasn't that important overall. I also wasn't sure if he knew Batman was Bruce Wayne or if that was just happy coincidence for him.

Plus, I never really understood his motivation. WHY was he trying to make Superman and Batman fight? He obviously expected Superman to win and I guess wanted Batman dead, but how would this one kill ruin Superman's reputation? He's already got a bad rep for a number of people in the world, what's one more death going to accomplish? Batman himself had a rather wide variance in popular opinion as well, it seemed, so I'm sure there would have been plenty of people rejoicing that the crazy bat guy was dead.

Wonder Woman felt shoehorned in, though I did like how she seemed to be enjoying her fight with Doomsday. Doomsday himself seemed like a waste at this point. I do not understand why the script writers felt it was necessary to make some weird hybrid of "The Dark Knight Returns" and "The Death of Superman" into a movie, but it is what it is.

Got a bit tired of the very tongue-in-cheek writing too. The little nods to themselves that seemed to happen. "No one wants to see Clark Kent versus the Bat of Gotham," for instance. Oh, really? I thought that's why everyone was here in the theater.

Affleck did a great job as Batman. Watching his exercise montage made all of Bale's push ups from his movies look ridiculous! Cavill...just didn't really have much to do. This was so much more of a Batman movie than a Superman one; maybe that's why "Batman" comes first in the movie title. He did fine with what he was given, I think, but I feel like Snyder just kept telling him to "look stoic" for his shots.

Loved Jeremy Irons as Alfred. Thought he did great.

And that's enough for now.