It is one of the oldest superhero debates in the books, who would win in a fight? Whether it be Iron Man versus Captain America, Wolverine versus Deadpool, the list goes on and on. But perhaps the first and most time tested question has to be, if Batman and Superman were to ever be at odds with one another then who would win? Would Batman's witts and gadgets prevail? Or would Superman's incredible strength and raw power prove too much for the Dark Knight. Man versus God. It's the name of the game here and I couldn't wait to see who would come out on top.
Before we can have the fight however we must get to know our two contestants and while our new Superman (Henry Cavill) has already received a movie of his own, our new Batman (Ben Affleck) has not. So, much of the first half of Batman v Superman serves as an introduction to everything that spurred Bruce Wayne to becoming a capped hero and why he has such a deep hatred for Earth's greatest defender. The movie itself does a good enough job of making viewers see why for themselves as it opens on the destruction caused during Superman and General Zod in the Superman movie. Bruce Wayne lost countless people in the chaos and while he did his best to help those that were caught in the destruction, there were still those who hated the son of krypton for what he did.
But, Ben Affleck's Batman isn't centered around just an angry man looking to teach Superman a lesson about the damage he caused, no he has actually had a tough twenty years of defending Gotham from bad guys and terrifying foes. While audiences don't get to meet any of the big name bad guys (i.e Joker and the rest) we do see signs of the damage they caused. Batman keeps a memorial to a former Robin in his Batcave with graffiti written all over it and it appears to be very obviously left by his most infamous enemy The Joker. You can see all of this wane on his character throughout the movie and he struggles with all the damage that has been done by his enemies and years of fighting crime. Perhaps it is why he has taken a much darker approach in taking out bad guys by killing them and even going so far as branding them before going to prison, a procedure that also leads to their eventual deaths as well.
This is something that Superman will not stand for any of this however as right from the get go his alter ego is dead set on writing a story about the Batman vigilante while his buff tights wearing counterpart aims to put a stop to him by mild force. It's pretty laughable to be honest as Superman tries to make Batman stop what he has been doing for years without anyone else questioning his motives. Especially since the movie focuses greatly on how Superman is such a deadly force, what if he goes off the handle one day? Who could stop someone like Superman if it came down to it? Sure, we all know Superman is a good guy but with power like that you don't need to wonder why people would be scared of him swooping down and taking over.
Henry Cavill's portrayal succeeds in this department as being the soft eyed optimist who would like to see the best in the world and wants to protect Earth and it's people. It's everywhere else that I feel Superman has his shortcomings. Against Batman and Bruce Wayne on screen Superman and Clark Kent feel over shadowed. It's almost like the movie should be a Batman movie with characters from his story and not characters from Superman's like Lois Lane (Amy Adams) filling in the spare screen time which gets shoehorned in to give her character something to admits all the bluster and bravado being thrown around.
That's where Batman v Superman has it's downfall as all the other nitty gritty nonsense leading up to the climactic conclusion for the story leads viewers down some boring roads. Lois Lane struggles to find out who set Superman up during an early scene in Africa involving some shady warlord. She seeks back channel contacts and tries to prove her lover's innocence and you're all left there wondering why does it even matter. The biggest source for controversy hit when Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) makes his way onto the stage. The character is a walking talking cliche and truly strides away from the character audiences would be expecting. He constantly is spouting off about this philosophy or that and when he stands before Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent he is so giddy that it seemed like he already knew the big secret in the room before everyone else did. He sticks out like a sore thumb with his manic behavior and clearly isn't driven by the same egotistical tendencies that former Lex's have before him.
As for the big showstopper Doomsday, the creatures overall introduction into the story was an interesting one to say the least, it was one of the few moments where Lex wasn't all over the place as he learns ancient kryptonian knowledge and crafts his plan to take down Superman. Once on screen however Doomsday looks like a rip off of the new Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles character model with all the bad CGI that comes with it. There was a whole disconnect between the action and the characters reactions on screen during these final moments. It felt like Affleck, Cavill and the addition of Gadot were in a whole other world only entering into the action to dash across the screen and then go back to talking and reacting to one another. There was a fake atmosphere to the situation and it leaves much to be desired.
Now with the introduction of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, I felt that she played her role well and was used with the correct touch during the entire story. Wonder Woman was never meant to be a big addition to everything that was happening during the story and yet her character is still an important one to the story down the road so her presence was a vital one. Gadot does this perfectly as she mainly deals with Bruce Wayne and her story gradually becomes more realized through their interactions and his investigative know-how. Her incorporation also led to an interesting introduction to the rest of the Justice League and rather than wasting more movie time on it it becomes addressed and then moved on from. Boom boom, simple as that. It built on the DC universe lore to come and then got right back to the matters at hand with the movie and I was thankful for that.
Unfortunately, Batman v Superman does not deliver on all the hype surrounding it as the two most iconic DC superheroes go head to head and eventually formed an alliance like no other in universe. Ben Affleck's Batman was a surprise hit and everything he did on screen was top notch as he plays the brilliant detective that is Batman and the swarvy playboy that is Bruce Wayne. Even the story had a solid idea going for it as it weighed in on heavy controversy of how absolute power can be dangerous and others but it doesn't have the follow through to pull it all off. And while I liked the light touch that was used to introduce Wonder Woman and the rest of the DC cast into the story, there was just no raw excitement when it got there. The same could be said for most of the proceedings here as well.
Good:
- Ben Affleck as Batman
- Cavill, Gadot and Affleck had great symmetry together
- Hard hitting themes and controversies involving superheroes
Bad:
- Doomsday was aptly named here
- Where was the fun? Where was the excitement?
- Side characters like Amy Adams were dull
- Jesse Eisenberg's Luthor
Scully Rating: 5.0 out of 10
