Sunday, March 27, 2016

Batman V Superman

Zack Snyder pissed me off with his outrageous fight scene between Superman and General Zod in Man of Steel.  In that movie, Superman allows General Zod to wreak havoc on Metropolis; thousands die because of Superman’s self-imposed do not kill rule.  I’m usually a big fan of these kind of rules in fiction, whether it be D'Artagnan’s honor, MacGyver’s no gun code, or Dennis Hopper’s 50 mph policy… these all present challenges which make the stories more interesting.  But in Superman’s case, his unwillingness to kill General Zod makes him a hypocrite at best, and quite possibly an accessory to mass genocide.

Bruce Wayne is pissed too.  Therein lies the motivation behind Batman V Superman, it doesn’t matter who you are; you don’t want to piss of Bruce Wayne or (spoiler alert!) you’ll have Batman to contend with.  The opening scenes of Batman V Superman show Bruce Wayne helplessly witnessing the destruction that is being rained down on Metropolis by Superman and General Zod, from that point on it becomes his mission to eliminate Superman.  On the other hand, as we spend time with Superman it becomes clear that he is offended by Batman’s vigilante brand of justice.  Superman’s holier-than-thou attitude is our first indication that Zack Snyder has chosen sides.  This is an interesting premise; two men with contradicting philosophies cannot be good neighbors, there’s only room for one hero in the Twin Cities of Metropolis and Gotham.

Had Zack Snyder tightened his focus, this could have been a great movie; but for better or worse Lex Luthor is added to the mix – he’s either the catalyst or the third wheel, depending on your point of view.  I personally found Jesse Eisenberg’s performance as Luthor to be distracting and unnecessary.  While his character fit into the plot as an instigator, someone who was stirring up the feud between Batman and Superman, his motivation for doing this was never satisfactorily explained.  Additionally, Eisenberg’s performance was heavily reminiscent of Heath Ledger as the Joker; his psychotic behavior seemed out of place.  I realize that all of these characters and plot lines are being pulled from a variety of source material.  If you try to make everyone happy, you’re bound to fail.  But I would contend that making a great film, telling a good story, and presenting convincing characters will always trump trying to make fan-boys happy.  I wish someone would tell that to Zack Snyder.

Overall I found this to be a much better movie that Man of Steel, and I can sum it up with two sentences:

Batman hated the end of Man of Steel just as much as I did.


Man of Steel lowered my expectations so low that Snyder’s next film had to be better.

1 comment:

Nathaniel said...

I just saw this film. It was boring. I wanted Kevin Spacey back (not really, but it was that bad). You are spot on with Jesse Eisenberg. His character was confusing to say the least. But I think Stephen put it best when he said the slow motion scenes should have been sped up and the sped up scenes should have been slowed down. Really, I just can't figure out why I was so drawn to this film. I knew it wouldn't be good, I knew it would be boring, I knew I would come out disappointed. But, (spoiler!) I must say that I was offended by the film acting as though it was possible that Zack Snyder had been given the green light to really kill Superman. Like, I'm supposed to believe the studio execs at Warner Brothers sat down with Snyder and said, "You know what, we care more about great storytelling than money, and in the end, the Justice League (which everyone knows is coming next) really doesn't need Superman. Yeah, go ahead and kill him. Tell the story of true sacrifice, of laying down your life for others, and we promise we will never make another Superman film." Seriously, the last twenty-five minutes I was supposed to think that Superman wouldn't be coming back? Its as if the movie was only made for people who have never read a comic, never seen another Superman film, and didn't see any of the film's previews! So, in the end I was rather disappointed, but I think just mostly at myself for thinking it might be something it could never be. Guess I'll go get in line with all the other zombies for Suicide Squad!