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What can be said that hasn't already been discussed about the much hyped, much loathed, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice? A bloated mess of a film that relies too much on wowing the audience, when it should be focused on the story at hand. A story about two sides of the same coin. Batman, the ruthless vigilante who might be broken at his old age and Superman, the alien God who means to do so much good, but might be causing more harm. These two men are pitted against each other in a showdown that comic book fans have been waiting to see on the big screen since Miller's The Dark Knight Returns was inked.
After the destruction of cities and countless lives lost at the hands of Superman fighting Zod, Batman takes it upon himself to defeat the Man of Steel. Things are turned up to 11 when Lex Luther concocts a plan to make sure their fight match, becomes a fight to the death.
There's no denying the Synder is a gifted visual artist. Much like Malick, the man paints beautiful pictures, but his storytelling technique lacks any emotional punch. It's no mistake the man has made a career on adapting previous works to the big screen, he likes to emulate images and moments in his own style. Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, 300...all these films have previous material already visualized in print form. Synder's job seems easy, he translates those images to the screen. The story for the most part is also already there for him to adapt. It's when he decides to do his "own" thing, that is becomes utterly terrible...damn you Sucker Punch. So Snyder does the same thing here he's done with his previous films, lift those images from paper to screen. So many times while watching this film you see the panels of TDKR come to life. They are great moments, but as it has been pointed out by others, Snyder is obsessed with moments so much that he forgets to tell the story in the scenes. Maybe this is why the film has so many dream sequences, it gives Snyder the visual medium to be 'creative'. These sequences unfortunately stall the film, even if they are supposed to be 'set-ups' for future installments.
Where this film fails is that DC is trying to play catch-up. DC waited to see how people would react to The Avengers before they decided to get their heads in the game and they waited too long. Marvel was able to set up each character with their own film, their own story and miraculously bring them all together. DC has decided to forgo all that and slam everything but the kitchen sink....wait I think they do use the kitchen sink at one point, into this film. The result is overkill. Had the filmmakers taken a step back, reassessed the story and get to the core of it all, we might have had a really good film on our hands.
After the complaints of civilian death tolls being ignored in the previous film, it's interesting to see them address this issue as a main plot point. Is Superman responsible for these deaths? Who does he answer to? Is he welcomed? These questions are raised here and make for something actually interesting.
Snyder gets a lot of hate, but I like his films, he desperately needs a good writer at the helm though. I feel like David S. Goyer is the script writing equivalent to Snyder. Good at what he does, but has a lot more potential. Put these two together and you get the mess that is Batman v Superman.
Don't even get me started on the choices Eisenberg chooses for Lex Luthor. The less said on that topic, the better.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
(Zack Snyder)
"We know better now, don't we?
Devils don't come from hell beneath us. No, they come from the sky."
(Zack Snyder)
"We know better now, don't we?
Devils don't come from hell beneath us. No, they come from the sky."
What can be said that hasn't already been discussed about the much hyped, much loathed, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice? A bloated mess of a film that relies too much on wowing the audience, when it should be focused on the story at hand. A story about two sides of the same coin. Batman, the ruthless vigilante who might be broken at his old age and Superman, the alien God who means to do so much good, but might be causing more harm. These two men are pitted against each other in a showdown that comic book fans have been waiting to see on the big screen since Miller's The Dark Knight Returns was inked.
After the destruction of cities and countless lives lost at the hands of Superman fighting Zod, Batman takes it upon himself to defeat the Man of Steel. Things are turned up to 11 when Lex Luther concocts a plan to make sure their fight match, becomes a fight to the death.
There's no denying the Synder is a gifted visual artist. Much like Malick, the man paints beautiful pictures, but his storytelling technique lacks any emotional punch. It's no mistake the man has made a career on adapting previous works to the big screen, he likes to emulate images and moments in his own style. Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, 300...all these films have previous material already visualized in print form. Synder's job seems easy, he translates those images to the screen. The story for the most part is also already there for him to adapt. It's when he decides to do his "own" thing, that is becomes utterly terrible...damn you Sucker Punch. So Snyder does the same thing here he's done with his previous films, lift those images from paper to screen. So many times while watching this film you see the panels of TDKR come to life. They are great moments, but as it has been pointed out by others, Snyder is obsessed with moments so much that he forgets to tell the story in the scenes. Maybe this is why the film has so many dream sequences, it gives Snyder the visual medium to be 'creative'. These sequences unfortunately stall the film, even if they are supposed to be 'set-ups' for future installments.
Where this film fails is that DC is trying to play catch-up. DC waited to see how people would react to The Avengers before they decided to get their heads in the game and they waited too long. Marvel was able to set up each character with their own film, their own story and miraculously bring them all together. DC has decided to forgo all that and slam everything but the kitchen sink....wait I think they do use the kitchen sink at one point, into this film. The result is overkill. Had the filmmakers taken a step back, reassessed the story and get to the core of it all, we might have had a really good film on our hands.
After the complaints of civilian death tolls being ignored in the previous film, it's interesting to see them address this issue as a main plot point. Is Superman responsible for these deaths? Who does he answer to? Is he welcomed? These questions are raised here and make for something actually interesting.
Snyder gets a lot of hate, but I like his films, he desperately needs a good writer at the helm though. I feel like David S. Goyer is the script writing equivalent to Snyder. Good at what he does, but has a lot more potential. Put these two together and you get the mess that is Batman v Superman.
Don't even get me started on the choices Eisenberg chooses for Lex Luthor. The less said on that topic, the better.