There comes a moment while watching Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice when the viewer realizes that they are no longer watching a cohesive film, and are instead experiencing some sort of exhausting cinematic experiment designed to overwhelm the audience and set up a slate of films that will constitute the DC Cinematic Universe. For me, this moment came at some point around the halfway mark (I can only hazard a guess as to the relativity of the time in this movie, seeing how the claimed two-hour and thirty-one minute runtime felt more like several days) during a car chase involving the new-look Batmobile. This certainly should have made for an exciting scene, but instead director Zack Snyder seizes an opportunity to launch an all-out assault on the viewer’s senses, packing each frame of film with as many explosions as possible while blasting Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL’s deafening score. By the end of the sequence, the viewer is left completely numb to whatever else Snyder has up his sleeve, which is too bad, because there are moments in the film that could have redeemed it.
To fully understand exactly where Batman v Superman goes wrong, we must start at the beginning of the film, or what I can at least deduce is meant to be the beginning of the narrative. The opening credits play over the origin story of Batman that we know all too well, but Snyder actually does an excellent job of conveying the emotion of the deaths of Bruce Wayne’s parents without much dialogue or time. It’s a wonderfully done five-minute sequence that shows Snyder’s talent as a visual director. Unfortunately, that subtlety is quickly eschewed in favor of a bombastic sequence involving Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne racing through Metropolis while General Zod and Superman duke it out in the sky, destroying much of the city in the process (the ending of Man of Steel, in case anyone forgot about the swath of destruction Henry Cavill’s Superman helped cause in his first film). The much-maligned decision to cast Affleck as Bruce Wayne is actually one of the film’s strengths, as Affleck owns the role from the get-go. His aged, grizzled Wayne fits perfectly into Snyder’s reimagined world, and Affleck is actually quite good at balancing the playboy side of Wayne with the vigilante side.
The film then jumps to the middle of Africa, where Lois Lane is dealing with a muddled subplot involving some sort of advanced bullet that gets dropped midway through the film and forgotten by the end. This sequence begins to show what will eventually be the film’s downfall: Snyder cuts from scene to scene and location to location without any real connection between the scenes. There is no sense of rhythm to the editing. The scenes last barely two minutes apiece, and the constant jumping has a disorienting effect on the viewer. By the time the film finds its feet, 45 minutes has gone by, and it is difficult to buy into the rest of the story.
Essentially, the two and a half hour film boils down to this: Batman doesn’t like Superman for being invincible, Superman’s role on Earth is being questioned by everyone because of the amount of collateral damage he causes, and Lex Luthor gets the two to fight each other. That should have been a straightforward enough story, but the script, from comic-book-movie-veteran David S. Goyer and Oscar winner Chris Terri sets up so many contrivances and subplots to get to the actual fight that by the time the showdown occurs, it feels underwhelming. One subplot is literally blown up instead of being resolved satisfyingly, and others are totally dropped once the fighting starts. It takes a more talented and nuanced director than Snyder to balance all of the elements of the film, although he proves to be adept at staging action scenes and using CGI well to create some gorgeous shots, he simply does not have the talent to pull off the magic trick.
That is not to say that the film is a complete waste. There are some extremely good scenes that somehow fail to equal a competent whole. The action scenes are also creatively staged and well-shot by Snyder. One of the few weaknesses of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was Nolan’s inability to shoot a coherent action scene, and Snyder shows that shooting action is one of his strengths. Parts of the cast are also quite good: Jeremy Irons is perfectly cast as Alfred, and his sardonic wit and chemistry with Affleck work perfectly. He gets some of the film’s best lines. Gal Gadot steals entire sections of the film as Wonder Woman. She is not given too much screen time, but she elevates the proceedings every time she is on the screen. Her entrance into the final battle is easily the best moment, and even the score seems to know it. Hans Zimmer transitions from loud vocalizing and drumming to an electric guitar synth when she is first shown in her outfit, as if the music realizes that it is time to have some fun. Gadot seems to be the only one of the three heroes actually enjoying herself.
Unfortunately, while Gadot’s casting works extremely well, Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Lex Luthor does not. Eisenberg certainly has moments where he channels Luthor’s menace, but his performance is way too inconsistent to be anything more than a caricature. His attempts at slapstick fall short, and he has some incredibly awkward lines of dialogue, but there are elements of a good performance if he can find a balance. Most of the rest of the cast does not really have much to do: Amy Adams’ Lois Lane is constantly searching for some reason to be relevant to the plot, and it seems as if the writers cannot find something solid to do with her besides have her push the plot forward. Laurence Fishburne’s Perry White is wasted, as is Holly Hunter.
There are pieces in place for Batman v Superman to be a great movie, and it is rather fascinating to watch the film stumble over itself. There are also large sequences devoted to setting up next year’s Justice League film, including some extended dream sequences which just prove to be overly confusing and distracting from the plot. If DC and Warner Bros. could just calm down and take some time to set up the characters more, they would have a much better cinematic universe on their hands. Cavill continues to grow into the role of Clark Kent, as he improves on his bland performance in Man of Steel with a slightly less bland performance in Batman v Superman, Affleck is already an excellent Bruce Wayne, and Gadot proves to be a spectacular Wonder Woman. There are hints at a larger villain for the team to face off against, and hopefully the Justice League film can improve on the pacing issues of this film. Until then, we will all be left to analyze exactly what went wrong to waste so much potential. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice does not feel so much like a dawn as it does a fiery end, but there is still hope.
