I know, I probably should have just left this film sitting on the sideline of unwatched superhero films. But with Suicide Squad coming up later this week, I couldn't help myself and fell victim to this one. I also know that you all have probably read a lot of terrible reviews for this film, so hopefully mine will be a bit different from the crowd. First of all, let's talk about Zack Snyder who is yet to reveal a movie with a decent storyline. Sure Watchmen was a'ight, but really it's only decent and nothing special. Also 300 had a lot of bloodshed, but the sequel is so much better than the Snyder-directed original film. Now let's skip forward to the start of the DC Universe. Man of Steel was a complete trainwreck which followed a superb series of Batman flicks. Batman v Superman is basically a repeat of Man of Steel with more heroes and less solidity.
I appreciate the dark approach that DC is going for with their films, but if they cannot figure out how to build the Justice League well they might as well stop now. Batman v Superman strives to touch the audience's emotions, but falters to even pull at us. The death of a main character leaves a bad taste in our mouths, but did we even care about him at this point? I certainly do not care about any of the characters besides Jeremy Irons's Alfred. Henry Cavill plays an image-fitting Clark Kent, but cannot build the character for us. He's more of a poster image than an actual hero. Ben Affleck also acts as an image on the screen to bring in the big bucks. Unlike Cavill, Affleck might be able to prove himself worthy of the role in his solo hero film. Maybe Suicide Squad will give us a better Batman than we saw on the screen. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm not even going to talk about Jesse Eisenberg who is really more of a Riddler than he is a Lex Luthor. Yet, we all saw that coming from the minute he was cast!
Oh am I being too harsh? Well let's talk about the story now. This is truly the most disorganized superhero movie I have ever seen. Constantly throwing us into dream-sequences, Snyder leaves us confused and mentally impaired. At one point, I wished the sequences were true so that we would stop being thrown into ridiculous chaos. The first act was fine with some background for the characters and connections for their later relationship. The second act was random and unprecedented. And the final act was full of trashy and completely unjustifiable action. The first 45 minutes of the film would have made for a bad episode of Daredevil (which is one of my favorite TV shows in the past 10 years) and the rest of the film would have made for a good episode of Celebrity Boxing.
The Bottom Line: The worst modern superhero film I have ever seen, but keep in mind I haven't seen Daredevil or The Incredible Hulk.
Score: 4/10
Image credit: By http://www.flickr.com/people/28277470@N05/ [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
To make up for the terrible flaws of the film, I will leave you with an awesome track from Suicide Squad (in theaters August 5th):
I appreciate the dark approach that DC is going for with their films, but if they cannot figure out how to build the Justice League well they might as well stop now. Batman v Superman strives to touch the audience's emotions, but falters to even pull at us. The death of a main character leaves a bad taste in our mouths, but did we even care about him at this point? I certainly do not care about any of the characters besides Jeremy Irons's Alfred. Henry Cavill plays an image-fitting Clark Kent, but cannot build the character for us. He's more of a poster image than an actual hero. Ben Affleck also acts as an image on the screen to bring in the big bucks. Unlike Cavill, Affleck might be able to prove himself worthy of the role in his solo hero film. Maybe Suicide Squad will give us a better Batman than we saw on the screen. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm not even going to talk about Jesse Eisenberg who is really more of a Riddler than he is a Lex Luthor. Yet, we all saw that coming from the minute he was cast!
Oh am I being too harsh? Well let's talk about the story now. This is truly the most disorganized superhero movie I have ever seen. Constantly throwing us into dream-sequences, Snyder leaves us confused and mentally impaired. At one point, I wished the sequences were true so that we would stop being thrown into ridiculous chaos. The first act was fine with some background for the characters and connections for their later relationship. The second act was random and unprecedented. And the final act was full of trashy and completely unjustifiable action. The first 45 minutes of the film would have made for a bad episode of Daredevil (which is one of my favorite TV shows in the past 10 years) and the rest of the film would have made for a good episode of Celebrity Boxing.
The Bottom Line: The worst modern superhero film I have ever seen, but keep in mind I haven't seen Daredevil or The Incredible Hulk.
Score: 4/10
Image credit: By http://www.flickr.com/people/28277470@N05/ [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
To make up for the terrible flaws of the film, I will leave you with an awesome track from Suicide Squad (in theaters August 5th):
