An incoherent piece of motion picture that offers a rocky start to the DC Cinematic Universe, but delivers an expandable beginning nonetheless.
Critics do not hate anyone without reasons, even more so they do not root for a film to fail. In the case of Zack Snyder and his band of mediocre, at times somewhat terrible directorial features, it’s the frustration that baffles. There’s a sense of bewilderment after any of his productions – Watchmen, 300, Legend of the Guardians, Man of Steel and now Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it feels like he knows what he’s doing, he’s trying and making an effort, just always slightly in the wrong direction which then escalates into a bloody catastrophe, and the bigger problem is he doesn’t know it.
The 2013 Man of Steel delivered the story of Superman, aka Clark Kent aka Kal, one of the last remaining people of Krypton and one who possesses extraordinary powers. Facing annihilation, he must confront his past and defend the present against a band of rogue warriors from the ruined world of Krypton.
MOS, with its 143 minutes run time offers up quite the content and is, in the end just another blockbuster grounded by its own many actions and extravaganzas. Dawn of Justice depicts the questions and consequences Superman now has to answer to after the aforementioned events, his foes now include Lex Luthor the xenophobe/psychopath/millionaire, a monstrous and darker than ever knight of Gotham and a seemingly undefeatable Kryptonian abomination.
Clocking at 153 minutes, it’s hard not to make DOJ tedious, and so it was, with its constant flashbacks/cutaways unable to maintain tension and/or excitement, copout resolutions basically insulting the audiences’ intelligence and spitting on the already-almost-non-existent plot, as well as of course – cheap villains not entirely unidentifiable or unimpressionable, but rather simply lazy characters – Lex Luthor portrayed by Jesse Einsenberg felt less of a dangerous psychopath, more like a juvenile child with a gun who’s more annoying than threatening. In some ways the character felt like an incomplete joker, which in this dark, gritty film offers some flimsy, contrasting comedic elements that feel out of place and quite forced.
On the aspect of characters, the new Batman whose casting choice of Ben Affleck met some fan backlash proved himself, despite the very limited chance he got to explore the character’s range, to be a new kind of dark knight. One that while existing in Snyder’s vision appears to be an overtly murderous, at times even monstrous agent of justice. Somewhat similar to Nolan’s Bale-batman, except even darker and less grounded. Who in turn drastically overshadows both of the other trinities, Superman whose character building simply wasn’t enough to turn any heads, and Wonder Woman who just didn’t get enough screen time for any real development. Furthermore, Henry Cavill could somewhat pass off as a twenty year old hunk even though he’s moderately aged at 32, but standing next to him is Amy Adams, 42. Lois Lane looked like Clark Kent’s slightly young mother. No offence to Adams personally, but it’s as if the makeup team made no effort to make her look younger.
From the very intro, scenes are somewhat confusing and disassociated, there’s virtually no build up to any intensity but rather as if we’re watching a documentary where a series of events just so happen to take place and somehow is worth looking at. Flashbacks, cutaways and CGI bombardments are three things to watch out for and try not to get distracted by when viewing DOJ, even though they pretty much dominate the entire length of the plot.
Speaking of the plot, DOJ moves forward its cinematic progress in a very unique way, in which there are no real resolutions but rather just constant copouts. One of the chief consequences of Man of Steel was humanity’s growing issue with Superman’s godly, alien power and how they should confront him, this drives the introduction of DOJ. However, rather than offering any actual answer and verdict on the problem, Snyder simply uses it to produce an inappropriately arranged battle between Superman and Batman. Which then ends in another copout so insignificant and unjustly portrayed it felt as if Snyder gave us the finger, leading up to the final part where a videogame-esque complication arises, the ultimate lazy ending where everything will be solved by killing this one monster.
There’s no subtly here to thrust us onto the edge of our seats when contrasting with pivotal scenes, nor is there anything substantial to wow us. Other than how freakin’ ripped Cavill and Affleck got for their roles.
To sum up, Snyder was trying to accomplish way too many things at once – be different from Marvel, bring a darker, grittier superhero film as the basis of dc cinematic universe, make the movie as epic as possible with big budget explosions and Michael Bay-ish effects. However there’s so much not working here it all just felt too unreal, unlike Marvel which, though uses more of a fantasy angle to introduce its events have somewhat grounded character who we at least can partially connect with. The trinity here just feels too much like the stuff of myths – Batman doesn’t seem to have any worldly connections other than his miserable and wretched hatred for criminals – a side effect from his horrible origin, Superman’s emotional scenes felt empty and hollow and left no impression, Wonder Woman…well there was really no Diana Prince in DOJ. Every pessimistic film needs a lighter side to contrast with the dark, otherwise it’s just no fun, and at its heart, the superhero genre itself is supposed to be fun. You can make it thought-provoking, violent, even disgraceful, but on the premise of pleasure.
In theatres Australia wide from 24th of March
MPAA Rating: PG-13
ACB Rating: M
Run Time: 153 min
An overzealous film critic wannabe, Henry Pan makes a trip down cinema lane once a week, in order to decrease his ever-increasing massive watch list. You can follow him and hear all about his rants on films, life and pet dogs on Twitter @LifeOfPan.
