Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
You’ve probably felt all the hype around the movie, eagerly anticipated it, and likely really happy now that it’s been released, and you probably can’t wait to see it. Well, I have, and the only major positive is likely the fact that Hans Zimmer will be nominated for an Oscar for best original score. Oh, the video quality was nice too. They made good use of CGI. After that, it all went to shit. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how it apparently smashed Box Office records. Deadpool broke records, and deserved it. This did, and I’m like WTF? How? The only other terrible movie I’ve seen all year is The Last Witch Hunter, and they at least had a coherent story line.
Where did it all go wrong?
The moment DC decided to make the movie focus on it’s extended universe and the formation of The Justice League. And they did a real shitty job with it. Let’s start with Jesse Eisenberg’s Joker style rendition of Lex Luthor, which didn’t really stand out to me. Like, every time I saw him on screen, my mind couldn’t help but go back to Heath Ledger’s wonderful performance in The Dark Knight. The movie had really crappy dialogue, when it did have dialogue. There weren’t really special or really emotional scenes. The fight scenes weren’t all that, honestly. We see Lex wanting to take out Superman, but we don’t really see any motivation, or any solid backstory to justify his hatred of the Man of Steel. All we know is that he wants Clark dead.
The DCEU (DC Extended Universe) should learn from the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Especially when it comes to storytelling. Dawn of Justice basically had no clear story. There’s also the fact that there was no onboarding for guys who never read any of the comics, or saw the cartoons, so you’d basically be lost in some parts, especially the one that referenced Darkseid (FYI: I had to go online to understand what happened in that part). MCU has movies that keep your minds occupied till the last minutes, and hide references to future movies here and there, and make excellent use of post — credits scenes to achieve them. The DCEU mixed it all through the films in ways that were just bound to be confusing. Like why really bother telling us that you’re going to be setting up a team of heroes, from the very first movie in your universe. And yet, it smashed records in it’s first week. Confusing as it was
Will I want to see any upcoming movie in the DCEU?
To be really honest, no. If every other movie is going to be so focused on an upcoming movie, that they forget that they’re actually making a movie, then what’s the point? I mean, we could see the movie that they were laying the path for, and it could torn out to be some more shit. I don’t even expect The Flash (movie) to be any bit better than The Flash (series). MCU introduced their main big bad, Thanos, gradually, first in Guardians of the Galaxy, and then in Age of Ultron.
Verdict
I’d give it a 2 out of 10, just for being a movie. DC is doing way better in it’s series (The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl), than it’s done with it’s last two movies. If they don’t correct themselves, they might likely have to cancel some of their upcoming movies, except if they are only interested in making money, with movies that terribly suck.
Addition: Suicide Squad was called to for re — shoots, after reviews from critics started streaming in. Apparently, all the funny bits from it were the ones we saw in the trailers. Bummer.