Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Runtime: 2 hours 31 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $250 million

Batman v Superman is the second DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film, following behind Man of Steel. It’s less boring than the non-action scenes of Man of Steel and was better than the Rotten Tomatoes rating would suggest. The movie sits somewhere between that and decent on the spectrum.

In case you needed a visual representation. Dug out from the City of Angles archive. Not.

Batman v Superman had potential. Those expectations quickly changed to concern upon the first dream sequence. After pulling off an artful opening, they follow it up with a cringey scene…minutes into the movie. I felt that those dream sequences were one of the more horribly executed parts of the movie. The editing also gave it a run for its money.

Scenes, both necessary and unnecessary, kept getting tossed at you in a dizzying fashion (climax and epilogue are the biggest offenders). That really screwed with the pacing and was straight up jarring in certain moments. I understand that they had a lot to cram into the two and a half hours while also setting it up for the Justice League films. That shouldn’t be an excuse to create a hodgepodge of scenes that are confused about its own identity. However, these issues don’t stop it from being an entertaining film.

Luckily, they managed to fit in some visually satisfying action scenes. The film carries immense post-production value. The visual effects and sound editing keep it a theater-worthy experience. Post can’t save a weak script though…

The concept of Batman fighting Superman is great. There are so many reasons for them to fight. Somehow, they managed to make it feel unsatisfying. How do they spend a majority of the movie building up to it, yet make their reasons for fighting feel so contrived? Their little spat was akin to how a RomCom would play out. A simple explanation that takes a sentence or two would have cleared everything up. It’s called communication, people.But I guess not everyone can be a CommBro; it is a daunting and harrowing calling. Certainly not one taken by a reclusive rich man that saw his parents die or some alien that’s confused about his role on Earth.

RomCommBro Breaker

While I try to avoid comparing the DCEU to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and Fox Marvel properties, the comparisons are inevitable. However, I posit that my comparisons will be meaningless and without substance. Enjoy.

A Hydra agent (Callan Mulvey) finds new work in Metropolis after being beat up in Captain America: Winter Soldier. After you get beatdown by a super solider, why would you then move to a city where you could get beat down by a flying, superpowered alien? Curious.

The heir to the Yashida Corporation (Tao Okamoto) spends her time as an assistant to Lex Luthor at LexCorp. This is probably because she spent her entire family’s fortune to smooth over Silver Samurai incident in The Wolverine.

No, they’re not actually connected. I was found it funny that they took minor characters from Fox Marvel and Disney Marvel and brought them into the DCEU. When you’re an actor, work is work.