Review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) by Electronick — 08 Apr 2016

Batman V. Superman left me cold. I had never felt so joyless in for a film before. Despite the numerous problems with Man of Steel and some of the production problems I had high hopes for this film. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

.. It was worse. Not only did Zack Snyder learn nothing from the criticism people had with Man of Steel but he also added more problems. For starters there is no point to this film being in 3D. It added nothing to the experience and even gave me a headache with the excessive use of shaky cam.

The shaky cam even gotten worse than it was at Man of Steel. The visuals are also tinted in an ugly grayish-brown kind of color which makes everything look drab and lifeless. Unfortuanlty the technicals are the least of this film's problems.

The characters barely resemble their original comic counterparts. The Superman in this film is even more apathetic than in the previous film since he nonchalantly smashes through buildings and kills civillians in a careless manner.

The film tries to display his actions as morally gray and tries to provoke questions about how super heroes will fit in a realistic situation. I appreciate the attempt to have this be an allegory for how Muslims are treated based n the violent acts of a few members of thier community.

This allegorical approach could have had potential if it wasnt for the fact that Superman himself is partially responsible for the destruction in Metropolis. Amy Adams as Lois Lane has even less to do in this film than in the last.

She is only present for no other reason than to start an investigation with an obvious answer and as someone for Superman to save. At first the film fools you into thinking that she has a place by achieving a krypotinite spear only to realize that she threw it in herself .

Batman didn't fare much better as the caped crusader who was heavily established to have a moral code against killing has no problem shooting people down with his batwing machine gun. It is a shame sense Ben Affleck does have a knowledge for the character and does bring a performance which is an improvement over Christian Bale's.

Wonder Woman did have her moments but she barely had any presence in the film and her parts could have been cut from the film and it wouldn't have made a diffrence. The biggest misfire though is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

It seems that the Joker was originally supposed to be in this film and that his personality was merged with Luthor. His main motivation has a lack of focus and is so unclear that it becomes maddening.

He was horribly miscast and would have played an excellent Jimmy Olsen if Snyder's idea of fun wasn't to kill off a beloved Superman Side character. Snyder was the wrong pearson to lead the direction of the DC cinematic universe and the fact that it is confirmed that he would also direct the upcoming Justice League movie is very problematic.