Rent Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Gloom and doom - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice review by Count Otto Black

Remember the first Avengers movie? This is basically the same film re-imagined by a whiny goth emo teen who turned into a middle-aged Hollywood director without ever growing up. Batman, by far the most important character, spends a huge proportion of the movie not really doing all that much except worrying about Superman, who has been set up as a bad guy for various reasons, including a complex but absurd scam which requires us to believe that if a bunch of terrorists in a foreign country were shot dead while Superman happened to be present, the American public would a) care deeply about the dead terrorists, and b) assume Superman was responsible because obviously an alien who can cremate somebody just by looking at him would need to use a gun.

For over half the film, much of what action there is occurs in multiple dream-sequences which we know are dreams from the start because of the obvious incongruity of what's suddenly happening (for instance, that picture at the top of the page). There are so many verbal and visual quotes from "The Dark Knight Returns" that it's obvious that's the movie Zack Snyder really wanted to make, but most of them are in different contexts where they make no sense. The grudge-match mentioned in the title happens because the world's greatest detective is completely fooled by anti-Superman propaganda (though Lois Lane isn't), gets very nasty indeed because both parties are genuinely trying to kill each other, and only ends non-disastrously because of a very contrived coincidence revolving around an extremely basic bit of information which the world's greatest detective somehow didn't know. And then they're suddenly best buddies so they can team up to fight a boring monster from another story who popped up to give them something to do.

Gal Gadot is quite effective as Wonder Woman, but she's hardly in the film until the big fight at the end, and every single time she's on screen in costume as Wonder Woman, an irritating "hey kids, Wonder Woman is badass!" generic heavy metal theme pops up on the soundtrack. Talking of irritating, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is obviously trying to channel Heath Ledger's Joker, but let's just say there won't be any Oscars coming his way for this performance. And despite Batman's concern that Superman is causing too many casualties, the "Batman never kills" rule has been quietly forgotten because Zack Snyder thinks that not murdering villains (or being fully prepared to murder Superman for illogical reasons that in the comic were Lex Luthor's motive) might make him look like a wimp. Though he does have a peculiar inhibition against killing anyone who'll probably be in the sequel.

It's not completely terrible. The action scenes, when we finally get to them, are efficient. The new Batman is a potentially complex character who isn't properly developed (though he's definitely not the same guy as he was in the previous three films). And Wonder Woman may or may not be capable of carrying her own movie. On the strength of this one, Gal Gadot can snarl just like Xena, Warrior Princess while looking much prettier, and she's quite good at hitting CGI monsters with a sword in slow motion, but I've no idea whether or not she can act, or whether her character is interesting. But overall it's far too long, far too slow, and not really very enjoyable.

If DC have the sense to put their cinematic franchise in the hands of somebody who knows comics are meant to be fun, they might still catch up with Marvel (heavy hints that Darkseid is going to show up soon suggest that they're going for exactly the same long-term multi-movie story-arc). But they'll have to hurry. Every movie like this loses them more ground.

It desperately needs a good story - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice review by CP Customer

Really disappointed with this film. I think they tried to cram in so much (a lot of which was lost on the viewer) that they ended up over-complicating the movie. The dream sequences - what a waste! Do we really need to know that Batman and Superman have unressolved phsychological issues? Some scenes (Flash, etc) obviously inserted as easter eggs that would only make sense to the more observant viewer who has watched EVERY super hero movie that preceded this one. One point that REALLY annoyed me is there's batman with his super-surveillance computer with tabs on everything that happens in Gotham City and yet, both he and Superman hadn't figured out that both of their mothers are called Martha! How utterly stupid is that? Lex Luther is an android? If it weren't for all the other mistakes in this film I'd say the film would be 100% better without him in it. He creates a doomsday monster which even he can't control and unleashes it BEFORE he knows the outcome of the Batman v Superman battle. Then there's Wonder Woman who steals Luther Corp secrets off Bruce Wayne's wireless hard drive as he nicks it off Luther Corp - why not use her own truth lassoo on Lex to get the information she's after and be streets ahead of Bruce Wayne? Oh, and the only reason Batman hates Superman is because he destroyed one of his buildings - hello? It was okay for Batman to crash into everything in his way!

Cinema Paradiso - top class job of preventing me from buying the move, well done!

Batty and underpants, all at once. - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice review by NC

Why not just do another Superman, and then another Batman? Ben is not intense enough for the role. Bale and Keaton have that crazy focus thing going on.

Long way from Dark Knight..........