SILVER TONGUED SILVER SCREEN: BATMAN V SUPERMAN ~ DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016)

Last night, to the sounds of cheering crowds and giggling nerds everywhere, Warner Bros. unveiled the long awaited and much anticipated BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. Never before have the two most recognizable characters in comic book history, and some might say the greatest literary characters of all time, been shown together on the big screen before. That prospect alone is exciting and worthy of the price of admission.

In September of 2014 Warner Bros, the studio that has long owned the rights to the complete DC Comics universe, announced their plans for their very own DC Cinematic Universe along with the film slate for the following six years. The first among their proposed list of films was Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (which from now on we will call BvS) set to be released in 2015 against rival Marvel Studios' Avengers: Age of Ultron. This announcement seemingly scared the pants off of Marvel and forced them to retaliate with their own press conference and release of the Marvel Phase 3 film slate and schedule. Marvel was right to be scared as they have nothing as crowd drawing as the prospect of seeing Batman and Superman together on screen.

BvS, despite the name, is a sequel to 2013's MAN OF STEEL and it was announced that Man of Steel would be DC's first film in their extended cinematic universe. BvS is as much a Superman film as it is a Batman film. Due to Ben Affleck breaking his leg and delaying filming, BvS's release date was pushed back a year to May of 2016 going up against Marvel's Captain America: Civil War. For reasons I myself don't know, BvS once again moved it's release date to today, March 25th, 2016, ahead of the summer schedule.

Releasing in March is a little unusual for a film of this magnitude, especially one meant to be a tent-pole for a multi-franchise film universe. March is usually reserved for lower profile films. There is snowy weather to contend with as well as the basketball season and television season. But DC appears to be looking at March as grounds for unrivaled film success. It worked for Deadpool last month. Why not BvS?

There are spoilers ahead so tread carefully.

THE PLOT

In the wake of the devastation of the Krytonian attack on Metropolis, the world has become divided on the Superman issue. Half the world hates him while the other half looks to him as the new god. Batman can only see Superman as a threat, fearing the Krytonian's infinite power and the prospect of that power being turned on Earth. He is plagued by nightmares of flying creatures and Superman worshipers destroying Earth and paving the way for an even greater enemy. Meanwhile all Superman wants to do is help people but half of the world simply refuses to see that. Machinations of the scheming Lex Luthor force Superman's hand into battling Batman, who is now more than prepared to take on the Krytonian. But Lex Luthor hasn't revealed his entire hand, as he has a monster in waiting should Batman fail to kill Superman.

THE GOOD

The Dark Knight Returns. Director Zack Snyder, returning from directing Man of Steel, draws heavily on the famous and lauded works of Frank Miller and the character redefining book, The Dark Knight Returns. Having recently read DKR, there are images and sequences in BvS taken straight off the comic book page and they look magnificent. Ben Affleck as Batman and Jeremy Irons as Alfred are a great pair and compliment each other very well. This is a Batman pushing 50 years old and seemingly at the top of his game. The fight sequence near the end of the film in which Batman takes on a group of Luthor henchmen is my favorite fight scene in the movie.

Super-Hero Opera. This isn't a Marvel movie. There is nothing at the end of the credits and none of the usual comic book movie troupes here. DC has done their own thing, taking a new and different approach to the genre. It's bold and admirable. They've taken the characters in their universe, placed them in the archetypes befitting The Iliad or The Odyssey or the epic of Gilgamesh, transcendent tales of gods and men, heroes and villains. Snyder shows us that this isn't reality anymore but something beyond. Hans Zimmer's wonderful score punctuates this feeling by providing a very operatic soundtrack.

Wonder Woman. Her appearance in the film is a major highlight. The music when she appears is perhaps the shining moment of the entire film score, invigorating the audience for what comes next. Gal Gadot certainly looks the part when she is in full demi-god costume. Her foreign accent is still prevalent, which takes some getting used to, and when she's out of costume and wearing regular clothes she seems like an anorexic and fragile Amazon. Those are my only complaints about her.

THE BAD

Disjointed. The plot moves erratically from point to point at times with no transition or natural progression. To be fair there was a ton of story and a whole universe to set up in this one movie that runs a mere two and a half hours. The film also strives to be entertaining too. This is perhaps the most loaded plate for a movie in the history of cinema. It comes across like a massive episode of HEROES or LOST in which every three minutes we shift scenes to another character and another subplot, rarely spending enough time on a scene to get the audience invested.

Not a Superman movie. Batman easily hogs the screen from what by right should be Man of Steel 2. Batman's dark dour character seems to permeate every inch of the film's tone. Where this movie should be equal parts Day and Night it seems to be wholly night. The light and the hope that Superman brings with him seem to have been forgotten. Instead of a world where one believes in the inherent goodness of humanity, a lone protector doing right simply because that is his nature and instinct, we are told that the world only makes sense if you force it to. Personally that isn't the message I look for in my stories of heroes. Instead the movie promotes a philosophy that humanity is either inherently evil, weeds that keep coming back up, and or helpless and in need of gods to save us from ourselves. I'll admit that I have had trouble understanding the character of Superman, and if this is what he represents, then I'm not sure he's the character for me.

Jesse Eisenberg, while playing his role within a specific archetype and deliberate style, reminds me of Jamie Foxx in Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Jim Carrey as the Riddler. He is too goofy and manic to connect with which appears to be a conscious choice by the filmmakers, perhaps to distance themselves from the financial failure of Superman Returns. It is a style befitting classical story-telling but one that I have long since grown out of.

While Lex Luthor isn't as endearing a villain as he has been in the past, Batman isn't perfect either. He's supposed to be the world's greatest detective and one of the most intelligent men on the planet. His intelligence doesn't appear to be well represented in the film as he blindly wages a war against someone so obviously on the side of good it's ridiculous. Instead it is his single-minded emotion that drives him and ultimately it is his emotion that appeals to his sense of reason. I understand that in the film he is supposed to be the opposite of Superman and the filmmakers seem to have taken this to heart. His reason and intelligence are left behind in favor of fear and hate.

Then there are the "not so clever" easter eggs letting us all see glimpses of what DC is going to be giving us in the next four years. !SPOILER ALERT! The Flash looks so alien from any iteration of the character that I've ever seen. It's difficult to get excited about it when it looks like they're setting up another character to be nothing like the character they're based off of. The Cyborg sequence felt too cliche to be interesting and the design for Aquaman, as well as the lingering camera shot, doesn't do much to help the character's reputation. And then there is the setup for Darkseid.

Remember where I said that DC was doing their own thing? Here's where I put my foot in my mouth. In Marvel's The Avengers (2012) they showed audiences the "endgame" in the character of Thanos. Thanos and Darkseid, while very different and quality characters in their own right, fulfill similar roles in the greater universes. DC tells us that they're going the same route and with the release date for the first Justice League film set to debut before Avengers Infinty War it looks as if DC will beat Marvel to the punch. This could force Marvel to fight back and change things around in their plans, maybe even forcing them to release something that isn't ready and sub-par from what could've been. Let's hope Marvel sticks to their plan but if BvS does extremely well in the box office they may in fact buckle under the pressure. We could receive a lesser, potentially disappointing finale to Marvel's Cinematic Universe. We'll see.

THE VERDICT

Responding to this movie was a tough call. Remember folks, I'm the guy who said Star Wars The Force Awakens and Jurassic World were merely okay films, not great films. I also thought the same about Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron so it's very possible that I don't know a single thing of what I'm talking about. I guess what I'm saying is keep an open mind and decide what you think for yourself. Don't let me or anybody else tell you what to think, which was my mindset going in to BvS.

I've often been told that the difference between Marvel and DC's universes is that Marvel takes place in the "real world" where men are heroes and DC takes place in an allegorical world adjacent to our own where Gods walk among us. DC's characters aren't heroes, they're above that. They're gods. This very much is the feeling I had when watching BvS. Zach Snyder doesn't give us a "real" world but instead a world all its own. Snyder has said that Superman cannot exist within the world Christopher Nolan created in his Dark Knight trilogy. So a different world had to be created.

So far I've been hearing a lot of negativity surrounding the film. The reaction to Man of Steel was divided equally among fans. Those negative reactions are addressed in BvS only to be met with new negativity. Snyder adapted his approach to this film as opposed to what was done in Man of Steel. I'll admit that this film is loaded with problems and perhaps the three hour long R rated director's cut will feel like a more completed experience. But the fact remains that this film was given an impossible and unrealistic task.

The warning signs were present in the trailers from the get go. Even the title, as disjointed and a mouthful as it is, should've given us an idea of what to expect. There is no short cut to building a house or a cinematic universe. One must put in the time and effort, take both the negativity and praise in stride, adapt and try to improve and build upon in the future. A film like BvS had to be made in order for everyone to learn this. It is such a shame it happened with characters like Batman and Superman.

Personally, I thought it was fun. In the same vein as FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF-MAN, KING KONG VS GODZILLA, ALIENS VS PREDATOR, and FREDDY VS JASON, all movies I love and adore. The title is Batman V Superman. This is the kind of movie it is, a fun two and a half hour wild romp. I praise DC for not copying Marvel (despite the Darkseid move which nearly removes any defense I can come up with for DC here) but it seems that the heads of DC's burgeoning cinematic universe need to rethink their strategy.

Overall Ranking: 5 out of 10

Nude-O-Meter: 0.5 out of 10

(nearly naked Zod and nearly naked Lois. Why?)