Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a movie that was involved in a lot of conversation lately. Is it a good movie? A bad movie? Can it be considered successful? Or is it a failure? Why people hate this movie? Can anyone even like it? So much discussion surrounding it and the movie, directed by Zack Snyder, certainly had divided the fans. Some people love the movie, some people hate it, while others were in the middle and thought it was just okay. Most critics were unapologetic when giving it negative reviews but was it really that bad?
I'm one of the people who loves the movie and I even saw it twice at the cinema but not for the reason people would think. After the first time I saw it, I had mixed feelings about the movie. There are so many scenes that I love and the discussion the movie was trying to raise about a god-like being living among us and the world reaction to him is very fascinating, but at the same time if people would have asked me then how I feel about the movie, I couldn't say it was a great movie. The best I could say was "I kind of like it, it was okay", which I find odd since I love a lot of the scenes in this movie like I've mentioned. Then why did I watched it for the second time?
It was because I thought I had an info-overload kind of situation. There was too many things to think about, so many layers of story the movie was trying to tell me, and I was overwhelmed by it. I had the same kind of reaction after I watched Man of Steel and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for the first time at the cinema. But after the two movies were aired on TV and I watched them multiple times, I love both of the movies now! So I thought that was the case for me for Batman v Superman too. I'm almost certain I would fall in love with it once I saw it multiple times on TV, but before it hit the small screen, I wanted to have another look at the movie at the cinema. Although I could still end up having mixed feelings about it after my second time watching it, I knew I love so many scenes from the movie that I thought it was a risk worth taking. Fortunately for me, my instinct was right and I did fall in love with the movie and appreciate the scenes even more than before. I even thought the movie wasn't long enough!
Before I discuss more about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, let me put a warning here that this movie review will contain spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled on details of this movie (even minor ones), I would suggest you to leave this page and read something else. If you don't mind though, well, you're more than welcome to read on.
So what do I like about this movie? First off all, is the real-world view on Superman. His presence and its significance to the entire world is not only being discussed through Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne perspective, but also through politicians and normal citizens eyes which was very believable in my opinion. One of the powerful scene that revolved around this discussion is the scene where there were people interviewed on TV channels and were talking about the existence and role of Superman, and that scene were alternating with scenes showing Superman helping people; saving people from exploded rocket launcher, pulling huge ship from being stuck on ice, and so on. That was a magnificent and intelligent sequence in my opinion and it stuck in my head for quite some time, giving me something to think about.
Second thing I love most about this movie is the character interaction, and that I think is mostly because of the excellent casting and great script. I love seeing the characters interact (and I mean with conversation, not with blows and punches), from Clark Kent and Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Perry White, to Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth, and Lex Luthor with Senator June Finch. I think all of the returning cast (from Man of Steel) did a great job but the newcomers to the franchise are the ones who stood out the most in my opinion. Ben Affleck's performance as Bruce Wayne is just amazing while Jesse Eisenberg's performance as Lex Luthor just blown my mind away, I just loved it! I find Jeremy Irons' Alfred Pennyworth very charming and Holly Hunter's Senator June Finch very powerful, despite both roles are smaller roles. Gal Gadot nailed it as well, while her Wonder Woman portrayal largely drew attention, it was her portrayal as Diana Prince that I really like. The few scenes she had with Bruce Wayne are really great. I'm on team Superman going in to watch this movie but I have to admit, I was sometimes a bit confused with the character, like I'm not really sure who Superman is as a character. But still I love Henry Cavill as Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman and again, all of the cast did great with their role, whether its a big role or small.
I did mentioned I love so many scenes in this movie, and one of them is the Senate hearing scene. It was a very powerful scene and Holly Hunter's short, powerful and believable performance was really amazing. Some might say the scene was short and nothing much but the impact it gave me was enormous. It was indeed a shocking scene for me, and really speaks to the evil of Lex Luthor and how much he was willing to go to achieve his goal. There are some scenes that I didn't like though. One of it is the Bruce Wayne's nightmare scene - not the entire scene but only the fight scene between him and the Superman's army. I was unfortunately looking at the soldiers who were fighting Batman and they were doing nothing with the rifles that they were holding and was waiting to be punched by Batman instead. It was too obvious the fight was choreographed and it turned me off quite a bit. Another scene was the car chase scene between Batmobile and the lorry and few cars that was transporting Kryptonite to LexCorp. I find the sequence a bit all over the place and very hard to follow.
As for the overall story of the movie, I love it and I think it's quite sophisticated but there are so many layers to the story, too many things to process that I fear some people might have a hard time understanding it. I'm not a comic book reader but I was quite fortunate to have had exposed to enough info (or rather spoilers) from online articles, YouTube channels from comic book lovers themselves and comments from said channels, that I understand or at least have an idea on what is going on. I know spoilers usually are bad if you want an element of surprise to your movie-going experience but it served me quite good for this movie. I don't recommend it for everyone though as this is just my personal experience.
I love Zack Snyder previous movies like the 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake, Watchmen and even Sucker Punch (which was heavily criticized) so I kind of know what to expect from his work and I really enjoy Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice very much. Great opening, many memorable scenes in the middle, and an excellent ending. But what about you who haven't watch it. Should you watch the movie? Well, you've seen the movie trailers, you've seen the posters, so you should know better how to answer that question. It's really just a matter of personal preferences. If you think you would like it, then go and watch it. If you don't think it's your type of movie, then don't go watch it. You know what you like in a movie and you have your own personal taste so I'll leave that decision to you.
I have so much respect for this movie. Congratulations to all the people, in front and behind of the camera, for the making of this great film. I can't wait to see what DC Extended Universe have to offer next.
Images from Batman v Superman official website.
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