Ever since Warner Bros. announced the making of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2014, people globally were anticipating the movie, originally set to be released in July 2015. As the title suggests, the majority of the movie is a build up to an epic fight between Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill). As Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), states it, it is “The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world: God versus man, day versus night, Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham.”
The beginning of the movie starts by showing the end of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel from Bruce Wayne’s perspective on the ground of metropolis while Superman and General Zod are fighting. Wayne sees the devastation and death caused by the fight between the two and becomes angered with Superman.
The bulk of the movie goes back and forth between Batman’s search for Kryptonite that Lex Luthor is looking for and eventually finds, although both want it to destroy Superman. The global issue of Superman’s power is a key component as well: since he is a foreigner, do we police his power or let him do his thing.
Superman and Batman are eventually set up by Luthor to fight each other. The fight itself between them only lasts about 15 minutes when a crazy coincidence causes Batman to spare Superman’s life and join forces together. Luthor then releases his kryptonian creation, Doomsday, who then goes after Batman and Superman. When the fight is looking bad for the two, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) appears and the trio prevail over Doomsday in an amazing fight.
While the title says Batman v Superman, it was a bit of a disappointment that the fight between the two was not a large part of the movie, only lasting about 10-15 minutes. The plot itself was extremely disjointed, stumbling from point to point without a lot of connective tissue. This made the story very weak. Another part of the movie that was lacking was in levity, while Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy were also very dark, they at least made you laugh while Batman v Superman only had one joke.
Overall I thought this movie was not complete. The plot was jumping from point to point and left me confused from time to time and was overstuffed with characters. However, I would go back to see it because of the absolutely amazing fight scenes and recommend it to anyone who loves action movies. — Alexander Rurik
Going into the movie, I was not sure of what to expect of Ben Affleck as new Batman, but was very pleased with his performance. He was depicting more of an older, grumpier man than that of Christian Bale and played it very well. Henry Cavill has a great voice and jawline for Superman and is able to play the part of a “perfect boy” extremely well. Although, his character is very forgettable and not at all relatable.
I am also very tired of seeing large, computer generated cities being destroyed in seemingly every single superhero movie made in the last few years. Hans Zimmer never disappoints creating soundtracks and the cinematography for this movie, done by Larry Fong, was incredible.
Wonder Woman’s inclusion felt like product placement for her movie that is scheduled for next year. There were also brief appearances from the Flash and Aquaman that felt completely out of context. Warner Bros. has announced that they both, along with Wonder Woman, will have their own movies. This introduction of those characters left me frustrated.
Warner Bros. has huge stakes in Batman v Superman doing well because they have already announced that this movie launches the DC comics cinematic universe. They have a lot riding on this movie being successful.
The budget was estimated at around $250 million plus another estimated $100-250 million for marketing which totals around $400 million total. They need to make about a billion dollars at the box office globally to consider it successful to launch their franchise of the DC comics cinematic universe. After the first weekend, it earned $166.1 million in America and $254 million overseas.
Despite all the bad reviews, including one of the lowest ratings of a superhero movie of all time currently at 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, they had the largest weekend ever in the month of March history of movies. It also claims fourth largest superhero movie opening of all time and so far the sixth best opening weekend gross ever.
Overall I thought this movie was not complete. The plot was jumping from point to point and left me confused from time to time and was overstuffed with characters. However, I would go back to see it because of the absolutely amazing fight scenes and recommend it to anyone who loves action movies.
For movie reviews, please read the review of controversial movie Concussion.
This author can be reached via twitter @alexrurik23 and via email [email protected]
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