Batman vs Superman Dawn Of Justice
What I loved vs What I hated
Everything I dislike
about this film is everything Superman related. (Yes, I also thought that Man
Of Steel was a horrendous piece of garbage.)
Let’s start with Lois
Lane
What Zack Snyder forgets is that Lois Lane doesn’t need Superman,
Superman needs Lois Lane. Lois is the one who restores his faith in humanity
when the world reveals its ugliness. Lois is the one who makes him feel human
when everything tells him he is an alien. Lois is the one who shows him the
strength of humans even though, to him, people are fragile creatures. She is
the real source of Superman’s strength. The Lois Lane in this film is a weak
female character. You’d think they would have written a much stronger character
for this iconic female, especially since they are introducing another female
icon, Wonder Woman, amidst Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill’s competing jawlines
and ridiculous chin dimples.
Lex Luthor
This
is not the Lex we came to see. Zack Snyder fucking us around, allowing Jesse
Eisenberg to play our beloved Lex Luthor as an exaggerated Mark Zuckerberg from
The Social Network. I don’t care if this is the real Lex Luthor’s son. I want
the calculated, cool genius that is feared by every superhero in The Justice
League. Jesse Eisenberg’s character is comical and is never once believable as
the main antagonist. You keep waiting for him to reveal that he was pretending
to be a playful child while all along he was a great genius who played crazy to
divert the attention away from himself, Hamlet style. This moment does not
come.
Superman
Henry
Cavill lacks the charisma to play a believable Superman. There’s more to this
hero than just big muscles. People love this character and loved the
Christopher Reeve portrayal because of how charismatic he was. Superman is the
boyscout who makes the weak feel safe. The hero who saves people from burning
buildings and smiles and waves as he flies away because his presence is
supposed to make everyone feel that the danger can always be overcome. Henry
Cavill’s Superman is more focused on the fact that he's getting some bad press.
Like, dude, stop crying to your mommy about people calling you bad names.
Either be a hero despite the critics or shut the fuck up and live your life as
Clark Kent. Also, Henry Cavill is a terrible Clark Kent. Clark Kent is supposed
to be such a dork, so clumsy and so cowardly that nobody will ever believe that
he could be the man of steel. That’s why he can get away with using spectacles
and a different hairstyle as a disguise.
Now, everything I
loved about this film is everything Batman related!
Three years ago, they announced that Ben Affleck was going
to play the caped crusader and fanboys around the world cried out in anger. I
was a supporter of this casting choice from the beginning and let me tell you,
Ben Affleck does not disappoint.
Some people might think that the first two thirds of the
film is a bit slow but I loved it. It not only brings across the human element
of ordinary people living in a world where an alien, who some consider the
messiah, has the ability to wipe out the human race if he chose to but also
shows the progressive disillusionment that Bruce Wayne has when it comes to
people, crime, punishment and where he fits in as a hero or a necessary evil.
Ben Affleck plays the role to perfection. He not only looks
the part physically as Batman but also portrays Bruce Wayne in a way that we’ve
never seen onscreen before.
As Bruce Wayne he is the playful billionaire with a good
heart but a dark seriousness that seems to be hiding personal tragedy. We also
get to see him play detective; something that I’ve always criticised about
previous Batman portrayals. This character shows Bruce Wayne the genius, Bruce
Wayne the strategist.
Even when you watch the training montage that is reminiscent
of Rocky Balboa preparing to fight Ivan Drago, you will see him training for
specific moments in his fight against Superman ie. Dragging a truck tyre and
then having to drag Superman in the same fashion. This shows that he planned
every moment of that fight and planned for every contingency in case Superman
should get the best of him at some point.
We also get to see the dark side of Batman. He gives that
grin just before he’s about to tear some criminal apart. That grin that we
haven’t seen since the 90’s animated series version. Batman looks like he’s
enjoying every broken bone he’s responsible for. At some point you are left
wondering if he isn’t perhaps crazier than the criminals he fights. He even
tells Alfred, “We’ve always been criminals.”
Ben Affleck adds just the right amount of crazy to this
character. Let’s face it, if Bruce Wayne’s only mission was to fight crime, he
could have done it using Wayne Enterprises’ money and pumping it into better
crime prevention units and social upliftment programmes without dressing up
like a giant bat. Clearly Alfred should have sent him for more extensive trauma
counselling after the little boy saw his parents get murdered. Bruce Wayne is
secretly a psychopath who uses crime fighting as a means to satiate his
psychopathic tendencies. He is the superhero version of Dexter and Ben Affleck
gives us just enough glimpses of that insanity to prove to us why the people of
Gotham are just as afraid of him as the criminals are.
Batman made this film enjoyable and Ben Affleck could only
have been a better Batman if he had Kevin Conroy’s voice.
That is all.
