Episode 19: I Will Not Stand for These Trumped Up Charges!
Hi everyone, Producer Brad here with a very special (OK, settle down, it’s not THAT special) podcast! We’re joined by Josh this week, who actually did good work last time on the podcast that Aaron ignored. Here’s that good work, a bit late, but with…with another Justice League movie…being planned…now is better than never…
Batman v. Superman Review
For starters, let me give you my geek bona fides. My Dad was a nerd and I come by it honest. I grew up on Superfriends reruns and the Adam West Batman, Christopher Reeve’s Superman (I-IV), and even Aquaman cartoons. Then the 90’s happened and we got perhaps the greatest run of comicbook cartoons ever. Batman: The Animated Series ranks as one of the best cartoons that humanity has ever produced and it, along with comic books and the cartoons that would follow, helped shape my love for DC comics (as well as Marvel. X-Men and Spider-Man were also top notch.) So believe me when I say that I love these characters, and this movie is a (rather) flawed, but earnest attempt to propel them into a post-Marvel Cinematic Universe world, where everything has to fit together.
It tries. Succeeds in some areas and fails in most, but above it all it tries. It wants to be the answer for DC fans who see Iron Man, Captain America, and a host of other heroes palling around, and wonder “where’s the Justice League?” Well, they’re here, little Timmy. Just, a little different than you remember and kinda wonky.
Plotgun (Like shotgun, get it?)
Where to begin? I could go into all of the various plots contained in the movie, but then this review would be as scattered and rambling as the film was. The plots include, but are not limited to: Lex Luthor playing God, Batman hating/then not hating Superman, Superman struggling with the modern world, Wonder Woman getting up to hijinks, Batman investigating what Lex Luthor is up to, Superman loving Lois Lane, Congressional hearings, and dead parents. There’s just too much.
What BvS suffers from the most is a sense of disparity among its multiple plots. There are a million things going on in this film and I honestly left it saying “What did I just watch?” Not because it was bad, per se, but because too much was going on. A perfect example is the film opening with the Batman origin story. I won’t recount it here because everyone already knows it. It’s Batman. Dead parents. We get it. This raises the consistency issue, as it relies on the audience to know half of what’s going on already. They assume you’ve watched Man of Steel, but not any of the Nolan films. Sure, you could argue that this is a different Batman altogether, so he has a different life that needs to be relayed to the viewer. That’s fair, but almost none of what is shown would lead you believe that his background is any different. His origin is unchanged, only his recent actions matter.
So Snyder already has a problem because now you’ve got a character (Superman) with a full movie to explain who he is and one that’s kinda already done, kinda not, and so we get a Cliff’s Notes version of this new Caped Crusader. It’s odd and off-putting, and only serves to set up a callback later in the movie during the eponymous “v.” section of the flick. Long story short, Batman is back and darker than ever! Superman, too! (Put that on the poster) That’s just a small, bat-shaped area. There’s still the criminally underused Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), plus hints of the other Justice League members.
Whatever Happened to the Batman of Yesteryear?
Batman hates Superman because “he brought the war to us.” As you’ve seen in the trailers, Batman thinks Superman is a planetary threat and must be killed. Yes, killed. Echoing some Fox News-level logic, he says that if even a 1% of him going bad exists, we must act forcefully and permanently. This makes him feel more Punisher than Dark Knight and serves to reinforce that this is a different Batman than we’re used to.
He’ll take a life, if necessary, and in fact does so multiple times throughout the movie. There’s certainly an argument to be made that some life and death situations necessitate the latter to preserve the former. And while we can go back and forth on it forever, the film chooses for us. Batman kills for Justice. Who he kills and why is a spoiler, so there, but he does it so get used to it now.
As for Superman, he takes a decidedly restrained approach at first when dealing with Batman, as the situation that forces them into conflict at least tries to provide justification. It does, mostly, but is still a little soft. They quickly end up on even footing, per the trailer again, and the fight gets going in earnest. It’s a fun fight. It’s done well and, thankfully, doesn’t result in another major city getting destroyed. Snyder made it very obvious that they are avoiding that this time around. After the fight, there’s even more fighting which is also entertaining. So, the takeaway here is fighting.
Character development is pretty light, as you’d expect, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice really serves to bridge the gap from Man of Steel to the untitled Justice League movie (Justice League: Mid-Morning of Justice?). Neither Bats nor Superman change that much, aside from a few minor things. We’re introduced to new characters like Wonder Woman, but just barely, and we’re given a fleeting glimpse of many others. The world is further defined, if only a little, as we learn there are two camps: Superman is great and Superman is the worst who destroyed an entire city how is this even a discussion. The latter seem to have a fair point, which Batman had clearly sided with. Otherwise, it’s the same place we live now.
Where Do We Go Now?
The future of the DC Cinematic Universe (DCCU) is still uncertain, pending how well this does. Reviews haven’t been great, but I think they’ve been harsher than they deserve. On a scale of “Avoid It” to “Watch It Now”, I’d say it’s somewhere around “Redbox/Netflix.” I wish I could say the movie left me wanting more, but that might be an overstatement. I do want to see more, but probably on Blu-Ray at my house instead of the theater.
Overall, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was not the nail-biting legal thrillride I’d hoped for. Nor was it an especially good superhero movie. The tone was generally too dark for the heroes involved, there was too much going on, and the script was just kind of bland. Did no one learn from Spider-Man 3? (Editor’s Note: No, they did not). The actors, for their part, were good. However, you can only work with what you’re given and it looks like they were given five or six scripts shuffled together. In the end, the movie tries its heart out to be the DC answer to the MCU. The problem is, it just wasn’t the best answer. Plus, it was kind of copying Marvel’s answer, but DC didn’t know how to show its work.
Go see it if you really love DC, but you’d be fine just waiting for it at home.
Thanks Josh again for the great review! Maybe next time don’t send it to Aaron though…anyway, catch you guys in a few weeks.
Professional Idiots 