I despise Batman V Superman almost as much as Zack Snyder despises Batman & Superman.
(Just a heads up, this contains plenty of spoilers)
For those who don’t know me personally, I’ll let you in on a little secret - I’m not a fan of Man of Steel, Zack Snyder’s attempt at a Superman origin story. It’s visually stunning at points, Henry Cavill is a near perfect choice for Superman but overall, Snyder missed the message that was written right on the Man of Tomorrow’s chest. It started to become clear in Man of Steel that Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer’s definition of a hero might be different, if not downright wrong. If MoS hinted at that fact, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice hammered it into the viewers until all we could do was cry for help - a cry Snyder’s Superman and Batman would undoubtedly ignore in favor of hitting something harder. There’s a lot going on in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Subtlety. With a running of over two and a half hours, you can feel the attempt at a sequel struggling against the corporate need to set up future properties. At its core, Batman V. Superman is about people who don’t agree looking to resolve their disagreements through fighting, disregard for human life, or flat out murder. Batman is upset with Superman because he believes that Superman is a god that could destroy humanity in a second. Superman is upset with Batman because Batman is a vigilante who thinks he’s above the law. Lex Luthor is upset with Superman because Superman poses a threat. However, those ideas are so far from clear because, on the fringes of the film, there are far too many other ideas fighting to be explored that take time away from an already convoluted and unintelligible fight between the two biggest characters in superhero pop culture, a fight that doesn’t happen until well over an hour into the film.
There are no spectacular performances holding these fringes together. There isn’t a standout in the film - at least not a positive one. Granted, most of this is attributed to terrible writing and weak directing. Each character settles around uninteresting (Affleck’s Batman and Cavill’s Superman) or fatally under developed (Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman), with the exception of Jessie Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor, whose over-the-top insanity hits you over the head with the nuance and subtlety of a sledgehammer.
Fans of Wonder Woman have been waiting over 75 years to see the Amazonian princess brought to the big screen in all her live-action-feminist-fighting-glory. Fans could’ve waited a little longer, because Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is nothing more than token feminism brought to convolute the already sloppy plot. She introduces the rest of the Justice League in the laziest introductions of a superhero team in memory. She goes from wearing black-tie gowns to bronzed-battle armor with no character development in between. This lack of character development and focus on universe building is, again, one of the biggest problems with Batman V Superman.
Let’s talk about that core of the film again. Batman fighting Superman. This isn’t a new idea, it’s happened many times in the comics. The definitive version of this battle comes in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, in which a weary Batman takes back his city from gangs, and becomes the Dark Knight once again. The President is upset with Batman’s reign of terror over the city and sends Superman to stop him.
Frank Miller treats this fight like a war; Zack Snyder, a boxing match. In the boxing match scenario, the fight isn’t even close. Superman can incapacitate Batman in a matter of seconds. Which begs the question, why doesn’t he? In BvS, Lex Luthor has kidnapped Martha Kent and made Batman’s head the ransom. A reasonable version of Superman would stop the fight immediately and explain to Batman why the fighting would just be feeding into Lex’s master plan. But then again, this isn’t a reasonable Superman. Like many things in this film, the fight looks wonderful, but makes no sense.
Snyder picks and chooses which sections of his favorite comic books to use, and this lack of attention to context results in characters making unmotivated choices that defy any sort of logic and reason that exist in the fictional world.
From a purely technical standpoint, this film is a mess. The poor editing results in long stretches of the film where no urgency is felt, even though approximately seventeen different subplots are going on. BvS loses itself in its need to set up the reset of the film and the rest of the DC Universe’s future franchises and, as a result, we never get enough time with any one character to understand their motivations or to care for them. The latter weakness becomes one of the films’ worst parts - the ending of this film begs the audience to care for the characters (with a healthy amount of Jesus imagery thrown in for good measure) to no avail. There’s no reason to care about the character due to the fact that they’ve done nothing to illicit any sort of compassion. Why would you? These are not admirable characters.
Zack Snyder and David Goyer make the argument that violence and murder is preferable to taking the high road. Batman kills people. Not just any people, henchmen. If Batman can justify killing low life thugs, what’s the point of having Batman villains like the Joker? Surely the Joker deserves death much more than a low level thug, right? It’s in these choices Batman loses his credibility as a hero. Batman and Superman can be better than us, hence the term superhero. Most superheroes give society an ideal to strive towards - they give us hope that someone can rise above us and make the right choice, especially when it’s not the easy one. This Superman seems to be fresh out of hope, but fully stocked in personal vendettas and revenge - Superman is called to the main fight via the Lois-signal (one of the few humans Superman seems to actually care about) triggered by Lois Lane being in some immediate danger (SIDEBAR: The sexism in this film is insane. Not only is Lois Lane reduced to a damsel in distress multiple times, Martha Kent is reduced to a damsel in distress as well. Wonder Woman is brought in for the completely unnecessary and mind-numbingly generic final battle, but for what? She’s a deux ex machina plot device exhibiting no real character traits besides her fighting ability and her stunning visuals - a trait Snyder has consistantly chosen over real substance. END OF SIDEBAR).
This Batman is also running low on hope, but would love to offer you paranoia and fear mongering. The only reason Batman doesn’t kill Superman (!!!!) is because Superman and Batman’s mothers share a name. If you think that’s an odd choice, aren’t you in for a surprise. Zack Snyder is introducing Batman and Superman to a new generation of children, one that will be wondering why their superheroes aren’t working to protect humanity by providing an example of what to strive for, specifically the Last Son of Krypton.
Snyder’s disdain for everything Superman stands for is evident in the way he destroys Superman’s fight for truth, justice, and the American way.
Recently, in an interview, it was revealed that a photographer killed at the beginning of the film is actually Superman’s beloved pal and sometimes sidekick, Jimmy Olsen. In the interview, Snyder explained his choice by saying, “we don’t have room for Jimmy Olsen in our big pantheon of characters, but we can have fun with him, right?”
That’s a quote, folks.
Zack Snyder believes killing off one of Superman’s only supporting characters is having a little bit of fun with him.
This lack of love and respect for the characters he’s introducing to the public, and the lack of remorse he feels for that lack of love and respect, is offensive and tragic. More than anything, I’m sad that Batman V. Superman exists. It takes a lot for a person to despise something someone else loves, and treat it with the utmost disrespect.
For Zack Snyder, it’s a bit of fun.
