When is good a disappointment? When DC’s greatest heroes clash without a good understanding of why. The reason why The Dark Knight would want to fight against the Red Caped Moralist is muddled and confusing. The Dark Knight had the three greatest superhero movies ever and the Superman franchise seemed to have rebounded from mediocrity. Instead a trajectory that was headed to where the Avengers had taken the Marvel movies, we were left wanting more. With a great trailer we hoped for potential greatness, but when the credits rolled we were left with an overhyped title, underdeveloped plot, and a disappointing movie.
The expectation of a movie titled Batman vs. Superman we would expect to see an important problem with two different reasonable solutions where the two Superhero’s would passionately disagree on the best way to resolve the problem, which would lead to a historic fight of Epic proportions. The important problem didn’t seem that important and the solutions didn’t seem that reasonable.
The movie’s plot didn’t form naturally, but seemed forced taking leaps from scene to scene. If the movie was a painting, it would look more like a connect the dots picture as opposed to a breathtaking work of art. The outline of what they wanted to happen was there, but the path didn’t flow. The heroes’ crimes didn’t merit the outrage towards one another. The puppeteer fueling the feud, Lex Luther, planned to pit the two against one another, but it was only plausible because the script said so. The plot didn’t convince me that these two superheroes needed to fight each other, nor had good reason to fight one another.
The most enjoyable part of the movie was the actual fight. I was fearful that they would dumb down Superman’s powers to fight Batman, I didn’t feel they did. Superman, obviously faster, quicker, stronger when at full strength dominated, but Batman having the tactical advantage when he was able to use Kryptonite. When Batman puts Superman through the roof you get the sense that Superman underestimates his foe. Why shouldn’t he? Batman is a mere mortal and Superman is the epitome of Super. Superman’s lack of respect for Batman is evidenced when he prevents Batman from fighting crime in Gotham. These scenes were the very best parts of the movie.
When down the road I am looking in Netflix for a superhero movie to watch, I will probably end up choosing one of the Christian Bale Batman’s or a Marvel movie. This is a disappointment, because if Christopher Nolan had made this movie I am sure that I would have bought this movie and watched it annually.
Here are some critics opinions.
Richard Roper from the Chicago Sun Times, writes:
Here’s what rocks. We all know Batman, even with all his fighting skills and his cool toys and his cunning, would be no match one-on-one against Superman. “Dawn of Justice” figures out a way to level the playing field and then some.
David Edelstein from vulture.com says:
But he never gets to the heart of that all-important civil liberties question, not because the question is unresolvable but because there can be no true endings in this superhero universe. The problem is that you can’t build a coherent myth out of fragments. You can only hope that the audience will be too jolted — and too turned on by the prospect of more jolts — to care.