So I just went to see a movie that I had reliably heard as the latest travesty visited upon the Superhero movie genre by several critics I normally respect. I went to see it expecting to roast it afterwards, and discovered, to my surprise, that I quite enjoyed the film.
Just to get it out of the way at the get go, the movie is very clearly not perfect. It is in the odd place of seeming both too long and rushed... lots of scenes are spliced together with no obvious context, leaving you minutes into a scene wondering "what the hell is going on" before it all gets explained right before the next jump... the movie really needed a primary narrative driving it, and it didn't have one, struggling for most of the run to really be about any cohesive idea beyond "sometimes superheroes frown at things." This made the plot, and especially the evil plan of villain Lex Luthor, very difficult to follow, and some jumps the story made didn't make nearly as much sense without the connective tissue it really needed.
Honestly, the Doomsday storyline needed a movie of its own, giving the opposing ideals of Batman and Superman centerstage would have been enough. But it's not the first movie to get weighed under it's own ambition, and that's not the worst way to fail. Better to strike out swinging for the fences, and all that.
There is also one particularly egregious moment in the movie where material that would have been stingers for three different movies in the MCU gets shoved into a single, VERY flow disturbing scene of Wonder Woman looking at videos on her laptop. Seriously. It was an awkwardly handled, genuine storytelling mistake.
And, of course, I feel that the "don't kill people if you can avoid it" credo for Batman and Superman are hugely important.
But there is a lot the film got right, too. Though the storytelling was often disjointed, each individual scene was beautifully shot, finding beauty in framing and color even in the dark, gritty tones where Batman lived. Few match Zack Snyder in lining up shots that feel like they are ripped from a 90's era comic book and he did that very well here, showing angles and flybys that set the scene of a superhero movie with remarkable grace.
The casting was often effective, as well, and nowhere as obviously as Jeremy Irons as Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred. He was just a good fit for the role and shined in his sadly limited screen time. Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of a deeply unbalanced but unequivocally intelligent and tortured Lex Luthor has gotten some hate, but I think the problems are mostly in the character he was made to portray... he played what he was given brilliantly.
It also made me, without reservation, look forward to the Wonder Woman movie. I've talked about the Princess here before, so no need to expound too much, but it is worth pointing out that her teasing in the early going, and final payoff for the big showdown, made me excited. Not only was she clearly able to match Bruce Wayne for intelligence and banter in the early going, her arrival in the big fight showed that she is a match even for a Kryptonian, reflecting a character who would be a legitimate match for a Superman on the battlefield, both supremely confident AND powerful in very limited screentime. So huge kudos on that.
That leads us to the big one. The tone.
Batman V Superman, Dawn of Justice, is not the Avengers, nor any other MCU product. The humor of the MCU was almost entirely absent, as was any sign of joy or levity. There were no scenes where Superman just enjoyed flying around, or where Batman had a moment to bask in just how awesome his gadgets were. Everyone was serious business, all the time, save Luthor, whose attempts at humor only seemed to highlight his madness and one joke about two-thirds of the way through. I can't remember what the joke was or even who told it, but the relief it provided was so great I laughed aloud in the theater.
So I didn't like it as much as any MCU feature I can remember. But as I was driving back from the theater, I considered a very real possibility: that liking Marvel better was more a matter of taste than quality.
Where Marvel has chosen to revel in the fun and color of the Silver Age of Comics, DC seems to have settled itself in the darker, edgier world of the Dark Knight Rises and The Death of Superman. And there are people who prefer that. I am not among them, but that didn't make the movie unenjoyable to me, just not as good. And that really is okay.
My love of the DC Animated Universe made me want to love this with the same joy I had for, say, The Justice League or Young Justice. But well casted, well shot, more cerebral, significantly darker fare has it's place, too. After all, DC has tried matching color and tone with the Green Lantern movie, and that was a trainwreck. With talent like Nolan and Snyder working, maybe this is just what they do better.
Batman V Superman may not be your thing. But I had fun with it, a pleasant surprise after all I had heard. It is a deeply flawed, but beautifully shot story that is attempting to do it's own thing, if in a rather awkward way at times, and can be enjoyed and even appreciated when taken on it's own terms.
It will never be one of my favorites. But as a fan of comic movies who really wanted DC to raise their game (because the MCU release schedule doesn't have me spoiled enough, apparently) I came away enjoying it... even after critics I respect panned it. And I see why they did... the problems just weren't the dealbreakers for me they seemed to be for them.
There is another fascinating aspect of it all, though. The role of atheism in the movie, and the way it manifested in the characters of Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor, drove the bulk of the plot, was FASCINATING.
More on that in another, more spoilery post.
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