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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Review: So It Can Get Worse After All

Warner Bros. is doing all it can to try to outdo Fox when it comes to how fast it can run their primary superhero property down the drain. Where it should be geek fans having the eternal debates of who would win in a fight between superheroes, instead it's a conversation of which franchise is trying to suck the life out of their characters and fan base first. It is into that fight where seems that Warner Bros. is determined not to be the victor. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice entirely eliminates any fresh energy and hope that had come from Man of Steel (which I highly enjoyed). The film is so entirely devoid of feeling of fondness or joy in the sandbox in which they have to play that I came out of the theater feeling genuinely bad for the legions of fans who will have to try to come up with ways to defend it.

BvS picks up with the aftermath of the battle between Superman and Zod from Man of Steel. It's implied that many thousands of lives were lost, including an entire building of Wayne Enterprises employees. Bruce Wayne / Batman (played by first time caped crusader Ben Affleck) is infuriated that someone would take it on themselves to defend the city and the planet while at the same time not being thoughtful enough to prevent any collateral deaths, so he gets it out for Superman and all of his holier-than-thou perceived arrogance. (Please take note of any hypocrisy on Wayne's part)

Clark Kent / Superman (reprised by Henry Cavill) is floating around trying to work out a mental balance between aw-shucks humble Kansas boy and being treated like a God by much of the world's population. Ironically it harkens back to what Jor-El said at the beginning of Man of Steel – "he'll be a god to them."

We've got Jesse Eisenberg in what may very well be the worse casting of a Lex Luthor in the history of film or television (and yes, we're including Kevin Spacey in that mix). His mix of histrionic laughter with thinley-veiled dot-com billionaire would have been a better fit among the worse of the James Bond villains.

Gal Gadot putting in an appearance as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman had been in the trailers a potential for helping making the super-trio at least somewhat interesting. She looks amazing, but it has to be said that director Zack Snyder clearly has no idea what to do with her beyond having her hair blowing majestically around her at every possible opportunity. She's basically a given the role of being a glamour shot that helps Batman and Superman advance their own battles.

It feels like they were trying to really connect with the audience by asking deep questions of what it is to be human, our responsibilities to others, and the futility of blind vengeance.  Unfortunately that would require these characters to be ones that we're at all connected to or emotionally invested in. They barely started down that path in Man of Steel; Batman/Wayne hasn't been someone an audience has cared about since… ever, if you want to get right down to it. So the idea that we now have to feel deeply connected with THE most legendary showdown in all of the comic lexicon when there's been no bother to get us to that point is deeply insulting to the audience. Any long-seated connection between readers and the comics can't jump directly to the screen, especially when there has been so much pain taken to make sure we know that these aren't the same characters as we've been reading for nearly a century.

The battles are weak, the logic is non-existant, and every time Luthor appears on-screen you just want to grab the remote and jump ahead. It's nerve wracking of a trainwreck to watch unfold – but we have to watch it – for more than two and a half hours. It's clear that Snyder wants us to care, but we don't.

It's a waste of time, it's a waste of money. Warner Bros. might want to emulate the successes of Marvel, but thus far it's clear that they simply don't understand what the appeal of those films happens to be, and that's a shame. The fight of the century, and it's a lost cause.

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