This was a Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2016)

Batman vs. Superman - A Review of Justice
-minor spoilers-
I love movies. I figure I watch more than average, perhaps a lot more. Might as well do what you love. I'm working to become a costumer for BC Film and I do is reviews. Reviews don't change the movies but maybe you can influence people to go see them. I've looked forward to writing this review more than any other. I've made no secret of my dislike for Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and his darker Superman. I gave this movie a 25% chance of being a good and couldn't wait to rip it apart.
Ben Affleck as Batman never bothered me. The man has been trying to do that role for years. It's certainly how he acted as Daredevil. And the film certain has an all-star cast. As much as I didn't like the darker Superman, Henry Cavill suits the role of Superman. Jeremy Irons looks good as a younger, or rather less ancient, Alfred. Laurence Fishbourne fits as Perry White. I spent a good chunk of the movie trying to remember where I knew Holly Hunt (Senator Finch) and it was from her voice acting in the Incredibles as Elastigirl. We finish up the core cast with Amy Adams as Lois, Jesse Eisenberg as a very charismatic Lex Luthor and the big surprise appearance of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Of course, at this point, it was only a surprise if you've been living without Internet access for the last year.
I sat down to watch this movie pretending I had an open mind and realized I just wanted to be right, that it would be terrible. I've argued that if Superman was evil, and since Batman is always darker than Superman, Batman will have to be a downright mass murderer. And then I realized that people need the opportunity to change. If we don't allow that, our first mistake, our first failure, would define the best we could ever be. If I insist that all DC movies be judged by Man of Steel, well they better fold up shop right now. It was at that point, that I was actually able to have an open mind. If I didn't, then I could only be as good as my worst mistake. Maybe that mistake was how angry I was that Zack Snyder had changed Superman.
Halfway through Batman vs. Superman, I still didn't know if it was a good movie or not. It was well filmed. The effects were unbelievable. The acting was superb. They breezed through the prerequisite origins without making it feel like they were taking too long. I really appreciated that. But the big fight had not happened. Would Superman break some more necks in this movie? Would Batman? Or even Wonder Woman? I didn't know, and you won't either until you go see it, because I'm not going to tell you that.
But I am going to tell you why this movie was amazing.
Clark Kent hides his secret identity by dropping a curl of hair over his forehead and wearing glasses. People complain that this would not work. But it does. Henry Cavil was walking around downtown New York in a T-Shirt with a Superman logo on it and no one noticed. Yeah, it works. At the height of the struggle between Batman and Superman, Chris Terrio and/or David S Goyer, the writers, dug out a gem. It was something obvious about these two Superheroes that I did not notice after 32 years of comic collecting. They have something in common. If you want to know what it is, please, go see this movie. And if you know, please don't be mean, don't tell people. And my point is, that is when I knew the movie was fantastic. They took characters I thought I knew and surprised me.
What about all my complaints about civilian casualties I levied at Man of Steel? The problem is that we have CGI and it's really easy to show building blowing up now. It's also really exciting. It's like what happened with the Mortal Kombat fighting video game. They now have "x-ray" attacks where, in full Dr. House or CSI zoom in graphic gore, they show a punch that breaks almost every bone in the opponent's body but they keep fighting afterwards like nothing has happened. I love Mortal Kombat but when it gets that absurd, you've got to call them on it. All I want is an excuse to believe things are realistic. Just throw me a bone. After Man of Steel, the Avengers 2: Age of Ultron came out and the heroes in that movie went to great efforts to save civilians and were willing to stay and die to prevent casualties. And so were Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman.
As a final note, many comics, cartoons and films have borrowed from Frank Miller's epic Graphic Novel, The Dark Knight Returns, which re-defined Batman, and they have never done it justice until now. The only other exception is the animated film version of The Dark Knight Returns which is a direct adaptation and well worth the watching especially as a preparation film for Batman vs. Superman. In watching the credits, I smiled when I saw Frank Miller's credit.