Made for the fans

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 2016)

After marinating on it for a night, I think I can finally write a review for Batman v Superman. Let me preface by talking about the one major problem I had with the movie, Batman killing. At first this annoyed me because the Batman I grew up with would never directly take a life, but after giving it some thought, I've come to terms with it. Why would criminals who deal in extremes respond to anything less than extreme measures? If Batman kills then the best case scenario for a criminal in his sights is to be hospitalized, and that's scary. Get in his way and you might just lose your life. Anyways enough on that one aspect of one character, let's move on. The acting in the film was superb. Cavill is the definitive Superman. Gadot was exceptional in her limited screen time. Eisenberg's Luther was very much the string pulling, mad scientist who becomes obsessed with Superman, and his long-winded speeches were quite enjoyable. Irons might just be my favorite on-screen Alfred, and while I've covered an aspect of Batman, Affleck's portrayal overall was phenomenal. There are other fantastic performances from the rest of the supporting cast, but I'll suffice to say that all performances range from good to fantastic. The acting was not the only highlight of the film though. Arguably the two greatest elements in the film are the cinematography and the score. The score was exactly what you'd expect from a collaboration between Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Lion King, Interstellar) and JunkieXL (Mad Max: Fury Road): epic. It was operatic, emotional, and bombastic. Every piece of music has become an instant favorite of mine, and this is the only soundtrack that I can and have listened to all the way through multiple times. The cinematography in the film is equally as beautiful. Every shot from the cold opening (now my new favorite from any film) to the Trinity preparing for battle was a work of art. Many of the shots were ripped straight from the comics, and the fight sequences will go down as some of the greatest ever brought to the silver screen. Now it may seem like I don't have any negatives, but I do have a gripe. That gripe would be the editing. Some of the choices just felt a bit strange. For example, a scene might cut away abruptly, one might be where it probably shouldn't, and there was at least one instance where it felt a scene was missing. However due to the fact that a director's cut has already been announced and that Snyder's director's cuts are very good, I'm sure most of these issues will be fixed. For now though, they are flaws. Now onto the writing. Overall the writing was solid. The dialogue felt crisp and you can definitely tell that Terrio reworked a lot of it for the better when he took over. A surprising amount of humor was present (though it never felt out of place like many Marvel films) and it worked quite well. I can't remember a single joke that didn't land. Another huge positive was that many lines were straight from The Dark Knight Returns. I couldn't help but mouth those lines (with a huge smile on my face) with the movie every time one was used. Another element of the movie that borrowed from the comics was the plot. Two comics to be precise: The Dark Knight Returns and another equally famous story. For the sake of limiting the spoilers in this review I won't mention the second. The movie balances both of these stories well and the transition to the second, while bashed by many critics, I thought was done well. Ultimately the movie spends most of the first half building up to the climax of both of these stories, and then letting both play out one after the other in one epic third act. The build up and philosophical speeches of the first half may be too slow for some, and the massively epic conclusion might be too bombastic for others, but ultimately it worked out perfectly for me. I'm probably a bit biased in my opinion on this film, but that's because of how important it has been to me. It isn't just the first ever film featuring my two favorite characters, or the first film to feature the Trinity. It was announced back in my Freshman year of high school, and I've been following it ever since. It was delayed multiple times, had many strange casting decisions, and many thought it would never come out. Now that it has, I couldn't be happier with it. Ultimately though, I'd highly recommend that everyone sees this film. The critics might not like it, but those are also the same people who gave Sharknado almost a 90%. Form your own opinion, and don't just rely on the opinions of others.