More than a superhero action flic...

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2016)

I know it's only a Comic Book Superhero Action movie, but I'm going to have some critique fun with it. And why not? After forcing me to sit through 151 minutes of Comic Book Superhero Action of the dark kind, I'm entitled to draw my own conclusions to what the hell lies under the capes of this superhero spectacle. It was the only way I could entertain myself while watching this with a two-year-old child beside me who was more interested in his popcorn and dirtying his nappy! (Not my child, belonged to some inconsiderate parents.)
On the surface it's all about Good verses Evil, and the perception of what is good and what is evil. That is the comic book analysis in a nutshell. Now, in my little demented world of analysis, this deliciously dark film is about the current state of our crazy political world in total chaos. As I see it, Batman and Superman are symbols of political and religious factions. So here it goes---
Batman is politically to the Right. A rich boy who is subconsciously out to revenge his parents death through his battle with crime. He is angry, as the Right tend to be because of all this political correctness gone mad and other social issues that has given rise to dangerous deluded leaders of the wrong kind. (Hang in there, this rant is going somewhere!) Superman is a Lefty. Raised on a farm, but he is not from this planet (a refugee?), who is a do-gooder, mostly saving people of all race and persuasion. Batman does not like Superman, because Superman cannot be trusted after what he did in his last bloody battle (taking out thousands of innocent civilians in friendly fire). And Superman is not from this world, therefore this refugee cannot be trusted by the Right.
Between them is Lex Luther, a ruthless wealthy megalomaniac, out to get rid of the superheroes so as to control the world. So how does he do it? Get them to turn on each other. He wants to be more powerful than they are, and it irks him that these superheroes are seen as Gods (a very valid point made by my son). Like Lex said, "If man won't kill God, the Devil will do it!" Lex is the Devil, ready to take out the Godly superheroes. The wealth and control of his evil corporation gives him the power to achieve that by manipulating the superheroes. But who does Lex Luther represent (besides the Devil)? At first I thought he was a symbol of the Government. But democratic governments are not wealthy enough to achieve anything alone (not unless you are a very ruthless corrupt government that suppresses its own people). Then I saw him as the Media Empire, who manipulate both political factions for their own financial gain. And then it eventually dawned on me that Lex Luther is, Rupert Murdoch! (Have I lost you yet?)
Now how the hell did I come to this conclusion? The opening titles display the corporate logo from Warner Brothers. Now Rupert wanted to buy some of Warner's shares, but the board knew of his craziness and cried, "NO WAY, JOSE'!" And Warner Brothers allows their filmmakers to express their own opinion, and maybe are happy for them to take a swipe at the old Grinch. Another crazy notion I have is that Lex worked overtime to create a distraction for the superheroes to combat each other, just like Rupert has distracted the population with political keyboard warfare. So while the fools (the Left and the Right) are battling each other, Rupert is at work making billions. And at some lavish library fund raising function, Lex makes a speech about philanthropists and the like, adding that, "Books are knowledge and knowledge is power. The bittersweet pain among men is having knowledge with no power!" And there lies the problem when wanna-be politicians with plenty of money behind them spring up with crazy notions to make the World a better place with dangerous ideas, and fools jump in to give a helping hand. These fools don't have the knowledge, but those that do then don't have the power, and can only standby the muddy ocean banks watching the sinking ships. (The attack on the newspapers publishing fluffy pieces and leaving out the real juicy stories that matter was also a nice little sly attack.)
Thrown into the elements of political pandemonium is the Feminist touch in the guise of Wonder Woman. She was a late entry, but added that extra political punch, ready for the next installment in this series. She helped the male ego driven superheroes take on the ever so powerful Super monster created by Lex. The more you blasted this Monster, the powerful it got, thriving on every explosion thrown its way. Just like Rupert continues to feed misinformation to the monsters, trolls and every other angry mob who want to lap it up to justify their ideology. Lex's supreme evil power and his monster could only be destroyed when the superheroes joined forces. Same case scenario in the world of reality, if both the main political ideologies joined forces they could rid of the powers-that-be who manipulate and destroy society to benefit itself. Then only can a decent conversation be held without misinformation and shouting matches.
I can go on, but I'm sure I've already lost most of my readers after the first few paragraphs (maybe the first sentence). But my actual take on the movie? It's comic book action fluff, and it didn't need to be overlong. But loved the darkness of it, enjoyed the pain the superheroes carried around, and the battle sequences where enthralling enough.
Okay, silly rant over, now back to reality