Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

So this rating is for the Ultimate edition which actually adds Clark’s story instead of cutting it out. I was surprised rewatching this how enjoyable the first half is, it’s not mind blowing but it was fun and there was some great set-ups. And then there was another hour and a half of movie...

So Clark has a character now after Man of Steel where he was a wet blanket, we get to see the nerdy charm of Clark in his job as a reporter, while not over the top, it was a subtle optimism that was a breath of fresh air in the film. But Superman on the other hand was a mess. Sups in this film has the makings of two great characters, two halves that don’t mesh well enough to be a fleshed out character. We have the gritty dark side that continued from Man of Steel but there was more depth to it now in his hate for Batman which while not a traditional take on him could’ve played out well if they’d committed to it. Synder wanted to play both sides though, with more references to hope and being a symbol for the people and it didn’t quite work together for me, resulting in his death being void of emotion for me.

Batman on the other hand was... fine I guess. Him and Bruce were both ok, nothing amazing but nothing really wrong with them. The true MVPs in this film though are the side characters.

Gal Gadot is fantastic in this film, while not in the film a lot, any scene she had with Bruce was electric and had a sense of class to it. Also her entrance is still amazing, the music is fantastic and gives this movie a hype moment it needed. Now, while I love that scene, upon rewatch I noticed something, right after the theme starts to play and we get that get the shot of Wonder Woman we cut to Lois running back to get the staff falling all over the place while that punchy theme plays behind her and honestly it’s hilarious, it takes away all the build up from the scene, really a poor editing choice but it made me laugh.

Amy Adams still manages to act way beyond what the script gives her and in the first half has some interesting journalism story moments. And Jeremy Irons is a perfect Alfred, it’s a weird not typical take on him but his sarcasm and fun relationship with Bruce was so fresh and had a proper energy to it. And while many people don’t like him and there are certainly issues with the plot of his character, I think Jesse Eisenberg did a great job as Lex, he was eccentrically weird and it was enjoyable to watch.

Synder stepped it up with this film, the action is much better shot than in Man of Steel, if sometimes poorly choreographed, the scale was well captured and the power of the heroes and villains was well done. The story does fall flat though, we have a brilliant set up of opposing ideologies between the two titular characters which I wish came to a different climax than we got. Mentions MARTHA and suddenly they’re best friends? I think as soon as we get the scene at the Senate the movie starts to spiral, it doesn’t know what it wants to be. What motivated Lex to put these two against one another? Cause he’s insane? It all felt very thin which is disappoint since they’d set themselves up for a movie that could’ve really explored the internal beliefs of the two characters and put them against each other for a satisfying climatic battle

Also this is the most nitpicky thing but if PBS had a Senator on for an interview they would capitalise their bloody name, drop in respect for Synder due to bad grammar