Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was the talk of Tinseltown for most of the wrong reasons. Critics despised Warner Bros’ “official” arrival into the superhero movie landscape while audiences responded with their wallets to the tune of $166.1 million domestic dollars on opening weekend.
As of press time, the film has made over $530 million dollars worldwide during its first few days of release. Compared to its shared universe predecessor, Man of Steel, which earned $668 million dollars for its entire theatrical run.
These results have generated a “critics-versus-audience” feud of sorts. Fans of the movie feel that pundits missed the point because they were too busy with examining the film instead of enjoying it while critics are not backing down from their position. That’s the great thing about entertainment, it’s all subjective. Our opinions here at Forces of Geek are no more valid than the ones our readership generates.
There are things I liked about the movie that others didn’t, and vice versa.
Take the “Martha” bit for example.
It’s easy to understand why this moment came off poorly to some folks. Personally, it evoked so much emotion because of what it represented. The very real danger Batman perceived Superman to be was only equivalent to his inner rage fueled by the death of his parents.
Superman uttered “Save Martha” with what appeared to be his last dying breath, and Batman took it as an insult from his beaten foe because he is so consumed by his childhood tragedy. Once Lois Lane informed him otherwise, Batman snapped out of it and realized that this alien, named Superman, has a mother, which made him human in Batman’s eyes.
Of course, both of their moms sharing the same name helped matters, but Batman would have lowered the Kryptonite spear regardless of whose name he heard because he is Batman and he saves people.
The infamous BvS deleted scene that hit the web on Monday shows Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor being greeted by someone who appears to be Darkseid’s minion/nephew, Steppenwolf. There were a lot of scenes that could have been cut from the movie because they served no purpose to the overall story. THIS SCENE SHOULD HAVE BEEN KEPT IN THE FILM.
Keeping it in would have provided clarity to those who were confused at the end of the film when Luthor went on his “The bell has rung” rant. It’s obvious that Warner Bros regrets removing that scene from the finished product because they released it so soon after the film’s debut, which is something that studios rarely do.
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| Steppenwolf, as depicted by creator Jack Kirby |
I could honestly go on and on about what did and didn’t work in Batman V Superman. Director Zack Snyder had a lot of masters to serve, but at the end of the day his story direction weakened the movie.
It was still a fun experience for this comic book guru, however, I hope the powers that be strongly consider removing Snyder from the helm of Justice League Part 1, which starts filming this month. Two outings with a mixed bag of results should tell Warner Bros. that new leadership is needed to bring their apex style Avengers film to the big screen.
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| Raise your hand if you’d be a good director for Justice League… |
Summing up the film that I enjoyed despite its flaws, I will paraphrase a quote by Marlon Brando’s Joe-El in Superman: The Movie (1978)
