Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition Review

            Of all the films that were due for release this year, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice was probably the one that I anticipated the most.  Man of Steel was a film that I absolutely despised but the prospect of seeing Batman and Superman on the big screen for the first time was too good of a selling point for me not to ignore.  It also helped that the trailers for the film looked really good and promised sprawling, epic fights between the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel, ending with a climactic battle with a big bad in Doomsday.  Unfortunately, the critical reception to the film was overwhelmingly negative and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone that isn’t a complete D.C. fanboy to give the film a glowing review.  Everyone seemed to agree that the first 10 minutes or so were good along with Ben Affleck’s performance as Batman but that the film as a whole was a boring, incoherent mess.  This, coupled with some personal problems, resulted in me deciding to pass on seeing the film and just wait for the inevitable directors cut to come out. 

Earlier this week I was able to see this version of the film.  And, despite all the negative receptions to the film, despite all of the crap talked about, despite having nearly all the major plot points being spoiled for me, somehow it was far worse than I ever imagined.  The Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition is perhaps one of the most boring and lifeless big budgeted summer blockbusters that I have ever seen put to film and fails spectacularly on nearly every level.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The film starts during the climax of Man of Steel with Superman and Zod brawling and destroying half of Metropolis.  After his building in the city is destroyed and killing several people he knows, Batman decides that a creature with as much power as Superman needs to be destroyed.  At the same time, through an overly complicated series of events, Lex Luthor begins to taint the public’s perception of Superman as well as push Batman to kill Superman. 

If there is one positive thing that I can say about the writing of this film, it’s that the initial setup is very well executed.  When you look at what happens in Metropolis at the start of the film, particularly with one child caught up in the mix, you see that not only are Batman’s motives justified through Superman’s actions but that the whole thing affected him on a deeper, personal level and was a brilliant character moment that kind of blew me away.  In fact, most of the stuff that deals with Batman is all around pretty good.  The intro that shows the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents is probably the best version of it ever put to film and Ben Affleck really did defy my initial expectations as the Caped Crusader.  Jeremey Irons performance was simply perfect and may actually be the best live action version of Alfred.  His condensing demeanor and dry sense of humor had me laughing every time he dropped some negative remark about Batman and his life choices and I hope that future Batman films take full advantage of this.  On the same note, Superman is actually pretty good in this as well.  He still isn’t great and it’s obvious that the filmmakers still have trouble deciding what to do with him but he is a big improvement over the version that was portrayed in Man of Steel.  In this film he actually goes out of his way save people instead of endangering them and they really do a great job of establishing why it is he has a beef with Batman.  Unfortunately, the film manages to piss away this otherwise great setup with a film that is not only needlessly grim, but just boring.   

The first major problem with the film is Lex Luthor.  Ignoring the fact that this version of the character has nothing in common with its comic book comic book counterpart, the character has far too big of a role in the film and the vast majority of it has little to contribute to the overall narrative of the film beyond needlessly padding out the runtime.  For example, the character is revealed towards the end to be one who pushes Batman into fighting Superman, mainly though the manipulation of a former Wayne Enterprises employee who was hurt during Superman’s fight with Zod in Man of Steel.  Unfortunately, from a writing standpoint it makes no sense as to why they would include this subplot when Batman’s motivations are made abundantly clear the prologue section of the film.  Supposedly he’s also trying to defame Superman through these actions as well but outside of making him mope over the fact that he can’t always save everyone for a few minutes it really doesn’t have any effect on the character overall.  In fact, the only meaningful things that the character contributes to the plot overall is the importing of the kryptonite rock, the kidnapping of Martha Kent, and the creation of Doomsday and just about everything else involving this character could have easily been cut from the film.  In fact, the creation of Doomsday just adds another problem to the overall narrative of the film.  If, for example, Luthor knew that Batman would more than likely kill Superman, why did he create Doomsday to begin with?  Why did he start the whole thing without a way to take Doomsday down himself?  Better yet, WHY IS DOOMSDAY EVEN IN THIS MOVIE?!?!?

What makes the whole Lex Luthor narrative problem even more infuriating is that it could have been solved with a simple rewrite or a few tricks in post-production.  Lex Luthor fears what Superman could do so he gets the Kryptonite.  Batman catches wind of this and wants it for himself.  Luthor realizes he no longer has the Kryptonite and creates Doomsday to take Superman down so he can serve as the third act monster that unties the heroes together.  How would that have been so hard?

It’s not at all helped by the fact that the film is very grim with an unexpectedly high body count.  Iconic characters like Jimmy Olson and Mercy Graves are unceremoniously killed off in very grizzly fashions with little to no acknowledgement of their legacy in comic book history.  Perhaps what threw me off the most, however, was just how high of a body count Batman had under his belt.  I had heard beforehand that Batman killed a few people in this film but I had always assumed it was similar to the way he “killed” people in the Dark Knight films; where the deaths were either ambiguous or brought on by the actions of others.  HOLY.  MOTHER.  OF.  GOD!  WAS.  I.  WRONG!  He massacres people by the dozens in any way he can.  He uses machine guns, grappling hooks, missiles, his fists, guns and even a wooden crate at one point.  And those that he doesn’t kill he effectively marks for death by branding them with a bat and making them a target for a good shanking in prison.  And I cannot lie.  This really bothered me as a Batman fan.

One of the core rules of Batman, (or at least the modern one), is that he does not kill people.  It is the one line that he refuses to cross because he knows that once he crosses that line he is no better than those he hunts.  While I am aware that this hasn’t always been the case, for a long time it has been and is often a key component between Batman and his relationships with fellow heroes and villains.  What we have on display in this film, however, is that Batman is in fact no better than those he hunts.  In fact, the argument could be made that Superman’s beef with the Bat might actually be more than justified given just how much brutality is on display here.  While he doesn’t quite go into Crazy Steve territory, he gets dangerously close and if this is the direction that they’ll continue with the character I’m not sure I want anything to do with it.

Now all of this could be forgivable is the film was any fun.  Plenty of films have poor narratives and character writing but they can sometimes get away with them by the sheer amount of spectacle and humor that they throw on screen.  But Batman V. Superman offers none of this.  Say what you will about Man of Steel, (lord knows I have plenty to say), but it did offer some pretty cool action sequences that really showed how destructive and over the top a battle between kryptonians would be.  But this film offers none of that.  Outside of one admittedly kick ass fight involving Martha’s kidnappers, not a single action sequence shows any kind of imagination or manages to thrill.  At least half of the film passes before we get our first action scene that amounts to a boring car chase between Batman and Luthor’s goons and then we have to wait another hour before we finally get our battle between the two characters for the first and last time.  Unfortunately, all it amounts to is Batman using some kryptonite gas on the Man of Steel before pounding the crap out of him with his fists and grappling hook and offers none of the imagination or spectacle that was on display in either Man of Steel or The Dark Knight Returns animated film.  And quite frankly, if an animation team working with maybe a tenth of the budget can do a better battle between Batman and Superman that the big budgeted film version something is very wrong. 

Likewise, the final battle with Doomsday is completely unmemorable.  While it is cool to finally see Wonder Woman on the big screen for the first time the fight itself is completely unremarkable.  The whole thing consists of Wonder Woman going after Doomsday with a sword while Batman runs from its heat blasts, as it cuts back to Superman grabbing one of Batman’s kryptonite spears and taking to Lois and utterly fails to choreograph/animate an interesting battle and I found myself wondering if this was really made by the same man who did 300.   

From what I have been told, the theatrical version of this film was an incoherent, boring mess of a movie that appeared to be the negative antithesis to the MCU and any good comic book films that have come out over the past decade.  This Ultimate Edition isn’t quite that.  It is a coherent, boring, mess of a film that appears to be the negative antithesis to the MCU and any of the good comic book films that have come out over the past decade.  The film does have an admittedly good start but is bogged down by a pointless subplot with Luthor, fails to give us any decent action scenes and is just so grim without any real point to it.  I hated Man of Steel when it came out three years ago but this film registers little to no emotion with me.  The whole thing bored me to tears and by the time the credits rolled I was just glad it was over. 

Supposedly the overwhelming negative reception has caused Warner Brothers to realize that they need to rethink the way they do these films.  The Justice League film, for example, is apparently set to have a lighter tone then BVS due to the extremely negative reaction to the film.  Ben Affleck, who was visibly upset at the reception of the film, is promising a Batman film full of sardonic, dry humor and is determined that the project will not move forward until the script is perfect, release dates be damned.  Warner Brothers has also decided to restructure the way it goes about making the films, creating the DC Films Division that will be headed by DC writer Geoff Johns and Warner Brothers Executive Vice President, Jon Berg, so it is obvious that they are at least taking steps to fix the errors that have been made.  However, only time will tell if they have taken the correct steps.

So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook page, follow me on twitter and come back next time.  Until then, let’s just hope that Suicide Squad proves better.