Now that the dust has settled, the opening weekend has passed and Warner Brothers Studios is now $166.1 million richer domestically, it's time to do what I love best, retroactively look back at a film and examine it at its core. No pre-hype, no petty fanboy arguments. Just the facts. What worked, what didn't work? Here we go.
What Worked:
Ben Affleck- I was as skeptical as anyone when Ben Affleck was announced as the next Batman. It was a decision that never really sat well with me since the announcement and was something that always bothered me. To my surprise, Affleck pulled off not only a great Bruce Wayne but arguably the best big screen interpretation of the Bats ever. Ferocious, fluid and resourceful in a fight, this is the Batman that we've read about for years in the comics and now without the barrier of bad choreography or stiff costumes we can an older Dark Knight Returns-esque Batman we need. I am officially excited for the Bat's next stand alone flick.
The actual conflict between Batman and Superman- Another thing that took me by surprise was just how much of the actual meat between Batman and Superman was actually compelling. Both are polar opposites to each other with vastly different views on good, evil and the gray space in between. Seeing how these two come into conflict and eventually settle their differences was a compelling draw throughout the entire movie.
Wonder Woman- Everything about her. Everything, Even her music.
What Didn't Work:
The side characters- Martha Kent, Lois Lane, Perry White, the rest of the Justice League. So much was attempted to be put on these characters along with the main player's storylines. What started as an attempt to give life and vibrancy to this new cinematic universe came across instead of being bloated, confusing and distracting, I don't dislike any of these characters, but when you try to give them to me all at once and expect me to care, I don't.
The "spectacle"- You think a fight between a massive monster and three of the world's arguably most famous superheroes would be a great way to tie off the movie, instead, it turned into more of a by the numbers fight. Director Zack Snyder can't seem to stay away from the "big CGI fight" with a third act villain that seems to be introduced too quickly and serves as little more than a distraction from what we really want. The world's finest heroes teaming up to fight a villain with meaning and consequence. Bigger is not always better and this is the perfect example of that.
Jesse Eisenberg- A horribly miscast Lex Luthor. Woefully out of place and constantly trying to be the biggest bad guy in the room, but like a child trying to shout over adults comes across as trying to hard and not menacing in the last bit.
Batman v Superman is a superhero movie that falls in the middle of the good to mediocre section. There's a lot to like here, a lot of world building that we can only hope pans out in the end but a lot of issues that leave me slightly worried for the future of DC's Cinematic universe. It's not nearly as bad as it's being made out to be, but like all early efforts hold plenty of room for improvements and possibilities for strong future lineup rivaling anything that Marvel is releasing.
Special thanks to Portage IMAX for providing a quality film viewing experience.