That was an actual quote from one of the characters in this
movie, namely Perry White from the Daily Planet. Just to let you know, 1938
was, coincidentally, the year the first Superman comic came out, made by two
Jewish immigrants during the Great Depression, imagining a total embodiment of
hope and justice that these two people desperately need.
Yet here
is BATMAN V SUPERMAN having the audacity to flip off the inspiration in favor
of their own boasting, self-righteous, yet totally ill-conceived
interpretation: a whiny, brainless, cynical shell of a character that perfectly
embodies the whole film, as well as possibly other DC universe movies going
forward. I cannot stomach this guys. As I sit here writing this review merely
hours after watching this, everything wrong with this movie just keeps spawning
little by little the more I think about it. I was ready to give this a mixed
rating - an attempt to stray far from the conflicting bias between the angry DC
fans and the so-called “snobby” film critics – and call it a day. However to do
that would be a disservice on my part on pointing out the abundance of suck
that somehow is still being ignored.
But at
the end of the day, I come to my conclusion that, no matter how you can
disagree with my opinion or dismiss my straining attempt to explain myself,
DAWN OF JUSTICE is just a mindless, childish, wrongheaded, overstuffed, weirdly
pretentious, apathetically made movie made up of overfilled subplots and grim self-importance
in a shameless attempt to pander to the fans without any clear sense of care or
coherence.
MAJOR SPOILERS
BEWARE!
Among the
dozens of overwritten yet still unrealized subplots within the first hour of
the movie, Lex Luther (or the Social Network playing the Joker playing Luther)
is prejudice against God-like beings and wants to kill Superman for that reason
(if you forget that don’t worry; he keeps freaking repeating it!!) Meanwhile
Batfleck is mad at Superman because he crashed his Wayne tower during the
fistfight with Zod in MAN OF STEEL.
Oh, and
Lois Lane tries to crack down secrets during the African militia because
somehow David Goyer still doesn’t know what to do with her.
Oh and
Lex finds kryptonite with the intent to kill Superman, to which Batfleck and
Jeremy Alfreds steal to make Superman-proof weapons to fend him off.
Oh and
Superman attempts to expose Batman for his vigilantism in Gotham that doesn’t go
anywhere and really feels irrelevant in the end.
Oh, and a
senator wishes to expose Superman in court, with the help of Lex Luther as well
as an army of angry protesters, for his supposed dangerous powers and numerous
casualties, which may sound like an interesting and complex part of the story
until it literally BLOWS up on our faces and leaves Superman to be blamed even
further.
Oh, and
Luther somehow hacked into the remains of the alien ship, hijacks Zods dead
body and for some reason turns him into Doomsday to have a final boss fight
during the climax.
Oh and
Lex somehow kidnaps Superman’s mom and instead of beating it out of this twerp,
Superman takes his offer to fight Batman so that he can have her back.
Oh, and
Wonder Woman shows up at the beginning during Luther’s party and at the very
end in a tolerable outfit and helps Batman and Superman fight Doomsday.
Oh and there is a totally forced and obnoxious tease for the Justice League, as Wonder Woman finds footage from Lex Luthor of Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash that has no purpose other than trying to replicate Marvel-style world-building but without any hint of subtlety.
Oh, and
Superman finds a Kryptonite-infused weapon and attempts to reenact The Death of
Superman so unearned and ill-timed that it leaves the whole audience in the
theatre groaning and booing, leaving Bruce Affleck and Gisselle to form the
Justice League in attempt to prevent this hardship from happening and make potentially
underwhelming DC movies in the near future.
Wow. All
that.
*sigh*
where to begin…
First
off, the first two acts of this movie is so tedious and poorly structured that literally
my brother and I almost slept in the theatre. All this movie does is set up the
big title fight with needless subplots, overbearing symbolism, and on-the-nose
dialogue. What was the point of the senator trying to dispute Superman’s morality
in a courtroom scene when they are going to blow it up and frame him anyway?
Why is Jesse Eisenberg going on and on about Gods being evil other than hammering
in the already-obvious-enough symbolism? Why does the script keep contriving
Lois Lane to be put in peril all the time? What is the point of Martha Kent
other than having her spew pretentious motivation and be yet another damsel in
distress? The answer Goyer and somehow an academy-award winning screenwriter
provide is “No guys, don’t think about it. The people seeing this movie are too
stupid to think about all that. We focus on the rich and iconic characters.”
Well, if
that is the case, then why did you guys also screw that up too? Setting aside
the overly talked-about dispute on the grim, gritty Superman back in MAN OF
STEEL, this film further solidifies the careless and cynical take on these
characters. Superman only saves people during rushed and sidelined montages,
but for the wrong reasons. Rather than the intent of saving people that
reflected on the helpless youth he had during his childhood, this Superman just
wants to prove a point, without him having a clear perspective on what he feels
about these people in the first place. As far as I know, he could just be a
psychopath and the people were right all along, which makes it all the more
frustrating to have this character die without any thought as to how the
civilians might digest this other than raiding his coffin. Heck, for an obvious
attempt to redo Batman, they even got him wrong as well; for such a heavy emphasis
to redo the origin story (because who wouldn’t see that again?), we don’t see
him take this to consideration as he mows down soldiers with machine guns and the
Batmobile.
All of
this comes down to a really uninspired fist fight that has been hyped for THREE
YEARS with a kryptonite-crippled Superman that abruptly stops thanks to
literally THE STUPIDEST REVELATION OF ANY SUPERHERO MOVIE EVER!! Seriously, I
won’t even spoil it, because it is so stupid and poorly executed it almost feel
like parody!
All of
this would make this mediocre that would be easily saves thanks to execution,
but then again we are dealing with the oh-so underappreciated Zack Snyder, who
I am convinced might be the next Michael Bay. The way he directs the actors and
scenes, as well as establish every scene is all so amateurish it is almost
surreal. The actors do nothing other than stare blankly at something, stand in
front of the camera and lazily deliver tedious dialogue, and drone on about
their relentlessly self-importance, along with a dusting of Snyder’s editing
tricks and aestheticism that got boring even after SUCKER PUNCH.
Henry Cavill comes off just as stiff and unlikeable as he was in MAN OF STEEL. Even if the character
is such an unlikeable thing to begin with, this guy just goes through the
motions with no care for his role in a role that is severely reduced in the
movie. Heck, even Batfleck is on autopilot! Ben Affleck is a good actor who has
proved himself great in the film business, but he is so boring here, rendering
as less of a brooding vigilante and more of an apathetic lunk. Doomsday is
every bit as boring and extraneous as he was in the comics. But the crowning
king of bad performances is Lex Luthor, who might be next to Doctor Doom in
FANT4STIC as being the comic book movies worst villain ever. Setting aside his
awfully typical Eisenberg impressions and cringe worthy performance, nothing
from his motivation or his pretentious monologue is realistic. It seems like
they are going for the unpredictable, evil for evils sake take on the character
instead of the politically charged super genius, but it never pays off well at
all. This guy is seriously the worst part of this movie.
Alright,
now the good parts! Ben Affleck does nothing to make him stand out in the role,
but once he fights, specifically in a warehouse, it does look pretty cool.
Credit is due to the legend Hans Zimmer for the unfitting yet epic score. And
yes, credit is due to Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, who kicks some serious ass in
the end.
However,
despite some major good moments, the movie still sinks to the worst examples of
Hollywood superhero movie making since AMAZING SPIDER MAN 2. Among the terrible
script and deadpan acting, the movie is further poisoned by the pessimistic
filmmakers so willfully convinced of their own butchered, fan service-laden version
of their DC property that it saddens me the more I look into it. Say what you
want about the Marvel movies being campy and dumb at times, but at least they
are made by people who cared. Stories like DAREDEVIL, JESSICA JONES, and even
THE WINTER SOLDIER can be dark and grim, but with meaning and complexity and
rich characters that came from people who simply get it! And now this movie, in
an attempt to redo two of the greatest comic book heroes, both with complexity
and moral standards, now stripped all that away in favor of dour, pompous meatheads
for the sake of pandering to those who ceaselessly dispute this as “just a
comic book movie” when comic book movies can prove more than that!
No matter how much you want to hate my conclusion, DAWN OF JUSTICE might not disappoint me as much as it can, but it is
simply not good.
Rating:
4/10 (BAD)
No comments:
Post a Comment