Blog
Batman V Superman
12/7/2016
We should probably get the giant angry drunken elephant out of the room.
If we're going to talk about any elements of the DC cinematic universe, this is ground zero. Yes, Man of Steel exists in the same universe and predates this thing, but this is very much the moment where the whole thing kicks off. I... very much don't like this movie. I should just get that out of the way. I'm fully prepaired to accept the fact that I'm way too close to this subject material to be really objective about it, and I don't think I'll be able to come up with a single complaint about the movie that hasn't already been put out there. Instead, I'll try to do what I set out to do; talk about what works in this movie when it comes to source material for our project.
If we're going to talk about any elements of the DC cinematic universe, this is ground zero. Yes, Man of Steel exists in the same universe and predates this thing, but this is very much the moment where the whole thing kicks off. I... very much don't like this movie. I should just get that out of the way. I'm fully prepaired to accept the fact that I'm way too close to this subject material to be really objective about it, and I don't think I'll be able to come up with a single complaint about the movie that hasn't already been put out there. Instead, I'll try to do what I set out to do; talk about what works in this movie when it comes to source material for our project.
To begin with, pretty much everything in this movie looks pretty close to perfect. The casting (despite the internet's collective panic attack over Ben Affleck) was just about flawless, and the costume design all works beautifully. For the first time, we get a version of Batman that could actually functionally operate alongside the Justice League, And every visual of Superman looks like it was taken right out of a comic page. If there's any one perfect slam dunk, though, it has to be Wonder Woman. Maybe it's because we've seen Batman and Superman a million times, or maybe because she exists in the movie totally separate from all the scowly nonsense, but she is by far one of the coolest things on the screen.
I'm actually not all that opposed to the IDEA of Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor, either. There's always been this give and take in the characterization of Luthor; He was a mad scientist and career criminal before he was a billionaire industrialist, and the two versions have basically gone back and forth for as long as he's been around. The innovation here in making a NEW version of Luthor is pretty clear; they were going to make him Mark Zuckerberg. there's immediately apparent internal logic to that concept that I would have loved to see that play out. Of course, it didn't really happen that way, which is too bad.
I don't want to sit here and harp on what DOESN'T work in the movie, but I think it's pretty easy to describe the single element behind almost all of the other errors, and that's how ANGRY everyone is. It sits so poorly on Superman that it it pretty much makes the entire character moot. Batman, on the other hand, makes out a little bit better. The character needs to come across as cold, broken, and even brutal for him to really work, and this version is certainly all those things. If anything, the problem here really isn't in the characterization. It's the fact that the movie's plot requires a level of rage from the character that borders on sociopathic, and that the way that rage manifests is... pretty juvenile.
A very common complaint about this depiction of Batman is the level of violence on display, but I'd like to make a slightly different observation about it. The fact is, if you're going to tell the story of Batman properly you actually wind up walking a pretty tricky tightrope between Batman's refusal to kill and the violence that's inherent in everything he does. Virtually every version of Batman has done something at one point or another that would absolutely kill someone. (Watch the original perfect 1989 Batman and count how many people he definitely kills.) It's not the fact that the BvS Batman is murdering people, it's the fact that he seems to be doing it deliberately. All we really need is the teeniest, flimsiest excuse and we tend to totally buy it... just suggest that the Batmobile is somehow tasering people before it hits at a hundred miles an hour like in Arkham Knight, and we're on board.
Here's a fun question raised by this movie: Just what is the relationship between Metropolis & Gotham? The movie depicts them as being essentially sister-cities on opposite sides of a river, and while that has occasionally been how they were depicted in some silver age comics, it doesn't really feel functional. Both cities are loosely based on New York, but obviously New York ALSO exists, so where are they? It's generally understood that Gotham is a costal city in New Jersey which has always, at least to ME, meant that it essentially replaces Atlantic City, or is perhaps slightly further south at the mouth of Cape May. If Metropolis IS going to be a sister city to Gotham then it's most likely location is the opposite side of Delaware Bay... but it just doesn't seem correct to have Superman and Batman within a ferry ride of each other. Metropolis is also generally depicted as also being costal (although the series Smallville suggested that it was only a hundred miles or so from Smallville, which would have put it in Kansas)… so it could be a little further south, perhaps along the coastline of Maryland... but perhaps we're not really letting Metropolis really be it's OWN city. I'd like to suggest that it is on the southern coast of Chesapeake Bay near Norfolk & Virginia Beach. it seems like an area where you would absolutely find a bright, sprawling, futuristic city with a ever-so-gently southern feel. This would make a drive from Gotham to Metropolis take about six hours.
That... isn't really a thing that worked in the movie, but at least it's a fun question that came up while watching. Honestly.... I think.... that might be it. Again, I completely own up to not being impartial about this movie.
I'm actually not all that opposed to the IDEA of Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor, either. There's always been this give and take in the characterization of Luthor; He was a mad scientist and career criminal before he was a billionaire industrialist, and the two versions have basically gone back and forth for as long as he's been around. The innovation here in making a NEW version of Luthor is pretty clear; they were going to make him Mark Zuckerberg. there's immediately apparent internal logic to that concept that I would have loved to see that play out. Of course, it didn't really happen that way, which is too bad.
I don't want to sit here and harp on what DOESN'T work in the movie, but I think it's pretty easy to describe the single element behind almost all of the other errors, and that's how ANGRY everyone is. It sits so poorly on Superman that it it pretty much makes the entire character moot. Batman, on the other hand, makes out a little bit better. The character needs to come across as cold, broken, and even brutal for him to really work, and this version is certainly all those things. If anything, the problem here really isn't in the characterization. It's the fact that the movie's plot requires a level of rage from the character that borders on sociopathic, and that the way that rage manifests is... pretty juvenile.
A very common complaint about this depiction of Batman is the level of violence on display, but I'd like to make a slightly different observation about it. The fact is, if you're going to tell the story of Batman properly you actually wind up walking a pretty tricky tightrope between Batman's refusal to kill and the violence that's inherent in everything he does. Virtually every version of Batman has done something at one point or another that would absolutely kill someone. (Watch the original perfect 1989 Batman and count how many people he definitely kills.) It's not the fact that the BvS Batman is murdering people, it's the fact that he seems to be doing it deliberately. All we really need is the teeniest, flimsiest excuse and we tend to totally buy it... just suggest that the Batmobile is somehow tasering people before it hits at a hundred miles an hour like in Arkham Knight, and we're on board.
Here's a fun question raised by this movie: Just what is the relationship between Metropolis & Gotham? The movie depicts them as being essentially sister-cities on opposite sides of a river, and while that has occasionally been how they were depicted in some silver age comics, it doesn't really feel functional. Both cities are loosely based on New York, but obviously New York ALSO exists, so where are they? It's generally understood that Gotham is a costal city in New Jersey which has always, at least to ME, meant that it essentially replaces Atlantic City, or is perhaps slightly further south at the mouth of Cape May. If Metropolis IS going to be a sister city to Gotham then it's most likely location is the opposite side of Delaware Bay... but it just doesn't seem correct to have Superman and Batman within a ferry ride of each other. Metropolis is also generally depicted as also being costal (although the series Smallville suggested that it was only a hundred miles or so from Smallville, which would have put it in Kansas)… so it could be a little further south, perhaps along the coastline of Maryland... but perhaps we're not really letting Metropolis really be it's OWN city. I'd like to suggest that it is on the southern coast of Chesapeake Bay near Norfolk & Virginia Beach. it seems like an area where you would absolutely find a bright, sprawling, futuristic city with a ever-so-gently southern feel. This would make a drive from Gotham to Metropolis take about six hours.
That... isn't really a thing that worked in the movie, but at least it's a fun question that came up while watching. Honestly.... I think.... that might be it. Again, I completely own up to not being impartial about this movie.