Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

[Kav]

The dreams that Batman had and how Doomsday was handled ruined it completely for me. I can see some merit in Daft's arguments but I disagree with stuff, particularly the whole Doomsday thing... and because they included Doomsday, and showed the fucker in the damn trailers, the whole Bats vs Supes thing just fell flat.

Luthor was awful, really didn't like how he portrayed him.

 

 

 

There was just too much wrong with this film for me. The films I mentioned above, I do actually feel were better. Spidey3 let me down thanks to that sodding dance bit and how Venom was handled. Amazing Spidey2 was just a garbled mess splattered together. This was a combination of both those things.

Affleck's Darevil was bad to the point it was funny at least. This was just bad!

Edited March 31, 2016 by Kav

[Ashley]

Speaking of Affleck, apparently he's already written a Batman film.

[Happenstance]

Out of the movies Kav mentioned I would probably rank them:

 

Spider-Man 3

Batman v Superman

Daredevil

Amazing Spider-Man 2.

 

 

As I said, I thought Batman v Superman was crap but I didnt exactly elaborate on that. I thought it was a crap movie which had great visuals and interesting moments interspersed throughout.

 

- Please never show me this version of Pa Kent again. Granted I actually went to the toilet when I saw him appear on screen but that was because I hated him so much in the first movie lol

- Pretty much every character's motivations in the movie were flimsy or downright stupid

- Batman killing people = fuck off. That felt like Zack Synder giving the middle finger to those of us who didnt agree with what happened in Man of Steel.

- I found it really difficult to like either Batman or Superman in this (and I'll say in this because I have more to say on that later). It was just two tossers who didnt like each other.

- Lois Lane feels like she has regressed decades and is back to being the damsel in distress.

- Despite Man of Steel having Superman feeling alienated and hiding away from the world I felt more humanity from him in that movie than this one.

- Lex Luthor was fucking terrible.

- Doomsday was such a boring and unnecessary villian.

- If Zack Snyder wants to do something with Jimmy Olsen then just actually have the balls to do it! Enough of this "Oh its Jenny Olsen" or coming out this week telling everyone that the unnamed CIA photographer they killed was Jimmy Olsen. I dont care if it said it in the credits, if you want that death to matter then bloody say the name in the movie!

- Nice to see the Justice League but they felt very forced in. As ive said before, I think DC are rushing to have the same kind of shared universe Marvel have and are cutting corners to do it.

 

- The Arkham inspired Batman fight was incredible (except for the end!)

- I actually think Batfleck has muchos potential with the right writer and director. I dont fault him for my dislike of Batman in the movie.

- Wonder Woman was great. The smile while fighting Doomsday was brilliant.

 

The dream and portal visit within a dream.... I am actually excited at what these represent for the DC movie universe as a whole but they were terribly placed in this movie. Still though, nice to see the Omega symbol and parademons. I assumed it was Flash who travelled back through time but some people have said it was Mr Miracle so I have no idea now.

 

 

[Cube]

Saw it tonight, some thoughts

 

- The first half dragged, the main fight was good but the last 20 minutes was dreadful.

- I didn't need to see Batman's origin again, the most interesting thing was the Robin suit. Why not show us some of that instead of some dumb vague lines?

- The editing with the dream sequences was really poorly done, and there were way too many of them, which went on for too long. Age of Ultron did an immensely better job at that.

- On a similar note, The Flash's cameo for that seemed really random, and his advice seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of the film.

- The email sequence altogether was stupid.

- Wonder Woman was great.

- The action sequences were good, even if Batman was a bit too brutal.

- I hated the whole "our mothers have the same name" thing

- Doomsday really didn't feel that menacing. I got the impression that Wonder Woman could have killed him on her own given 20 more minutes.

- Spending so long on a fake death is something I really hate. Especially when the character really hasn't been developed enough to make it meaningful

- Lois Lane was just really annoying.

- The soundtrack was rather dull, which is a surprise for a Hans Zimmer score

- Lex was OK, but seemed to completely lack a "why" for why he was doing everything he did.

 

Overall, I enjoyed it and don't think it was as bad as what critics said, but it had a ton of problems.

 

[Julius]

Going to see it again this morning. Perhaps it's one of those films that needs a second viewing, like Man of Steel? I'm not too sure yet, it currently stands at a 7/10 for myself.

[MindFreak]

Saw it tonight, some thoughts

 

- The first half dragged, the main fight was good but the last 20 minutes was dreadful.

- I didn't need to see Batman's origin again, the most interesting thing was the Robin suit. Why not show us some of that instead of some dumb vague lines?

- The editing with the dream sequences was really poorly done, and there were way too many of them, which went on for too long. Age of Ultron did an immensely better job at that.

- On a similar note, The Flash's cameo for that seemed really random, and his advice seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of the film.

- The email sequence altogether was stupid.

- Wonder Woman was great.

- The action sequences were good, even if Batman was a bit too brutal.

- I hated the whole "our mothers have the same name" thing

- Doomsday really didn't feel that menacing. I got the impression that Wonder Woman could have killed him on her own given 20 more minutes.

- Spending so long on a fake death is something I really hate. Especially when the character really hasn't been developed enough to make it meaningful

- Lois Lane was just really annoying.

- The soundtrack was rather dull, which is a surprise for a Hans Zimmer score

- Lex was OK, but seemed to completely lack a "why" for why he was doing everything he did.

 

Overall, I enjoyed it and don't think it was as bad as what critics said, but it had a ton of problems.

 

Bar a few of the points (soundtrack was quite alright but didn't pay much attention to it to be honest), I think we pretty much agree on this.

 

I must also say that giving this movie 1/10 is just wrong. Almost no movie deserves this score in my opinion. That is neglecting everything that the movie actually did quite alright and just being angry with it, putting emotion before objectivity and reasoning in a review and judgement.

[Kav]

Bar a few of the points (soundtrack was quite alright but didn't pay much attention to it to be honest), I think we pretty much agree on this.

 

I must also say that giving this movie 1/10 is just wrong. Almost no movie deserves this score in my opinion. That is neglecting everything that the movie actually did quite alright and just being angry with it, putting emotion before objectivity and reasoning in a review and judgement.

 

But that's fair. As a medium it's supposed to make you feel, so if you feel angry than you can score it how you see fit. I'm not judging it critically, I'm judging it how it felt to me personally. So 1/10 is fair.

 

Sure, by all means disagree, but it still holds steady at a 1 for me for ruining what meant something to me.

[Mr-Paul]

Finally got around to seeing this today. It was ok.

Dragged a bit too much.

Thought it'd work better without Batman. He was a bit pointless and shit, really. The film stalled whenever it went to a Batman scene.

Then when it came to Batman v Superman:

 

BATMAN: I hate superman

BATMAN: I want to kill superman

BATMAN: RAAARGH I'm about to kill superman.

BATMAN: Oh, your mum is called Martha too? let's be friends.

 

 

 

It was fine on the whole, just a bit dull. Should've just been a Superman movie, tbh. Or gone all the way and been a Justice League movie. What little there was of Wonder Woman was good. But what we got was a bit average.

 

Oh, and add me to the 'liked Eisenberg's Lex' list.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I saw this again and I'm now in love with the film. It flew by the second time around...I could have easily sat through double the running time.

 

There's one thing I missed out on first time around that I feel helps me appreciate Lex a lot more:

 

Lex's speech to Superman does give you his whole motivation for wanting him gone. About how his Father abused him and that destroyed his whole notion of God. I didn't really grasp that first time around.

 

The fight with Doomsday is good. I think they handled that well. Wonder Woman is excellent and I loved how she took on Doomsday.

 

 

All in all, I'm a big fan of this film. I'm curious to see how the rest of the DC universe unfolds from this point on.

[Ashley]

Yeah I was going to type out this long response the other day about how once you frame Lex's actions in his dislike of Gods and subsequent need to prove their useless his other actions make sense as he's essentially trying to prove Superman can't help everyone and is offering false hope. Thus things like Africa and the Capitol prove this (not, as some people believe, was this an attempt to implicate Superman in the crimes themselves but rather prove he can't save everyone).

 

But I forgot and I'm on my phone in Italy so figure out the rest yourselves.

 

 

[Fierce_LiNk]

Yeah I was going to type out this long response the other day about how once you frame Lex's actions in his dislike of Gods and subsequent need to prove their useless his other actions make sense as he's essentially trying to prove Superman can't help everyone and is offering false hope. Thus things like Africa and the Capitol prove this (not, as some people believe, was this an attempt to implicate Superman in the crimes themselves but rather prove he can't save everyone).

 

But I forgot and I'm on my phone in Italy so figure out the rest yourselves.

 

 

Absolutely agree with all of that.

 

One criticism seems to be with the script, which I can't agree with at all. Imo, it's a good script. All of the motivations and reasoning behind the main actions are all there. Once I heard that speech properly the second time around, I understood exactly what Lex was about and that made me appreciate the character more. There are quite a few lines in this that are crucial but can be easily missed, so I wonder if that's thrown a few people off and led to some of the negativity about the film.

 

I had a big chat with another friend today who saw the film but felt let down, as it didn't really offer her hope, which Man of Steel did. It's possibly a bit too grim for some.

 

[Kounan]

I've seen it yesterday and I don't know what to say. I loved the acting, I think that they were really good, I like most of the scenes as scenes, but I don't like how it was connected.

 

I didn't like Luthers character (I like the acting, he did his job great) as he didn't make any sense to me.

 

The movie has the same problem as Marvel with the stand alone films, but I'll have to live with that.

[Kav]

Lex's motivations were understandable but Eisenburg did a horrific job portraying him! Truly horrific!

[Eenuh]

I saw the film yesterday; after reading some of the comments in here (while trying to avoid most spoilers), I was expecting a train wreck... but it didn't end up being all that bad. I quite enjoyed it.

 

It's not a perfect film at all, there are flaws, but to me it really didn't seem as bad as some people made it out to be. It's a grim film yes, but I didn't mind that at all I think. Something grim needed to happen to lead to the creation of the Justice League I guess.

 

I liked Wonder Woman, she seems like a great character. Just wish she had a bit of a bigger role in the film. It does kind of feel like she was shoehorned in this film to help tie it in with the Justice League film. Same with how they revealed the other characters, but it didn't bother me too much. After seeing some spoilerific comments in here, I was expecting them to make an actual appearance in a fight or something, but the way it was actually handled in the film didn't bother me.

 

Lex Luthor was decent, I think his character is quite good, though maybe just a tiny bit too mentally unstable or something. Also, I could really do with subtitles during his parts. :P

 

Batfleck was great I thought! Really think he pulls off Batman, he just seems suited for the role. Never doubted him though, as soon as I heard he was cast to play Batman. His fight scenes were great, especially where he basically turns into the videogame Batman and takes on 15 men or something haha.

 

The main thing I didn't like was the dream sequence with the ambush scene (from the future?), followed by the Flash (?) bit. Just seemed unnecessary and made things more confusing. They could've easily done without that.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the film, though I do feel it might have been better if they had left the Justice League stuff for a separate film and had this one focus more on Superman and Batman. Would've been a completely different film then.

 

Looking forward to the Wonder Woman film, hope that's good!

 

 

[Julius]

Lex's motivations were understandable but Eisenburg did a horrific job portraying him! Truly horrific!

 

Will the real Lex Luthor please stand up?

 

He's not technically the Lex Luthor from the comics or other live action incarnations

 

[Hero-of-Time]

I finally got to see it last night. Screw the haters, I thought it was great!

 

How much of the movie was spoiled by the trailers. It's insane that they showed stuff like Wonder Womans entrance and Doomsday. Why even do this? The whole idea of Batman vs Superman should have been enough to sell the movie. A lot of the great lines in the movie were also spoiled before hand. Shame.

 

I didn't like how forced the film was in terms of showing other superheroes in the DC universe. I get that they are chasing the Marvel/Avengers money and idea but I feel the film would have been even better had it just been Superman and Batman. I mean, Wonder Woman, while great, didn't do anything until the final bit of the film and even then the impact of her arrival had already lessened due to the trailers.

 

 

Pleasantly surprised by this one. Maybe because my expectations were so low, and the fact that everyone has been slating the film, helped me really enjoy it.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Lex's motivations were understandable but Eisenburg did a horrific job portraying him! Truly horrific!

 

I'm not usually a fan of Eisenberg, but I loved what he did here. He made the Lex character his own.

 

I finally got to see it last night. Screw the haters, I thought it was great!

 

How much of the movie was spoiled by the trailers. It's insane that they showed stuff like Wonder Womans entrance and Doomsday. Why even do this? The whole idea of Batman vs Superman should have been enough to sell the movie. A lot of the great lines in the movie were also spoiled before hand. Shame.

 

I didn't like how forced the film was in terms of showing other superheroes in the DC universe. I get that they are chasing the Marvel/Avengers money and idea but I feel the film would have been even better had it just been Superman and Batman. I mean, Wonder Woman, while great, didn't do anything until the final bit of the film and even then the impact of her arrival had already lessened due to the trailers.

 

 

Pleasantly surprised by this one. Maybe because my expectations were so low, and the fact that everyone has been slating the film, helped me really enjoy it.

 

Yeeees, brah. Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm looking forward to the Wonder Woman film immensely now, whereas I just had a mild interest before.

[Kav]

I'm not usually a fan of Eisenberg, but I loved what he did here. He made the Lex character his own...

 

He definitely did, but unfortunately it was a pile of his own excrement that he made.

 

 

I mostly think those that like it are easily pleased. I just don't see how anyone could consider this any good... I just can't see it at all.

[Julius]

He definitely did, but unfortunately it was a pile of his own excrement that he made.

 

 

I mostly think those that like it are easily pleased. I just don't see how anyone could consider this any good... I just can't see it at all.

 

I tried to share my point through a spoiler tag, but alas.

 

Jesse Eisenberg isn't playing Lex from the comics, he's playing Lex Luthor Jr. Yes, they have similar names and similar stories, but they clearly aren't like-for-like.

 

I'm still on the fence. Jesse's portrayal was good of the character he was given, but it clearly isn't Lex, but that isn't a problem that should be directed at Jesse but in fact at the casting director. This guy was lined up to play Jimmy Olsen and Cranston was in line to be Lex.

[Kav]

I tried to share my point through a spoiler tag, but alas.

 

Jesse Eisenberg isn't playing Lex from the comics, he's playing Lex Luthor Jr. Yes, they have similar names and similar stories, but they clearly aren't like-for-like.

 

I'm still on the fence. Jesse's portrayal was good of the character he was given, but it clearly isn't Lex, but that isn't a problem that should be directed at Jesse but in fact at the casting director. This guy was lined up to play Jimmy Olsen and Cranston was in line to be Lex.

 

Yeah I saw, but it didn't stop me thinking his portayal was shit. That's what I'm getting at, not just because he's playing Luthor, but because it's a terrible performance for any sort of villain.

Hell, any sort of role, it was hammy, it was off, it was annoying, it was so bad.

[Happenstance]

Yeah it was just a crap performance either way. Still though, I see no reason to think that he isnt the Lex from the comics just because his father has the same name.

[Kav]

I just found it so grating! From the tone of his voice, his mannerisms, even his rambling dialogue, I REALLY disliked everything about it.

Plus it did feel very hammy, like he was trying too hard and went a little over the top.

[Daft]

This Lex made sense to me as someone who just had the rug swept up from him by the appearance of the Superman. And basically everything happens in the film because of him. People have compared him to the Joker, but Joker was just an agent of anarchy – Lex on the other hand has everything planned. And contingencies, too. Except he never really plans to come up against someone like Steppenwolf or Darkseid. And he fails at tipping Batman or Superman over the edge...because they're Batman and Superman.

 

I didn't think the descent into madness worked. With the deleted scene being the only thing that really makes that start to make sense. If there was, or is more of that, in the Ultimate cut I'll be happy.

 

I don't think a stoic Lex makes much sense in this film's context. I think we'll see the character change over time, though. I think we'll eventually see him run for president.

[Julius]

Yeah it was just a crap performance either way. Still though, I see no reason to think that he isnt the Lex from the comics just because his father has the same name.

 

From his sharing of the Alexander name to the past with his father, as well as many of the events outlined in that promotional interview, they've tried to make it pretty clear that he isn't Lex Luthor, like-for-like, from the comics, from his intellect to the way he acts, to his physicality, and so on.

[Happenstance]

See once again that stinks of Snyder not including things in the actual movie. Promotional interview, Jenny Olson, Jimmy Olson...