Batman v Superman beats down audience.
Weak plot, sonic overkill dooms this time-wasting blockbuster
Like some overhyped Vegas brawl, Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice keeps everybody waiting for the title bout.
When it finally arrives, two hours into this superhero sludge pile, you realize that it’s also been falsely billed — and I’m not referring to the monster movie that pops out of nowhere. The film should really be called Batman and Su
perman v the Audience, because the real beat-down isn’t on men in tights, but on the popcorn-chewing suckers fidgeting in their seats.
This is what happens when a studio, Warner Bros. in this case, is so desperate for a DC Comics franchise like the Marvel Comics Universe gold mine, it throws everything but the kitchen sink into a single movie — and somebody actually does get clonked with a sink in this one.
Zack Snyder is perfectly capable of directing genre pictures ( 300, Dawn of the Dead) and also smoothly integrating multiple protagonists and back stories into a narrative. His opening montage for Watchmen delighted.
He’s lost his grip here. That’s understandable, considering the script by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer juggles the intro of two franchise recruits, Ben Affleck’s beefy and broody Batman and Gal Gadot’s thrilling Wonder Woman, while also continuing Henry Cavill’s Superman saga that underwhelmed with Man of Steel in 2013. (Newcomers include Jesse Eisenberg as Supe’s main villain Lex Luthor, more obnoxious than sinister.)
Snyder and his co-conspirators have the germ of a good idea. The title grudge match begins out of Batman’s rage and anguish over the high civilian death toll caused by Superman’s aerial battle with General Zod at the end of Man of Steel. This is the rare blockbuster that stops to count collateral damage, while also pondering Deep Thoughts about deities and devils and how “no one stays good in this world.”
If only the film actually had depth, along with a little levity to lighten the bulk in the script, the visual murk and the sonic overkill.
I counted exactly one joke, which was already revealed in the trailer. Let’s hope they’re saving the laughs for Justice League: Part One, due next year, for which Batman v Superman amounts to little more than an elephantine and enervating scene-setter.