★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
On December 2nd, 2015, the second trailer for DC
Comics’ smackdown was released, and flippant jokes were thrown around concerning
it’s less than frugal attitude to plot details. Sadly, there’s little humour to
be had as Batman v Superman: Dawn of
Justice now tramples its way onto screens worldwide, unbuttoning a pec-hugging
shirt to reveal an incomprehensibly told, clumsily paced and jack booted effort
that derails the good work done by the much under-appreciated and comparatively
delicate Man of Steel: in short,
nothing we shouldn’t have seen coming.
We open towards the tail end of Zack Snyder’s previous film
and – in quite possibly the most exciting and promising scene in the entire
film –Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne is caught up in the destruction of Metropolis.
The subsequent political furore sees Superman (Henry Cavill) held accountable
for his actions by humanity, whilst billionaire whizz-kid Lex Luthor (a
painfully annoying Jesse Eisenberg) attempts to bring the two caped vigilantes
head-to-head as part of a grander scheme: the search for other
meta-humans like Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot).
With Batman now in tow, we of course get a customary
re-tread of his origins story. A near beat-by-beat version of Christopher Nolan’s
cave discovery in Batman Begins is cross-cut with a further flashback detailing the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents in
full Snyder-vision: slow-motion, a Watchmen
cameo, stylised murder, macro depth of field, you know the drill.
Affleck makes a considerable impression as the brutish bulk
of a bat, though the character’s customary ‘no killing’ mantra seems to have
fallen by the wayside with car-flattening, machine gun-toting abandon. Cavill
does admirably with poor material that effectively shunts Superman into a dour
courtroom drama for ninety minutes, and small vignettes that recall Man of Steel’s quieter moments are a
much-needed reprieve: the gentle Hans Zimmer magic shines through when it can,
but the elegiac main theme is often suffocated by Junkie XL’s messy, replaceable
clout of a score.
The titular titan’s punch-up would make for a jaw-dropping
wallop of a spectacle, but the damage done by Goyer and Terrio’s screenplay
ensures the reasoning behind the fight is ludicrous, the payoff equally as
weak. Eisenberg slowly devolves into sporadic yelping and sqwuaking as the endgame approaches, and Amy Adams' Lois Lane is once again bandied about as a plot
mechanic, the film dropping all pretence of narrative coherence in a desperate
sprint to show our central trio banded together ready for Justice League.
Comparisons to the universe-building of Marvel are being
made left, right and centre, and there’s a very important reason why: in the
run-up to the first Avengers piece,
each character (regardless of film quality) was allowed breathing space in
which to endear themselves to audiences. Snyder has Wonder Woman (a character
audiences have waited 75 years to see on the big screen) sit at a laptop to watch
a teaser montage for films to come. Though her eventual appearance as the
Amazonian warrior and accompanying guitar riff delivers the one crowd-pleasing
smile, her character is yet another wasted element in the cinematic equivalent
of black treacle: it’s murky, stodgy, and there’s more of it than anyone needs or wants.
I agree. The fight scenes had no impact or pacing :(
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