'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' Review: These Super Chums Are Way Too Glum
by Todd McCarthy
The two superheroes face off in Zack Snyder’s action extravaganza, the first in a proposed series of “DC Extended Universe” tentpoles.
“Nobody cares about Clark Kent taking on the Batman,” the Daily Planet’s editor dismissively remarks early on in the lumbering steamroller that is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But Warner Bros. devoutly hopes that this sentiment is not the case; it’s got a great deal riding on this battle of culturally imperishable superheroes as the launch rocket of its proposed series of “DC Extended Universe” tentpoles as viable rivals to Marvel’s vaunted cinematic goldmine of former comic-book-figures-turned-film franchises.
Opening this weekend on roughly 4,000 screens domestically and 30,000 worldwide, this dramatically dark and physically gigantic venture is estimated to need to haul in $1 billion at the very least to justify itself financially and pave the way for the dozen-plus WB/DC outings already set with release dates over the next four years. With significantly stronger international than domestic results likely in store, it may well earn its keep. But after Man of Steel three years ago, the studio had to know what it was getting with director Zack Snyder; the film may be imposing, but it’s not fun.
The main issues facing the writers of a superhero smackdown like this are concocting a reason why, given all the evil out there, they have to fight each other and devising a way to level the playing field when one of them is essentially immortal and the other is actually just a really buff guy with a costume and lots of gizmos. Screenwriters Chris Terrio (Argo) and David S. Goyer (all three of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight blockbusters) have sort of solved this by devising ways to make Superman more frequently vulnerable than he’s ever been before, but the villain here, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor, is so intensely annoying that, very early on, you wish Batman and Superman would just patch up their differences and join forces to put the squirrely rascal out of his, and our, misery.
More: ‘Batman v Superman’: Who Wins In Each Comic Book Showdown
The story does take an epic, rangy perspective, as the long set-up jumps from one far-flung setting to another to establish pockets of evil while also dramatizing Bruce Wayne’s backstory, here conceived as seeing his parents gunned down on the street at night after emerging from a theater showing Excalibur. Seemingly disconnected worldwide events — Metropolis being destroyed as a huge spacecraft with claws hangs overhead, Lois Lane (Amy Adams) on assignment in Africa, criminals threatening wider destruction with a dirty bomb — are mixed in with Bruce (Ben Affleck, fitting the role just fine) brooding over his place in the world and his legacy, to which his electronics guru Alfred (Jeremy Irons, who could use more to do) replies with perhaps the film’s best line: “Even you’ve grown too old to die young.”
The solemn, grandiose atmosphere is severely disrupted by Luthor, portrayed by Eisenberg as a privileged high-tech guru who would make the actor’s take on Mark Zuckerberg look like the epitome of style and manners. Loaded with vocal ticks and gushing with smarmy ripostes and threats, the character is loathsome without an ounce of insidious charm; if the legacy of the studio’s Dark Knight films might have suggested anything, it should have been in the area of great villains, but here there is just a great vacuum.
For his part, Batman is provided with plentiful backstory and psychology, but the mature character, as written, never comes into full bloom; all the same, one can look ahead with some hope to Affleck in the role in future installments. Cavill is also likeable enough but, again, hamstrung by the twisty, convoluted inventions designed to limit his abilities during long stretches.
The filmmakers would seem to have thrown up their hands at how to gracefully integrate Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) into the action, simply hurling her into the epic final battle without significant preparation at all. With just her sword and shield, she doesn’t seem meant to mix it up with these big guys right off the bat.
More: The Comic Book Origins of the Justice League
Opens: March 25 (Warner Bros.)
Production: Atlas Entertainment/Cruel and Unusual Films
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, Tao Okamoto
Director: Zack Snyder
Screenwriters: Chris Terrio, David S. Goyer, based on characters from DC Comics
Producers: Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder
Executive producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Wesley Coller, Geoff Johns, David S. Goyer, Steven Mnuchin
Director of photography: Larry Fong
Production designer: Patrick Tatopoulos
Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson
Editor: David Brenner
Music: Hans Zimmer, Junkie XL
Visual effects supervisor: John 'DJ’ Desjardin
Casting: Kristy Carlson, Lora Kennedy
PG-13 rating, 153 minutes
