Official Australian release date: 24/3/16. Viewed: 25/3/16.
Director: Zack Snyder
Actors: Ben Affleck, Henry
Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Gal Godot
Genre: Action / Fantasy
Rating: M
‘Batman v Superman’s main aim is to
set up the two Justice League films coming out in the next three years and
combat Marvel’s dominance of superhero films. It has the tough job of reintroducing/shoehorning
a new Batman (Affleck) into the ‘Man of Steel’ world (even though the tone’s
darker, like Nolan’s Batman films), with Bruce Wayne driving around Metropolis
during Superman (Cavill)’s big fight with General Zod from the previous film.
Why? Not sure – he just appears reckless. We also have to see Batman’s parents
die again – must be at least the third time on film…
The film tries to blend together two
popular graphic novels – ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ from the late 80s and ‘The
Death of Superman’ from the early 90s – with varying degrees of success. I wish
it had more of the former, but it instead almost makes Lois (Adams) the main
star and puts her in the middle of everything. There’s heaps of political manoeuvring
and “is Superman a risk or not?” with Lex (Eisenberg) and a Senator Finch
(Hunter), but it all takes 90min to set up and there’s finally a pay-off, but
it leaves a lot of action that needs to be squeezed into the final hour.
I didn’t like that Gotham was right
across the harbour from Metropolis (a la San Francisco & Oakland), rather
than hundreds of kilometres distant as it’s supposed to be. Batman has a few
too many dreams/visions for my liking… However, the score’s great, Irons was
good as Alfred, but underused, as is Perry (Fishburne). FYI, there’s no after
credit scene, so don’t bother sitting through the extra 5min! When they get to
the big Doomsday battle at the end, and Wonder Woman (Godot) joins in, it is
pretty exciting and eventful. A good film, just not spectacular.
Overall: Decent start to the Justice
League franchise.
Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.
