Since I wrote about the fact that I was going to see Batman v Superman on Sunday, a few people (to my amazement) actually asked what I thought about it. And since anytime I can talk about something that does not tie directly to the 2016 Presidential race is a happy place for me, I thought I would write a short set of comments. BTW, no guarantee about spoilers since when I write a blog entry it is almost always complete stream of consciousness and anyway since so few people read it, it doesn’t matter a lot anyway.
The short answer is I liked it. It was not the greatest movie I have ever seen, but on the other hand it is based on a comic book and I grew up being a comic book fan.
A few reactions:
- Ben Affleck was a pretty good Batman, though I will admit the growl that Batman does when he speaks thanks to Christian Bale still seems an affectation to me.
- Henry Cavill is a pretty good Superman (at least to me).
- The basic conflict while it was a bit far-fetched in its genesis I thought was pretty good. These two characters are inherently at opposites in approach. Superman, the often Christ-like figure, represents the desire to be ‘good’ always, something only a ‘super’ person could consider in comic-bookish-real-life. Batman represents vengeful reaction to bad deeds, portraying the perhaps more complex actual-real-life conflicts and choices we all need to take in dealing with evil.
- On the other hand Superman is always a problem to deal with in a serious movie, since in fact he is, well, super. Inevitably the only solutions lean toward having a bad guy who is REALLY super (often ignoring the high-collateral damage likelihood because of such a fight, a topic actually touched on in this movie I thought in an effective fashion) or making Superman less-super for one reason or another (in which case we are really dealing with not-quite-super-Superman, which is sort of missing the point).
- Wonder Woman is sort of a throw-in, just sort of pops in and acts powerful. She, like some even less integrated Justice League characters who are touched on but are not part of the movie, are basically infomercials for upcoming movies.
- The CGI effects were very good. I saw the movie in 3D, iMAX and found it entertaining to watch.
- Jessie Eisenberg was a pretty weak Lex Luthor. I thought he was channeling the Joker or perhaps just himself from previous roles. Perhaps the blame really should be pinned on bad directorial choices.
- It occurred to me that every person who is an anchor on any national news show may have had a scene or two in this movie, and some people wonder about the blurring between serious news and entertainment.
- There probably was too much going on. We got to see backstory rehashes for both Batman and Superman, we got the fight between them, we got Wonder Woman, we got a fight with a monster. The only thing we did not get was anything interesting during or after the credits (which was a disappointment).
Bottom line was that I thought the movie was worth seeing, was not as awful as the critics said, but considering its source material was not going to have a life-changing plot line. To be honest, however while there have been some comic book based movies I enjoyed more and some less, few (if any) are movies that I am particularly interested in seeing more than once (my bottom line for movies I really like, like Serenity).