Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

SPOILER ALERT!! – This anticipated disaster is a blockbuster full of surprises. Zack Snyder skillfully twists what seemed like a nightmare during promotion, namely Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor and Doomsday as the final monster. The former, as a disturbing element of a jumping gnome in the trailers, is a captivating portrayal of a young man with great power consumed by his own ambitions. The latter, despite its visual similarity, functions as a multiple catharsis with an amazing soundtrack in the background of a suitably titanic (and sufficiently impactful) fight. However, what precedes this catharsis is a mishmash where confidence alternates with noticeable hesitation. The most notable aspect is referencing comic events that we have never seen in movies and will not see in the foreseeable future, regardless of how the whole building of the grand universe ended. Why mention the Joker and his deeds when we have never encountered him in this world? On the other hand, the criticized enticement to the Justice League led by Wonder Woman does not end up being an eyesore, even though this is where DC significantly stumbled over its own feet. Now, all it takes is for Gal Gadot to blink a few times, put on an all-knowing smile, and not only Bruce Wayne will be left speechless. Unfortunately, it is precisely The Dark Knight who remains in the background throughout the entire duration, which is the biggest failure given the space he is given. It's not that Ben Affleck is utterly hopeless, as melancholic pondering suits him. It's just that in direct confrontation with Henry Cavill, especially in emotional moments, he is outdone by his counterpart in almost every sentence, and it's a bit sad to see how he unexpectedly fails to deliver such intense scenes. On the other hand, Cavill dominates with every gesture in the role of a descending Messiah, and his bond with Lois Lane is the most magical thread of the entire film. After two and a half hours of proper chaos, I haven't absorbed everything. There is too much noise, insensitive throwing away of potentially gracious storylines, and I dislike how overdone Batman's behavior is considering the fragility of his motivation and its resolution. Nevertheless, this power struggle made sense, it could have paved the way for interesting creative efforts, but everything was overshadowed by the desire to step towards the Justice League. It was more than thoroughly enticing – and still, it didn't arouse any desire, let alone hunger, in me. (31/03/2016)

Three-hour Ultimate Edition; definitely a grown-up comic. This film is just like Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, it's similarly ambitious as an author, it's told on a grand epic scale, it wants to convey a lot, so the usual runtime isn't enough, it's just so sprawling that maybe it's detrimental to it and the average viewer won't appreciate it, which is a shame. Judging by the reviews, I was afraid of Eisenberg's overacted Lex Luthor, and unnecessarily so, I was also afraid Snyder would reveal his other self, again unnecessarily so (the 15 minutes or so of the fight with Doomsday were easily digestible), so my criticisms would be small, for example the reconciliation of Batman and Superman was too rushed, but otherwise it was fine and in the unedited ultimatum version everything made sense, everything fit together. The result was better (i.e. darker, more mature) than most of the overstuffed Marvel films for undemanding teenagers. And in retrospect I now appreciate the previous Man of Steel, though my complaints about the digital clutter remain. PS: A message to those who complain about the film being too dark: don't look at screen rips or low quality dvd-rips (1,5 GB and smaller), fools.... (21/07/2016)

Fans would see this as the best sex of their lives, but for casual viewers it might be a hard pill to swallow. Christopher Nolan’s Batman anchored in reality was replaced by Zack Snyder's expansive comic universe. Because of the number of characters and even more motivations, this would require a slower pace and an even longer runtime. Yet it remains an immersive experience, with familiar music from Man of Steel (there is no trace of the motifs from Nolan’s Batman trilogy). In the last third, the demands on the viewer’s attention decrease and we’re in for a nerdy climax. I enjoyed the linking to Man of Steel at the beginning. Ben Affleck’s performance is okay. (23/03/2016)

A film so dark that you can’t see anything in most of the actions scenes, and to such extent that it looks as if the cinema was showing a low quality bootleg. The long expected duel between two of the most famous comic book characters unfortunately ends up in a rather uneventful scene (I counted only one interesting moment) where Batman and Superman beat the crap out of each other, only for their conflict to end with an incredibly cheap script cop-out so they can fight together some sort of big-eyed, digital extraterrestrial monkey, created in a weird way for weird reasons (the motivations of the lead villain, hello? Are you there?). Incidentally, you have to wait an ungodly long time for any action to happen, and when it finally happens, either you can’t see anything (as I’ve already said), or it is a confusing digital mess where lightning flashes around the aforementioned monkey, explosions are followed by explosions, and the experience equals zero. And on top of that, Lois Lane gives the right answer to a question form Batman she didn’t hear, or throws a spear into the water so she can dive for it later and almost die, without any dialogue that would reveal its importance or enough information to allow her to figure it out for herself. Disappointment. Probably the only positive thing in the end was Affleck as a grumpy Batman, I would love to see him in another film. PS: I gave Man of Steel 5*) (23/03/2016)

The film ended up being a little better than the trailers. Still, the plot was a bit too chaotic. I think they chose the actors well, but they kept it pretty tame with the Superman character. Batman was a little more fleshed out, but they could have pushed harder with him too. Or maybe they didn't push on purpose, so that one of them wouldn't be more sympathetic to the audience. Still, we've all got our favorite, haven't we. I have no major problem with Lex Luthor as he was introduced here, and I'm quite interested in his future development. I just hope they realize that if they want to make a Joker out of him, it's going to be rather awkward. Oh, and the music was really good. 3 stars. (02/04/2016)