Batman V Superman

Image Source: Wikipedia
(Copyright: Warner Bros.
Pictures, the film
publisher or graphic
artist.)

Written By: Paul Burke

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Companies: DC Entertainment, RatPac Entertainment, Atlas Entertainment and Cruel and Unusual Films
Director: Zack Snyder
Producers: Charles Roven and Deborah Snyder
Scriptwriters: Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer
Main Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter and Gal Gadot
Released: March 25 2016
Running Time: 151 Minutes
Certificate: 12A

“The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man. Day versus night. Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham.” - Lex Luther

It's not Batman vs Superman. It's Batman V Superman. Because having the ‘v’ instead of ‘vs’ is a way ‘to keep it from being a straight “versus” movie, even in the most subtle way.’ According to the director Zack Snyder.

So what does this mean, despite the fact that Lex literally says ‘versus’ several times in the movie? Wait, does this mean we aren't going to see Batman and Superman beat on each other for 151 minutes?! Well, despite what all the excellent marketing we've been hit with might suggest, no we're not. But that was obvious because this is Superman, the character who originally started superhero movies with Christopher Reeve, against Batman, the character who gave superhero movies credibility under Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. The sell isn't their great battle or the "who will win?" outcome. These guys are the heroes. The selling point of the film is seeing two hugely iconic characters sharing the big screen for the first time.

It also cannot be a straight “versus” movie because, as almost everyone tells me before seeing the film, Superman is an unstoppable force and Batman is just a billionaire genius (conveniently forgetting that Superman's biggest foe is Lex Luther, who is a billionaire genius). How could Batman stand a chance?! Well, I'll forgo divulging the times Batman has defeated Superman in their comic book forms for now and concentrate on what we have here, which is the first true chapter of the DC Comics cinematic universe.

Because cinematic universes are a thing now. Because Marvel and Warner Bros. have trusted the vision of their universe with Zack Snyder. And what vision Snyder has. Quite a polarising director, Snyder has as many critics as fans due to his vivid style. While it is great for his movies to have a look and a feel that makes a Snyder film instantly recognisable, some argue that it is not fitting for every story he produces.

But it works well here. Better than it did in Man of Steel where Snyder's naturally vivid style seemed at odds with producer Christopher Nolan's natural, gritty look. Unlike Nolan, Snyder is really allowed to make a Batman V Superman comic book movie with more emphasis on the comic book and less on the movie.

And it is filmed very much like a comic book; the scenes can be short and cut between each other in a way that is sharp and rushed. In fact, for adult fans of comic books, this movie should be perfect. More complex and adult notions of what drives Batman and what Superman's place in the world is are explored, but unlike the Nolan films, the other worldly element Superman brings means that the movie can take leaps of reality. Though it means that characters make some questionable decisions (would people really just stroll through a cloud of dust from a destroyed building?), it also allows us to accept Wonder Woman's involvement, and she is an entertaining addition to proceedings.

The problem is that the dialogue also sounds like it is from a comic book. Characters don't really engage with each other, there are no natural conversations, and people mainly just say convoluted things at each other. Everything is metaphorical or anecdotal. Everyone is a philosopher.

The movie also has a hefty run time. Where Marvel used five solo superhero movies to build up to its shared universe team, DC are rushing it somewhat by only giving us glimpses of its entire team here. The several dream/vision sequences are clearly with the bigger picture in mind, but they just expand an already bloated movie, and without serving much narrative which can be very confusing. If you don't have an extensive knowledge of the source, then you'll be left scratching your head at just how odd these scenes are. You'll feel you had a bizarre vision yourself. Think Thor in Avengers Age of Ultron in that electric cave Jacuzzi.

Now, the new guys. Ben Affleck does everything the role calls for adeptly, which is anger. Batman is just really angry. And Superman is stressed. Super stressed. Batman V Superman kind of shows us the absolute worst of the heroes. That said, their action scenes are very well done, although they're a bit of a mess in the climactic battle. Batman, in particular, probably has his best fight scenes in any film; they're fast and brutal, but also clearly show what is happening, which is not how the Nolan fight scenes came out in their finished form. It could be straight from an Arkham computer game.

Gal Godot is a refreshing presence. Different from the other two heroes we've seen done to death in movies, she brings the same exuberance to the role as Wonder Woman does to the action. So much exuberance, in fact, that her arrival in the action changes the previously-sombre score to an up-tempo one. It's bizarre really, like a computer game score; the likes that appear after a cut-scene that basically tell you ‘this is when you fight now’. But it does help her leave her a strong impact, while it also leaves enough mystery left hanging over her character to justify her upcoming solo movie.

And then there's Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luther. Obviously going for a modern type of Mark Zuckerberg-esque billionaire instead of the classic suit character we're used to, the new take is refreshingly different, giving Superman a truly opposite foe. Eisenberg looks like he has more fun than anyone in a film ever has. The man ticks and twitches his way through with a borderline lunacy that you can accept his maniacal side enough; his respected billionaire businessman side, less so.

Overall, the movie probably takes itself too seriously, which never really seems to fit the Superman character. The dialogue seems like a first draft and the scenes, with the expanded universe in mind while also introducing so many characters, give the audience an enormous amount of information to digest in the allotted time. But the structure of the movie is excellent, all things considered; the necessary pieces are all there; and the action sequences actually get a lot more build-up than I expected. In fact, the film is so un-Snyder that it's Snyder's best movie. Not the best Batman or Superman movie by any means, but for the average film-goer, at least they are seeing these old characters do something different.

Overall Rating: 7/10 - Respectable

The Dark Knight Rises

Image Source: Wikipedia
(Copyright: Warner Bros., the
film publisher or graphic artist.)

Written By: Luke Mythen

Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures

Production Companies: Legendary Pictures, DC Entertainment and Syncopy

Director: Christopher Nolan

Producers: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven

Scriptwriters: Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan

Main Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Morgan Freeman

Released: July 16 2012 (NY) and July 20 2012 (UK & US)

Running Time: 164 Minutes

Certificate: 12A

Back in 2003, a little-known director named Christopher Nolan (Insomnia, 2002) began working on the reboot for the Batman franchise that Warner Brothers had been waiting for. At this time, Nolan had only made a couple of feature films, all of which were very low budget; however, they were all well-received at the box office and by critics alike. And so he and David Goyer (Man of Steel, 2013) set about the task of drawing up a new way to tell Batman’s origin story and a new theme for the franchise.

In 2005, Batman Begins was released, and it was a huge success; this was the film that all Batman and comic book fans alike had been waiting for since the dreadful Batman Forever (1998). And after that came arguably the greatest comic book movie of all time with The Dark Knight. The film will forever be remembered for the performance of the late Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, 2004) as the Joker, rightfully earning himself an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2009.

So it’s understandable that the announcement of the most recent installment in the franchise was greeted with mass excitement. Before the confirmation of the Dark Knight Rises, the Internet had been awash with speculation about the title, whether Nolan would direct it, and who the villain would be portrayed by. Now, I am reviewing this retrospectively; it has been almost three years since this film was released. I still remember the day I went to see it for the first time: I queued up early, having already pre-booked my tickets online. And, fortunately, the movie lived up to the hype as I shall now explain.

To begin with, the story picks up eight years after the Dark Knight, and it is really interesting to see where the characters are at this point; they are still struggling to cope with the actions and decisions made eight years earlier. Bruce Wayne had become a recluse within his own home, and therefore Batman hadn’t been seen since the death of Harvey Dent/Two Face. However, there is a dark force coming to Gotham in the form of Bane. Batman must come out of retirement to fight the evil Bane and protect his beloved city.

Now, I am not going to give any more of the story away in case you haven’t seen it already. Because this was the final installment, and that this was emphasised by Christopher Nolan from the beginning, fans speculated about whether Batman would live, die or pass on the baton onto someone else. The film is around two hours and forty minutes, which is an awfully long time; yet the movie is so enthralling that the time passes by very quickly; you are so engrossed into the story and the images on-screen. Part of the reason concerns production. Along with the Dark Knight, Nolan decided to film certain scenes in this film in the IMAX format. These scenes look fantastic on the big screen; Nolan is a master of the IMAX camera, and it really helps the movie, especially in the action scenes with the Bat and Tumbler fight complex.

Running concurrently with all the fighting is a very warm story that runs deep through the majority of the characters. The theme of the movie is hope: despite everything that happens in the film, the characters cling onto Batman as hope, and at times even Bruce Wayne looks up to Batman. This movie has to deal with a number of story arcs coming to an end, and occasionally it does seem to be juggling too many plates at once, but they all come to a deserving and worthy end that fans should feel comforted by.

The casting and acting is brilliant. Each actor brings something different to their character. Tom Hardy as Bane was a good choice: Hardy is a method actor, and so he gained around 40 pounds to make sure he was big enough to play Bane. But it is his eyes that steal the show: for the majority of the film, he wears a special breathing mask that covers up everything other than the eyes (which puts a lot of pressure on the scriptwriters to tell the story when you can’t see the lead villain’s mouth). Tom does a fantastic job and, in particular, he deserves a lot of credit for diverting us from the fact that Heath Ledger is not here to play his role, and instead he gives us a completely different and totally believable and threatening villain; a villain that can even stand toe-to-toe with Batman in a fight on a number of occasions.

However, it is Anne Hathaway who steals the show this time around. A lot of fans complained beforehand that she wasn’t good enough to play Selina Kyle and that she wasn’t fit enough for the role. But credit to Anne: she went through six months’ worth of prep in the gym before shooting and closely studied how cats move. She is perfect for the part: she doesn’t allow the suit to overtake her on the screen, and she brings a new look and style to a very well-known character. She is by far the best part of this film.

In addition, the cinematography is absolutely fantastic, and that is all down to Christopher Nolan’s brilliant cinematographer Wally Pfister (Transcendence, 2014). Every shot looks visually stunning on a large canvas, and this allows colours and sound to really fly off the screen.

Overall, The Dark Knight Rises was a fitting conclusion to the greatest comic book trilogy of all-time, and maybe even the greatest trilogy of all-time period. The climax left me feeling satisfied, the action was enjoyable, and the story was interesting from beginning to end. A worthy end to a classic trilogy.

Overall Rating: 9/10 – Outstanding