I am a Batman fan. I wouldn’t say that I am a Superman fan. I watched the old Superman movies growing up and I’ve watched Man of Steel. I’ll admit that I haven’t watched all the old Batman movies but I watched the recent trilogy with Christian Bale as Batman. Those three movies have a special place in my heart. When it was announced that Ben Affleck was going to be the new Batman the world moaned collectively in despair. I did not. It’s been a few weeks since I saw the movie in the cinema. Did it live up to my expectations or was it an absolute failure?
I put off typing this review for a number of reasons. I feel like I had let it digest for long enough. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was three hours of epicness that I would love to relive again. Before we get into why I loved it, I would like to mention what I didn’t like. This is a SPOILER so skip the next two paragraphs if you need to.
The way that Batman and Superman put aside their differences was shit. There is no other way to put it. Essentially what happened was after beating the crap out of each other for a while, Batman was about to deal the killing blow and Superman uttered out his mother’s name. It turns out that both of them had mothers with the same name. This stopped Batman dead in his tracks and he decided not to kill Superman.
I struggled with what happened for a while after the movie. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t think of any other situation that would have stopped Batman from killing Superman but it just felt stupid. It didn’t fit in with the rest of the movie and didn’t really make any logical sense. This was the only negative part of the movie. Luckily it wasn’t bad enough to ruin the movie for me.
Ben Affleck as Batman. This was a heated conversation topic for a very long time but my final verdict is that he did an amazing job. I loved how he portrayed the character and I don’t care what people say. Affleck was built like a beast and it just worked. We must remember that Batman doesn’t have super powers and has to rely on his strength most of the time. Batman also has gadgets and a batmobile at his disposal. There is a scene where Batman drives the batmobile after the bad guys and it is one of the craziest car chases ever. It beats the batmobile scenes in the trilogy hands down. Even the way it ended was insane. Affleck really did a great job and I look forward to see how he will do as the actor and producer in the standalone Batman movie that will be out in a few year’s time.
We also have a new Alfred and he is played by Jeremy Irons. He also played a convincing Alfred but no one will ever dethrone Michael Caine. That being said, this Alfred looked a lot more modern and technical than the previous one. The Alfred from the trilogy was essentially just there to patch Batman up after a night out in Gotham. This Alfred was a lot more hands on and I loved that.
I’ve always thought that Henry Cavill was born to play Superman. He has that look about him. I’m glad that they didn’t recast Superman and kept him on. I loved how certain important parts of the story followed up from the previous Superman movie. Man of Steel was a huge step up from the absolutely horrible Superman Returns rubbish and it allowed this movie to take place.
The story progression was natural and the plot just makes so much sense. It really felt like majority of the movie was just straight up intense action with story pieces as filler and I’m completely okay with that. There was a lot that needed to be shown in this movie and it was managed extremely well within the 3 hours. You need to keep in mind that a lot of risks were taken in this film and I feel like they paid off. We could have gotten another Batman origins story and I’m sure no one wanted to watch that again.
Two new actors graced our eyeballs in this film and holy crap I loved them both. First we have our new Lex Luthor played by Jessie Einsenberg. Now Jessie has been in a bunch of average movies and I didn’t know how to feel when it was announced that he would be the new Lex Luthor. In fact I was worried that he would be the weakest actor. Well let me tell you that his acting abilities rivalled Heath Ledger’s Joker performance. Yes, you read that right. He first showed up as an arrogant know it all and he almost came across as an annoying brat. As the movie went on however, you watch him reveal how crazy and insane he actually is, culminating in the scene where he causes Batman and Superman to clash. He’s taken the old imagine of a useless Lex Luthor and thrown it away, ushering in a new more sinister Luthor. I can’t wait to see more.
Lastly we have our first look at Wonder Woman played by Gal Gadot. I never knew much about Wonder Woman besides that she has a magic lasso and a sword and shield. She only appeared on screen towards the end of the movie and she didn’t show up quietly. She exploded onto the screen and proceeded to beat the crap out of the main threat in the movie. Although she didn’t have a lot of screen time, she did a tremendous job. I know I’m not alone in saying that everyone is looking forward to seeing how her story plays out.
Overall I left the movie feeling like I had watched an epic. If you are a comic fan or at least a little bit up to date with Superman’s story you will predict how the movie ends once you see who the villain is towards the end of the movie. I certainly did and I still wasn’t disappointed. I highly recommend watching this movie if you had any doubts. While there might be a ton of negativity surrounding this movie I refuse to change my opinion.
// Batman V Superman brings a ton of action and new actors to a new era of DC movies, essentially paving the way for the upcoming Justice League movies and more. //
8/10
My Digital Shelf 