This review is full of spoilers and I am going to talk about said spoilers a lot so if you haven’t seen the movie (and this is important) – GO SEE IT! Don’t read the Rotten Tomatoes score and decide to not see it. For my money, this was a really fun movie that made me cry in more than one place and I don’t remember the last time I cried in a movie. Those tears were probably candy-related.
As for my review and analysis, I am going to deal with it like I would if I read a novel and had to write a paper on it. I used to have to do that a lot. So here is my thesis:
Damaged people make decisions that are forged by the damage they have received, and only by seeing themselves in others can they attempt to change.
My evidence will come as I analyze every single scene of Batman v Superman. Oh, and this took me three days so please excuse me if I digressed.
Opening Credits
Here we see the initial damage done to Bruce Wayne: the murder of his parents. Later in the movie we learn what this taught him. During the big fight, Bruce tells Clark that “The world only makes sense if you force it.” The senseless death of his parents taught him that. But…
It was interesting that they did NOT use the typical origin. Bruce didn’t want to leave the theater and they didn’t take the alley because it would be quicker. Bruce did not CAUSE the death of the Waynes. He is not damaged by guilt. He is damaged by random crime and disregard for human life.
And in his dream, the bats (Batman) saves him. That is, he says, a “beautiful lie”. Batman does not save Bruce from his damage. Not the Batman we meet in Batman v Superman.
Aside: Batman Killing
Batman kills in this movie. Snyder goes out of his way to make sure we know this. This is not some arm flapping – OH SO BATMAN KILLS PEOPLE? thing. Let’s put this video here so you can all pre-emptively shut up and then we can talk about how killing is a manifestation of his damage.
Here he is in The Dark Knight Returns which is this Batman’s thematic father.
In the movie, Batman says to Alfred: “We’ve always been criminals.” And he blows up people’s cars (then drags them behind him for some reason I could not understand) and he smooshes people with the Batmobile and he doesn’t try to save people who try to blow him up with hand grenades and he shoots at people who are shooting at him and kills them. Kills them dead.
But he could have also killed everyone in the warehouse instead of disabling most of their guns and then punching them. He could have stabbed that dude in the face instead of the shoulder. He could have just gone full Punisher and gunned them all down. But he didn’t.
Seems like he kills when knocking people out won’t get the job done. That is what this Batman does. Until he changes.
That was uber-geeky.
Was that an insult?
Sen. Leahy is a longtime Batman fan and has appeared in other films.
Very cool. Didn’t know that. Thanks.
I didn’t realize it at the time because it’s been 20 years since I read the story, but the Russian, as it turns out, has a name that goes back to the comics…
He’s the KGBeast.
I had no idea. Thank you for the knowledge. I hope he liked exploding!
Most people aren’t too keen on “Batman Forever,” so Leahy’s appearance there can slip by. By the way, I knew you were a wrestling fan, but I never noticed the fondness for DC Comics.
Yeah. My older brother for me hooked a long time ago. I had batman and Robin walkie talkies and a superman radio.
Holy Simoleons. I won’t get to see this for about three weeks (If I make it to the city and feel well enough after DR to go sit in a theater) and I so want to read this. Any article that has splash pages from Frank Miller must be read.
There is a shitty torrent of it!
If the foot butcher doesn’t cut I’ll go Tuesday Acadia.
Desert Bullets. Yeah, I didn’t get that one either. The only rationale I could figure is that those were supposed to be special bullets that wouldn’t leave any evidence and that’s why only one was recovered. But it would have been more convincing for Lex to use heat ray guns. What? Does the suspension of disbelief stop at the guy in blue long johns who can fly, drag oil tankers across the ice without it somehow cracking and deflects bullets as easily as ping pong balls? If Batman can use some kind of high powered laser that looked hot enough to ignite the atmosphere to core down that Kryptonite into the moral equivalent of the Spear of Longinus, I’m sure Lex could arm his men with heat rays that would have made Supes look guilty as hell.
They flubbed this part, big time. A great sum of it boils down to cultural ignorance and arrogance. Even if it were some third world country where you couldn’t raise a proper crime scene investigation unit, no one is going to tell me that even a child couldn’t recognize multiple gun deaths.
I’m really hoping for an extended blu-ray that illuminates some of Lex’s processes. There was too much secret knowledge in this movie that comic book fans would know/understand, but outsiders would not, which is why I think this movie got panned. I don’t think many of these critics ever read a single page of the comics. By the way, the one thing that could have potentially killed this movie for me was the casting decision of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex. I am so glad to be wrong on that account. He was no Gene Hackman and thank goodness. Eisenberg put his own stamp on the character and he succeeded in being the most frightening comic book villain to hit the screen so far.
The time travelling Flash cameo annoyed me. Totally unnecessary. It reminded me of every single role playing scenario wherein someone is clueless about what to do next and the Game Master is forced to give them a push. Batman is not nearly so unintuitive as to need something like that.
My hope is that there will be a Man of Steel sequel following the first Justice League movie. I was annoyed with the choice of Zod as the villain in the first film when Brainiac would have clearly made so much better a villain for it and in the case of imparting Lex with his knowledge of many worlds in this film. Brainiac could have also provided the kryptonite clue without the terribly contrived, someone-found-this-green-junk-and-tested-it-on-an-alien-corpse-because-reasons.
Maybe Flash telling Batman to find us meant for him to find them like, now. You know? Like, that’s why he said that to Wonder Woman at the end?
I don’t know crap about Braniac =/
“I’m really hoping for an extended blu-ray that illuminates some of Lex’s processes. There was too much secret knowledge in this movie that comic book fans would know/understand, but outsiders would not, which is why I think this movie got panned. I don’t think many of these critics ever read a single page of the comics” I agree I read a lot of graphic novels but I’ve never been a big fan of the super people genre and I kept on half recognizing things and wishing I had Acadia or my friend Telltale (Wow both would have been an argument) to live coment
“But the whole Martha thing, which was only a way to make Batman hesitate, allowed him to see Lois. It was the love he saw in Lois that made him realize what Superman was. He had a mom he loves and a woman who loves him. Batman has neither. Which of those things is more human?”
I was thinking, that martha (supermans mom) was more his whole world. Even though he referenced lois as this earlier.
It shows when Superman just about lost it(got super glowy lazer beam cannon eyes going) when lex told him that he had her prisoner. While lex taunted about lois, Supermans reaction was way more tame.
I thought bats stopped for the reason of that being the trigger that makes Superman snap and join Darkseid in his nightmare.
He vowed/promised to save Martha instead of killing Superman. Then having him as an ally and not an enemy. Instead by doing this in hope of avoiding that nightmare or someone to combat the unknown Darkseid .
And the part about flash mentioning that Lois is the key.
I think, that he was referencing to the battle scene when Bats was about to lose it and kill Superman.
Lois was the key to bruce listening and finding out the Martha issue.
Because bats was having it from superman and wasnt listing due to him possibly thinking that would be a opening in weakness during the fight.
Oooh that’s good. I didn’t think about that!
I have a lot of comments to reply to!
I now have to read this learned treatise. It feels like in order to watch the movie you need a Doctorate in Comics and I only have a Masters from a Cow College where partying is everyone’s major.