MOVIE REVIEW
movie review:
Batman v Superman
B
atman v Superman: Dawn of Justice begins and
ends with a funeral, which is fitting for a movie that
plays like one long dirge. Dreary, overproduced
and underbaked, this nominal showdown between two
of comic-dom's most mythic superheroes serves as a
grim reminder of just how bad Man of Steel really was.
That 2013 movie introduced British actor Henry Cavill
as Superman, in a tea-colored miasma of dutiful action
sequences and sadistically over-the-top violence. Director Zack Snyder returns to those questionable core
values in a film that replaces genuine intrigue and suspense with a series of confounding red herrings, tossing
out solemn observations about men, gods, martyrs and
saviors while invoking such hot-button issues as terrorism, drones and immigration. Batman v Superman is so
desperate for the audience to take it seriously that it forgets to have any fun at all: Rather than escapism and
sensory exhilaration, viewers get down in the mire with
protagonists who grimace, scowl and wince their way
through heroics with the joyless determination of shift
workers making the donuts. Batman v Superman begins
where Man of Steel left off - that is, with Superman laying waste to the futuristic city of Metropolis in order to
save it. Appalled, millionaire orphan Bruce Wayne (Ben
Affleck) worries that the new neighborhood vigilante
is accountable to no one - unlike Bruce, who at least
has to answer to his lifelong factotum, Alfred (a drolly
amusing Jeremy Irons). The point of Superman v Batman, of course, is to get these two brooding saviors of
humanity to the ultimate showdown, and maybe launch
an "Avengers"-worthy multiverse in the bargain. Snyder,
with the dubious help of screenwriters Chris Terrio and
David S. Goyer, does all he can to put off that final confrontation, keeping Bruce and Clark Kent on their separate paths, only to be brought together by the unhinged
entrepreneur Lex Luthor, portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg
in a jittery, hysterically pitched performance that resembles a gnat impersonating Heath Ledger. Eisenberg is
one of the few weak links in Batman v Superman, which
actually features some terrific performances: Affleck has
the square jaw and resolute demeanor to convincingly
channel Bruce, who once he becomes Batman acquires
an adenoidal speaking voice and a pair of Frankensteinian shoes that, if camera placement is any indication,
Snyder has a fetishistic fascination with. As Superman,
Cavill once again wears that vaguely put-off expression of someone who's just ingested something dis-
tasteful; he's much more appealing as Clark Kent for a
Warby Parker age, doting on Lois Lane (Amy Adams)
and wondering why his valiant efforts to save the world
are seen by some as the suspect doings of an alien arriviste. Suffused with paranoia and hostility, Batman v
Superman engages in the kind of po-faced hyper-masculinity that can be seen as an apologia for privilege at
its most unexamined and disarming: Sure, these guys
swagger through the streets laying waste to all that's in
their path, but their psychic burdens are unimaginable.
They hurt. (And man, do they love their mothers.) As
a wish-fulfillment fantasy of potency and unassailable
moral certainty, Snyder's vision is understandable, if not
particularly distinguished or convincing. Chase scenes,
explosions, beat-downs, shootouts and the final, brutalizing mano-a-mano all look cobbled together from generic elements of other movies, crashing into a rock-em,
sock-em rubble of