Man Vs. Man: Why I Liked Batman Vs. Superman

***THIS WILL HAVE SPOILERS SO THERE'S YOUR WARNING***


Let me get this out of the way first. They got the title wrong. If they had stopped mid-stream and looked at what they were making they would have seen. This should have been called BATMAN & SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. Not Vs. Vs. isn't the script they filmed. Well, it is for about 15 minutes. And maybe it is thematically here and there. But I think word of mouth and a lot of complaints would have been avoided had they titled the thing correctly (or, conversely, rewrote it to accentuate the Vs, but that's far more expensive).

I am a Zack Snyder fan. No apologies. Loved his DAWN OF THE DEAD remake (and the original DOTD is in my top 10 all time faves). 300, I can take or leave that. I love WATCHMEN. What people really miss about WATCHMEN, especially when they're up their own ass about it's deconstruction of superheroes and comic books (which IS there, and IS brilliant), is that it is itself a ripping superhero mystery adventure. Snyder's film focuses on the mystery/adventure part but also does some very subtle work with Alan Moore's deeper themes. They are there, and it's a really underrated work of popular film-making (plus his ending is better than the giant space squid, and they nailed Rorschach).

I did not see his animated owl movie, and probably never will. I hated SUCKER PUNCH. It's striking to look-at and he is reaching towards SOMETHING but I have no idea what it is or what it's about. It probably deserves a revisit. MAN OF STEEL? I liked it a lot. I liked the grim-dark version of Superman, I liked his struggle. I loved Michael Shannon as Zod. I liked how it turned into a full-fledged alien invasion film.

So I was on-board with Snyder's BvS as soon as it was announced. It started as a straight MOS sequel before WB saw those AVENGERS dollars and decided they better get on their own version pronto. Smelled desperate. Felt too quick. Marvel built their empire piece by piece. WB/DC decided to skip all that.

I soaked up the reviews when they started coming out, as bad as they were. I was surprised at the hostility. But I also picked up positive notes and even hope in some of the poor notices. Many of the things being bashed sounded OK to me. The fact that the Vs. part takes up maybe 15 minutes, yea, ok. That's fair. Mainly, the complaints about how the movie treats Batman and Superman sounded, to me, compelling.

So I went in a week and half after release, with all this info in my head, lowered my expectations and then proceeded to have them exceeded by a misunderstood superhero examination that I hope gets reassessed down the line.

I liked this Batman. He's older, bitter, nastier. He kills, but not excessively. He brands his captives skin with the Bat sign. Alfred, early in the film, sums him up as a man who feels irrelevant and alienated and angry by the arrival of a godlike being. He hates Superman and feels he should be eliminated as he is a threat to all mankind.We relive the end of MAN OF STEEL from Bruce's perspective, where Zod and Superman lay waste to Metropolis, a Bruce Wayne owned building and thousands of lives. But really he's a threat to Batman and his relevance. Ben Affleck is great (yes, I said Ben Affleck is great) in the role.

Superman has his own problems. He's struggling with his reputation post-Zod. He's framed for the murder a group of African terrorists, and is being investigated by the US government. He doesn't know how to balance being man and Superman, and doesn't know how to endear himself to his new planet.

He's also being troubled by Lex Luthor, over-played by Jesse Eisenberg. I don't blame Eisenberg for being annoying in the role. I blame casting. Jesse just doing what Jesse do. Luthor has discovered a large piece of Kryptonite he plans to sell to the government as a "deterrent" to Superman. He also gets access to the alien ship from MAN OF STEEL and through some exploration eventually creates Doomsday.

Bruce Wayne is investigating Lex. So is a mystery woman later revealed to be Wonder Woman. Wayne uses the Kryptonite to create a battle-suit, weapons and a spear, all to kill Superman. They do battle, and it's doozy. Snyder doesn't disappoint with the fireworks.

The battle works because, at it's core, there's real emotion. Batman wants his swagger back (Perry White keeps rejecting Clark Kent's Batman stories. Even the Daily Planet has no interest in Batman). Superman has bigger stakes: Lex has kidnapped Superman's mother, Martha (remember the name). He needs Batman's help. Thus comes one of the most controversial moments in the film. Batman, ready to strike the killing blow, hears Superman's pleas to "save Martha." He is reminded of his own, murdered mother, Martha. Is it corny? Melodramatic? FUCK YES. But it works.

Therefore Bats and Supes team-up, are joined in battle by Wonder Woman, and take on Doomsday. Seemingly defeated, Superman uses the Kryptonite spear to kill Doomsday, sacrificing his own life for Earth.

It's the culmination of what I found compelling about the film. Batman and Superman become each other's salvation. Batman, at rock bottom, ready to kill a good man, regains his humanity. "Martha won't die tonight," he says. Superman, by his ultimate sacrifice, shows once and for all that he is good righteous, willing to fight for his home. He is not without flaws, but no man is.

The movie HAS problems. The whole dream sequence most seem to like I could have done without (especially the very weird cameo in that dream). Amy Adams, whom I love, is wasted. She's just a damsel in distress. She also has one of the more puzzling sequences late in the film (why does she throw the spear in the water and why does she know to retrieve it? As far as I know she didn't know anything about Kryptonite, unless I missed it). I just finished the TV series HANNIBAL, which had career-best work from Laurence Fishburne as Jack Crawford. I could have used more of his Perry White.

That being said, I also wasn't bothered by a lot of what others have jumped on. I was fine with how the other meta-humans were revealed. It sort of stops the movie for a few minutes but it's not as jarring as random cameos. I thought Cavill was fine. He makes a great Clark Kent and a strong Superman. He's not Christopher Reeves, but who is? I though Gal Godot was used just enough, and look forward to the Wonder Woman film.

The film closes with Bruce Wayne pledging to do right by Superman in death, and urging Wonder Woman to help him find and gather the other meta-humans. The movie's final image hints that maybe all isn't lost for Superman (shocker, right?).

My favorite moment at the end is Batman, in a nicely directed scene, confronting Luthor in jail and preparing to brand him. He chooses not to, completing the re-humanizing of The Batman.

BVS is not what we were expecting, or even hoping for. But it's what we got, and what we got is vastly underrated. Putting our superhero myths into the real world and watching them get knocked around is not a crime. Getting back to WATCHMEN, that is exactly what Alan Moore did. Hell, Dan Drieberg couldn't get a boner until he put the Night Owl suit on. BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN is not nearly as eloquent or good as WATCHMEN, but it's a gutsy curveball, and I await the 3 hour (THREE HOURS!!) Blu Ray to see what else there might be to discover.