Five to ten years ago, when nerd culture really started cracking the mainstream, we saw two very different reactions from people creating content. One group was enthusiastically happy and embraced it wholeheartedly. The other, didn’t understand it at all–but knew that they wanted to make money off it.
The examples that spring to mind are the NBC show Community and the CBS show the Big Bang Theory. Community was 100% pro-nerd. It’s comedy wasn’t based in humiliating its non-mainstream characters, but in taking people who were traditionally made fun of and setting them up as the heroes. The show made us root for people because of their differences.
The Big Bang Theory, on the other hand, is not about shining a light on differences–but in mocking those outside the mainstream. The entire premise of the show is that it’s hilarious for Leonard, a guy who is smart and loves comics, to date an attractive girl. Big Bang isn’t interested in exploring nerd culture, it’s interested in mocking it and stealing its lunch money. It’s built around the belief that people who weren’t cool in high school are pathetic, inferior and should die alone.
This brings me, in my roundabout way, to Batman v. Superman, or more accurately, Marvel v. DC. Say what you want about Marvel, but they care–really, genuinely care–about their characters and their fans. They’ve made some less than great movies (Hulk, Thor 2, Iron-Man 3), yet the thing that shines through every time is that the joy they take in the crazy nerd world they’re building. They want to live there, and they want us to want to live there, too.
Then there’s D.C.
The most glaring thing about Batman v Superman is that no one working on this film understands or cares about the premise. Zack Snyder is the type of guy who thinks people root for Rocky Balboa because he beats up a black guy. He somehow misses everything important about the world he’s building and the characters inhabiting it…which is how you wind up with a film where Batman and Superman are responsible for more deaths than Lex Luthor and Doomsday combined. It’s how you get a three-hour movie that completely fails to establish any plot, coherence or accessibility. Instead, it’s a world where people just do things and no one has any motivation.
Batman HATES Superman.
Why?
Because he knocked down his building. So he’s willing to hatch an elaborate plot to kill him, but he can’t be bothered to learn anything about him. Superman ALSO HATES Batman. For no reason. Lex Luthor hates everybody, including congress for not stopping him (scratching head)? These are the main characters, and while they’re as intensely unlikable as everyone else in the film, at least they do things. This is more than I can say for Lois Lane, Alfred and Perry White, who are just as unhappy and lacking any motivation, but are just sort of there.
Eventually, Wonder Woman shows up and kicks some ass, which is welcome because we finally get a break from everyone else we’ve been introduced to who’s spent the last three hours angrily saying and doing things that make no sense and have no impact.
Let’s be clear here: there are a few good things about the film. The acting is perfectly fine, Wonder Woman has some promise, and a number of action sequences are extremely well-done. Batman’s final solo fight scene, for example, might be best the character’s ever had! But the whole thing is dragged down by insufferable plot and dialogue.
The real tragedy is that there’s a good movie in here somewhere. Batman battling Superman is an intriguing premise. Batman with his strategic brilliance and assurance that the ends justify the means, Superman with his unassailable strength and inflexible morality–they represent mankind’s unending debate about what it means to be good. Is intellect more powerful than strength of arms? In the name of justice, how willing should one be to get their hands dirty? These are conflicts that, in the hands of a competent director, would make for compelling cinema.
Not here though. Here there is no black, no white, no smarts, no strength, no choices. Only dumb people, doing bad things. Both heroes and villains remorselessly kill countless people until it’s impossible to tell which is which, or why anyone should care. No one changes, no one wins and everyone is unhappy. Snyder mistakes moping for emotional depth, inflexibility for morality, and homicidal violence for heroism. It accomplishes what neither Batman Forever nor Superman IV: The Quest for Peace never could–it makes you hate both Batman and Superman.
Batman v Superman is The Big Bang Theory of comic book movies. It thinks that we root for superheroes because we’re idiots who like watching people get murdered. And yes, they want our money, but not enough to learn about us or treat us with respect.
Very true assessments – alot of nice visuals, extremely incoherent narrative and poor character development.
medicore film at best!!
@Sai Dawson It definitely was NOT a shining moment in DC cinematic history. It was no Superman or Dark Knight, but it also wasn’t Batman Forever or Batman & Robin. It was somewhere in between.
I saw it finally and it is quite forgettable. That being said, I enjoyed watching the movie. Their is no real character development. All we get is the Wayne family deaths which are a plot device to set up “Martha”. Phone call to a character we know nothing about who dies in a Wayne Financial enterprise. An angry Clark Kent with an utterly confused Lois Lane.
The smart character is Lex Luthor who manipulates both Batman and Superman and a pretty smart Senator?
Lex can do all that but he can’t secure his home computer network from two party guests?
I don’t know Zack Snyder well but I don’t think this was an acting problem. Clark hearing Bruce talk to Alfred was a great subtle use of his power. Although Superman’s Super Breath and intelligence seem to be totally lacking at the end of the film when Superman walks into Batman’s field of death and gets hit with Kryptonite canister not once but twice!
Continuity is a directors job and it just wasn’t there.
Hopefully DC course corrects. Zack Snyder hasn’t made a memorable film yet.
@Cameron I agree with you wholeheartedly. It’s such a shame, that this film could have been so much more. They were better off just replicating the “Public Enemies” storyline from the animated Batman-Superman movie. I don’t think Zack could have messed that up. For my money his best film still is the remake of Dawn of the Dead. So perhaps the remake/remixing route is the best way for him to do with subsequent movies in the DCEU.