'Batman V Superman' Did One Thing Right


At this point you've either seen Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and have an opinion. So far the response has either been unbridled love (DC or Zack Snyder fanboys), unbridled hate (film critics) or in-between. I'm sort of in the middle here. On the one hand there was a lot wrong with this film* but there was one thing they did get right at least in my mind-Batman.

Yes Ben Affleck delivered.

I know there has been a lot of vitriol aimed at him and production before it came out and even now some are complaining about certain elements but for this Batfan he managed to capture the raw energy of Batman and the playboy side of Bruce Wayne. The two biggest examples is the party sequence where Bruce first meets Clark Kent and lays eyes on Diana Prince. He spars verbally with Kent over the differences of their alter egos, flirts with Diana and plays spy as he hacks into Lex Luthor's database. It shows his charm and ease of being Bruce Wayne, something Christian Bale never did. The second is the big fight near the end where Batman takes on a small army to rescue (SPOILER) Martha Kent. It's the Batman I always wanted to see-a man of action who uses his arsenal and skills to take down the baddies. It looks like someone played the Arkham games and used them as a template and delivered a rousing action piece that tops any of the one on one fights in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy.

So what does that say? Bring on a solo Batman movie.

*What I did hate? The bloated run time, the convoluted story, Lois Lane's pointless damsel in distress role, the humorless tone, the dream/nightmare sequences, Doomsday and-pardon my language-Jesse Eisenberg's fucking awful Lex Luthor performance, possibly the worst piece of acting in any superhero film since Batman and Robin.

Comments

Anonymous said…
What could have happened to make Jesse Eisenberg seem like a good casting choice for Lex Luther? The clip of him in the trailer was enough for me to not attempt to see this movie. Amy Schumer would have been a better option.
MCR said…
True Eisenberg was an awful choice but it was a combination of him and the choices made about the character and his motivations-or lack of-that made it a terrible performance.

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