this is a huge movie, let's talk about what went wrong.

I saw the movie twice because I pre paid for both showings. The first time I saw it I really didnt like it. It was a mess of too many plot lines, terrible character motivations, stupid plot points, and bad action. The second time though I did t hate it, knowing what Luther was doing from the start really helped follow the story. And I saw what they were going for but ultimately failed.

The movie fails because it is a movie about superman but superman is a secondary character. I bet superman only had 20 lines in the whole movie. I am convinced synder hates superman, he only focuses on the haters of superman, he never lets superman have a moment and never lets him speak. He goes to Washington to say his case, instead he just stands there and never utters a word. His mom is telling him he doesn't owe anyone anything, he just stands there and says nothing. in the end superman decides the world is worth saving because he loves Lois, it's basically a love story but is the end satisfying, not really.

Luther makes this entire elaborate plan to destroy superman, not just kill him but destroy his image by making him kill for personal reasons. This lex is not the lex we know, he is far more joker than anything else and it's fascinating. The performance is great, it's creepy, he is totally psychotic. He does not believe that someone all powerful can be pure. Basically he refuses to believe superman is good, that's the theme of the entire movie, is superman good? Should he answer to the government. Is he dangerous. So they spend all this time on that, making sure to remove the heroic side of superman, even when he is saving people it's to sad music and contrasted with people questioning his impact on the world. A good movie would let superman have his redemption, to show the world that he is good, to have a large emotional moment. But nope, he dies, the end.

Shoehorning in the death of superman in this movie is what really messed everything up. The reason that comic worked so well was because you knew his thoughts, he actually communicated with others. Superman started the fight confident, why shouldn't he be, but as he fought he realized this is unlike anything he faced. He realized he is going to have to kill doomsday or it will destroy the city and people he loves most.

He gives every inch of his life to kill doomsday and he dies doing this, he dies a hero. In this movie the doomsday fight is the absolute worst kind of superhero action scene. Just a bunch of flashing lights, random punches, it's nonsense. There is no gravitas to any of it cause no one seems to care about what is happening. There is almost no speaking between them, no actual moment. Contrast that to the avengers who work as a team, who communicate, it's a drastic difference. So when superman died killing doomsday it's not an emotional moment, it's just a thing that happened. Imagine that scene with Wonder Woman and batman talking with each other and realizing they don't know how to kill this thing. Superman comes up with a plan but he realized he has to do something that may end up killing him. At that moment batman will see the quality of this man and how wrong he was. During this make sure you show the public watching this on tv, show the superman haters watching superman sacrifice his life to save them all. Connect the audience emotionally to this moment. This movie utterly failed in that.

Batman was fantastic, Ben Affleck is incredible. It's the most accurate batman we have ever had on film. The one good action scene in the movie is the batman fight, which is taken right from Arkham. I don't care that he kills, he is old and pissed off. The only issue is that a killer batman can't have a joker, it does not work. There is no way to explain why the joker lives in a world where batman kills... Unless he is Jason Todd.

The movie failed to make the friendship between batman and superman feel natural, superman says Martha and boom batman is his best friend. Now I did notice a cutscene after that scene, when they are planning to save Martha batman says he will go save her and he tells superman I made you a promise I will keep it. Well he never mentions a promise in the movie so that was a deleted scene. The flip of the switch to friends is too much.

There is a lot more but I'll stop here. I do appreciate that the movie was ambitious in its themes, but the story fails. It misses Most nearly every emotional beat. It's 2 hours and 30 minutes and still feels rushed. The movie is a mess, but an ambitious mess.

gamingeek said:

Dang it.

Spoiler free version?

Bloated mess, dark, humorless. Treats superman like shit.

Ummm...

Is it really that long enough after Easter where you can't see someone's REDEMPTION in sacrificing himself and then rising from the dead?!

Did they really have to talk it out and spell it out with words? The entire world was starting to hate him and fear him, yet he sacrificed himself anyway...

Reeeeeally don't like Ezra Miller as the Flash. He has a face like Templeton the Rat. It was VERY apparent in that time-travel, Bat Cave scene. Didn't like the cheap Darkseid set-ups either. Jesse Eisenberg was a MESS as Luthor.

phantom_leo said:

Ummm...

Is it really that long enough after Easter where you can't see someone's REDEMPTION in sacrificing himself and then rising from the dead?!

Did they really have to talk it out and spell it out with words? The entire world was starting to hate him and fear him, yet he sacrificed himself anyway...

Ina scene that had zero impact. You have to make it matter, talking, giving these characters actual character would help make that happen. The scene was terrible and no one cared superman died cause we all know he is coming back.