Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - SPOILERS Thread (6,318 views)

Reposting my review but with spoilers!

The opening credits of the film are probably the best bits of celluloid Snyder and Fong have ever created. It is absolutely beautiful and honestly, the particular scene that they recreated should not be touched again because there's no topping this. Great way to kick off the film and this Batman. I won't go in depth with it, but any fan should love it. The first half or so itself is pretty great. It's streamlined, beautiful, and puts the wheels in motion for the rest of the film. Our first look at Batman was amazing, and I loved how he was referred to as "the devil". Our first look at Superman was also neat. Not great, but still pretty good. The film begins to hit bumps in the road once the fight between Batman and Superman rolls around. The fight itself is perfect, but it's dragged down by choppy editing. Infact, the primary scene that drags the fight down is only in the film for the sole purpose of setting up the JL. It doesn't contribute to the story, or overarching scene, at hand. It either should have been cut or moved elsewhere. I really enjoyed Doomsday and his fight as well. It's pretty long and takes up about a 1/3 of the film, with little transition from the previous action scene to his fight, but it's still pretty great. It's geek's fantasy visually, and seeing the trinity fight together couldn't be any sweeter. It's hard to go in depth with the scene without spoiling it or pulling out your action figures, but the climax alone is worth the price of admission. In regards to the ending, A) I guessed it! B) And I liked it more than I expected. Normally I hate it when shows or movies blatantly set up sequels, but I actually thought it was handled well. Granted, it was broken up by an out of place scene, but together it was great. The perfect amount of closure for my taste. I need to think about it some more, but I think I might have actually loved the ending, which is saying a lot if you know me.

Affleck was just about perfect as Batman. The voice was perfect, even though I thought it'd bother me. The aesthetics are, as are his lines and action. The only complaint I have with Batman are the "technical" kills. I have no issue with Bruce killing in his dream, because it's just a dream, or in an apocalyptic future. That's fine. That's justified. However, him blowing up those trucks, flinging cars around with the Batmobile, and setting Knyazev on fire are too much. What makes it all the more disappointing is the fact that Snyder is aware of it and used the Nolan trilogy as an excuse to do so. If he was aware that the Nolan trilogy did it, he should be aware that the fans hated those parts of the Nolan trilogy. Thankfully those deaths were brief and off camera, and now that Snyder is yet again aware of the fan backlash he'll hopefully avoid doing the same thing in future films.
Cavill was good yet again as Superman, and I liked what we saw from Clark, although he definitely needs a film to spread his wings as Superman and dive into the psyche of the character. Lois in the first half was fine, but in the second half she was turned into yet another plot device. Granted, this time she wasn't as bad of a plot device as she was in Man of Steel when there was absolutely no reason for her to be on the Kryptonian ship, but instead she's just as the right place at the right time. Wonder Woman was perfect. Probably the best part of the film. From her introduction to the smirks she makes during the climax. I LOVE her theme. When I first heard it I wasn't a fan, but after seeing it in the film it's absolutely perfect. Gadot was great in the role too, and this should without a doubt help the solo flick. This is by far my favorite Alfred and I honestly can't wait to see more of him and his sarcasm in the solo Bat-flick. Eisenberg as Luthor was... okay. Overall he gave a great performance, but I'm not sure it was the right one. There are a number of incidents when it was a little too over the top. I was hoping by the film's end he'd be turned down to our standard Luthor, but in fact he actually ended on a pretty energetic note.

The film, however, is not without it's faults.

-Choppy editing. REALLY choppy editing. Lex in the Kryptonian wreck should have been more connected. I have no idea why that one scene was spread throughout the film. The warehouse rescue felt too long-ish? It's a great scene, but we went from long action scene to long action scene (and then straight to the grand finale). Something felt off, like there needed to be a buffer between the Bats/Supes fight and the warehouse scene. Batman's special visit at the end of the film was out of the blue. Great, but out of the blue. I have no idea why it was placed where it was. Again, yet another scene placed in the middle of an overall, overarching scene. It should have just come right before it. The story really is straightforward, and it feels like because the story is so straightforward Snyder and co. tried to spice it up, but in doing so it put hampered some pivotal scenes.

-The film was missing some glue. Some absolutely great scenes in the film, but they're mushed together. The second half in particular could have used some better editing/breather scenes in order to give the film some pace and dive deeper into the characters. Sometimes we were thrown information and expected to run with it, getting the information to come from the characters and hearing how the feel about it in addition to visually seeing it would have been great.

-The last half or so of the film feels like one big, drawn out battle. A great battle, but it felt like everything took place in the span of five minutes. Not only that, but the story takes a backseat to the action. It's almost like the story stops.

-The Batman/Superman fight pretty thin. It all hinged on a single thread, I would have liked to see more reasoning/conversation between the two heroes before they go at it.

-The conclusion to the Batman/Superman fight felt rushed. As soon as Bruce heard that name, that was enough for him to drop his intense rage for Superman and instead go off and fight him? Ehhhh. No fault to Affleck, but they didn't show a whole lot of emotion from Bruce. There was no inner turmoil or change. A simple shot or two of Bruce tearing up, hanging head, or showing some kind of change would have made a huge difference.

-There were a couple of plot holes as well that irked me: How did Lex know Clark's identity? How did he know Martha was his mother? How did Lex know Batman's identity? I like that Lex helped fuel Bruce's hate, but how did he know to do so in the first place? Why does Lex hate Superman? Aside from him being batshit there's no motivation. And why does he have an interest in Metahumans to begin with? Some simple lines could have fixed that. Why and how does Lex know about Darkseid? Thus far only the JL was discovered. How does Bruce know who Diana is? I mean he emails her, how? Before that she was just some strange woman he met at a party. Maybe he found her name in the LexCorp files, but I doubt that he'd find an email address in there as well

Is it everything it could or should have been? Nah. Does it deserve all the hate it's getting? No way in hell is all that hate justified. The film walks the line between summer blockbuster and political thriller, which for some will work and others not so much, but there's a solid movie in there. You don't have to love, but you don't have to hate it either.

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Overall, the film is actually like a comic book come to life, which has its ups and down. There's enough homages to last a fan a lifetime, the characters jump off the page, an amazing score is there to boot, but sometimes it's at the expense of the story, which turns to mush by the climax. The pacing of the story is surprisingly slow, but in a way it works for the film. At times overly ambitious, with a couple plot holes here, a rushed scene there, and choppy editing in between, it's not perfect. Far from it. But boy, is it pretty damn enjoyable and at the end of the day it's a solid flick.

Those cameos were fucking great.

Cyborg was totally like a horror movie.

As was the first time we see Batman.

Fück you Zack Snyder.
You killed Superman on Good fücking Friday!
You even had crucifixes made from metal rubble.
We get it, you have a hard on for Jesus imagery.

Not to mention the spear of destiny...

You know Jesus was stabbed in the side with it and Batman almost did the same to Superman.

I love how he puts the fear of God into Lex at the end.

Really badass.

I really (REALLY) hate this shot, it's so lazy and static. The three characters all look unnatural and uncomfortable in it. It feels like it was only there to stick on at the end of a trailer. There's no build up to it, they're just there. Think of the round house shot in The Avengers, half of what makes it so good is the build up to it.

How I'd change it (I'm imagining one shot):
Doomsday in the middle of an evolution. He's beating the ground and roaring, electricity's flying everywhere. The camera moves to Wonder Woman. She's sprinting, at breathtaking Amazonian speed, towards Doomsday. She pulls out her sword and as she reaches him slices at his leg. Doomsday goes down on one knee, he throws a punch at Diana. She dodges it and slices at his arm. Diana leaps up along Doomsday's arm, she stabs him in the shoulder and leaps off into the air. In mid-air Diana pulls out the lasso and lassos Doomsday.
As she lands she pulls on the lasso and whips Doomsday up into the air, I really want to show just how strong Wonder Woman is. She spins him around before firing him through the air towards an abandoned building. Doomsday is about to crash into it when....
SONIC BOOM! Now it's Superman's turn. He's beating Doomsday with everything he's got. Superman keeps Doomsday airborne through the ferocity of the attack. Superman's final punch sends Doomsday hurtling towards the abandoned building. But before he can hit...
Batman grapples past, throwing two Kryptonite vapour batarangs into Doomsday's shoulders. The bombs explode, the dust causes Doomsday to roar even louder but the roar is silenced suddenly as he crashes info the building and it colapses on top of him.
The camera now pans around to the clearing caused by the destruction. Wonder Woman, sword in one hand, shield in the other, is walking directly towards the rubble. Superman floats in from behind and lands at the same instant as Batman grappling in (landing in the classic Bat-stance). The camera lingers for a second or two as the Trinity march forward and then bam! Straight back into the fight with Doomsday.
Thoughts?

TL;DR