Directed by Zack Snyder
Written by Chris Terrio & David S. Goyer, based on characters created by Bob Kane & Bill Finger (Batman) and Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster (Superman)
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy
Soundtrack: Junkie XL and Hans Zimmer
Look, I get it. Comic book movies are a tough business.
You have to adapt an infinite medium into a finite medium; you have to make a movie that will stand on its own even if people haven’t read the source material while also making something that fans of the source material will appreciate; and, on top of all that, you need to make a movie that will make enough money to triple the tremendous costs so that it’s not considered a failure, but you don’t want to make it too simple-minded so that it’s also considered a failure.
Whoa.
All that said, I’ve feared, especially when compared to its Marvel counterpart, that the DC Extended Universe has been doomed from the start, having been largely placed in the hands of Zack Snyder. That’s not to say ol’ Zack is incapable of making good movies; 300 and Watchmen stand as evidence in his favor. Man of Steel, however, is good for about 70 minutes of its runtime, while the other hour is just too much for my senses.
Dawn of Justice is, in many ways, more of the same, except it’s not a tale of two halves like Man of Steel (or Captain America: The First Avenger, for that matter). Here, the schizophrenia has a bit of a ping pong feel, bouncing back and forth between questionable decisions and sequences that actually work pretty well. From a plot standpoint, the movie takes a while to get where it’s really going, but once it gets there, it’s pretty good, so, overall, it balances out to some solid entertainment.
Per my guiding principles, I’ll do my best not to spoil anything (although the trailers have basically given everything away at this point) while getting into what worked and what didn’t.
Remember when everybody freaked out over Ben Affleck playing Batman, and how he was going to ruin the movie? I maintained from Day One that he’d be fine, and if the movie had problems, he wouldn’t be one.
And I was right.
I have to hand it to him, given what he was asked to do, I thought he handled the essentially dual roles of Bruce Wayne and Batman with aplomb. He might not go down as the best of either, but given the history of the character on screen, he acquitted himself well.
Regrettably, I was also right about the most grating aspect of the movie: Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.
Now, do I have a certain bias against Jesse Eisenberg? Yes. He generally gets on my nerves, but that doesn’t mean I hate everything he’s ever done, Surely some of my agita has to do with the way the Luthor character was written, but, man, him in that role was a tough pill to swallow, and I do mean to the bitter end.
What else did I hate? For one thing, there’s this thread of Bruce Wayne having crazy dreams that is baffling to watch and doesn’t really add anything. There are references to the future that I felt were way too explicit; a little subtlety would have been nice in that regard. And, did we really need to see Thomas and Martha Wayne get gunned down again? (Mercifully, this happens during the opening credits, so at least they get it out of the way as quickly as possible.)
What else worked? I’m not entirely sure, but I think there was a creative decision to make Gotham and Metropolis very geographically close, almost like Manhattan and Jersey City; I think I’m on board with that. Also, Jeremy Irons as Alfred was great; the character had a certain sassiness that I really enjoyed.
Ultimately, the movie is an excuse for one particular centerpiece, and that centerpiece is satisfying, even if the reason for it is a bit hackneyed.
Unfortunately, I’m not so sure the movie works entirely as a movie, which every movie should, no matter the source material, or if it’s the third sequel; every movie should work as its own experience. I’m afraid that if people don’t know much about Batman or Superman, they’ll be a bit lost watching Dawn of Justice, and they’ll have the same experience I had when I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past (tl;dr, I didn’t give a crap). Perhaps it coalesces just enough to avoid this problem, but I don’t know; I’ve always been kind of a DC Comics guy, so it’s hard for me to tell.
As I said before though, Dawn of Justice averages out to some solid entertainment, and it did throw in some surprises I wasn’t expecting, which is more that I can say about some other movies.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
P.S.
Naturally, and as usual, Alamo outdid themselves with the specials. Between my friend and I, we sampled everything but the pizza.
