BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016) movie

Genre               |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   151 minutes

Released         |   24 March 2016

cast

Henry Cavill as Superman
Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Gal Gadot as Diana Prince
Amy Adams as Lois Lane
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Diana Lane as Martha Kent
Laurence Fishburne as Perry White
Jeremy Irons as Alfred

director

Zack Snyder

writer

Chris Terrio ... (written by) and
David S. Goyer ... (written by)​

cinematographer

​Larry Fong

music

Junkie XL
Hans Zimmer

film editor

​David Brenner

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box office result

Worldwide             $​873,260,194 ​

Australia                 $​​22,517,365 ​

North America        $​330,360,194

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the best dialogue

The Flash: Bruce! Listen to me now! It's Lois! Lois Lane! She's the key! Am I too soon? I'm too soon! You were right about him! You've always been right about him! Fear him! Find us, Bruce! You have to find us!

Batman: It's okay, I'm a friend of your son's.
Martha Kent: [grins] I figured. The cape.

​Martha Kent: Be their hero, Clark. Be their angel, be their monument, be anything they need you to be... or be none of it. You don't owe this world a thing. You never did.

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RELATED MOVIES

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)

BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016) IMAGES

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Fearing that the actions of Superman are left unchecked, Batman takes on the Man of Steel, while the world wrestles with what kind of a hero it really needs.

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 23 March 2016

Pop Movee Rating

If you were expecting BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE to clone the Marvel template to kick-start the DC movie universe, then you’re in for a surprise. Zack Snyder’s latest film, featuring DC’s two headline acts, goes to some unexpected places. The result is a movie that successfully delivers a self-contained story and serves as an introduction to the broader JUSTICE LEAGUE story arc that sees Warner Bros and DC unspool multiple characters in their own feature films in the coming years.

While zACK Snyder tries to deliver a reasonable level of fan service, movie-goers don’t need  an intimate knowledge of the DC comic books to follow this latest story. However, 2013’s MAN OF STEEL is heavily referenced in this new film and it’s highly recommended to do a quick refresher and get up to speed with how that film played out. Despite the inclusion of Batman and Wonder Woman in BATMAN v SUPERMAN, this new film is very much a sequel to MAN OF STEEL. The good news is that it is a vast improvement on the 2013 model and establishes the DC movie universe as a slightly darker, more thought-provoking alternative to its Marvel competitor.

BATMAN v SUPERMAN tells its story through the three main characters that have been heavily featured throughout the film’s nearly two year build-up: Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck), Clark Kent/Superman (Henry Cavill) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). Affleck and Cavill take the lion-share of the film’s first half, but as more details emerge about the mysterious Diana Prince, Gal Gadot moves to the centre of the action in the film’s second half.

​Without labouring Batman’s origins, Snyder does a nice job of quickly establishing Bruce Wayne’s psychological pain and the gradual degeneration of his humanity in the twenty year fight against crime he has waged. Meanwhile in Metropolis, Superman is coming-to-terms with the political, legal and moral dilemmas that his presence on Earth have caused. Tangled up in this are his feelings for Lois Lane (Amy Adams), whom he has come to care about more than anything else on the planet (except perhaps his “Mother” - Martha Kent - played by Diane Lane). Both men have their share of psychological challenges and the story, with contributions by David S. Goyer and Oscar-winning writer Chris Terrio, does a great job of exploring these complex characters without weighing the film’s plot down.

Besides the main trio and Amy Adams, BATMAN v SUPERMAN features an array recurring and new actors playing key supporting characters. At the top of this list is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. He plays Superman’s arch-nemesis as an unhinged intellectual, whose own inner demons drive a desire to inflict pain on those who stand between him and his grand plan. Eisenberg lacks the restrained menace of a Kevin Spacey and doesn’t dominate a scene like Gene Hackman, but, much like Affleck’s Bruce Wayne, his portrayal of Luthor is of a man who lives in a fractured mental state, consumed by the need to control Superman and his powers. It’s an interesting take on the character and is more in keeping with Christopher Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT trilogy villains than anything previously seen in a SUPERMAN feature film.

Laurence Fishburne returns as Perry White, along with Diane Lane as Martha Kent, who plays an important role in the second half of the film. Holly Hunter has a small but pivotal role in the first half of the film as a US Senator. In spite of his obvious class, Jeremy Irons doesn’t make the same impact as either Michael Caine or Michael Gough (the last two actors to play Alfred in feature films), but, in fairness, this story’s take on Bruce Wayne’s “Butler” is quite different. In BATMAN v SUPERMAN, Alfred demonstrates far more technical & weapons competency than any previous Alfred incarnation and relates to Bruce more like a close friend than either an employee or surrogate parent; once again, more like Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox in the DARK KNIGHT movies.

Where BATMAN v SUPERMAN succeeds more than MAN OF STEEL is in delivering the right balance between the action, the characterisation and the sheer spectacle of a big-budget, effects-heavy blockbuster. Director Zack Snyder has - quite obviously - listened to the feedback that was critical of the last half-hour of his previous film (with its “destruction porn”) and worked hard to deliver a film that has a satisfying finale while eschewing the relentless and senseless violence.

At 151 minutes, BATMAN v SUPERMAN is a long film, but it never feels like it’s dragging; a credit to Film Editor David Brenner, who also worked on MAN OF STEEL with Snyder. WATCHMEN Director of Photography Larry Fong takes over from Amir Mokri, but continues using the over-exposed, washed-out look that Snyder established in the last film. While the technique helps to reinforce the “reality” of the film’s visuals, it is a film based on a comic book and a little more vibrancy in the colour pallette wouldn’t hurt.

The Hans Zimmer/Junkie XL musical collaboration is extremely effective, providing a continuation of the musical cues established for Superman in the previous film, while creating a new, more subdued theme for Bruce Wayne and the Caped Crusader that reflects his current approach to life.

BATMAN v SUPERMAN is a great piece of entertainment that stands well & truly on its own, but also successfully traverse the tightrope in opening up the entire DC comic universe to movie-goers around the world.

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