In-depth Review of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Man of Steel(2014) can be considered the first entry into the DC'EU but today's Dawn of Justice is the film that will tie together the future of DC' cinema. The next films to take place are Wonder Woman and Justice League-Part 1 in 2017, then followed by a Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman movie, and Justice League-Part 2; all a part of the future DC' Expanded Universe. Those films are all dependent on the success of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and how it does domestically and internationally in the box office. Early reviews of the film have set low expectations in terms of the monetary success of the film. The predicted budget of Dawn of Justice was said to be at least $400 million requiring an $800 million total to make anything back on the film. Opening day is the make or break day for a movie to determine the future of its popularity, success, and sequel opportunities. There is also reason to believe that the failure of Dawn of Justice might call for the shutdown of Justice League-Part 1. But there is the matter of Wonder Woman(2017) which has already completed production. But the likeliness of B.v.S. Dawn of Justice performing horribly domestically or internationally is very low. Critic review will change once fan reaction becomes an outcry for critics to stop horribly rating films based on their own personal bias. That is what it comes down to, a bias against the film for whatever reason. Whether it be the casting selection, the tone, the genre, or one specific aspect, presumptuous critical reviews on Dawn of Justice all leaned toward the film not meeting expectations regardless of how excellent the content was portrayed on-screen. Still, the film has already surpassed expectations by beating the early review ratings on the quality of the film. Expectations being met, the cast of the film did great in their roles. Those who doubted Ben Affleck's acting chops was sorely proven wrong by his new take on Batman. Of course it was director, David Ayer's direction that pointed Affleck in the right direction but it was Affleck himself that brought the Batman to life on the big screen. Gal Gadot also shined as Wonder Woman, she wasn't given much dialogue but her presence was definitely felt through out the film. Wonder Woman/Diana Prince had one of the biggest scenes whilst going head to head with Doomsday. And Jesse Eisenberg's role as Lex Luthor was the most controversial; the role was a good fit for the actor but the eccentricity necessary to portray a character like Lex Luthor needs to bring with it a finesse that Eisenberg lacked in this role. Aside from the rating based opinion, there was much more entertaining quality in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice to discuss than critics lead on to believe.

SPOILER ALERT: Review on the movie, and in-depth analysis.

The intro to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice opened up brilliantly, addressing the aftermath of Man of Steel(2014) in Metropolis, while setting the seeds for the rest of the film. It was also a good change of pace to see a common place event like the fight between Superman and Zod seen from the perspective of a person outside of the immediate conflict. Bruce Wayne was present during the events of Man of Steel, his place during the film has him attempting to save his employees working in the Wayne Enterprises building of Metropolis. Bruce gets close enough to the building to see what's happening right before Kal-El/Superman and General Zod crash into the building, firing their eye beams, destroying the building, killing everyone inside. The scene brings with it some gravitas when the victims of Metropolis are all around, a little girl whose mother was in the destroyed Wayne Enterprises building, a man whose legs became stuck under a beam required them to be amputated, all the while Superman is busy having a fist fight with General Zod. A disregard for human life is what Bruce Wayne sees in Metropolis when Superman and Zod attack the city. That is the driving force for Bruce Wayne/Batman to find a way to beat Superman before the end of the film.

The film then goes on to focus on Clark Kent, also known as Kal-El or Superman. During Dawn of Justice, Superman is under the public's eye after the events of Man of Steel, and every time Superman intervenes in a pubi conflict, he gets shown to the public as a killer rather than a savior. Two of these events require Superman to answer for his crimes at a court hearing. The court hearing is held and Superman shows up but is not prepared for what happens. Lex Luthor becomes involved by rigging a wheelchair-bound victim of Superman with a explosive device on the wheelchair to explode in the room for the Senate Committee. The rigged wheelchair explodes in the room, killing everyone but Superman. Superman was present to listen to what the Senate Committee had to say on his actions and would be the only left alive in the room after the explosive is detonated. Public opinion already against Superman, an explosion in a Senate Committee meeting to hold Superman accountable for his actions would completely drive all public opinion from Superman's side. The scene ends with the Capitol building in smoke and rubble as Superman leaves the building. Superman knows that Luthor is behind the bombing and goes to confront him. All of these events played out very smoothly, and there was no roughness in transition between scenes. Whilst confronting Luthor, Superman learns that his mother, Martha Kent is being held captive and the only way Luthor will release her is if Superman brings him the head of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Luthor sends Superman on this mission, knowing that he's already set Batman up with the means to make weapons out of kryptonite which he uses to defeat Superman. Luthor's main goal is to kill Superman for his own selfish reasoning, and by using the Batman, Luthor has the means to accomplish this without getting his own hands dirty. The setup was there for Batman to take the kryptonite from LexCorp and Lex forcing Superman to kill Batman to save his mother was an attempt at bringing the two titans against each other. Luthor succeeded at first in getting Batman and Superman to fight but didn't count on the Batman showing mercy to Superman which would unite them against Doomsday.

After the fight between Superman/Clark Kent and Batman/Bruce Wayne concludes itself, the two heroes find themselves on separate missions but a united goal. Batman has to rescue Martha Kent from Luthor's assassin and Superman has to investigate the containment module around Zod's destroyed ship as it begins showing activity. The activity inside turns out to be Lex Luthor genetically manufacturing Doomsday out of the corpse of General Zod. Superman confronts Lex before Doomsday is released out of his resurrection cocoon, then the cocoon hatches. The fight begins between Superman and Doomsday, the fight is similar to the action in Man of Steel(2014) but with a lot less collateral damage. Superman forces the fight into the sky then pushes Doomsday out into space until a nuclear weapon is shot at Doomsday. Doomsday becomes hit by the nuclear weapon but simply absorbs the nuclear energy and mutates further, gaining more of Zod's kryptonian power. The fight comes back down to earth where Batman arrives at the scene of the fight to find Doomsday staring him down. There's nothing Batman can do against Doomsday, and Batman winds up in a corner. It looks as though Batman is going to be blasted by Doomsday's eye beams when Wonder Woman/Diana Prince shows up to block the blast with her shield. Wonder Woman who is played by Gal Gadot was introduced earlier in the film as a mysterious character and it isn't until Doomsday shows up that Diana Prince shows the world Wonder Woman. The fight continues for some time between Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman against Doomsday, eventually the trio is successful over Doomsday but not before Superman dies succumbing to his wounds.

The end of the film sees a lot of revelations of the DC' Expanded Universe being revealed to the audience through dialogue. For one, Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne makes his intention known to Diana Prince/Wonder Woman that he's going to assemble the Justice League because it is what Clark Kent/Superman would have done. Lex Luthor was also imprisoned and almost killed by Batman in retribution for Lex's actions leading to Superman's death but Batman saw the error in this type of vengeance before making the fateful decision. It may be of note as well to see Bruce Wayne/Batman going back to his more just way of crime-fighting where he didn't judge people, he let the law judge them. The final minutes of the film see shots of the public funeral for Superman and the private funeral for Clark Kent. Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince are both in attendance for the funeral, and it is there that they discuss recruiting the other powered individuals in the LexCorp files. The last moments of the film have Lois Lane dropping a handful of dirt on Clark Kent's grave as a last goodbye to him. The final shot has the dirt on Clark Kent's coffin shuffling as if to signify his return; although it is up to interpretation if the dirt moved because he's still alive or just a natural movement of dirt shuffled.

The whole film played out excellently. Sitting through long films is especially tiring if the film isn't entertaining but I found no problem while sitting through Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. It's not a film i'll go see again in a movie theater but definitely something i'd recommend to family and friends, as well as own when it comes out on digital streaming. Regardless of critic review of the film, B.v.S. Dawn of Justice will find its place as one of the best movies of the year and definitely in the hearts of fans everywhere. The DC' Expanded Universe is going to be built off of everything that happened in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and that seems like it will absolutely lead to many adventurous exploits for the villains and heroes of DC' Comics.