Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice

 

Batman vs. Superman was in part a sequel to Man of Steel and in part, a setup for The Justice League movie, introducing the new DCEU versions of Batman (played by Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot), and via short cameos the new Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Mamoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher). It also brought back Amy Adams in her role as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, and brought in Jeremy Irons as Alfred, and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

I won't go into too much of the storyline so as not to spoil it for the few who may not have seen the movie, but it essentially dovetails off the end of Man of Steel in which Metropolis was destroyed in the climactic fight between Superman and Zod. We see that battle from the perspective of Bruce Wayne who is trying to get to Wayne Financial to get his employees out of the building. This sets up his distrust of Superman, and then there is an 18-month time jump and Batman is becoming more violent which gets him on Superman's radar, and with Lex orchestrating things in the background, the two end up in battle, until they have to team up. 

The movie gets shit on a lot, undeservedly so, in my opinion. It is clearly setting up a larger story and has to be seen as a piece in a multi-movie arc. While I do think it would have been better for DC to follow the Marvel format of setting up the characters in individual movies before bringing them together, so there would not have been so many logic jumps as this movie took, the plot does make sense (especially after you see it a couple of times), and the darker tone that Snyder used for the movie (really all the movies in his "Snyderverse" worked well. And, of course, when Joss Whedon attempted to shoehorn his brand of humor that worked in the MCU into the DCEU, it totally fell flat and was universally rejected. 

For those who get this set, there are two blu-ray discs. One with the theatrical cut of the movie and the bonus features, and one with the Ultimate Edition of the movie that adds about 30 additional minutes to the run time. Some of the scenes are kind of useless, but others really flesh out how much Lex had put the events of the movie into motion. The extras included several behind-the-scenes and making-of features, character profiles for Wonder Woman and Batman, and shorter ones on the characters of Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg. All, in all, there is about two hours' worth of extras, so those who like watching the bonus material will be satisfied. Also of note, there is a 4k version of the Ultimate Edition of the movie that does not include the theatrical version or any of the blu-ray extras (that I will review separately), so even if you double-dip for that one, you probably want to hold on to this version unless you are only interested in the movie and just want the Ultimate Edition of the movie.

Overall, the movie is very good. Dark, but good, and it makes a lot of sense. I do think it could have used a better setup through a stand-alone Batman movie first to establish that character more and possibly releasing the stand-alone Wonder Woman movie first. But, despite the reputation it has as a bad movie, it is not. Affleck did a great job as an older, more jaded Batman, and I liked the idea of Batman trying to figure out how to stop an unstoppable alien. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Man of Steel

 

Man of Steel is a much better movie than it gets credit for being. I think it gets shit on by a lot of whiny comic book fans who would frankly never be satisfied with anything that deviates from the story they want to be told. This is, of course, the movie that launched the current version of the DC Cinematic Universe. It tells the origin story of Superman in a much different way than the 1978 film did, but still stayed true to the comic book mythology. Like the 1978 movie, this one starts out on Krypton, showing the planet in its last days, and setting up Zod, played by Michael Shannon, as the villain of the film. It has many of the same elements as the origin story we know, Jor-El (played by Russell Crowe) trying to convince the leadership of Krypton that the planet is doomed, Zod being sent to the phantom zone, and Jor-El and Lara (played by Ayelet Zurer) sending Kal to Earth.

Then the movie jumps to a time when Clark/Kal-El is an adult (played by Henry Cavill), working odd jobs as a drifter until he would be discovered helping someone and then have to move on. His childhood is told in flashbacks as he learns how to deal with powers like x-ray vision and super hearing, and learning to control them with the help of his Earth father and mother, Jonathan and Martha Kent (played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane). So, for much of the movie, he is not Superman until Zod comes to Earth and threatens all of humanity. The movie is really about how he becomes Superman, which he fully is by the end of the movie. 

The movie was directed and produced by Zach Snyder (of 300 and Watchman fame) and as a result, has a much grittier feel than the original movies with Christopher Reeve or the Superman Returns reboot with Brandon Routh. This version of Superman is not the "big blue boy scout" but you can see that he has that in him. Lois (played by Amy Adams) is much wiser than any other version of the character and finds out pretty much immediately who Clark is and about his abilities. The rest of the cast is made up of very recognizable actors including Laurence Fishburne, Michael Kelley, Richard Schiff, Christopher Meloni, and Harry Lennix. 

For those who get the blu-ray set, there are three discs, two blu-rays, and one DVD. The first blu-ray disc and the DVD has the movie and about an hour's worth of behind-the-scenes and making-of material. The second Blu-ray disc has the movie with an in-movie mode in which clips from the cast and crew are interspersed throughout the movie explaining how various scenes were shot, how they approached making the movie or a particular scene in the movie, and the like. It adds about 30 additional minutes to the running time of the movie but is entertaining to watch. Then, there is a mockumentary made for the movie about Krypton and Kryptonian technology that was gleaned from the aftermath of the invasion. 

Overall, the movie is very good. Very well written and acted. Yes, it changed the origin story of the character a bit, but as I said above, it still stayed true to the overall mythology. Henry Cavill did a great job in the role, getting absolutely jacked for it, and totally pulled off the superhero look. He, wisely, did not try to mimic Christopher Reeve or any of the other actors that ever played the role. He made it his own and ran with it, as did Amy Adams with her version of Lois. Of course, the movie sets up the larger DC Cinematic Universe that would go on to include characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, etc., but they really kept this a contained Superman movie. It was very well done and is definitely worth watching.