'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice': Buried In The Dust

Holy smokes Batman! Snyder's 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' would finally kick off the start of the much needed DC Cinematic Universe in such an epic, and I mean epic, way that Marvel better be on the look out! I mean, who wouldn't wanna see Batman and Superman go at it? This has to be the coolest thing since 'The Avengers'...and it may be even cooler! Gee whillikers! What's that? The trailer? Woohoo!

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Oh...well that showed a lot. Was that Doomsday? That was cool I guess. I mean I thought this was about Batman and Superman fighting, maybe some Justice League thrown in there. Wonder Woman was pretty hype. She doesn't really look very Wonder Woman-ish but eh, I think Gal Gadot can do a good job. Horray for Batfleck? What? Another trailer? Okay I'll watch that one I guess.

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WHY WASN'T THE FIRST TRAILER LIKE THAT? Aw man now I'm hype. I heard there's gonna be more in the movie. At this point I know it won't be absolutely amazing but hey, it's gonna be a good movie.

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What the heck did I just watch?

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Zack Snyder, head of the impending $$$Snyderverse$$$, unveiled 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' as a sort-of-sequel to the events of 'Man of Steel', now landing the DC Universe in the fray of cinematic universes. This film takes place after the destructive (and I do mean destructive) actions of Superman during his fight with Zodd. The world isn't quite sure what to do with Superman, some love him while others fear his power. Bruce Wayne (played quite well by Ben Affleck) sees him as a threat and as a result he wants to neutralize this threat for the good of mankind. Lex Luthor Jr./Lex Luthor (played quite uncomfortably by Jesse Eisenberg) decides to throw his cards in the epic fight between god and man with a little experiment of his own, putting Batman, Superman (played rather alright by Henry Cavill), and the elusive Wonder Woman (played quite beautifully by Gal Gadot) in a position where they need to set aside their lack of differences or face the destruction of Metropolis and the world. Oh, and all of this happens while the Justice League shoehorns its way in there to build that impending franchise. Sigh.

The sad thing is that even the IMDb description of this film had too much going on.

Obviously, there's just too much going on. Fans and non-fans alike will find even a brief synopsis of 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' so mentally draining to digest because it's all like a balloon that's way too big and is gonna burst at any second. To prevent spoilers I won't write all of the other 500 things that go on in the movie here but if you want to see 499 of them then watch the trailer. As a result, the story never even comes together to fall apart int he first place. The pieces are everywhere, fragments of a whole story, and they kind of just lie there for you to pick up along the way and dispose of as you will. Characters are lovable...sometimes. The plot is fun...sometimes. Things make sense...sometimes. Story actually moves a step forward...sometimes. There's just too many 'sometimes' tied with this film that nothing manages to stick and in the end comes off as a incoherent attempt at telling some sort of Batman story thing with heavily forced Justice League world undertones that all fall apart if you try, even for a second, to make sense of anything.

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I'll be honest: I've been getting tired of the superhero flick genre after 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'. The announcement of 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' initially sounded like a breath of fresh air that'll relieve the world from some of the Marvel hype. Who better to ring it in than Zack Snyder? Actually, a lot of people. Anyway, Synder was believed to have the style and the grit to come up with something that truly would live up to the weight of having both Batman and Superman onscreen duking it out for 2 and a half hours. I believed.

'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' sacrificed the crucial parts of what makes a good film in place of parts that sort of makes a film look "cool". Through this entire film there is no coherent story that goes from beginning to end. You have a Batman Reboot: Dawn of the Batfleck, you have a 'Man of Steel' sequel in there, you have a Justice League short film shoved in there brought to you by Gmail, a possible introduction (that may as well been a teaser trailer) to Flashpoint or Injustice, some dream sequences that sort of...exist and some other broken pieces left over that could be used in a million different other places than in this film. The editing and pacing absolutely ruined 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' and, much like the first trailer, just made a disappointing mess of everything. Pair that with cringe-worthy dialogue and awkward pee-filled moments and you've got a film that tries its darndest to bathe in the shadow of what it could be. Unlike other terrible films, the potential is there! The good version of this film literally exists in the 153 minutes of torture that's on the silver screen but we're not given what it should be. We were given the absolute worse possible choices and that, to me, was the most upsetting.

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With that being said, I have to take a minute out to address the thing that drove 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' into a weird cinema purgatory that, finally made people realize that, surprise surprise, post-production may be somewhat important. Yes, the ball was dropped multiple times with the directing and writing on this film but man it came off as if there was little to no effort in putting all the available puzzle pieces in a half decent order. Editing and the whole post-production process is often something that's looked over by general audiences because it's something you don't see or hear a lot about in the process unless you're directly involved. I get that so I can't fault people for not knowing much about it but man I am happy that people are paying attention now. Even the least of the technically minded of audience members will admit that something felt really weird with the pacing and editing. Things just simply didn't' add up. With the blame being shared by the director and writer, I have to, for the first time in a long time, put some considerable blame on the editors. I pray and hope that it's the sort of situation where the studio stepped in when the editors were drugged and bound in a basement somewhere off on vacation or something and created a new sequence, blindfolded themselves, took a snort of coke, pressed some buttons and clicked some things, placed a couple cats on the keyboard for a few hours, exported the film, left, and torched the editing utilities so that there can be no evidence left behind. Characters make decisions that make very little sense and I was just left dazed and confused for 90% of the movie. I don't know why Batman did half the things he did, I don't know why Superman moped and didn't do have the things he didn't do, I didn't know why the heck Lois Lane even got the screen time she got, I don't know why they chose to go about the creation of Doomsday in the way that they did, I don't know why Lex Luthor Jr. came off autistic, there's just so much that wasn't explained in all the mess that everything just fell flat on its face.

Guys, the pacing and editing of a film is important. Let this film be a testament to that. If you can't piece together something coherent, you'll lose your audience. Sure, there are some people that will overlook the editing and pacing of this film but almost everyone will agree that it wasn't up to part and if it was done well this film could've been so, so, so much better. Remember kids, all parts of the production process is important.

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Okay, so amidst the blood, sweat and childhood disappointment there is some good in 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice'. Batfleck delivers. Hands down. Ben Affleck undoubtedly delivers as the Batman that we deserve and he had a scene, also spoiled by one of the trailers, in a way that makes his character live up to the character for those moments. I want more Batfleck movies. Negative reviews are all across the web but if its one thing people can agree on is that Ben Affleck did a fantastic job as both Bruce Wayne and as Batman in this film. Another part I thoroughly enjoyed, even though there could have been more, was Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. Man oh man did she have some amazing scenes. Gadot makes quite the interesting Diana Prince and despite her not being Amazonian she sure as heck had the presence of a powerful warrior. She had good dialogue, her costuming was impressive and she took the prize home for best theme song of the film.

Those were the two best things in my opinion but it was also cool to see some detail in the little things. The costuming for everyone was gorgeous, the cameos of the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg was pretty cool, Alfred knock it out of the park with his snarky awesomeness, what we actually got of the action sequences was pretty cool with the old Synder charm, and the soundtrack is a testament to the movie that could've been. I would love to see the concepts introduced in 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice' played out a bit more. In the future I'd want more Flashpoint explanation (and whatever the heck that Speedforce suit garbage was), maybe some nodes to Injustice (?), a bit more focus on characters and why the heck they're doing what they're doing, and Knightmare Batman stuffs. Alas, not all hope is lost.

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I could say so much more but honestly go and watch this film yourself. It's a horrible, horrible mess that could've been so much better but the sad truth is that it wasn't. It wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination. There were great moments, bad moments, and cringe worthy moments. So many cringe-worthy moments. Batman kills, Superman once again kills carelessly and everyone is a terrible person. Things don't make sense and I have to land on the place of mixed-to-hate-it with 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice'. I wanted to like this movie, I really wanted to. I tried my hardest to like this film but I couldn't bring myself to do it. it's against my nature as a film lover. There's nothing wrong with liking this movie but I think everyone can agree to acknowledge that the glaring bad problems are there and it badly damaged the final product so badly that it's almost irredeemable. Almost. I will take it upon myself to go through and re-edit this mess of a film when it comes out this summer because the world deserves a great 'Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice". I had faith, but this almost killed my faith but I can't give up. I won't give up. The gems are buried in the dust and they must be rescued.