The highly anticipated follow-up to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice doesn’t quite deliver what we were all hoping from this ultimate battle of egos but it sure does pack a mighty punch in true comic book style but is this enough to quench our thirst and keep its diehard fans happy?
From the very onset, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has the same dark mood of Man of Steel seeps through into Dawn of Justice with the whole of Metropolis questioning the motives of the red-caped Adonis (Henry Cavill) and his alien beating antics. Enter a very subdued and world beaten Bruce Wayne aka Batman (Ben Affleck), appearing much older and extremely disillusioned with the world.
Deeply disturbed by all that’s gone before him he has now taken to branding the evil he fights and is haunted by nightmares which seem to guide him, almost like a foresight. Aided by Jeremy Iron’s no-nonsense Alfred bringing him back into line at every chance he gets. He also seems to have jumped onto the let’s doubt Superman bandwagon and takes it upon himself to rid the world of this so-called menace.
With Affleck no stranger to playing a superhero in Daredevil he seems to relish in his new role as the caped crusader even though this darker and broken Batman does take a bit of getting used to, especially with his robotic type bat suit which just makes his movements clunky and stiff. The verdict is still out on this one.
For the best part of an hour, the plot slowly builds, bubbles and thickens with the extremely clever yet criminal mind of Lex Luthor plotting his demise of Superman, each explosive scheme whilst being visually opulent never quite living up to the expectation both from the character or the audience. Jesse Eisenberg is certainly the stand-out performance with his unique take on Superman’s most famous foe. What’s missing here is any type of humour which has been such a hit in the over saturated comic book superhero movie making this build up quite dull in places which is in no way helped by the ‘extras’ aka Louis Lane (Amy Adams) causing nothing more than a bumbling hindrance.
Now let’s talk about the fight scenes, these are extremely well choreographed and exactly what you would expect from the greatest gladiator fight of all time, or so it has been labelled. With Kryptonite hand grenades, endless machine gun firing, the two knock each other silly causing mayhem and destruction across the city destroying buildings but never quite each other. Batman can’t quite believe this man’s face feels no impact from his mighty punches. However, we are made to wait far too long until this scene is upon us and the way in which it ends becomes almost an anti-climax.
The introduction of Wonder Woman aka Gal Gadot may be sporadic yet mysterious throughout the film, but her lasting entrance makes a huge impact when she arrives to save our Superhero’s from the visually bad CGI baddie. Of course, leave it up to a woman to help you get out of a sticky patch. She certainly steals the limelight with her skills we just don’t get to see enough of her.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is out in UK Cinemas March 25