Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

SPOILER ALERT!! – This anticipated disaster is a blockbuster full of surprises. Zack Snyder skillfully twists what seemed like a nightmare during promotion, namely Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor and Doomsday as the final monster. The former, as a disturbing element of a jumping gnome in the trailers, is a captivating portrayal of a young man with great power consumed by his own ambitions. The latter, despite its visual similarity, functions as a multiple catharsis with an amazing soundtrack in the background of a suitably titanic (and sufficiently impactful) fight. However, what precedes this catharsis is a mishmash where confidence alternates with noticeable hesitation. The most notable aspect is referencing comic events that we have never seen in movies and will not see in the foreseeable future, regardless of how the whole building of the grand universe ended. Why mention the Joker and his deeds when we have never encountered him in this world? On the other hand, the criticized enticement to the Justice League led by Wonder Woman does not end up being an eyesore, even though this is where DC significantly stumbled over its own feet. Now, all it takes is for Gal Gadot to blink a few times, put on an all-knowing smile, and not only Bruce Wayne will be left speechless. Unfortunately, it is precisely The Dark Knight who remains in the background throughout the entire duration, which is the biggest failure given the space he is given. It's not that Ben Affleck is utterly hopeless, as melancholic pondering suits him. It's just that in direct confrontation with Henry Cavill, especially in emotional moments, he is outdone by his counterpart in almost every sentence, and it's a bit sad to see how he unexpectedly fails to deliver such intense scenes. On the other hand, Cavill dominates with every gesture in the role of a descending Messiah, and his bond with Lois Lane is the most magical thread of the entire film. After two and a half hours of proper chaos, I haven't absorbed everything. There is too much noise, insensitive throwing away of potentially gracious storylines, and I dislike how overdone Batman's behavior is considering the fragility of his motivation and its resolution. Nevertheless, this power struggle made sense, it could have paved the way for interesting creative efforts, but everything was overshadowed by the desire to step towards the Justice League. It was more than thoroughly enticing – and still, it didn't arouse any desire, let alone hunger, in me. (2016-03-31)

Fans would see this as the best sex of their lives, but for casual viewers it might be a hard pill to swallow. Christopher Nolan’s Batman anchored in reality was replaced by Zack Snyder's expansive comic universe. Because of the number of characters and even more motivations, this would require a slower pace and an even longer runtime. Yet it remains an immersive experience, with familiar music from Man of Steel (there is no trace of the motifs from Nolan’s Batman trilogy). In the last third, the demands on the viewer’s attention decrease and we’re in for a nerdy climax. I enjoyed the linking to Man of Steel at the beginning. Ben Affleck’s performance is okay. (2016-03-23)

Not as good as I hoped, not as bad as I feared. Excellently acting by the main heroic trio, awfully bad villains. A screenplay full of holes with illogical motivations. The action digital - as you would expect - but pretty good, even so. It should have been a little slower. The movie wants to say and show an awful lot of things. Not that today’s comic books aren’t overfull too. The intro with Affleck’s Wayne is awesome. (2016-03-23)

Except for the fact that for the first hour they talk with the attention and style as if someone ate the Bible and drank it down with horse sedatives, except that for almost two hours one tries to understand why those two hate each other so much that in a few seconds they began to love each other, except that almost all dynamic shifts are done by gossip and dream sequences, except that the motivation and actions of the characters follow the logic of the perverted screenwriting god of lobotomy, except that it (again) does not have full-fledged characters, but only square voices, except that Jesse Eisenberg plays a very low-cost version of Heath Ledger, except... what did I want? I don't know anymore. Actually, I do. Nice pictures for comic fanboys and excellent directing of contact events. I think. I have a dull feeling that Man of Steel pissed me off more than this Dawn of Randomness. If DC has chosen to make their films as a genetic conglomeration of highly comic stylization and very rhetorical references to serious topics, they are going to have to find a director who will be able to keep it all together. But it's not Snyder, especially when he is working with a screenplay that is more like a set of unrelated ideas for further elaboration. (2016-03-24)

A film so dark that you can’t see anything in most of the actions scenes, and to such extent that it looks as if the cinema was showing a low quality bootleg. The long expected duel between two of the most famous comic book characters unfortunately ends up in a rather uneventful scene (I counted only one interesting moment) where Batman and Superman beat the crap out of each other, only for their conflict to end with an incredibly cheap script cop-out so they can fight together some sort of big-eyed, digital extraterrestrial monkey, created in a weird way for weird reasons (the motivations of the lead villain, hello? Are you there?). Incidentally, you have to wait an ungodly long time for any action to happen, and when it finally happens, either you can’t see anything (as I’ve already said), or it is a confusing digital mess where lightning flashes around the aforementioned monkey, explosions are followed by explosions, and the experience equals zero. And on top of that, Lois Lane gives the right answer to a question form Batman she didn’t hear, or throws a spear into the water so she can dive for it later and almost die, without any dialogue that would reveal its importance or enough information to allow her to figure it out for herself. Disappointment. Probably the only positive thing in the end was Affleck as a grumpy Batman, I would love to see him in another film. PS: I gave Man of Steel 5*) (2016-03-23)