Batman v Superman is much better than critics claim
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is quickly approaching $500 million in gross earnings worldwide. Despite the enormous amount of money it is making, the movie has been almost universally trashed by critics. Well, the critics are wrong — Batman v Superman is great, and if you are a superhero fan, you should definitely go see it.
A common complaint is that the movie is too dark: It lacks humor and feels bleak. This is, for the most part, true, but this doesn’t detract from the movie. We mostly see things from Bruce Wayne’s point of view, and his current outlook is quite desolate. He is plagued by nightmares, fear and guilt, so it makes sense that the atmosphere should reflect that. After all, the movie picks up soon after Superman’s fight with General Zod at the end of Man of Steel. The two aliens destroyed a large portion of Metropolis, and a great number of people were killed. This is not exactly a perfect place to insert some humor and lightheartedness.
There has also been a great deal of contention over the reason Batman and Superman stop fighting near the end of the movie. At first, it does feel a bit flimsy and contrived. However, Bruce Wayne’s realization that stops the fight has more symbolism than most critics are acknowledging. It is the moment when Batman first realizes that Superman is a real person, not just a force of incredible power and destruction.
The one thing most critics have praised is Ben Affleck’s performance as Batman. Affleck definitely refuted much of the public’s worries over his playing the role, and, in some ways, he is even better as Batman than Christian Bale was. However, the character himself has been distorted from his comic book origins and from the Dark Knight trilogy. Although he doesn’t do it often, Batman does kill a few people in the course of the movie, and he is not very broken up about it. In fact, the film includes these deaths casually, with almost no mention of it happening. This is a far cry from the Batman of the Dark Knight trilogy, who refused to even carry guns.
The plot of Batman v Superman is fairly obvious from the trailers, but there were a few surprising twists that kept it engaging. What keeps things even more interesting, though, are the action scenes. The movie had quite a large budget, so it is no surprise that the fight sequences are engaging and exciting, with excellent CGI. It all comes to a crescendo in the final half hour of the movie, as two huge fight scenes play back to back in a glorious explosion of violence and destruction.
Despite its lower ratings, Batman v Superman is definitely better than other recent superhero movies, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it does not deserve all the hate it has gotten. Don’t take the terrible reviews as gospel — go see it, and you may be surprised at how good it really is.
