Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons
Running time: 2 hrs 33 mins
Rating: PG-13
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had a lot of things working against it, making it a very skeptical few minutes as I sat down to the premiere of the movie on Wednesday 23rd of this month. Zack Snyder had his previous foray into the DC Universe with Superman: Man of Steel hailed as a failure, and with a fresh, unproven Batman in Ben Affleck, and the first movie appearance of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), this can’t have been an easy film for Warner Bros.
With such an important story to tell, based on the Dark Knight returns comic from 1986, and the necessity for the shared DC Universe to be constructed in this particular film, the director decided to try and do as much of it as he could, making this one, long film. 2hrs 33 mins of running time in a superhero movie is a lot, but it is unlikely that it will happen again in the DC stories to follow, that is Justice League and Wonder Woman in 2017, because the amount of introduction featured in this film is immense. This makes the early stages of the film feel slow paced, which is undesirable in what Warner Bros would like to be a blockbuster. However one introduction that is a joy to behold is that of Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor, played by Jesse Eisenberg, in a fresh take on the age old character that was simply fantastic to see.
Wonder Woman/Diana Prince was also very well played by Gal Gadot, however Ben Affleck in his first film as batman was perhaps overwhelmed by the pressure, delivering a largely tepid performance, not dissimilar to the performance of Henry Cavill which lacked any emotional range whatsoever. Laurence Fishburne’s role as Perry White was also very pleasing. The effects as you would expect from a superhero action movie were also amazing, so there’s that to look forward to, with the notable appearance of all star Hans Zimmer (Lion King, Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean franchise just to name a few) working on the music, giving the film a great all round appearance and feel.
However, this is largely a fail by Zack Snyder in directing for the second film in a row. Despite all the raw ingredients, it is less than spectacular after final assembly, but I doubt it’ll stop the fans from going to see it. So if you’re not a diehard, and you just want to watch a superhero movie, have you heard of Deadpool?
2.7/5
Maithya Kioko