It is definitely many people's most anticipated film of the year, and therefore the pressure for this to be a critical success rather than a box-office smash is more important. This is obviously going to get bums on seats. But deserving the amount of money that it will make is more pressurising in my opinion. Especially, when this is being billed as the start of the DC cinematic universe.
With Marvel having money coming out of their ears at the amount, their main rivals DC are finally joining the party. With Man Of Steel being a good film with problems, all the eggs are certainly in one basket for this next installment. Will it deliver, can they catch-up to Marvel, or will it be like Avengers: Age Of Ultron, too many characters making the film over-bloated and therefore not giving enough time for story development. As I have purposefully not seen any trailers, I am going into this as open-minded as I can be.
On the whole, I like Zack Snyder's films including one that is my top 100 of all-time. However, there is a group that see Snyder as an incoherent story-teller but great with his visuals and over-the-top on his slow motion. I can see that with Sucker Punch, and bits of Man Of Steel. But I was fairly confident that this was a good viewing experience.
There are some good parts, but boy are they some problems that I'm afraid does remind me a lot of Avengers: Age Of Ultron. I think the bad side of Snyder comes out in this. He has a hard time mixing in the amazing visuals with story-telling and structure.
The first half sees a few nice set-up scenes with some that felt out of place. The second half moves along really well but there are more
It is annoying to have mixed views on this, as you can see so much potential in there and yet it did not have me totally satisfied. It's more complicated and incoherent then it needs to be. I don't know how it manages over complicates it self. It seems that simple story-telling seems too easy.
I hate having to mention this again, but it is basically DC's version of Avengers: Age Of Ultron. It's got too many sub-plots that it's trying to fit in, and it was pretty dis-jointed. The writers seem to be juggling everything that they want to do or are being asked to do. That also slipped into the editing as it kept me thinking that I have missed something.
By the end of it, everyone is rushing towards the final act and make sure everything is set-up for a series of more films. I could even say that it feels more like four films in one.They just decided to rush everything and not development enough to make this an more enjoyable watch.
One a side and less serious note, the amount of destruction is probably even more ridiculous then in Man Of Steel. Things like that just make wonder that the construction companies within Metropolis and Gotham must be busy people.
As for the performances, Ben Affleck and Jeremy Irons were the stand-outs. Affleck was pretty good as a rugged Batman. This was a pretty bad ass version of Batman. I was definitely more interested in the Batman moments then the Superman moments. Jeremy Irons was great as Alfred and had some nice comedic moments.
Cavill like in Man Of Steel is given very little to work with. In fact, the character of Clark Kent for me was seen as bit of a dick (pardon the bad language) in my eyes.
Jesse Eisenberg was distracting and annoying rather than threatening for the most part as Lex Luthor. There was only one scene that saw his character actually feel like a villain. Everything else was over-the-top in a poor man's Jim Carey in a way.
The use of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman felt totally unnecessary. It was nothing but set-up instead of being an important character. However, for the short screen time, it is definitely crowd pleasing. I think the solo movie that is currently in development should have been done before this movie so that it could explain her powers and reason for being in certain situations.
The only other performance that I care to mention is Amy Adams as Lois Lane. She felt in-the-way and just an object to be saved several times during the film. I am not sure if she even deserved to be in this.
I should at the point give it some praise as it look like I'm bashing it. Like with Snyder films, the visuals are great. The whole design of the characters, costumes, gadgets and the world of Metropolis and Gotham was pretty good to look at. The action scenes are enjoyable. It is just the lack of piecing everything together made them feel more like individual pieces rather than one complete story.
Despite the many problems I had with it, I was still engaged, never bored, there is still enough in there for me to give it a solid rating and I don't feel this will effect future films within the DC universe. It still makes me excited for the other DC films.
My feeling throughout most of the film left me thinking that a lot of the decision these characters did not seem to fit what we've just seen. That is just sloppy editing.
The amount of set-up does prevent this from working on its own. There are a number of dream sequences that again was basically set-up including that was so forced it could not have tried any harder and shoving it down your throat.
Most superhero movies these days are concerned about trying to set-up the next movie rather than making the current one stand on its own. A great example is Deadpool. It works because it is just one movie that was highly entertaining that was not concerned about putting in set-up for the next one. Now we all want another one because we loved it. Guardians Of The Galaxy could fit into this category as well. Even though it was part of the Marvel universe, it was planned for one film. After all the deserved lot it got, we now have a second one in the making.
Some advice I would give is to not go in with high expectations and controversially I would recommend kids see this. Despite the rating allowing them to see it, I cannot see them enjoying it. The tone is dreary, there is barely a handful of comedic moments. If you want to please your kid, then watch first two Christopher Reeve Superman's instead.
I have now seen the trailers and I cannot believe they showed so much in the trailer especially the big reveal within the final act. If I had seen the trailers, then my viewing experience would definitely have lacked surprises as there is little left to see for the first time in the theatre.
Rating: 7/10
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