There are not many movies which the audience has been waiting for, during this year, as much as ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’. This follow-up to ‘Man of Steel’ has taken almost three years to be finally there for the audience to enjoy. With movies like ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘Justice League Part One’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Aquaman’ and ‘Justice League Part Two’ lined up to follow, this one had to arrive at least now, to create that much needed base for ‘Justice League’ and the other lesser known heroes to the fans outside North America and Europe.
Time has passed after the battle between Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod (Michael Shannon) which spread chaos and destruction all around the city of Metropolis. There were a lot of casualties, and the wound was not healed with time, as the new superhero had transformed into a controversial figure, with some people appreciating his presence as the savior of mankind while the others finding him as a threat and the false god – someone who is more of an alien than a man for the people on Earth. The television channels take over that particular topic and as it continues to be the hot item for discussion, there is someone who is a lot mad at this superhuman.
Batman (Ben Affleck) is a very unhappy man, as Bruce Wayne had his own troubles with that particular battle between the two aliens. After twenty years of fighting crime in Gotham City, he feels that it is his chance to avenge this alien for the death and destruction which he showered upon humanity with one big battle. At the same time, Clark Kent finds Batman as that kind of dangerous vigilante who should be stopped from taking the law into his own hands when police should be handling such cases. With Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) also feeling the need to get rid of Superman, he will find a way to make the two heroes battle each other while having another plan in his mind.
The number of people waiting for this movie has been very high, even more than the grand wait for ‘Captain Ameica: Civil War’. The need to watch the two big superheroes going against each other was what everyone really wanted to see. Even though that surely happens, it is not exactly what the movie is about. There is too much time taken in this movie to get to that, and the basic idea is also not about their dislike for each other. With Wonder Woman not that much utilized, the movie’s aim just becomes establishing something like a base to bring the Justice League idea into the scene, even though that is not done with full strength either.
The movie is still with some very nice moments, and the action sequences work pretty much fine around here. It is also one of those rare opportunities to see Batman and Superman, along with Wonder Woman together in a movie – there are the others too, like Aquaman, The Flash and The Cyborg, but they are just present there in some videos. Batman also has too many dream sequences to make one wonder what the motive behind the same might be. The viewers do end up wishing that something better was created out of the material with two superheroes having similar thoughts of saving the world, but being so different from each other that it creates tension.
Unfortunately for the movie, the villain played by Jesse Eisenberg is just not menacing enough – this is not the Lex Luthor whom we had wished to see around here. Both Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck plays the too simple superheroes here, as they just go through their plans without much of the thoughts behind them – the audience might have felt that there could be more behind their ideologies, but things seems to go rather straight and clear with this movie, which troubles the cause. Amy Adams as Lois Lane has things going better, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is the one who scores the most as any superhuman – at least her side is rather clear here, and it is one character that never goes down the level in this movie.
This one might also be the worst movie from Zack Snyder who has directed movies like ‘300’, ‘Watchmen’, ‘Sucker Punch’ and ‘Dawn of the Dead’. The best thing about this movie though, is that the audience is going to be treated with some bigger movies with roots in this particular flick; ‘Gal Gadot’ is sure to be an awesome ‘Wonder Woman’ in the big movie which is to arrive, as that is proven here with ease. ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ is surely not that bad, but it is not up-to the expectations either. You can still watch this one for the action sequences, and also for having that base for what is to follow with the movies which are on the list to arrive.
Rating: 3/5