This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Rye’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Disclaimer: after the last two years, where I started reviewing/analyzing film in a more serious way, I find myself sometimes ending of the opposite of spectrum with the critics. I hated The Big Short to the point that I can't finish it. I hated Boyhood. I liked Man of Steel.
And I loved this film. And maybe you can put to perspective of how much I was excited for this film, how much biased I am for DCEU, how much that this review ultimately doesn't count because of those facts.
But I enjoyed this film immensely, and so imagine me saying the same words as what I said in my Man of Steel review.
"Men are good."
Batman v. Superman has flaws. I wished Chris Terrio had written the entirety of the film. I wished that David Goyer had never touched the script at the first place. I don't know how much he had written and he had not written for this film, but seeing how I also had disliked Man of Steel's writing, the structure of the film made the film look like a mess. That aside, I love how much disconnect there was with the trailer and the actual story on the film. With all the response of the final trailer being "why reveal to much of the film!", it's a nice surprise to see that the story doesn't go like that. I hope DCEU keeps misleading people in regards of the story.
Also one of the problems that made the film look like a mess was the pacing. The pacing was strange! It was. It started out really slowly at the first half, and then it was as if someone had accidentally put the fast-forward button in terms of pacing. Ultimately, it takes out a lot of the film. It would've been more appreciated if the pacing was less clunky, but this problem also stood strong on Man of Steel. I am still wondering if it was Snyder and Terrio that was the source of the problem for this, but I hope that as they read and took away good points from the review of Man of Steel, they would finally take someone's criticization of their pacing seriously, because they need to.
This is a film full of easter eggs. When the cast says that it is made for audience, in particular comic book fans/DC fans, they're actually telling the truth. But unfortunately, a film full of easter eggs will be a minus to people who are not familiar with the material.
If you are still reading, now onto the good!
Let me start it out by saying that I didn't watch the Adam Sandler film that the critics watched when they watched Batman v Superman, just as I didn't watch Kill Bill that critics watched when I watched Age of Ultron.
I loved Ben Affleck as Batman. To me, even more and more than Bale, he was a definitive Batman and Bruce Wayne that I read religiously in the comics. I love how smart he fights. I love how he plans his fight through. I love how he actually uses his grappling hook, combining it with his fighting style. I love how much they're making it obvious that he still suffers from PTSD and sometimes it disturbs his day-to-day life. Ben Affleck made Bruce Wayne and Batman one of his own: and the little details given to him was stunning. The Batman solo film will be good (especially with Geoff Johns headlining the writing department). Ben Affleck also has a lot of chemistry with Jeremy Irons' Alfred, which I also love.
Wonder Woman ultimately stole the show. As one of the two people people were criticizing during the casting period, Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot was deemed as controversial. One for his bad acting and one for being "skinny". Diana of Themyscira stood as tall, if not taller, than Bat of Gotham or Superman. She blew away expectations with her performance. I'm really glad for her blooming career, and even more excited for the new Wonder Woman film coming up next year. It took Diana 70 years to finally come into silver screen - and Gal Gadot did not disappoint whatsoever when she carried Diana of Themyscira with her so-called "skinny" posture.
Lois Lane was the driving force of the plot. The side characters was spot on. And Henry Cavill as Clark Kent ultimately showed more emotion in this film than the previous Man of Steel, which was also appreciated. But what impressed me, after cautious looks given when I watched the trailer was Lex Luthor's performance from Jesse Eisenberg. Even with bits of The Joker and Riddler thrown into the mix, his manipulative Lex Luthor impressed me and raised the stakes for the protagonists of this film. As a villain who actually raised the stakes and was an Actual Threat without being made fun of, he was amazing. That aside, I know there would be people who dislike this film's version of Lex Luthor. Fortunately I'm not one of them.
The characters aside, this film is stunning visually. A lot of frames and scenes was filmed so beautifully that I was praising it when watching it. Ultimately, it was what I expected: a visual journey, as previous Larry Fong's production. It was an amazing experience in IMAX. Companied with a beautiful score - my favorite, like other people, was Is She With You? and This is My World - Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL ensured that the atmosphere of the scenes, the songs given to the character, was perfect.
Of course you can't give this film a review without mentioning the plot twist. Look, if given to choice my favorite plot twist was the court hearing scene. With the way the film was showed on the trailer, I was worried. But I was blown away - punintented - by the sheer chill I received at this scene. That moment when I realized that this was serious. I was too comfortable watching superhero films with no actual stakes that I forgot how this felt like. Meanwhile, my favorite exchange from this film is still the exchange between Bruce and Alfred.
"How many men stayed good?"
Bottom line, dear Snyder: I understood why Batman stopped at "Martha". I understood that there was no point in fridging another female characters. But given the chance, I think the resolution of the conflict between Bruce and Clark could have been better in terms of resolving it.
I enjoyed this film. I loved it. It was a ride from start to finish, and I will watch it and love it more. It's overstuffed, it's so full of plots, plots that I know will make more sense. But it is too complex? Nope. That would be confusing.
At the end, while the critics loved Age of Ultron, I fucking hated it with the passion of five burning suns. When the critics raved how different DCEU was like from Marvel, you know what I said?
"Good."
I guess that says a lot about me, but I don't really care.