Food & Adventures

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Defending Batman V Superman: A spoiler free review



By now you've probably seen that Batman V Superman has been absolutely savaged by the critics, well today Me, Mrs Cool and the 3 Cool Kids went to see it for ourselves and we all loved it. Me and my boys (Harry 9 and Jack 5) love all things superhero and we have been waiting for this movie ever since it was announced. In anticipation we all decided to watch Man of Steel recently and even Mrs Cool and Heidi (6) enjoyed it. I'll be the 1st to admit that Man of Steel had its problems (the final battle was too similar to the final battle of Avengers Assemble for my liking) but it is still a 'good' Superman movie. Is Batman V Superman an improvement? in the words of Stone Cold Steve Austin "Oh Hell Yeah!". I don't know what all the critics and reviewers were expecting, maybe the next Citizen Kane or the next Godfather, well you're never going to get that in a superhero movie.



The film starts by introducing Batman, 1st with the obligatory montage depicting the death of Bruce Wayne's parents and then by showing Bruce's view of the final act of the Man of Steel and straight away you know that Batman is pissed off with Superman. I'm not the biggest Ben Affleck fan but he brings a great portrayal of a beaten down, grizzled and bitter Bruce Wayne/Batman. He comes across as a man who has been trying to be a hero for 20 years and is still thought of as a vigilante thug and then here comes Superman who destroys a city in his 1st appearance and most of the world worships him as a psudo-messiah, as you can imagine Batman is pretty damn mad. As always Batman is assisted by his butler Alfred, played by the brilliant Jeremy Irons, this Alfred is Batmans mechanic, engineer, co-pilot, costume designer and therapist and is constantly reminding Bruce he is a good man and a hero not a villain. 



Superman is and probably always will be my favourite superhero, I still remember as a kid watching the original Superman movie and thinking this is the greatest hero ever. While Henry Cavill is no Christopher Reeve he is a worthy successor to Kal-El's cape, my only criticism with him is he doesn't play Clarke Kent as quite the inept dufus that Reeve did. Amy Adams is Lois Lane and although in Man of Steel she was Supermans feisty human counterpoint in this movie she is very much lost as simply a damsel in distress. Here Superman is trying to use his powers for good but when he does something good it results in unanticipated consequences. Saving the world from General Zod and the Kryptonians in Man of Steel resulted in hundreds of lives lost and people injured as well as millions of dollars of damage and some people think he needs to answer for these consequences. One of these people is Lex Luthor.


I don't know if it's because Jesse Eisenberg Played him in The Social Network or if it was the intention of the filmmakers but I thought this version of Lex Luthor comes across as a twisted, psychotic Mark Zuckerberg. The open plan, easy going portrayal of Lexcorp reminds me of what I think it would be like at the Facebook offices and Lex Luthor as the 'Hey, I'm your pal' boss hits the nail on the head. Luthor already has some Kryptonite (for a rare mineral there seems to be alot around in Superman-lore) and he uses his wealth and influence to gain access to the crashed Kryptonian ship from Man of Steel and General Zod's corpse which he plans to make a weapon (or a deterrent as he calls it) against Superman.



While Bruce is investigating what Lex Luthor is up to he meets a sexy Femme Fatale called Diana Prince. She is after Lex for her own reasons and in the process Bruce and Diana discover that Lex has secret files on some MetaHumans. These files give cool intos to The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg who are all scheduled to have their own movies leading up to the Justice League movie. We later find out that Diana Prince is none other that Wonder Woman. Most people knew this already but Mrs Cool, who usually ignores all movie news and trailers, didn't see this coming. Wonder Woman really comes into her own in the third act and we're all looking forward to the Wonder Woman movie.




The final act involves the epic battle between Superman and a mechanical suit clad, Kryptonite powered Batman. Batman uses all his gadgetry to neutralise Superman's powers and proceeds to kick the shit out of Superman. As a Superman fan this was hard for me to take but it was still a rollicking good punch up between The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel. As in life when 2 blokes have just beat each other up they come to have a mutual respect for each other (usually, as in this case, because they both love their mam). At around the same time Lex Luthor releases his weapon, Doomsday! Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman unite in a Mini Justice League to battle Doomsday but I won't give away the ending.

Is this movie as good as Superman I or Superman II? No. Don't be ridiculous, that is never going to happen. Is it better than every other Superman movie? Absolutely. Is this movie as good as Batman (1989) or The Dark Knight? No. Don't be ridiculous, that is never going to happen. Is it better that every other Batman movie? Absolutely. By my reckoning that makes Batman V Superman both the third best Superman movie and the third best Batman movie. I would go as far to say that, with a few exceptions, this is the best comic book/superhero movie since 2008's The Dark Knight and there have been a hell of a lot of comic book/superhero movies since then.

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is in cinemas now and you can get tickets here

Here is the trailer:



Well thats all for now

S


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