I am drawn back to when this movie was first announced and how I despised the notion of a Batman V Superman film a la Freddy vs Jason, Alien vs Predator and so on. It all seemed like a huge gimmick to me and I expected the worst for this movie. Fast forward a couple years, I am sitting down at a private screening, the lights go down and the movies opens up. The opening sequence was not what I expected but shows Snyder's visual creativity in a similar manner as he did with the opening sequence of Watchmen.
We are hearkened to the Black Zero Event, only we see it from Bruce Wayne's perspective as shown in some of the trailers. I love that Snyder uses Bruce's as the eyes of the audience to get an outside perspective of the surrounding madness and destruction, and he does it very effectively. You are mad at these beings, you feel the terror, the confusion the anger for them bringing there war here, it plays out with spectacle and sadness.
I had reported a rumor about Scoot Macnairy's characters months back and was called out by Ocelot and others several times on things I reported, well turns out it was true. Something tragic happens at the hearing and it is our insight of how cunning and vicious this Lex Luthor is.
The overall story is well woven and much better than MOS, you can definitely breathe a sigh of relief in that Terrio does a great job of crafting this all together. The movie is a visual tour de force as we have come to expect with Snyder but let me just say that his directing has also improved. For those who moaned about the shaky cam and muted colors, they will be pleased. Performance wise. EVERYONE does an outstanding job, the standouts to me were Affleck, Eissenberg and Gadot. I was not on the Ben, Gal, Jesse hate wagon, though I found Eissenberg's casting questionable but I felt he had shown that he has some capable range of pulling it off. Affleck is Bruce Wayne, Affleck is Batman, talk about casting redemption. Similar to Reynolds, GL>Deadpool. Affleck should no longer be bogged with complaints about Daredevil.
For those that hated on Gadot, suck it, she owns the role in every way possible, she really has stepped up her acting game as well. The woman has presence as Diana, grace and beauty and as Wonder Woman, she is truly a Goddess. People were moaning about Gail's size, forget that nonsense, she proves she does not need bulking muscles to be a warrior and her fight scenes are exceptional, makes Faora look like she was waltzing. Eissenberg, well well well. Let me first say I thought the best versions of Luthor were from the Lois and Clark and Smalville TV shows but Jesse brings something totally new to the game.
Jesse plays his Luthor like a true devil. He is deceiving, manipulative, conniving, that line the Devil will do it, he is referring to himself to me. I could not help but see him like a Lucifer in his role and wondered if Jesse kind of based playing his character that way. Everyone else support wise was absolutely great. I do not want to write a long report of praises so let me see if I can cap off before getting on my flight. The fight set up was a little weak but boy the pay off was spectacular. Cavill I feel needs to step up a little more, granted he was wonderful but he was out shined. He needs to get beyond that distraught expression that he likes to use because he does it to death in this and I found that annoying.
The other member intro's were great and will have you all pumped for the JLA, the Knightmare scene was horrific and impactful and made me smile like a little geek. The final fight was amazing. Never in a CBM have we seen anything like it, yes I said it NEVER and lastly, I will say the movie does end on a heart wrenching note but a wink in the end. I loved it gave it a 9 and looking forward to seeing it again next week. If you guys have any questions ask I am going to be on a plane for the next 6-7 hours so will try to respond. I may have exaggerated about it being 10X better than MOS but I will say 5X better.
