Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice

In general one of the things I try to do going into a film is not listen or read any of the critical and/or fan responses. Doesn't always work out, but I find it frees my mind from any potential viewing bias.

As I look back on my experience with this film (Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice) I would lying if I said I had not heard the less than enthusiastic buzz surrounding over the past week. I really, really tried not to let that affect me.

Well, it has been nearly 24 hours since I have seen the aforementioned film and let me just start off my saying - it was not as bad as I anticipated it to be - so I was right - kinda. I really think my harshest criticism is that the film was a bit of a narrative jumble, especially in its opening movements.

I say misfortune because it places him in an interesting position: he is expected to have many of the signature of the Nolan creation but also responsible for making Bruce Wayne and his alter ego wholly his own. Also, I think there may have been an assumption by the filmmakers that many cinema-goers watching Batman v Superman were familiar enough with all that happened in the "Dark Knight" Trilogy and were able to connect the dots. Side note: all of the acting was pretty solid, save Jesse Eisenberg, whose take on Lex Luthor came off as a Bizarro version of his turn as Mark Zuckerberg, and something I did not enjoy so much. But I

Are we to focus on Batman? Superman? As I mentioned above, it is like they decided to do a mashup of Snyder's Man of Steel with Nolan's Dark Knight without really taking the time to weave the stories into a coherent larger narrative for either. So really my focus was bouncing all over the place.

Perchance to dream? If not executed properly dream sequences are neither profound nor interesting. That is all I have to say on this topic.

That running time. The 2:30 run time was a major red light for me - this screams "problematic" to me. And I could not help but think that this was another consequence of when a story is all over the map. I can imagine that it was an "experience" to edit.

I could go on, but I won't - I think you get it. I really don’t want to pile on because it is real easy to kick something while it is down, deserved or not. But I would like to address an interesting observation of mine.

In addition to solid performances to keep folks engaged, there is also the matter of the audience. It would be remiss of me not to mention that the audience* I was watching it with seemed to enjoy Batman v Superman immensely – so much so that at the end of the film, a few folks gave a rousing round of applause. Make of that what you will. And I will admit I was never bored.

jl

Did you see this? What did you