Caped crusaders don’t quite bring home the glory: where ‘Batman v Superman’ failed…

With a production budget of US$250 million dollars (and who knows what their budget was for advertising) ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice’ delivers large-scale, high-concept filmmaking to an audience that has already been tamed to the superhero genre.

Bryan Singer changed the landscape in 2000 and proved graphic novels can be excellent business. Every producer and his dog have dug their heels into this mantra and in the year of our lord 2016, progression is lacking unfortunately. The audience has been learning the visual medium of shot-versus-cut and queue-the-theme music over the past century of visual and aural storytelling. They are now up to speed and that is why perhaps the box office numbers for this feature – that broke all kinds of records for its opening weekend – are now dwindling thereafter.

The opening sequence of the film is our introduction to our co-star and part antagonist Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck). It takes place during the events of the climactic battle of Metropolis in the previous film ‘Man Of Steel’. Bruce Wayne witnesses the semi-destruction and annihilation of buildings from street level, and Wayne desperately helping all the innocent victims of this carnage. Therein lies his motivation: to rid the world of this god like being they call Superman.

As this is being used as the opportunity for DC to launch their ‘Justice League’ films, it’s understandable that you would want to cram as much in as possible to set up the future of the franchise. This breaks the golden rule (if there are any) of filmmaking, and that is to “serve the story”. With a plot twist or two and a McGuffin thrown in for good measure, a lot goes on… but nothing really happens.

An enormous amount of effort went into the production. Christopher Nolan was credited as ‘Executive Producer’, but one gets the impression that it is more of a honorary credit, a mere thank you for kicking off the franchise in the right direction. Director Zack Snyder’s portrayal of what should essentially be the same universe as the previous film is not. It felt very alien for a sequel. There were a few reprises of the Hans Zimmer ‘Man Of Steel’ theme. Everything else musically was discombobulating and, again, did not fit the given sequences of visuals. It tended to be more bombastic strings that were relied upon whenever they needed to establish that Batman and his service to the cause is warranted. Shot on 35mm and 65mm film, it does not want for lack of eye candy. Cinematographer Larry Fong has previously collaborated with director Snyder.

The mythology of Kal-El is indeed interesting, however one interprets it. The Nolan and Goyer script for the first film proved that. It’s a difficult line to tow for a big-time producer to say “we’ll give ’em more of what they liked first time round” or “let’s invest in new franchise”. Either which way, I felt like the filmmakers missed an opportunity to build upon a great mythology.  Gavin Raye

‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ is currently in cinemas.