As the title suggests, this entire post is filled with spoilers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
So, if you've not yet seen the movie, stop reading this right now.
You have been warned.
SPOILER TALK
1. The opening montage
Here, we see the already well-known story of how Bruce Wayne's parents are murdered.
However, instead of going in-depth with telling that story like what we've seen in every single new Batman movie since Batman (1989), here we have a very stylish montage of the events of that tragic night.
Combined with cuts to and from Bruce at the funeral running away into the woods, eventually falling into a bat cave.
Although the whole "Bruce floating with the bats as they circle around him" thing was quite ridiculous and overly-stylistic on Zack Snyder's part, I did like the bat symbolism as the camera positioned itself below the levitating child, with his shoes forming a bat's ears and his arms forming their wings.
It was a nice way to open the movie, and to set the dark tone which would stay throughout the whole film.
However, instead of going in-depth with telling that story like what we've seen in every single new Batman movie since Batman (1989), here we have a very stylish montage of the events of that tragic night.
Combined with cuts to and from Bruce at the funeral running away into the woods, eventually falling into a bat cave.
Although the whole "Bruce floating with the bats as they circle around him" thing was quite ridiculous and overly-stylistic on Zack Snyder's part, I did like the bat symbolism as the camera positioned itself below the levitating child, with his shoes forming a bat's ears and his arms forming their wings.
It was a nice way to open the movie, and to set the dark tone which would stay throughout the whole film.
2. Metropolis: The World is Introduced to the Superman
I really liked how they incorporated the events from the end of Man Of Steel (2013) with this one.
We see Bruce Wayne frantically running into the city as it's being torn apart to save his employees trapped in the Wayne tower while Superman fights General Zod.
Also, just by seeing the immense rage on Bruce Wayne's face as he watches on as his building crumbles and thousands of innocent people are killed makes his motivation in wanting to take on Superman completely believable.
3. Lex Luthor
Meh.
I've seen Batman v Superman twice now, and I still can't accept Jesse Eisenberg's whacky version of Lex Luthor.
Having said that though, I think there is plenty of room to make him something special - given that he's established as the orphaned son of Lex Luthor, Sr.
Combined with some insane character traits like an odd jumpy voice and those weird twitches, he could potentially be a very interesting character in future appearances.
In Batman v Superman, however, his performance comes off as annoying instead of menacing.
From the bizarre outbursts to the crazy-ass mannerisms.
He seems to just let his insanity take over everything he does, and that insanity could have worked if it wasn't so over-the-top and forced.
Eisenberg would have been a better Riddler than THE Lex Luthor.
Eisenberg would have been a better Riddler than THE Lex Luthor.
I did like the fear that Luthor cast into Senator Finch with the whole "Granny's Peach Tea" thing though, which I'll talk about next.
4. Granny's Peach Tea
Senator Finch: "Take a cup of piss and call it granny's peach tea. Take a weapon of mass destruction and call it a deterrent."
There's a very tense conversation Lex Luthor has with Finch when she comes to visit him at his home, telling him that she's blocking his shipment of the large piece of kryptonite discovered in the Southern Indian Ocean.
I like how Lex Luthor has the last laugh when he places a cup of "Granny's Peach Tea" at the hearing held in court by her for one of Bruce Wayne's employees who lost his legs in the destruction - who blames Superman for it.
It's a very chilling scene which starts when Senator Finch loses her composure once she notices the cup.
After the deafening moment of silence, the camera shows Lex Luthor's vacant seat at the hearing, where he was supposed to be at.
It's chilling how he left his poor insanely skinny assistant Mercy (Tao Okamoto) in there too, probably to get rid of "witnesses to his evil scheme" as his bomb planted in the legless man's wheelchair goes off - killing everyone in the room but Superman.
That scene was some masterful filmmaking.
5. Wayne Manor
The ancestral residence of the Wayne family currently inhabited by Bruce Wayne and Alfred appears to be burnt down and abandoned in the movie.
The movie doesn't explain what happened to the building.
Was there an attack on the mansion by an enemy in the past? We don't know.
All that we know is that Bruce Wayne and Alfred reside along the river in a very futuristic home, and the Batcave lies under the water through a secret passageway.
6. The build-up to the Big Showdown between God and man
In total honesty, this movie truly let me down in this area.
It was marketed and promoted as a movie ABOUT these two mega characters showing down, not just an epic fight which lasts just 10 minutes - and a fight that wasn't even intended on Superman's part.
I thought Batman's reason behind wanting to defeat Superman was well-founded, especially due to the fact that the battle in Man Of Steel not only destroyed his company's building, but also killed thousands of innocent people.
As for Superman, they did build up a very good backstory with Clark Kent questioning how Batman can get away with so many of the bad things he does like branding people after interrogating them for information and such.
But that potential for a solid fight is all ruined when Lex Luthor kidnaps both Lois Lane and Clark's mother, Martha in a ploy to make Superman kill Batman.
It's just a real pitiful waste of what could have been an amazing fight which came from a solid build-up.
7. Bad history with freaks dressed like clowns
The full quote from Bruce Wayne - "Maybe it's just Gotham City and me, we have a bad history with freaks dressed like clowns."
Could that Joker be the one that Jared Leto is playing in the upcoming Suicide Squad movie? I think it's very possible.
Link to the full clip here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K3RkQ8pK1A&index=5&list=FLKMziGXM2BtmKm0k8_w1ERA
8. Robin's suit
The work of the Joker here.
This implies that Robin died some time ago, seemingly at the hands of the Joker.
I'm unsure of which Robin it is though (I don't follow the comics). It could be the second Robin Jason Todd who was killed.
If so, it could make potential sense in why Batman's mega rage in this movie exists where he even kills people.
9. Bruce's dream sequence(s)
Bruce Wayne has quite a number of hallucinations/dreams and dreams within dreams in this movie.
There's the dream where he visits his parents' grave, where a black liquid emerges from his mother's tomb which precedes a mega jump-scare moment.
That dream was nothing major, however. The one that was major was when he dreamt of a dystopian future, an almost post-apocalyptic world.
Batman receives the delivery of some kryptonite, but it turns out to be an ambush by an army.
Batman battles with and even murders soldiers - who form Superman's army, as deduced from their badges.
Also note the Omega symbol engraved into the ground in the second image below. This could be a potential easter egg for a future villain in Darkseid.
Also note the Omega symbol engraved into the ground in the second image below. This could be a potential easter egg for a future villain in Darkseid.
Batman then wakes up in a tomb, hands tied as he watches Superman arrive to interrogate him.
Superman cites Batman's action of killing his beloved Lois Lane as the reason why this is all happening.
Hence, this acts as a warning to Batman that should he seek out Lois Lane and kill her, he would be taking away Superman's world. This leads up to the next dream Bruce has.
Bruce wakes up from this dream with a vision from the future in the form of a time portal with the Flash telling him that Lois Lane is the key, followed by "maybe it's too soon".
This acts as a warning to Bruce, with his dream prior to the Flash's warning depicting a dark and desolate world that would exist should Bruce seek out Lois Lane and kill her.
10. Batman the Murderer
As mentioned in Part 7, Batman actually killing people in this movie may be somewhat justified due to the death of Robin.
However, I'm pretty darn sure that it's in Batman's moral code to not kill.
Unless that moral code was altered some time in the previous 20 years of his operation in Gotham City, it's left unexplained in this movie.
11. Superman
Shockingly, in a movie with his name in the title, Superman simply doesn't have much to do.
Sure, we see him saving astronauts after a failed launch, or saving people from a burning building, but they're all simple montages and clips.
Nothing ever goes in-depth to show more of the Superman we know and love.
The Superman who stands for hope, and to bring peace.
Furthermore, he kind of has this odd vendetta against Batman, even though the latter hasn't done anything major to spite Superman...yet.
Sure, there are the ill-feelings towards Batman for operating with such extreme tendencies to brand people with his symbol.
However, that's what Clark Kent feels and wants to pursue as the journalist for The Daily Planet. By right, Clark shouldn't embody this anger towards Batman into his alter-ego Superman, for the latter stands for so much more than just petty animosity.
On the bright side, however, I continue to love Henry Cavill as Superman.
It takes something to bulk up until THAT in order to portray Superman with conviction.
Those muscles are really not-human.
Performance-wise, he did okay. Nothing spectacular.
12. Batfleck
What more can I say? Ben Affleck totally killed it as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Sure, the script and direction didn't leave him much to do in terms of character development and iconography, but Affleck made full use of what he had.
We see glimpses of the master detective Batman is as he tracks down the "White Portuguese", and narrows down the path towards Lex Luthor.
I was also amazed at the incredible physique Ben Affleck trained to get for the role. The dude was ripped. That's what I call dedication to the role man.
I loved Batman's rage in stealing the kryptonite from Lex Luthor's facility, and using it to make weapons in order to stand a chance against Superman.
And how about the suits, man. The suits were stunning.
I hear they're very accurate to the suits in the comics. The Dark Knight Returns, in particular. So huge plaudits to the costume team for these incredible Batsuits.
13. The actual showdown
Putting the silly "excuse" for these two to fight (as devised by Lex Luthor) aside, the actual battle turns out to be actually pretty darn epic.
It shows Batman at his best, using his intellect to defeat the God.
Batman fights smart by deploying his kryptonite gas grenades to weaken Superman, while his heavily-modified armour keeps him able to take hits from the Kryptonian.
When the two go head-to-head, buildings and structures are demolished and a whole lot of destruction goes on.
It's really some epic stuff.
Up until Batman is ready to kill Superman with his kryptonite spear.
"Save Martha!" Really??
Was that really enough to put aside all that built-up rage that formed from the destruction of Wayne tower and all the innocent thousands killed?
They didn't even include the classic line from The Dark Knight Returns comic, where Batman tells Superman the following:
"I want you to remember, Clark, in all the years to come, in your most private moments... I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you."
14. Justice League set-up
I found this bit a little cheap.
It's as if they had wrapped up filming the entire movie, and at the last minute decided to shoehorn in some Justice League set-up in order to publicise their individual characters' existence in the DC Extended Universe.
I say it's cheap because they get introduced in the form of a freaking email from Bruce Wayne to Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, containing files of these "metahumans" from Lex Luthor's computer system (complete with symbols for each one apparently personally designed by Luthor himself).
That whole idea just left me questioning the whole thought-process behind that.
But anyway, we get our first glimpses at these new heroes in the form of The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg as well as a historic photograph of Wonder Woman in action from 1918 along with other surveillance footage.
Although these cameos are brief, we do see enough of them to get us intrigued as to how they'll be brought in in the future instalments.
As for Wonder Woman's historic photograph, I read on a website that they're actually going to feature the photograph being taken in the standalone Wonder Woman movie that's coming up next year - apparently with a Zack Snyder cameo in the background (not like anyone cares).
Anywho, at the end of the movie at Superman's funeral, Bruce Wayne employs the help of Diana Prince to assemble these metahumans for the purpose of working together to fight evil which may come in the future.
"Just a feeling." - as Bruce Wayne said.
It's as if they had wrapped up filming the entire movie, and at the last minute decided to shoehorn in some Justice League set-up in order to publicise their individual characters' existence in the DC Extended Universe.
I say it's cheap because they get introduced in the form of a freaking email from Bruce Wayne to Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, containing files of these "metahumans" from Lex Luthor's computer system (complete with symbols for each one apparently personally designed by Luthor himself).
That whole idea just left me questioning the whole thought-process behind that.
But anyway, we get our first glimpses at these new heroes in the form of The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg as well as a historic photograph of Wonder Woman in action from 1918 along with other surveillance footage.
Although these cameos are brief, we do see enough of them to get us intrigued as to how they'll be brought in in the future instalments.
As for Wonder Woman's historic photograph, I read on a website that they're actually going to feature the photograph being taken in the standalone Wonder Woman movie that's coming up next year - apparently with a Zack Snyder cameo in the background (not like anyone cares).
Anywho, at the end of the movie at Superman's funeral, Bruce Wayne employs the help of Diana Prince to assemble these metahumans for the purpose of working together to fight evil which may come in the future.
"Just a feeling." - as Bruce Wayne said.
15. Doomsday
Gahhh, what is that monstrosity doing on the big screen.
Formed from the corpse of the deceased General Zod with the fusion of Lex Luthor's own blood, this ugly creature which looks so stupid as compared to the mega villain who appears in the comics just looks so odd and out of place.
What's more, he only appears in the final 15-20 minutes of the movie - solely as an excuse for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to come together to form the Trinity and fight Doomsday together.
It's just so cheap.
Plus, the on-screen iteration of the classic character just isn't done any justice (no pun intended) whatsoever. I mean, they could have at least made Doomsday less of a stupid destruction machine and like smarter?
All he ever does is brawl and fire eye lasers every where and sending pulses of energy crippling surrounding buildings all around him.
Formed from the corpse of the deceased General Zod with the fusion of Lex Luthor's own blood, this ugly creature which looks so stupid as compared to the mega villain who appears in the comics just looks so odd and out of place.
What's more, he only appears in the final 15-20 minutes of the movie - solely as an excuse for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to come together to form the Trinity and fight Doomsday together.
It's just so cheap.
Plus, the on-screen iteration of the classic character just isn't done any justice (no pun intended) whatsoever. I mean, they could have at least made Doomsday less of a stupid destruction machine and like smarter?
All he ever does is brawl and fire eye lasers every where and sending pulses of energy crippling surrounding buildings all around him.
16. Wonder Woman
Let us all take a moment to appreciate great beauty.
Totally smitten by Gal Gadot as the new Wonder Woman.
Perhaps one of the movie's only saving graces (apart from Ben Affleck's magnificent Batman), Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman was just a joy to witness on screen.
Not only could she hold her own against the giants of Batman and Superman, but boy, could she kick ass and make it look so easy.
Just notice that freaking smirk as Doomsday hit her and she's all like "Is that all you got? I can do this all night".
So badass. So awesome.
Plus, the music that plays as she enters the scene to block Doomsday's lasers from killing Batman with her shield is just spine-chilling.
Talk about the perfect music for the perfect scene - and the new Wonder Woman theme by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL defines that statement.
If you don't know which theme I'm talking about, just check out the track "Is She With You?" from the movie soundtrack.
As her alter-ego Diana Prince, she's also pretty interesting.
"Is it stealing if you steal from another thief?"
The bits where she appeared at Lex Luthor's party and steals Bruce Wayne's data-swiping device, the party where she chats with Wayne face-to-face in a very Bruce Wayne-Selina Kyle moment (especially cos of Bruce's line "I've known a few women like you"), as well as the other scenes are all pretty good, albeit short.
Bruce and Selina in Batman Returns (1992).
Bruce and Selina in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
Bruce and Diana Prince in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
17. The music
Really gotta commend the music by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL for this movie. It was a terrific overall soundtrack.
I've already mentioned praise for the Wonder Woman theme earlier, but I can't stress enough how phenomenal the rest of the soundtrack also is.
The Superman theme which follows up from Man Of Steel is epic and spine-chilling in all the right areas, while the new Batman theme is mega and epic as the character rightfully is.
I also really liked the new theme which plays when it's a Lex Luthor scene. It's mysterious, creepy and hugely suspenseful. Very classy. The track is called "The Red Capes Are Coming" on the soundtrack.
I've already mentioned praise for the Wonder Woman theme earlier, but I can't stress enough how phenomenal the rest of the soundtrack also is.
The Superman theme which follows up from Man Of Steel is epic and spine-chilling in all the right areas, while the new Batman theme is mega and epic as the character rightfully is.
I also really liked the new theme which plays when it's a Lex Luthor scene. It's mysterious, creepy and hugely suspenseful. Very classy. The track is called "The Red Capes Are Coming" on the soundtrack.
18. The Trinity
Seeing these three mega heroes appear on the screen together was just something, wasn't it?
However, I felt that the "excuse" for them coming together to fight was just a little forced and cheap.
What do I mean by that? Well, for one - Doomsday was so unnecessary.
Without shoehorning Doomsday in, there really wouldn't have been a point for Wonder Woman to even be featured in this movie which should have rightfully been about Batman going up against Superman only.
They could have saved Wonder Woman till like the end or something where she could have stopped the fight between the two giants. I think that would have made for a better appearance of the DC Trinity instead of the forced fight against Doomsday.
Still epic to see the three together though. Can't wait for Justice League now.
19. Superman's death
This topic raises a lot of questions.
When they actually killed off Superman in the movie, I was like "Wow, did they just do that with Justice League coming up? Ballsy move, DC."
Turns out that it was just a ploy to make us all go "Oh no" for 10 minutes before showing the scattered soil on top of his coffin levitating as the movie ends.
Hence, I thought the death of Superman was a little silly and pointless - in a way, a cheap ploy to add emotional depth to the movie.
Having said that though, the death of Superman and Clark Kent (as noted in the movie under the obituaries of the newspaper) could lead to some interesting storylines.
Maybe Superman can focus on being solely Superman now, since his human cover in Daily Planet employee Clark Kent is now dead.
That would be interesting should they use that idea.
When they actually killed off Superman in the movie, I was like "Wow, did they just do that with Justice League coming up? Ballsy move, DC."
Turns out that it was just a ploy to make us all go "Oh no" for 10 minutes before showing the scattered soil on top of his coffin levitating as the movie ends.
Hence, I thought the death of Superman was a little silly and pointless - in a way, a cheap ploy to add emotional depth to the movie.
Having said that though, the death of Superman and Clark Kent (as noted in the movie under the obituaries of the newspaper) could lead to some interesting storylines.
Maybe Superman can focus on being solely Superman now, since his human cover in Daily Planet employee Clark Kent is now dead.
That would be interesting should they use that idea.
20. Possible easter egg for Darkseid?
I had to consult some comic book nuts about this one.
Watching it the second time, I noticed a kind of focus on the portrait in Lex Luthor's home - the one where he monologues "Devils don't come from hell beneath, they come from the sky".
That dark figure they focused on after Luthor's arrest kinda looks like Darkseid, plus, it's foreshadowed in the Batman dream sequence earlier on with Darkseid's Omega symbol clearly visible on the ground.
Watching it the second time, I noticed a kind of focus on the portrait in Lex Luthor's home - the one where he monologues "Devils don't come from hell beneath, they come from the sky".
That dark figure they focused on after Luthor's arrest kinda looks like Darkseid, plus, it's foreshadowed in the Batman dream sequence earlier on with Darkseid's Omega symbol clearly visible on the ground.
Darkseid hence could be a potential super baddie for the Justice League to fight first.
So there you have it, folks. My spoiler review for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
As disappointing as it may have been, I still had a blast watching it.
Can't wait for the standalone Wonder Woman origins movie next year now. Need to see more of Gal Gadot's magnificent Wonder Woman.
Till next time, stay awesome!
So there you have it, folks. My spoiler review for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
As disappointing as it may have been, I still had a blast watching it.
Can't wait for the standalone Wonder Woman origins movie next year now. Need to see more of Gal Gadot's magnificent Wonder Woman.
Till next time, stay awesome!
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