I don’t know what alternate universe the people responsible for casting “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” were living in when they decided Ben Affleck would be Batman and Jesse Eisenberg would be Lex Luthor, but they did a fine job making a mediocre film into a two-and-a-half-hour drag.
Despite the dozens of bad reviews from critics on the Internet, forgetting the incredible low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, “Dawn of Justice” included all the fixings for a disastrous Hollywood mess, lacking comic book context, taste and overall originality.
How many times have we seen Bruce Wayne’s parents get murdered in a dark alleyway followed by a young Wayne falling into the abyss of a bat cave? Well, now we get to see it again with a Ben Affleck voice-over. Great.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. could have thrown all the superheroes (DC and Marvel) into one movie instead of staggering mediocre releases throughout the year and it could have rivaled the cinematic mess of “Dawn of Justice.”
The movie seemed to be flipping back and forth from random scenes, too many characters to count and ongoing irrelevant Bruce Wayne dream sequences. Sure, there are moments, little pieces of comic book nostalgia that draw the audience away from the boring and inconsistent storyline for a moment, but it fails to resonate with any meaningful superhero struggle and prevalence.
With so many unnecessary events and characters, the storyline of the movie is so scattered and confusing, even the die-hard Batman and Superman comic book fans will have a hard time deciphering exactly who or what is going to happen next.
In all reality, when a movie has a title as excessively epic as “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” it doesn’t matter if the only thing that will be worse is the sequel —which will probably be released next year sometime — people are still going to spend money and face the great disappointment and disconnect from once fabled superheroes.
And for that, I generously give “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” a one out of five stars.
Matthew Manfredi can be reached at [email protected] or @matthewmanfredi on Twitter.
