In defense of ‘Batman v Superman’

batmanvsuperman

Batman v Superman… ‘The greatest gladiator match in history’, turns out to be little more than a sepia-toned emo cat fight. Who would’ve thought that the crux of bringing these two heroes (and I use the term ‘heroes’ lightly in regard to this film) together was making them realize their mothers have the same first name? Seriously though, it’s easy to drag this movie through the mud and bring up all of Zack Snyder’s faults, but I’m a positive person and despite the underwhelming feeling I left the theater with; I want to talk about the things that I actually liked about Batman v Superman. 

1. Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne

Ben Affleck as Batman is something I could definitely get used to, I like the aging caped crusader that has turned cynical and dark after 20 years of patrolling Gotham streets. However I must say that Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne is the best since Michael Keaton. Yes the Christopher Nolan Batman series is still untouchable but it was the villains that made those movies great. Remove the villains and you see that Christian Bale, not as Batman but as Bruce Wayne, just wasn’t that great. What happened to the billionaire playboy socialite Bruce Wayne that we all know and loved? In Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy it seemed as if Christian Bale only captured half of the man, his Bruce Wayne wasn’t the one I grew up watching in cartoons. I always preferred Bruce Wayne as the womanizing, snarky rich boy that no one would ever suspect to be Batman. Ben Affleck brought that back and I am thankful.

2. Batman’s voice disguising device

If anyone prefers Christian Bale’s inaudible growls then please sound off in the comments so we can get you some help.

3. Jeremy Irons as Alfred

In Batman v Superman we see that Alfred and Bruce are perhaps the only people that understand each other. They’re both equally scarred by the things they’ve witnessed throughout twenty years of crime fighting in Gotham, and at times their relationship seems like one of an old married couple. Definitely very Frank Miller/Dark Knight Returns-esque.

4. Henry Cavill came into his own… sorta

I’ve always been a diehard Superman fan, since I was a child the man in blue was always my guy. When I saw Man of Steel I thought, where’s the soul? Where’s the insecure Clark Kent? Where’s the everyman that Superman has always been? I preferred Brandon Routh’s Superman to Henry Cavill’s because, to me, Superman was never this brawny chiseled Greek God, he was a farmboy with an unshakeable moral compass, an insecure journalist and underneath it all, the Man of Steel that would do anything to protect his adopted home planet. However after seeing Batman v Superman I realized I just have to get used to the fact that this is not that Superman. This is the unrealistically buff Superman you see in the cartoons and comic books that make you roll your eyes at the unattainable physique. When I came to terms with this realization, I kind of respected Zack Snyder for bringing this version of him to the big screen.

5. Ground-level view of Superman/Zod fight

Never had a Superhero movie made me so thankful that superheroes didn’t actually exist.

That’s about it really. As to whether or not you should see this shit, go see it. Sure it’s not a perfect movie but that’s not why you go see films like this in the first place… Zack Snyder films that is.

Damn now I’m tempted to dedicate a list to the shit I didn’t like…

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