The first of the year's big blockbusters arrives with Zack Synder's second visit to the world of DC Comics. And whilst it's not as bad some reviews would suggest it does have a lot of problems.
I have to say the film is one of the oddest mainstream films I've seen in terms of it's structure and editing. Roughly the first hour and a half or so (of a two and half hour film) verges on being downright incoherent.
It skips from scene to scene with no apparent connection as it flails around for story and characters, frequently throwing in multiple vision and dream sequences. More than once it cuts straight into such a sequence with no signposting then to a 'real world' scene and then back to another dreamscape sequence. Indeed one such sequence ends to be revealed to still be a dream in a "then he woke up moment".
The effect overall is fairly disorientating and not helped by some very strange editing choices, for example at point we cut from a scene to an establishing shot and the straight into an interior scene taking place somewhere else entirely. It's like Synder and his team have actually forgotten the basic aspects of film language.
Things start to settle down but there are still bizarre choices. In the build up to the central title fight the film takes a pause to basically show us one of the characters watching what amount to trailers for forthcoming feature attractions starring Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash.
But problems return once we get to the final third as despite the film struggling to pack it as much as possible we really haven't been given enough to invest in any of the characters, pivotally Superman himself is badly underdeveloped.
We are told he's conflicted, but we really don't see it and all Cavill does is stand around with a sort of middle distance stare expression on his face. He's not even really allowed to be heroic apart from in a brief montage.
Nor is there any real explanation behind Lex Luthor's hatred of Superman, there are some nice ideas vaguely expressed but it doesn't really become anything meaningful. Although I don't find Eissenberg's performance as annoying as many seem to and there does seem to be an intended character ark at play for him.
On the positive side though speaking of performance and characterisation Affleck's Batman is the stand out thing in the film. As long as you get onboard with the idea of a Bruce Wayne who has seen too much and been doing this far too long, has basically snapped and is now more than happy to outright kill lots of bad people.
The film does contain a few hints to suggest why Bruce has gone down this route and it actually feeds into why he feels it so necessary to tackle Superman. (Which does help cover over some of the more dubious bits of his reasoning). His fleeting scenes of interaction with Jeremy Irons' Alfred suggesting a stand alone Batman film with the pair is a promising prospect.
Amy Adam's Lois is just there to get rescued basically. And basically no one else in the cast does anything else of note or show any kind of real characterisation.
But another highlight in the at times dreary slog is Gal Galdot's Wonder Women once she finally appears in full Amazonian warrior mode. She provides by far the most stylish and entertaining parts of the final climatic battle but I do remain unconvinced about her acting range in terms of carrying a film by herself since she's only got around five to six minutes of screen time.
Speaking of the final battle, unfortunately the film reverts back to the end of Man of Steel and the last chunk is a barely followable fight between our heroes and some bad CGI. One which shows very little imagination or craft a few Wonder Woman moments aside.
Also disappointing is the bouts of the title match-up. Bats and Supes have two face-offs, one is very, very short and the second longer sequence (although it's still not very long) is actually rather uninspiring.
Again there is no real imagination in the fight, if you've seen the end of Man of Steel, you basically have seen this fight. They've just moved it to an abandoned building. (Indeed the film is at great pain to repeatedly tell us deserted the environments are after the criticism of the previous films massively high levels of destruction). There is so much potential in a film version of these two characters doing battle but it's just not realised.
Much like his previous films Synder is happiest when putting together montages, he is good at montages, and in an early beginning sequence showing Bruce navigating Metropolis during Man of Steel's climax.
Now I've not gone into spoilers here, I can do later if people are interested, but suffice to say there are quite a lot of logical leaps, characters being stupid and face palm moments.
So overall the film is not Green Lantern level rubbish but it's not very good either. The first two thirds drags on, likes to think it's being all smart and lurches around like it's drunk. The final thirds regains structure and a sense of purpose but it's done without any sense of imagination or creativity. It's just seen it all before action fodder with an ending that reaches for heartstrings but misses (a final montage is quite effectively done though) for the most part as none of the characters have, well much character.
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