Once assumed to be a niche genre, superhero films have become mainstream over the past decade. They’ve thrilled, charmed and inspired audiences across borders, both socially and culturally. But for all this good, plenty of bad has come in tow.
Some boast visual style over a well-told story or mistakenly focus on bleak depictions of humanity as “realism” and “grit.”
Others weigh themselves down with constant, prodding reminders of forthcoming sequels, breeding a cycle of hype that can never fulfill promises. Dawn of Justice commits all of these sins, among others.
The core problem with this iconic face-off is rooted in another sin: greed. In a post-Avengers world, one can only imagine the pressure placed on DC Studios to get their heroes together for an equivalent payday.
But while Marvel took a full five films to build a cinematic universe, DC has attempted to do it in two. With Man of Steel lacking more than tangential references to non-Superman characters, that leaves Dawn of Justice to cover tremendous ground with little space to spare. Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, Lex Luthor, Doomsday, and The Flash all boast decades of history that must be delicately managed. It would take a gentle hand to fit all of this establishment neatly into a single feature.
Zack Snyder does not have gentle hands. The man behind Watchmen, 300, and Sucker Punch lives by a dark aesthetic with an eye for the eccentric and unbelievable.
In Dawn of Justice, these same tendencies are applied to a dry, dialogue-heavy script that will leave most action-oriented fans either scratching their heads, or asleep in their seats. Dawn of Justice is an incomprehensible epic, skipping over character development in favor of hitting the next plot beat. To fit this five-hour story into a two-and-a-half-hour timeline, Snyder has trimmed every frame that isn’t absolutely vital to communicating the story.
But rest assured, plenty of time is carved out to tease other DC properties coming soon to a screen near you.
The heroes on screen are pop culture icons of pulp, and Dawn of Justice works overtime to drown them in cynicism. Ben Affleck’s Batman is a hardened man turned cold by tragedy (that the audience never truly gets to understand) who publicly attends bum fights and murders no less than a dozen people in cold blood. Jesse Eisenberg’s Luthor is a painfully eccentric millennial CEO whose over-the-top monologues feel out of place in such a drab world. Doomsday is every generic grey monster from the past decade mashed up into one. Wonder Woman feels exciting and fresh, but Snyder barely puts her in the film.
As a result, the final fight sequence that justifies the film’s existence can’t even satisfy. Punches are thrown and explosions occur in typical blockbuster style, but two hours of preceding mediocrity strips out all of the fun.
Like in Man of Steel, Snyder’s DC Universe is soaked in 9/11 imagery, cable news paranoia, and general hopelessness. It’s not one worth celebrating or occupying for any period of time. But unlike Man Of Steel, Dawn of Justice is executed with an incompetence that puts it in the league of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and last summer’s Fantastic Four. Few films have left me as frustrated, broken and irritated.
Follow Chris Berg on Twitter @ChrisBerg25