Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Kevin Costner, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, Michael Shannon, Harry Lennix, Joe Morton, Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson.
Score: Junkie XL, Hans Zimmer.
*WARNING: this contains super spoilers* It's here, the long awaited showdown between two comic greats, that have been previously portrayed very well in my opinion. Nolan and Bale's Dark Knight was by far one of the greatest and the most recent Man of Steel, Cavill is perfect! But does Affleck don the mantle? Which I think has been a bigger debate than the actual butchery of the comics. Snyder has earned his reputation as being the comic/graphic novel director with Watchmen, Man of Steel and of course Frank Miller's 300 but what did he do here? I say butchery purely because he's done exactly that. And for those of you not comic book fans, he's taken a couple of books and tried to form a merger so to pave way for the Justice League. I can kind of understand as it's a balance between the two of DC's greatest heroes. It seems based on both Dark Knight Returns and the latter part of Man of Steel with quite a few tweaks so will this upset the comic book fans? I think so. I like comics and owned a few but I am far from being an expert on the subject matter. However, I'm as upset about Doomsday as much as Vinnie Jones playing Marvel's Juggernaut. Even though the film does showcase him quite well, there's more to him than being a mutated super villain. He is the ULTIMATE super villain, hater all of life and destroyer of all worlds. He's pure evil, more so than Venom, Galactus and Thanos put together (difference universe, I know but still, it's true). Let me just touch on a couple of facts about Doomsday. He'll fight everyone, even other bad guys, especially those who possess power. He cannot be reasoned with and has no compassion what so ever. He's slaughtered thousands of Green Lanterns and in the comics, fought Superman with one arm tied behind his back forgetting the fact he eventually kills Superman. Which I might add **SPOILER** he does do in the film. Oops, back to the film. I think it's too small for both superhero's. The Avengers managed it but that's only because each hero had their own introducing movie bar Black Widow and Hawkeye. Yes Man of Steel and Nolan's Batman but this is a different Batman, it's Batfleck, who doesn't actually do a bad job and the batman character here resembles the comics darker side of him. Even how technological Batman is. We all know who Superman is with or without his glasses but now Snyder has the challenge of reintroducing a different Dark Knight. It falls a little flat. Especially when and how the bromance is formed. Cliched maybe and rushed. It goes from Superman trying to reasoning with attempted-murderer Batman to sudden friendship zone. Eisenberg seems to add his usual annoying genius to Lex Luther which kinda works but he still comes across as more of a psychotic teenager than a criminally insane mastermind. Some of the key scenes are hinted away in the trailers and what's left makes the rest of the movie anti-climatic. Gadot does actual very little apart from look pretty and she does that naturally. I have to comment on the score. When the opening credits were rolling and I saw Hans Zimmer working with Junkie XL, I got all excited. But for nothing. The Zimmer score that accompanied Man of Steel is present but it's more like background music. I've listened to the score since just in case I missed something but no. It has its moments but greatly disappointed. I like Junkie XL but can't help and think he did this under the direction of Zimmer which appears to be the norm now. The action is good, Batman fights better in this one and Superman, well, he's Superman so he does his floating, flying, punching and eye burning very well. It's not awful but it isn't up to the hype and I think Man of Steel and comic book fans alike will be let down just ever so gently. There just isn't anything that stands out or there be anything to give it the epic status it so deserves. I wasn't expecting so much more, but was expecting something better; especially from Snyder and Co. Oh, one thing that really annoyed me more than Doomsday (don't get me wrong, Doomsday is amazing in this but...) the message on the epitaph, is stolen from Sir Christopher Wren's memorial in St. Paul's (already submitted to IMDb trivial) how dare they! For me Cavill's Superman saved the film and if not for him the film would bomb completely. Affleck is better than expected but we all had low expectations. If the Justice League is where they're gonna go with this, which they clearly are; I'll reserve my expectations all together.
Running Time: 7
The Cast: 7
Performance: 6
Direction: 7
Story: 5
Script: 4
Creativity: 6
Soundtrack: 4
Job Description: 3
The Extra Bonus Point: -3 for butchery, score and for stealing "Si Monumentum Requiris Circumspice"
46% 5/10
