DISSECTING DISASTER- Batman Vs Superman- The Blinding Nature Of Glorified Inconsistency

Batman Vs Superman is no stranger to criticism. Some consider it to be the worst cbm ever while others find it to be a masterpiece. I, objectively speaking because I’m always right, think that BVS is a decent film. The ultimate I mean. It’s not as bad as people make it out to be neither is it the best thing to ever exist. However, all of the major complaints with BVS all boil down to one detail. During the opening scene, we see a small hint at what caused this movie to go off the rails. “Screenplay by Chris Terrio AND David S Goyer”. On first glance, it feels insignificant. Other movies have multiple screenwriters too. But here’s the trick. If two writers write a screenplay TOGETHER then it is credited as WRITER 1 & WRITER 2, not WRITER 1 AND WRITER 2. In this month’s issue of Dissecting Disaster, we will be finding out what caused BVS’ downfall from potentially being the best of all superhero movies to being one that is often looked down upon under 3 headings

- Deviation from the source material

- Flawed development of characters

- And lastly, Inconsistent storytelling

THE CURSE OF CREATIVE LIBERTY

Creative Liberty has become a luxury in modern day cinema. Every movie has to stick to the vision of the producing company and changes need to be made in compliance with the whims and fancies of the marketing team. Important plot points need to be cut off and at times, movies need to be completely reshaped to meet the demands of the parent company. Watching your creative liberty be at the mercy of a cruel businessman is every creator’s worst nightmare. However, as much as adequate creative liberty is necessary, too much of it can ruin a movie. No one is asking for a movie that is ripped straight from the comics, why would we want to see the same story again? Of course we want differences, we want freshness and uniqueness but they should never be at the cost of the essence of the character. Comic accuracy is a very vague term. There are multiple iterations and runs surrounding a character and for the comics that Snyder had read, they were near perfect representations but somewhere down the line, people tend to forget that these are elseworlds stories that these movies are built upon. TDKR is a story about a distant future where batman deviates from everything that made him batman. The reason that story worked is because of the established moral code and responsibility of batman and how the comic played with it. The reason these characters didn’t appeal to the majority is because of the fact that their essential comic characteristics were never established in these films. We never see the people of Gotham acknowledge Batman’s change, we don’t see Superman being hopeful, we don’t see Lex being calm and collected and we don’t see everything that Doomsday is capable of. This guy nearly killed Darkseid! This is one of the greatest issues with BVS, the overexploitation of creative liberty. These are comic accurate characters but when you think about it, Superior Spider-Man is everything that Spider-Man isn’t. A movie of Peter Parker acting like Otto Octavius would be accurate but not what makes the character so lovable and relatable in the first place.

TRANSITIONS: THE MAKE OR BREAK

I know the title is confusing. What does transition have to do with any of this? Well, it does, rather a certain type of transition: character transition. Let’s cite the prime example of abrupt transition in this movie, Batman. Batman goes from “Kill Superman at all costs” to “I am your son’s friend” in a matter of minutes. Let us not think about the inaccuracy and think of it normally. Would ANYONE, let alone BATMAN, tell someone that he was trying to kill their son but they’re buddies now? Of course not! Now the argument can be made that he was trying to calm Martha down but to be honest, you have a reputation of being a murderer, HELL YOU MURDERED EVERYONE SURROUNDING HER A SECOND AGO! No sane individual would be convinced by “I’m a friend” after they’ve witnessed you brutally and mercilessly murder people right before their eyes. Doesn’t matter if the people were keeping them hostage, they will still feel unsafe. Transitions like this are present in the movie in other cases as well. Superman’s transition is smooth because he’s the protagonist but what about the antagonists? Batman and Lex. Lex Luthor goes from this guy who would do anything to kill Superman to a emotionless piece of wood who is the least bothered by Superman’s death. He devoted so many years to this and it doesn’t bring him even a glimmer of joy. That’s abruptness in development. What makes it worse is that in the case of Batman the transition doesn’t appear till the final frames of the movie. He is reminded of how far he has fallen and how he is becoming Joe Chill and he goes on to kill a warehouse full of people. Not everyone should survive the warehouse scene but Batman should at least try to pull his punches. Batman killing makes the Knightmare timeline that much unnecessary to his character as there is literally no change to him. By the end of BVS, he’s suddenly fine and swears not to kill people because Superman gave him a shot at redemption which is great, I love a gloomy movie that ends with sunshine and rainbows but again, what work has he put into this transition? None. At the end of the day, abrupt character development like this is what makes the future of a certain character feel like Bruce’s promise to Clark. Empty. Empty promises and nothing else.

TWO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BROTH

Writing is much like preparing a dish. You can have aid, you can have a partner and what not. But you can NEVER make a good dish with the half of the ingredients residing with you and the other half with your partner. You need to cooperate which is the most glaring flaw of BVS. The first 60% of the movie is pretty decent, hell, I’d say its great but then it all goes downhill. See film crediting says that the writer who worked the most on the script should be named first. That is why Argo writer Chris Terrio was mentioned before David S Goyer. Most of the movie has Terrio’s imprint all over it and it boils down to personal preference but the last dash is where the movie stumbles horrendously as the movie shifts dramatically from incorporating Terrio’s imprint to using Goyer’s instead which explains the mess of a final act. Lois Lane is established to be a competent investigative reporter who is now found making the dumbest decisions seen on screen. Lex Luthor is smart, capable, insecure, driven by trauma and then he’s just completely a new individual. Batman is vengeful but he suddenly believes in friendship. Wonder woman pops up out of nowhere and so on. However, it’s not just the characters shifting but the themes as well. The first two acts, Act 1 and Act 2 A, set the stage for a grander fight in terms of ideological struggle but the following two acts turn the movie into a B-Grade MCU movie with a beautiful yet insulting final battle with a very weak adaptation of The Death Of Superman. Or maybe it could’ve been fantastic if his return wasn’t teased in the same film. You don’t revive a character in the same movie or even hint at it, that destroys every ounce of emotional impact that the death scene created. Imagine if The Avengers ended with Coulson being revealed to be alive. Would the movie be taken seriously anymore? Hell, would the avengers be taken seriously anymore? They wouldn’t. Which is why, this movie’s third act feels like a device to push the plot which stands against the importance of the third act. A good third act always instills and maintains emotions. A cgi slugfest should never push the emotional core of the story to the back seat and this is why I think the differing writers made this potential once in a lifetime movie, suffer. Even in Terrio’s work, there’s enough of Goyer to carry the inconsistencies and the glaring flaws to the finish line.

Batman V Superman means a lot to a lot of people and I don’t want to take that away from you. The point of Dissecting Disaster is to understand WHY people hate a movie. I, myself, believe BVS to be a decent movie and I would never want to demean a movie that brings YOU joy. If you enjoy this movie, good for you. Just before being hostile, I would like you to acknowledge the fact that this is solely my opinion on the movie and it shouldn’t mean anything to you. In conclusion, it’s never to late to think about Amy Adam’s jugs.