It’s a wild and wide-ranging film that embraces emotional extremes as well as contains strong elements of surrealism, a space for eroticism, and an existential self-reflexivity that sits very well among some of the best Batman and Superman stories of the last few decades. Its excesses are, to me, its strengths its prioritizing of thematic and visual elegance over strict narrative comprehension foregrounds the best elements of superhero stories and plays to Snyder’s strengths as a filmmaker, including some of the best action sequences in all of superhero cinema. Five years later, BvS is still referenced in online discussions as a cultural shorthand for both the worst excesses of the genre and Snyder’s immaturity and lack of understanding of the characters.Īnd yet, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is my favourite Zack Snyder film. Snyder’s preferred cut, the 182-minute “Ultimate Edition” of the film I am reviewing here, not only fleshes out some of the story beats that left audiences confused and wanting, but also results in the first R-rating for a Batman or Superman movie. It introduces Wonder Woman and teases the existence of The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg. Even though Snyder's earlier Man of Steel (2013) is the first film in the series, BvS, with its multihero focus and titular allusion to the Justice League, brings to the screen a more fully expansive DC universe for the first time. A time above and a time before indeed.Īs the title of the film implies, BvS functions as the “ground zero” of what has become known as the DC Extended Universe of films. BvS (as I’ll shorten the film’s mouthful of a title) explores darker themes than most other superhero films, such as loss of innocence, and pushes the level of violence and cynicism beyond what might be expected for the first combined take on DC’s iconic heroes. Fans and critics at the time were generally displeased with what was seen as an overarching pall of dread and darkness in the film. Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) is a film filled with turning points, revelations, reappraisals, and reimaginings, both within its storyworld and in terms of what a superhero film itself might look like. But things fall… things on earth, and what falls… is fallen.” There were perfect things… diamond absolutes.
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