What went wrong with the DCEU’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice? Zack Snyder made a strong start to his DC tenure, with Henry Cavill donning the famous red cape for Man of Steel in 2013. Although the Superman reboot garnered mixed reviews, something the DCEU would become accustomed to, it scored big at the box office, proving Snyder’s darker version of the Kryptonian Boy Scout had serious potential. Unfortunately, that momentum was never capitalized upon, as Snyder and Warner Bros.’ next effort, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, attracted a more scathing response and under-performed financially.

Released in 2016, Batman V Superman reunited the core Man of Steel cast, and also introduced Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and Jeremy Irons playing Alfred Pennyworth, turning Snyder’s Superman world into a fully-fledged DC universe. There’s certainly a lot to enjoy about Snyder’s vision, and the ongoing campaign to release the Justice League Snyder cut proves how strongly the DCEU resonates with some. But it’s impossible to deny that Batman V Superman landed very far from where Warner Bros. were aiming and eventually led to DC’s current, less interconnected, approach - a strategy that is finding significantly more success.

On paper, Batman V Superman was a sure-fire winner, pitting the two biggest superheroes in the world against each other. How could a Norse god and an archer few outside of comic circles had heard of before 2011 compete with that? Here’s exactly where Batman V Superman went wrong, from studio interference to ill-advised casting.

A Nonsensical Plot

Most films live or die by the strength of their plot, and striking the right balance of simplicity and complexity is a coveted art that few superhero movies get exactly right, but Batman V Superman’s story is an over-complicated and incoherent tangle of coincidence, convenience and assumption. Lex Luthor’s master plan is perhaps the biggest culprit, leaving the audience to fill gaps and find connections that often simply don’t exist.

Luthor somehow uncovers the true identities of both Batman and Superman, and pits the two against each other, but the scheme relies far too much on Affleck’s Batman picking and choosing when to be intelligent. The villain later kidnaps Lois Lane in order to attract Superman’s attention, only for Lex to reveal he also abducted the hero’s mother when Clark arrives. Finally, when the whole plot is foiled and the DC Trinity join forces, Luthor just unleashes a Kryptonian monster that he whipped up in Act 2. Why any of above actually happens is anyone’s guess, with Lex’s motivations frustratingly ambiguous.

All of this clunky setup makes the final battle between the Bat and the Kryptonian somewhat underwhelming. Snyder takes large cues from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, but misses that the point of their comic feud was genuine dislike and two vastly different methods of fighting crime. In Batman V Superman, the reason for the titular clash is just one big misunderstanding that a simple conversation (or a simple name, as it turns out) could solve.

The Weight Of DCEU Setup

Zack Snyder had a difficult enough job on his hands crafting a sequel to Man of Steel that properly introduced a brand new Caped Crusader, but the task was made infinitely harder by Warner Bros.’ push for a DC shared universe to rival their Marvel counterparts. While the idea made sense in theory, the execution did not. Marvel spent years building up to their first team-up extravaganza, giving Captain America, Hulk, Thor and Iron Man their own solo movies, and establishing each superhero’s character ahead of time. Keen to catch up, DC essentially jumped from Man of Steel to Justice League, leaving Batman V Superman to do all the necessary set up.

This meant introducing Wonder Woman as well as Batman, teasing the other members of the Justice League, hinting at future enemies, and laying the foundations of plots intended to pay off further down the line. Batman V Superman’s core story was convoluted enough, but the added burden of fleshing out an entire shared universe was the cinematic equivalent of forcing down dessert after an all-you-can-eat buffet - seems like a good idea at the time, but the end result is bloated and messy.

To make matters worse, more recent DCEU movies have retrospectively rendered most of Batman V Superman’s setup obsolete, with many of the seeds failing to grow into anything of substance. The Knightmare scenes, the Darkseid teases, and Superman’s death are all dead ends, which makes Batman V Superman rewatches even harder to swallow.

Martha

If there’s one thing that Batman V Superman will be remembered for, it’s the infamous “Martha” moment - the scene where the fated battle the entire film is based around ends because Bruce and Clark’s mothers have the same name. Deservedly or otherwise, the Martha issue has come to encapsulate Batman V Superman’s wider problems; a quick and flavorless device designed to move the plot from point A to point B with minimal fuss. Now the subject of endless parody, the already anticlimactic scene wasn’t helped by the performances, in which even the (otherwise solid) Cavill and Affleck seem unconvinced by the showdown’s conclusion.

It’s somewhat ironic that “Martha” is by no means Batman V Superman’s biggest fault, but it was perhaps the straw the broke the audience’s back. After 2 hours of DC’s greatest heroes simmering to a tepid boil, the payoff is determined by simple coincidence - like a heavyweight big-money boxing match ending in disqualification, but Batman V Superman had the luxury of being scripted. One benefit of the whole Martha storyline might’ve been to ensure a juicier role for Amy Adams’ Lois Lane, but Clark’s girlfriend has no such luck, and is as typical a damsel in distress as comic book movies have to offer.

“So Dark… Are You Sure You’re Not From The DC Universe”

Batman V Superman is the film responsible for perpetuating the idea that the DCEU is a humorless dirge of grimaces and grayscale, but the film perhaps isn’t as serious as some might suggest. Martha’s response when Batman rescues her and identifies himself as Clark’s friend gets a genuine chuckle, and Alfred is a reliable source of relative brevity, but the accusations aren’t entirely baseless. Modern superhero movies, broadly speaking, take two distinct routes. There’s the Marvel model of mixing mature drama with fun and japes, and there’s the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight formula of unrelenting realism and urban shadow. Batman V Superman tries to do a bit of both; incredibly comic book-esque in style, but simultaneously moody and severe.

It’s clear from the off that the two don’t mix, and Warner Bros. evidently heard this criticism, bringing in Joss Whedon to put a comedic band-aid over Justice League before it hit theaters. In fairness, other DC properties have since nailed the balance. Wonder Woman and Aquaman offered genuine drama without the ever-present rainclouds, Joker stripped out the comic book elements to go down a darker path, while Birds of Prey and Shazam leaned more into the fun, irreverent side of the franchise. This problem perhaps comes back to Warner Bros.’ rush for a cinematic universe crossover. If the DCEU was afforded more time to find its feet, Snyder might’ve hit upon a happy medium before Batsy and Supes ever came to blows.

Lex Luthor Was Miscast

By far the biggest casting controversy in the build-up to Batman V Superman was Ben Affleck as Batman - an announcement that had fans flashing back to the actor’s grim stint as Daredevil. In truth, Affleck was a perfectly serviceable Dark Knight, albeit probably a better Bruce Wayne than Batman, and his performance banished any lingering memories of past superhero slip-ups. However, the casting fans really should’ve been concerned about was Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. DCEU Lex is a kooky, zany hipster; Mark Zuckerberg fallen in with the wrong crowd, or The Joker with a business degree - a far cry from the no-nonsense smarmy businessman role the villain traditionally occupies.

Jesse Eisenberg has shown himself to be a stellar actor on a number of occasions, and the issue here is purely one of suitability for the role, not helped by cringe-worthy dialogue. “The Red Capes are coming” might’ve looked good on paper, but the line makes the script sound pretentious, not Lex as a character.

The Best Part Of Batman V Superman Was Wonder Woman

Comic readers will know that old, jaded Bruce Wayne is entertaining Bruce Wayne, but this barely comes across in the DCEU. Whether because Lex Luthor is the one pulling the strings, or because the audience hasn’t seen how Batfleck became so miserable, it’s difficult to fully buy into the Brucey blues and, subsequently, his eventual rise. But while Cavill is firmly established as Superman thanks to Man of Steel, his arc in Batman V Superman is no more compelling. The world’s growing suspicion of Superman invites a moral discussion that Batman V Superman never fully explores, instead taking the easier option of using Superman’s death to reaffirm his Christ-like savior status. As with Bruce’s fall and rise, Clark’s death lacked the necessary gravity - probably because Justice League had already been announced, and no one thought for a second that those bright blue tights wouldn’t pop right back up in the following film.

In a release with Batman and Superman in the title, it’s telling that Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is easily the best part. This mostly comes down to the actress’ natural affinity for the role, but also highlights where her DC colleagues were lacking.

Batman V Superman Suffers From Warner Bros. V Snyder

In terms of traditional studio interference, Batman V Superman doesn’t appear to have been micromanaged as heavily as Justice League, where the mythical existence of different edits inspired an entire cultural movement. But given the circumstances surrounding the Snyder cut furor, the story of the director’s second DCEU effort takes a more interesting twist. This is evident from the bumper Batman V Superman: Ultimate Edition that was released in the wake of the theatrical cut. Although the 3 hour+ reedit doesn’t fix all of the movie’s problems, it is a marked improvement on what was released in theaters, expanding greatly on the feud between Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, while also offering a little more insight into Lex Luthor’s extra-terrestrial knowledge and motivations.

While the original version of Batman V Superman is definitely still Zack Snyder’s film, there’s a sense that the story needed that additional 30 minutes, but was edited down to a more palatable length, with the pacing and story suffering as a result. The Ultimate Edition can’t make Jesse Eisenberg a good Lex Luthor, or erase the painful memories of the Martha scene, but the lengthier cut is generally considered the superior version of Batman V Superman, perhaps hinting towards the future struggles between Snyder and Warner Bros.

More: Every DC Character Confirmed (But Not Seen) In Zack Snyder’s DCEU

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