One of my favourite movies of all time is Kill Bill. One of the best sequences in the film is the climax showdown between Beatrix kiddo and Bill. While putting out his side of the story as to why he did what he did to her, he speaks about the Superman mythology. He says… Batman & Spiderman have to put on a gear to become superheroes. In real life they are Bruce Wayne and Peter parker respectively(their alter egos) and need to put on their suits to draw their power. However Superman is different, he was born Superman, he is always superman, in fact his suit with the Big S is the cloth in which he was draped as a kid when the Kents found him. His alter ego “Clark Kent” is actually the cloth that he has to wear to blend in with humanity. “Clark Kent” in as many ways is Superman’s take on humanity as he perceives it, Weak, indecisive and fearful.
Why do I remember this is because Superman as a character is different from all other characters in the Superhero franchise. He doesn’t put on a suit to draw power, He is Superman all the time. A close comparison could be Thor from the Marvel’s Franchise as he also is from a different planet,”Assgard” but then Thor draws his power from the hammer. Superman is plain infallible. He has no weakness. He is as one may call it as near to God as possible. The story or the mythology of Superman is as pristine or pure as the finest single malts ever made, no blends, no ifs, no buts just pure.
Now to get a character like this to compete with a mere mortal like Batman is in the first place an uneven fight because they can never truly fight against the other, Batman is no match to Superman. He is just flesh and bones and a fancy armour,beneath the armour he bleeds blood and is as weak as the human race. Nevertheless to get them to compete, Superman has to have some weakness else there can’t be a fight. This is my one big grouse with Zack Snider. To ensure that a movie like Batman v Superman can be made he played around with the single malt i.e the legend of Superman. He tried to blend it. A single malt when blended is nothing but a bad blend.
Another problem that Zack Snider faces is that he is stepping into the shoes of Christopher Nolan who has taken Batman to seventh heaven. The beauty of Nolan’s stories was the strong characterization of the two antagonists in the Dark Knight movies, “The Joker” and “Bane”. The joker in Dark Knight never really lost, he turned the City’s biggest hero “Harvy Dent” against the city and Batman had to take the blame and be the fall guy just to ensure hope remains, this exposes the weakness of the human race, how vulnerable we are. Similarly Bane turned the entire city against itself, and Batman for a good part of the movie has to cool his heels in a cave. Nolan exposed the weakness of Batman and his stories were beautifully layered with impeccable characterization of the antagonists. Hence expectations are sky high.
Zack Snider needs to be complemented for taking on an impervious task, almost impossible if I may add. How does he fare? Well not too well according to me. The build up was good, nice back stories and character build ups, some awesome action scenes, couple of unforgettable lines, only to be let down by a climax that came out of an Avengers flick, almost mind numbing action which is incomprehensible most of the times, as if DC is trying hard to be Marvel. Also I must add the let down of the antagonist, Jessie Eisenberg actually acted like Shahrukh Khan in his old hammy films. From a characterization perspective Zack falls in the trap of making the antagonist a binary character, oh Nolan… Where art thou???
Zack, appreciate the effort however sometimes it is better not to mix two single malts.
Movie verdict :Average.
One time watch. Don’t have high expectations.
Honest movie reviews 