Warning: Spoilers
Alright, so I’m a huge fan of the Dark Knight trilogy, but I’ve never actually watched any of the Man of Steel movies. With that said, that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what I like and don’t like. Let me just say that this is definitely nowhere near my expectations after seeing the other Batman movies.
When I first heard that Christian Bale wasn’t going to be Batman – I’m not going to lie, I was disappeared. I loved Christian Bale’s version of Batman and to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Ben Affleck. I don’t think he had the same boyish charm for Bruce Wayne. With that in mind, I still went to the theatres to watch the movie.
I wasn’t as bothered by the actual appearance and charm as I thought I was going to be. Instead, there were a lot of other things plaguing me instead.
- The murders of Bruce Wayne’s parents
- Alright, so I’m sure this was inserted because of new fans who have never seen it before, but is it really necessary to repeat it multiple times? It was so horribly dragged out.
- Fight scenes and chase scenes
- If you’ve watched it, you’d understand what I am talking about. I appreciate action and chase scenes as much as the next person – in moderation. There is just so much unnecessary conflict because of misunderstanding. An example of this is when Superman wanted Batman to help him save Martha. Instead of simply going, “My mother is in danger.” or something of the like, he becomes antagonistic and goes on fighting Batman for no reason.
- Multiple leaps of logic for everyone
- There are several people here who suddenly know things without really explaining how. Perhaps I had missed something, but firstly… How did Superman know Bruce Wayne was Batman? The closest thing I could tell is that Superman heard Alfred talk to Wayne on the earpiece. Instead of just thinking that Wayne could be a spy or thief… Did he immediately jump into the conclusion that he was Batman?!
- Another instance is with Lois Lane. How did she know to grab the kryptonite staff during the final battle without prompt?!
- Lights and sounds
- Alright, so I watched it on the big screen, maybe that was the problem? But I really think that most movies are made to be watched on the big screen. Firstly, there are far too much light effects going on – so much so that I had to close my eyes during prolonged periods of having the lights hit me. It was so uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure this is overused to make the fight scenes more exciting. Perhaps the fake fight scenes were too fake – as it seemed to be during the time that Batman was hallucinating himself in the desert. I never want to see that fight scene, again.
- The sound could be more in the fault of the theatre, but I don’t have a problem with anything but those irritating booms and whatever force Superman uses to shoot into the air. I found myself clenching my jaw every time.
Overall, I was just really disappointed with this movie. I didn’t expect much, but I also didn’t expect how much I didn’t like it. It was dragged on for far too long. Perhaps a more condensed version of it would be better. I wouldn’t mind having less action scenes and more actual story plot.
The only redemption was Wonder Woman. I have no qualms with her, but she didn’t have that much screen time, so I won’t be able to fairly compare her with neither Batman nor Superman.
Anna Rose Sinclaire 