Director: Zack Snyder
Running Time: 151 mins
Certificate: 12A
Release Date: March 25th 2016
This film has been a long time coming and there are some great articles online chronicling the various attempts to bring Batman vs Superman and the Justice League to the silver screen. As you can tell from the subtitle, this film serves as an introduction to the Justice League films coming in 2017 and 2019, and the continuation of the DCCU (Detective Comics Cinematic Universe) which began with Man of Steel in 2013.
But in a film that is two and a half hours long I was concerned that they would rush the introduction to a wealth of new characters and backstories when it should just focus on the leads. Too many cooks and all.
DC and Warner Brothers are reaching for the financial success that Marvel has had with their cinematic universe (MCU), but the tone of their films set the studios apart. Marvel films are more light-hearted whereas DC’s recent films have mainly been darker (excluding the Schumacher Batman movies). Despite the darker tone I enjoyed Man of Steel up until the finale, where it seemed like the production had $100 million left and spent it needlessly destroying Metropolis. But it didn’t feel like a Superman movie and lacked the charm of Richard Donner’s 1978 version. [Read more…]