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88y53 · 5 years ago

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Batman v. Superman: World’s Finest — What I Would’ve Done

It’s safe to say whatever plan Z*ck S*yder had in mind for the DCEU isn’t going to happen. How we got to this point is really a matter of opinion, but if you ask me, it all comes down to Batman v Superman.

I really don’t care what people have to say in defense of it because I’ve read the essays, I’ve listened to the podcasts, I’ve talked to fans — I’ve heard it all. None of that changes the fact that general audiences rejected this movie. Flatly rejected it. You can argue that this rejection was indicative of the audience being too stupid, spoiled, obstinate, brainwashed by Marvel, whatever — that doesn’t change anything.

So, how could this reaction have been avoided? I’m glad you asked, Nobody.

Before Chris Terrio was brought on board, David S. Goyer wrote a script for what seemed to be a pretty by-the-numbers World’s Finest movie — Superman and Batman teaming up and parting on good terms.

Basically. I took that outline, cut out a lot of bits that made the film an Idiot Plot (see here: “https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/IdiotPlot/DCExtendedUniverse”), and came up with this:

[If you read to the end I try to give a fair and balanced view on the original film and I why I felt the way I did, if that’s any incentive]

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The film opens with Batman chasing down the Joker, accompanied by a solemn narration from the hero. Finally catching up, Batman just starts pummeling Joker without holding anything back, and wrapping his hands around the clown’s throat. The scene ends before anything definitive happens.

The next scene starts with a little girl trapped under rubble and rebar, weeping and choking out a cry for help through the dust and darkness, but no one can hear her. Suddenly the rubble starts shifting, and she braces herself to be crushed and entombed where no one will ever find her, only for the concrete to lift away as Superman reaches for her. Haloed by a beam of light, he smiles and simply says, “it’s okay. I’ve got you.” Handing her off to the firefighters, we see that this is still in the aftermath of the Black Zero event, and Superman is using his x-ray vision and super-hearing to find any survivors in the ruins of Metropolis.

One of these survivors is a man who was horribly mangled by debris. His name is John Corben, ex-special forces turned private security officer. [I’m eliminating the Nirobe scene because it makes the plot over-complicated and is just kind of dumb: so, the CIA sends in a secret agent but can’t invest in better tracking equipment, like phones? Specially designed bullets (that can easily be traced back to the owners because they were part of a government contract) can punch through meat and bone but gets stuck in a reporter’s journal? The bodies are burned in such a way that it gets rid of bullet holes in autopsies? Superman can push a man through a wall at the speed of a bullet without the man being obliterated by the violently sudden inertia? The aerial footage from government drones weren’t consulted to prove if Superman did indeed kill those people? And when the single witness that badmouths Sups changes her heart, the senator doesn’t put her into protective custody?]

Jumping forward, we see an older Bruce Wayne attending a retirement party for Commissioner Gordon. They chat for a bit, making veiled references to Batman and the Joker "still" being in a coma. Bruce, however, is fixated on "the alien," arguing that he has trouble trusting someone so powerful who nonetheless had to resort to murder to beat his opponent. [If I’m going to be completely honest, I don’t really have a problem with how Batman was presented in the film, so that doesn’t really need to change. My main problem is his callous indifference to the wanton slaughter of the random criminals in his way: Batman is allowed to play fast and loose with his One Rule (the branding I don’t mind, for example), but his arc relies on him coming that close to becoming no different from the evil he fights, but if he kills people before that moment, then the arc is ruined. There’s a big difference between callous indifference to someone’s survival and safety, and machine-gunning an SUV full of people and bulldozing the wreckage. He’s just a deluded murderer that literally brands criminals so they can potentially get stabbed in jail (it’s a good thing they showed him branding white thugs; it would be pretty hard for people to claim he has some kind of moral high-ground if he was branding people of color).]

At the Daily Planet, Perry White addresses his writing staff - consisting of Ron Troupe (political editor), Lois Lane (field reporter), Cat Grant (fashion columnist), Steve Lombard (sports editor), trainee Jenny Jurwich, and new photographer, Jimmy Olsen (played by Jesse Eisenberg) — he’s handing out jobs, when he notices that Clark Kent isn’t here . . . until Lois reminds him that he’s busy doing a fluff-piece.

That “fluff-piece" is actually delivering giant shipping containers of food and water to an African country (ala Peace on Earth). During this, talk-show host Jack Ryder (played by Stephen Colbert), is doing a point-counterpoint with G. Gordon Godfrey (who is basically Alex Jones meets Tucker Carlson) where they argue about Superman’s agenda and his presence in the world (and maybe taking a few calls from regular people, like Bibbo Bibbowski). It’s here we are treated to a montage of the various heroic acts Superman’s performed over the past two years, and we see a 99% formed Superman: he’s saving people as often as he can and he does it with a smile (even his harshest critics don’t have much of a leg to stand on). He already resolved his issues over being a public figure in the previous movie, so continuing the arc is just redundant. As we shall see later, there is, however, one thing still holding him back.)

Weighing in on the talk-show discussion is tech entrepreneur, Lex Luthor of LuthorCorp (Elon Musk meets young Donald Trump played by, lets say, Mark Strong) who actually supports Superman.

However, after the interview is over, Lex is confronted by his father, Lionel (played by Bryan Cranston), who viciously ridicules him for being such a “media-whore.” As the two talk, we get more information on Lex’s situation — years before the Black Zero event, Metropolis was in a state of bankruptcy; it was a slowly crumbling hellhole, no better than Gotham . . . until Lex was sent to the Metropolis branch of the company as a punishment from his father. Lex retaliated by using his business acumen to create jobs and new industries, which single handedly revived the city. So, after Zod’s failed invasion, LuthorCorp started shifting funds towards Metropolis’ reconstruction. But because Superman personally stopped the invasion and helped rebuild the city (including taking the kryptonian spaceship and hiding it on the moon [because it never made sense to me why Superman would just allow an alien ship — which, by all rights, belongs to him — to be studied by the government in the middle of a major American city. He also took Zod’s body, so no one could dissect him]), he received pretty much all the credit and became “Metropolis’ favorite (if controversial) son." So Lex hates him for stealing his thunder, even if he publicly supports him.

Meanwhile, John Corben has Wallace Keefe’s arc from the original movie and graffitis the Superman statue, because he blames him for his disfigurement.

Clark has dinner with Lois, and the topic of Superman’s reputation comes up; the general public may have largely embraced him, but he still has very loud detractors (like Godfrey), and she’s worried how this negativity is affecting him. Clark reassures her that he isn’t bothered by the controversy, because it was more-or-less his fault that Zod invaded in the first place, “I understand why they're angry with me,” he says. “But they don't who I am and their anger doesn't change my opinion about myself. I know who I am.”

Later that night, Clark has a nightmare about Zod and we now see the only thing still holding him back from being the archetypal Superman is his guilt and PTSD over having to take a life to save the day — a violent act he considers to be his greatest failure, a brutality he can’t cleanse from his mind. [I think it’s best if the “isolation arc” wasn’t included in this movie, because it was pretty much resolved by the end of MoS. We have a more pressing issue for Sups to worry about — He literally murdered someone. You can argue if he was justified or not, but that doesn’t change the fact that the only way Superman could defeat Zod was by stooping to his level and losing where it counted. And Superman knows this. That’s gotta leave some lingering trauma.]

Corben is bailed out of jail and given a ride in a limo driven by Mercy Graves, and delivered (not to the villain we are expecting — Lex, but — ) to Lionel who tells him that he want to help Corben “stand for something."

Elsewhere, Bruce is on his “White Portuguese" hunt [which includes a Batmobile chase, but no one dies, or if they do, it’s not Batman’s fault], and he has his confrontation with Superman, but it plays out differently: rather than threatening Batman, Superman tries to appeal to his humanity, pointing out that he used to be the "caped crusader" before he became the "dark knight." Batman, however, doesn’t care what he has to say, and asks Superman if he "bleeds."

Later that night, Bruce has a dream about his last run-in with the Joker; his hands still wrapped around his neck, pressing harder and harder, while a small voice tells him, "You’re letting him win." Bruce wakes from his dream before anything more definitive happens.

The next day, Lois and Jimmy attend a charity gala hosted by the Luthors (who appear with Lionel’s assistant, Mercy Graves, and Lex’s bodyguard, Otis Graves), where they celebrate the recent joint venture between LuthorCorp and Wayne Enterprises on cybernetic prosthetics. Here we see that Lex has a brilliant way with people that his father sorely lacks, and the latter is clearly envious of.

Lex actually starts hitting on Lois until Clark appears, and we get to witness the first interaction between Lex Luthor and Clark Kent. Lois continues with her questioning, asking what compelled Luthor to pour so much funding into this program; Lex explains that many people lost limbs during Black Zero, and the program is meant to address that. While there, Clark has a run-in with Bruce, and the interaction basically breaks down as it does in the movie.

Thoroughly rattled, Superman then flies over Metropolis to clear his head and lands on an inconsequential building, where he actually meets Bibbo Bibbobowski — a big fan of Sups. Superman expresses lingering guilt over Zod’s death leading up to a “Hitman” monologue about his inability to save everyone. [https://m.imgur.com/gallery/w7BCA] Bibbo tries to change his mind, but Superman remains conflicted on the subject.

From Batman’s hunt for the White Portuguese, Alfred learns the truth about Bruce’s plans for the Kryptonite. He gives Bruce an ultimatum: either Bruce destroys the Kryptonite, or Alfred will quit. Bruce is committed to this crusade, so Alfred leaves in disappointment. After the fight, Bruce looks longingly at a Robin suit, and we get closure on the Joker flashback — Joker beat Jason Todd to death and crippled Barbara Gordon (Death in the Family meets The Killing Joke), Batman caught him and nearly strangled him to death, only stopping when Alfred yelled at him through the radio that he was "letting [Joker] win."

Cut to Lionel talking to Corben privately; we get a little more insight into why he is so disdainful towards his son. When Lex was born, Lionel expected nothing but perfection from him, and for the most part, Lex delivered. In his youth, Lex excelled at everything, and was constantly held up as the pinnacle of human excellence. However, everything changed the day his mother died in a car accident Lex inadvertently caused, and the stress of it made his hair fall out. From that point on, Lionel saw Lex as less than dirt and “failure.” So, Lionel has begun looking for other avenues to achieve “perfection.” With his story over, we find out that Corban is being prepped for an operation involving something called “Metal-10.”

Now completely alone, Bruce throws himself into stealing and building a battle suit using the Wayne/LuthorCorp designed cybernetic prosthetics, a sonic gun, and a single bullet made out of Kryptonite.

Now in the third act, Lois is kidnapped by Jimmy who is then revealed to be Sebastian Mallory, and has been spying on Lois and Clark this whole time and figured out the latter’s secret identity. Clark then receives a high-frequency message to meet Lionel at the top of LuthorCorp tower.

The plot then plays out basically how it did in the real movie, with Lionel threatening to kill Lois if Clark doesn't kill Batman first, and Luthor’s high-frequency howl will keep Sups from finding her if he tries to use his super-hearing.

Superman goes and basically begs Batman to help him, but there’s one problem; Batman’s helmet is fully covered and completely soundproof, to protect his ears from the sonic gun. [See? Superman has been trying to offer the olive branch to Bats this whole time and is constantly shot down. So when his multiple attempts at appealing to Batman’s better nature fail, that’s when Clark snaps.]

Meanwhile, Luthor is watching the whole fight through small drones. Also watching are Luthor’s goons, who are taking bets on who’ll win. Lois, seeing the fight, manages to break free and escape on her own using the skills she picked up as a military-brat. [If there’s one thing I resent most about the S*yder films, it’s how much they neutered Lois Lane. She’s the daughter of a military general for crying out loud and yet she acts so passive and demure it makes me want to spit. It’s tantamount to making Scout Finch act like Sansa Stark. It’s against everything about her character. So I decided to change that and give a variation on the “warehouse scene” to Lois.]

The fight continues until Superman manages to get Batman into a head-lock, which then triggers a flashback to Zod’s death. This moment of hesitation allows Bats to get the upper-hand, but in the struggle, Batman’s helmet is cracked open. He makes the same grand speech as he does in the film as he loads the kryptonite bullet into the gun and aims it at Superman’s heart … only for the latter to say:

“You’re … letting … him … win.”

[The death of Batman’s parents was a seminal moment in Bruce Wayne’s life, but it would realistically be a well-healed wound at this point. However the death of Jason and the crippling of Barbara are more recent and fresh traumas that (even in the books) actually did drive him to be an even darker vigilante.]

So we get a slight variation on “why’d you say that name!” to just “why’d you say that!” Only for Lois to chime in by commandeering one of Luthor’s drones and using the built-in speaker to talk through it and explain the situation. Then Batman has his moment of horror as he realizes how close he came to becoming what he hates, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Then…

Metallo bursts in.

Luthor’s Plan B in case something like this happened, complete with a solid kryptonite power-core and a body made of Metal-10 -- an alloy made from titanium and recovered kryptonian metal.

They fight, Superman tries to reason with Corban but he doesn’t listen, and Batman’s armor allows him to stay in the game for as long as he can (but he’ll eventually have to abandon it and rely on Alfred - whom Bruce calls - for help)

Eventually the two heroes work together and immobilize him.

With Corban at their mercy, the heroes begin to work out a deal with him that will ensure he help them trace all of this back to Lionel … only for Corban’s robot body to self-destruct, which they both conclude was Luthor’s doing.

At dawn, Superman and Batman exchange pleasantries, and Clark offers one final olive branch -- the kryptonite bullet, which he entrusts to Bruce. This gesture rocks Batman to his core and he admits he was wrong about Superman, and that he is a “good man,” which gives Clark the reassurance he needed to move on from Zod’s death.

Cut to a few months later, and we see Lex being remote-interviewed by Jack Ryder, and we learn that during the time-skip, Lionel died of a heart attack. Lex makes some token soundbytes about his “loss,” and - in light of the scandalous rumors surrounding his father and his connection to Lois Lane (even though nothing could be conclusively proven) - has taken the opportunity to “rebrand” the company from LuthorCorp to LexCorp, as a sign of “good faith” and “change.” Ryder also makes an off-handed reference to Lex taking an interest in politics.

After the interview, Lex watches a video on his computer which shows security footage of his last conversation with his father: Lionel is unconcerned with the charges Lois is throwing at him, because he now has something that literally everybody in the world will pay through the nose to get … Superman’s genetic code. SInce Zod’s body was gone, Lionel set up the whole fight just so Superman would spill some blood, which Luthor picked up using one of his drones (he was hoping Superman would die so he could be dissected). Lionel then goes on and on about the potential applications of kryptonian genetics (including something called “Project: B2-R-0”) and how they’ll someday be able to splice them into the human genome, so that “everyone can be Superman.”

Lex chews on those words for a moment … and then offers his father a celebratory glass of brandy, which Lionel - too excited by his own prospects - readily drinks, but Lex doesn’t.

As Lionel starts coughing and keeling over, Lex apologizes and wished it “wouldn’t come to this,” but that “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”

And the recording ends… and Lex sees Superman in the reflection on his computer monitor, floating outside his window.

Confidently, Lex delete the footage and speaks to Superman directly. Going off on this big monologue about he’s the best, he’s “figured out” Superman’s little scheme, how when the “war is over,” the people of the world will finally acknowledge that “Lex Luthor was right.”

Superman wordlessly flies down to Luthor’s level, and simply says, “I’ll pray for you, Lex. Every day.” And flies off. Lex is left with an intense anger at his enemy’s nobility, he has now fully embraced his narcissism and even if he has to prove it to the whole world, he won’t stop until everyone recognizes that he alone is the best.

The final scene is Clark traveling to the arctic, and digging up Zod’s corpse. Finally, after this whole time, Superman has the strength to face his worst mistake and put it to rest. Clark takes Zod’s body, builds him a coffin, and gives the old soldier a proper “burial at space” into the sun.

He’s come to terms with who he is and what he is, and the film closes on him orbiting Earth - using his super-senses to see and hear millions of experiences that we could only dream of (babies being born, people celebrating, animals frolicking, monks peacefully meditating, etc.) - in full grip of the Overview Effect, smiling a perfectly contented smile at this strange little blue rock that he loves, with all his heart. (kind of like here: https://comicsalliance.com/originals-garth-ennis-dialogue-hitman-303-war-comics-creator-owned)

He’s finally the super-man.

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So, if you managed to make it this far, it’s worth noting that a movie like this was never in the cards.

When Man of Steel was being made, it came off the heels of the very underwhelming Superman Returns and the epic Dark Knight Trilogy (so a more action-packed remake was a no-brainer from a marketing perspective) and the abject failure that was Green Lantern (which was supposed to be DC’s platform for a cinematic universe). So, when WB gave Z*ck S*yder the reins they weren’t interested in making a cinematic universe. It’s only natural that they’d fall back on their strong suits and try to recreate the Dark Knight Trilogy, only with Superman this time. They wanted Chris Nolan to helm it, but he never wanted to be known as the “Superhero Director,” so he hand-picked S*yder for the job (WB agreed because they trusted Nolan and they wanted that sweet, sweet, auteur creativity that worked so well before, despite the fact that the DK series was more or less a fluke). However, when MoS proved to be a moderate success (and because there’s no such thing as bad publicity) the executives got ambitious and pushed for a franchise, but Snyder was always more interested in telling his own story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that just couldn’t happen in a cinematic universe designed to go on for as long as it keeps making money. So they naively tried to have their cake and eat it too. Whereas in the real world, one doesn’t try to mix chocolate-chip ice-cream, lasagna, and chimichangas into one dish, unless you’re aiming for a disappointing afternoon and a lot of wasted effort (even then, there will always be that one person who’ll love it for reasons completely unique to them).

This is all to say that I think the “Snyderverse” was more or less destined to fail, because it tried to be too many things and wasn’t any of them.

I once read something on a Reddit post that I think is applicable to this whole situation: “Unfortunately, some writers try to shoot for crafting a Memento before they’ve mastered St. Peter and the Dragon.”

But more importantly, I’ve recently had a breakthrough in my ponderings about it that I think finally, finally, finally explains why people like me couldn’t like it …

The film wasn’t meant for people like me.

Anticlimactic, I know.

You can argue movie critic payoffs, stubborn audiences that demanded different things, the fact that the studio didn’t release the full film (I don’t think that would’ve helped), the over saturation of Marvel-style films, but in the end Z*ck Sn*der is a cult filmmaker, best suited for more low-risk niche properties. The only film he made that ever received mainstream success was 300, arguably for the wrong reasons.

The only crime you can really hold against this movie was that it failed to connect with enough people. It’s kind of sad in a way.

Without him, the DCEU seems to be moving in the direction of Adaptation Distillation, and I think that’s for the best.

#DCEU #batman v superman

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