‘Paradise Lost’ for superheroes
Print Edition
ZAC Snyder’s thundering and grim “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” offers the kind of blunt, mano-a-mano faceoff usually reserved for Predators, Godzillas and presidential candidates.
And just as has often been said of this election year, “Batman v Superman” takes a once almost charming tradition and plunges it into the gutter. Long gone are the telephone booths, corn fields or any other such tokens of innocence. And given the prevailing climate, Snyder may have judged the rock’em-sock’em moment wisely. Gentlemen, keep your fists up and your capes neatly tucked.
This is “Paradise Lost” for superheroes. It twists and grinds two of the most classic comic heroes, wringing new, less altruistic emotions out of them until their dashing smiles turn to angry grimaces.
After a handsome, impressionistic montage of Batman’s iconic childhood, the film picks up where Snyder’s Superman reboot “Man of Steel” left off but from a different perspective.
Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) is driving through the falling debris of Metropolis while Superman (Henry Cavill) careens carelessly above.
Snyder has channeled the backlash over the high death-toll finale into Wayne, who bitterly watches Superman from the dust-filled air on the ground — a cheap evocation of September 11 designed to add solemnity where there isn’t any.
Months later, the two are still distrustfully circling each other. Snyder, working from a script by Chris Terrio (“Argo”) and David Goyer (“Man of Steel”), delves into their opposite natures: one a godlike power from another planet who favors primary colors, the other a well-equipped human prone to a darker palette.
Both are combating a new environment for superheroes best articulated by none other than astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who, on TV, describes superman as altering man’s assumed supremacy in the universe.
Luthor’s plot gradually brings the heroes into the same orbit, along with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot).
But it’s the genuine rigor of Snyder’s engagement with the psychology of Superman and Batman that keeps the film grounded and the rivalry plausible. Seeing the two warp toward villainy may be a trick, but “Batman v Superman” is serious about contemplating the curious positions these all-powerful beings occupy.
It’s in some ways an ideal film for Snyder, an exceptionally un-subtle filmmaker. But as the director of “300,” he knows his way around a ramming collision.
Snyder’s command is less sure when it comes to, well, normal life. “Batman v Superman” would rather spend its running time in the throes of myth than in offices of the Daily Planet, where Amy Adams (Lois Lane) breezes in and out.
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