How ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ Could Have Been Better

The world has mostly hated on ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ since it’s release nearly a decade ago. But let’s be fair, it does have it’s good points. A seasoned Batman. Seeing Bruce Wayne’s perspective of ‘Man of Steel’’s final fight. Superman being made to answer for the destruction of Metropolis. The introduction of Wonder Woman. There are things to give a thumbs up on. Having said that, it definitely has deserved some negative feedback, and could have been made so much better.

“How?” I hear you ask? Well, let me give you my thoughts…

1. A Less Complicated Plot

One of the biggest things that lets the Batman/Superman team-up movie is just how darn complicated the story was made to be.

Lex Luthor’s motivations. His ways of manipulating Bruce Wayne. The political plot points. The moments at Capitol Hill. They’re all things that you can pick up on if you pay very close attention. But this movie isn’t Inception. It’s not supposed to be a mind-bending, hard to follow plot. This should simply be a story mainly centred around the differing ideals of the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight.

Lex Luthor’s part in it all? That could have been made so much simpler and more enjoyable to watch. Instead it was something to decypher. As much as we respect Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio, this was something they were too ambitious on.

2. A Batman Who Doesn’t Kill

Bruce Wayne’s main issue with Superman in this movie is the destruction he caused during his battle with Zod. The main part of his origins is also his parents being shot dead in front of him when he was a child.

Batman has been known to kill here and there throughout his mythology, but his bigger stories and moments tend to be stronger when he struggles with how far we can go with taking down criminals. The Dark Knight trilogy is a fine example of showing how he will never cross the line of killing, even if it is 100% the best solution to save everyone.

So, how is it right for Batman to have so much blood on his hands in this movie? We get it, he’s 20 years deep crime fighting and he’s now a bit rough around the edges, but his code of not killing is one of the best traits when it is part of the character.

I think it’s fair to say that this version of the Caped Crusader would have been much more favourable if maybe his struggle was whether or not to break his “no killing” role in order to stop Superman.

3. More Actual Batman v Superman Moments

Yeah, for a movie with this title, it didn’t live up to its name much. We got one fight as we led into the third act, and don’t get me wrong, the fight was pretty good. But why couldn’t we have more nuggets of that before the big showdown?

Understandable if there was fear of fatiguing the idea of them clashing, but is so much to play with there. A first tussle with Superman easily stopping Batman. A second with Batman armed with Kryptonite and catching Superman off guard which ends things pretty quickly. Then a grudge match for best out of 3 as they both fight on pretty even ground. It would have been b-e-a-utiful.

But nope. We got that few minutes worth of duking it out. Not enough in my books.

4. A Better Reason For Batman to Side With Superman

The “Martha” situation. On paper I guess it makes sense. Batman notices how his and Superman’s mothers share the same name, showing how they’re more alike than he thought. Quite touching really. But, does that really wash away the hatred had for Superman over all of the chaos he’s caused?

There should have been a more moral reason for Bats to be on Supe’s side so quickly and easily. maybe Luthor could have turned up last minute and put a few bullets in Batman’s leg as he had weakened the Last Son of Krypton enough for the psychotic billionaire to finish him off himself. This could have had Lex about to finish Bats off first but Superman jumped in the way last minute, showing Batman that, mixed with the truth that Lex had been manipulating him, the Kryptonian is actually truly on the side of good.

That example is probably a bit sketchy but you get my meaning. Batman needed something stronger in reasoning to actually do a team-up with someone he had hated for over a year beforehand.

5. A Superman Who is Sorry For His Actions

Quite an interesting one really. Throughout the entire movie, do we ever really see Superman appearing sorry for anything he’s done. He even simply justified his actions in the middle of the desert at the beginning of the movie with “the woman I loved was going to be killed or shot”.

Yeah, his actions help to save the world, no matter the collateral damage. Some form of remorse wouldn’t have gone a miss from the Man of Steel. Less of the moping, Cavill. More of the bright and morally correct superhero. Which leads us onto our next point.

6. Less Darkness

This was just a huge tone issue for the movie. Of course, for the Gotham side of things it worked great. Yes, Zack Snyder was trying to give us a more realistic Superman in this world. Having said that, Batman and Superman are supposed to oppose each other like dark and light. Night and day.

Anything in Metropolis should have come across a lot brighter than Gotham, and in actual fact you just couldn’t tell the difference between the two cities really.

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All in all, ‘Dawn of Justice’ was not a perfect movie. There was a lot that could have been improved to make it more favourable with fans and less of an all out Zack Snyder movie. Thankfully, like I mentioned before, there are some saving graces.