The DCEU Discussion – Part IV - Episode 2: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Rules of Fightclub
- Luke Evans
- Jan 9, 2021
- 25 min read
Updated: Jul 5, 2021
Jumping right back in...
Found via the Youtube clip linked above. (©DC Comics).
Dreams and Knightmares
After retrieving the drive, Bruce goes back to the cave and looks at the files on it. While he is looking at the drive, he falls asleep. I expect falling asleep randomly and having nightmares are occupational perils of being a playboy all day and dressing up as a bat and staying up all night beating people up…
This time, the dreams seem like he is having visions of the future. This is never explained in this movie or in the original version of the next… He has a detailed vision of a dystopian future. In supporting materials, it's come to be known as the Knightmare Timeline and it's explained on the linked page. (What I don't approve of is that a movie should not require "supporting materials" to make sense!!) Batman's in a desert Batsuit and he sees a massive Omega sign in the ground and huge pillars of fire going up into the sky (pic above) – indicating Darkseid has come to Earth. Darkseid rules over a planet called Apokolips that has these columns of fire going out into the surrounding space and the Omega symbol is Darkseid's sigil:
-Pic: From DCExtendedUniverse.fandom.com (©DC Comics).
-Pic: From DCAnimatedUniverse.fandom.com (©DC Comics).
In the vision, Batman joins soldiers to obtain a piece of Kryptonite, but it’s a trap. Soldiers in black uniforms with a red Superman sign on them emerge and capture Batman. They are Superman’s soldiers… er… what???
Batman tries to escape by killing a lot of people with guns. Again...What??
Parademons fly in and start carrying people away. Batman is overwhelmed and captured. The parademons and the Super Regime Army appear to be on the same side. Superman flies in. The soldiers kneel before him.
-Pic: From DCExtendedUniverse.fandom.com (©DC Comics).
Other captured people are killed by Superman with heat vision! He unmasks Batman and says:
Superman: She was my world... and you took her from me!!
And then Superman kills Batman.
- The footage can be found here:
Bruce wakes up! Aww… it was just a dream! Suddenly the Flash appears in some weird time-travelling armour. It’s so weird and unexplained that I watched this two or three times at the movies and still had no idea that this was the Flash!!! I didn’t realise until I saw the How It Should Have Ended about this film and the flash appears in a normal Flash-suit. So weird, before we are ever introduced to the Flash in the movies, to have him appear like this. Anyway, the Flash tells Bruce he was right about Superman – he was always right. He says Lois Lane is the key… tells Bruce to "Fear him"... and he disappears.
Bruce wakes up again! This time he is actually awake… we assume… God, I wish he wasn’t… He and EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER WATCHED IT doesn’t know what has happened… There's papers flying around behind him as if it had actually happened and wasn't a vision. Aaaaaand they never explain it or touch on it again, in this or the (original version of the) next movie. Was there a plan with this that Snyder did not get a chance to finish? It appears so. Will the Snyder Cut to Justice League address it? Yes - they did. Sort of.
Whatever the case – it’s too late. If it wasn’t going to be addressed in this movie, it should not have been there at all. One of the great rules to story-telling is called Chekhov's Gun. Coined by Antov Chekhov in 1911, it goes like this:
Chekhov: If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.
- From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911. Found on TVTropes.org
It's pretty self-explanatory. In a film this full of plot threads anyway, if it doesn't relate to this movie, it shouldn't be there at all. If I need a website to work out what happened in the movie (which I do) then something has gone wrong.
All it would’ve taken was a short scene with Bruce and Alfred, with Bruce saying: “Alfred, something is coming! I don’t know what it is, but it’s bad and Superman is wrapped up in it somehow! I’m having these dark visions, like someone is trying to communicate with me and to warn me about something!”
But no… virtually nothing comes of it, except for Bruce telling Wonder Woman at the end that they need to assemble the Justice League because he has a feeling something worse is about to happen…
Anyway, since he’s awake, he goes back to looking at the files. Remember – these are planted for him to find by Lex – a plot point never explained at all. At the same time, Clark receives photos of the executed Bat-branded criminal from someone (also Lex). In Lex’s files, Bruce finds that the Kryptonite rock is being transported to LexCorp. He finds out that “the White Portuguese” he has been hunting is the name of a ship that is transporting the Kryptonite. It’s not the name of a person and the ship’s not transporting a dirty bomb. Alfred calls Bruce out for lying about this – does that imply Bruce always knew it was a ship… or that he always knew there was no bomb?? I don’t know… He tells Alfred the truth now, anyway.
And the truth is that he plans to steal the Kryptonite and use it to kill Superman. He's playing into Lex's plans without even realising it. The World's Greatest Detective, ladies and gentlemen!!
Say whaaaaaaaaat? One percent? If there is a one percent chance that Superman could turn bad, they have to kill him??? He's not our enemy today, but he might be some other day so he has to die?? That's ridiculous. Imagine if people acted like that in the real world!! Imagine if countries did! That's atrocious...
It becomes very clear that they did not put enough effort into making sure that this conflict was grounded in real, personal reasoning. There is no reason a sane man would think that was enough, to jump straight to killing. A sane man would go and talk to Superman first and assess the threat. He doesn’t even try to. And if he's not sane, we need to see him go completely unhinged... and we don't... It's simply not good enough story-telling. There were plenty of ways to make this work... they did not choose to do them.
(See the video right at the end of The DCEU Discussion: Part IV Episode 3 after I wrap this nonsense up, for some great alternative ideas - not yet though!! Don't skip ahead!!)
Batman tries to steal the Kryptonite while it’s on route to Lexcorp – which is Lex’s true plan for it. He is behind this too – and, again, it is never really explained. Batman pursues the shipment in the Batmobile. This version of the Batmobile is a mix between Batman ’89's Batmobile and the Batman Begins' Tumbler… it’s a tank-car and he uses it to kill a bunch of people in a car chase!!
- If you want to see Batman killing lots of people with his car... click here:
Batman comes around a corner and crashes into Superman… Superman threatens him to not come out as the Batman ever again... and then he just leaves... Batman just killed a bunch of guys... Superman didn't stop it or take Batman in... whatever. These "heroes" suck.
Superman: Next time they shine your light in the sky, don't go to it. The Bat is dead. Bury it. Consider this mercy. Superman starts to leave. Batman: Tell me... Superman turns back to look at Batman Batman: Do you bleed? Superman turns and flies away without saying anything. Batman keeps staring at him. Batman: You will.
Next: Lex receives the shipment of the Kryptonite, since Superman intervened, so he puts it on display at Lexcorp to give Batman another chance.
Everything starts to come to a head.
All of these mixed-up sub-plots come crashing together all at once.
Lois tries to print her story, before Superman is set to testify, so that he can see what she has found. Two things – did she ever think of calling him? Trying to meet up with him? Jumping off a building? He always catches her, no matter where he is when she starts to fall...
And then, when they do meet later – she still doesn’t tell him!!
So, he goes to the inquest without finding out someone set him up.
By this time, Senator Finch knows that Lex hired Kahini to falsely testify. Why didn’t Lois tell Finch what she knew???
Bruce is watching the inquest and sees Wallace testifying. Wallace says he isn’t getting money from Wayne Tech as compensation. As noted previously, Bruce asks about this and is told that Wallace returns all of his cheques with writing over them. They say: “BRUCE WAYNE, OPEN YOUR EYES”, "Bruce, NO TRUCE”… “B WAYNE, I HAUNT YOU”, and “ BRUCE WAYNE = BLIND”. This is actually Lex though, not Wallace…
At the inquest, Lex confronts the Senator in the Hall. She knows about Lex and Kahina but doesn't let on. Lex says he is there to testify that he had tried to help but she had blocked his license to bring in the deterrent (Kryptonite). Lex sends his assistant, Mercy, into the hearing room to "save his seat".
What a dick.
Anatoly finally catches up to Kahina. He pushes Kahina in front of a train and kills her.
Superman comes to testify. Lois doesn’t have a chance to talk to him first – even though she is outside and he can hear her no matter where he is!!! She could have just spoken from there and he'd hear her.
Bruce gets delivered another letter from Wallace as he watches on TV.
Lex never enters the courtroom. Instead, he leaves off-screen. As a final joke, he has arranged for a glass of yellow liquid (pee??) to be placed in front of the Senator, labelled "Granny's Peach Tea", in reference to her previous comments to him. It distracts her while she is speaking. Superman is listening to her when the wheelchair Lex got Wallace blows up, killing everyone in the room and outside of it - except Superman. Clark stands amid the flames, shocked that he didn't see it happening.
Bruce, still watching the news reports that are now covering the explosion, opens the letter and it has a newspaper clipping of the Wayne Financial building from Metropolis destroyed. In red writing, the note says, “You let your family die!”. Bruce looks up and glares at the scenes from the Capitol Building on the TV. Again, this is Lex pushing Bruce to try to kill Superman.
After the explosion, Superman starts helping to get survivors out, but looks around, sees Lois, surveys the devastation, blames himself… and flies off.
W-what? He leaves a place where he could help people? To be fair, the emergency services tell him to step back to let them work BUT he could've kept finding survivors. Not a good look, Big Blue!
Lex arrives back at Lexcorp to find a crime scene – Batman has broken in and stolen the Kryptonite. Lex smiles…er… sort of…
Superman goes and talks to Lois AT LAST. And she doesn’t tell him what she knows! He tells her that he is feeling defeated by all of the public distrust and what has happened. She still doesn’t try to tell him!!! Superman says that he didn’t see the bomb because he wasn’t looking for it, so he's blaming himself. He was blind to the danger so he did not help to stop it. Lois says someone is behind it, but STILL doesn’t tell him who, even though she knows it’s Lexcorp!!! He flies off before she can… sigh…
"Oh wait... Clark! One more thing!"
Nope.
Lex goes to the fallen Kryptonian scout ship in Metropolis. Using Zod’s command key and his fingerprints which he cut off and put onto his own hands (gross), Lex activates the ship and tries to salvage the Kryptonian archives and the birthing chamber. The ship A.I. accepts his override of its systems and he tells it to: “Teach me.”
To save time, it's all here in this clip. I won't write any more about it in other areas. Lex uses Zod's dead body and his own blood in the birthing chamber to create... something else. If you don't want to jump ahead, just watch up to the bit shown in the picture of the clip below...
The next time we see Bruce, he's in the cave, training and making Kryptonite weapons. Why he is tiring himself out before his big fight, I don't know, but he's throwing weights around and smashing a big tyre with a sledgehammer... yeah... He's tough and ready to go. That's all cut in with him researching and making the Kryptonite weapons, including Kryptonite gas and a K-spear.
- Sigh... It's here: Batman Training Scene | Batman V Superman | HD | Ben Affleck
He looks through Lex’s files and finds a folder labelled “Metahuman”. Inside are files marked with the symbols for Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman. He looks inside Diana’s folder and sees she was alive in 1918 – Lex has a photo of World War I with Diana and Steve Trevor in it... which ties-in to the Wonder Woman film. The Wonder Woman theme music plays. Yeeeesssss! That is cool!
And that, dear friends, should have been the last we see of Wonder Woman in this film. That would have been an MCU-esque teaser and just enough. It would've left room in this movie for things it needed to cover.
Again... nope.
Perry is still looking for Clark, who has not returned to the Daily Planet. At one point before this, he asks Jenny the Intern: "Where does he go, Jenny?" Haha. I love it. That's actually funny. The Planet prepares to print that Superman might be involved in the explosion or at least complicit since he should have known it was about to happen and then did nothing to stop it.
For reasons that are never really made clear, Clark goes off to a mountain covered in impassable snow… Up there, he has a vision (hallucinates?) seeing Jonathan Kent at the top of the mountain, making a pile of rocks. Clark seems shocked to see someone there and then shocked again to find out it's his dead adopted father. Perhaps, it's just a memory of a time he went there with his father... I do not know why they were there, why they built the pile OR why Clark seems to be "seeing" him in the present… Anyway, Jonathan tells him a story about the unintended consequences of being a hero:
Jonathan is building a pile of rocks while Clark watches. Jonathan: Something, isn't it? We met at Kansas, live on a pancake, so we come to the mountains. All downhill from here. Down to the flood plain. The farm at the bottom of the world. I remember one season water came bad. I couldn't have been twelve. Dad had out the shovels and we went at it all night. We worked 'til I think I fainted, but we managed to stop the water. We saved the farm. Your grandma baked me a cake. Said I was a hero. Later that day we found out. We blocked the water, all right, we sent it upstream. The whole Lang farm washed away. While I ate my hero cake, their horses were drowning. I used to hear them wailing in my sleep. Clark: Did the nightmares ever stop? Jonathan: Yeah. When I met your mother, she gave me faith that there's good in this world. She was my world. I miss you, son. Clark: I miss you too, Dad. We see Clark all alone by the pile of rocks.
So... it's a memory, I guess? I suppose he's going to the mountain, to a place they were at together to connect with his memories of his father and the things Jonathan taught him. As established earlier in the Man of Steel post, I'm not a fan of this version of Jonathan's teachings. He can keep that advice, for all the good it does and I don’t see the value of it in here at all. You don’t need it.
Back to Lois as she keeps investigating and she finds out the wheelchair was made from the same metal as the bullets – by Lexcorp. The wheelchair was also lead-lined – so Superman couldn’t see the bomb inside. It wasn’t his fault because he wasn’t paying attention – it was hidden from him on purpose. I think that's a bonus scene that exonerates Supes from being complicit.
Next, Martha Kent gets kidnapped by unidentified men, with no one around her to scream, "Marthaaaaaaaa!" I wonder who is behind that??
Bruce, wearing Bat-Battle-Armour, prepares his weapons in a rundown building. At first, I thought it was Wayne Manor, but it’s not. It looks like it inside, at times. Bruce turns on the Bat-Signal that he has on the roof to summon Superman. Does that mean it's the GCPD Building? I don't think so... Superman had told him the next time they shine his light in the sky to not come to it, so he knows that’ll draw him in.
-Pic: From Wallpaperflare.com When you wish upon a staaaaaaar!
Anatoly kidnaps Lois and takes her to Lex. There's a lot of that going around. Lex tosses her off the building to draw in Superman… not knowing that he is off on a mountaintop listening to his ghost daddy telling him stories about drowning horses... and of course, he catches her, even though he was God only knows how far away.
Superman flies up to confront Lex, who confesses that he knows Clark is Superman in a suitably melodramatic monologue:
Lex Luthor: Boy, do we have problems up here! The problem of...of evil in the world. The problem of absolute virtue. Superman: I'll take you in without breaking you. Which is more than you deserve. Lex Luthor: The problem with you on top of everything else. You above all. Because that's what God is. Horus. Apollo. Jehovah. Kal-El. Clark... Joseph... Kent. See, what we call God depends upon our tribe, Clark-Joe. Because God is tribal. God takes sides. No man in the sky intervened when I was a boy to deliver me from Daddy's fist and abominations. Mmm. I figured out way back, if God is all-powerful, he cannot be all-good. And if he is all-good, then he cannot be all-powerful. And neither can you be. They need to see the fraud you are. With their eyes. The blood on your hands. Superman: What have you done? Lex Luthor: Hmm. And tonight, they will. Yes. because you, my friend, have a date. Hmm. Across the bay. Ripe fruit, his hate. Two years growing. But it did not take much to push him over, actually. Little red notes, big bang. "You let your family die!" And now you will fly to him. And you will battle him. To the death. Black and blue. Fight night! The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man. Day versus night. Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham. Superman: You think I'll fight him for you? Lex Luthor: Hmm, yes, I do. I think you will fight-fight-fight for that special lady in your life. Superman: She's safe on the ground. How about you? Lex Luthor: Close, but I am not talking about Lois. No. Every boy's special lady is his mother. Lex shows Clark polaroids of Martha Kent injured and as a hostage with the word "Witch" written on her head. Lex Luthor: Martha, Martha, Martha. Hmm. Why, the mother of the flying demon must be a witch. The punishment for witches, what is that? That's right. Death by fire. Mmm. Superman starts to ignite his heat vision. Superman: Where is she? Lex Luthor: I don't know! I would not let them tell me! Now, if you kill me, Martha dies. But if you fly away, mmm, Martha also dies. But if you kill the Bat, Martha lives. There we go. There we go. Hmm. And now God bends to my will. Oooh, now the cameras are waiting for you at your ship. For the world to see the holes in the holy. Yes, the Almighty comes clean about how dirty he is when it counts. To save Martha, bring me the head of the Bat. Ah. Mother of God, would you look at the time? When you came here you had an hour. Now it's less.
- The vid, if you wish: Batman v Superman - Lex Luthor motivation
Lex confesses to writing the red letters to Bruce and Clark and shows that he has Martha prisoner. He shows Clark polaroids of Martha as a hostage. Clark could therefore join the dots that it was Lex who sent the polaroids of the inmate, Santos, being killed – with red letters on them… (Does he though? I don't know). Lex tells Clark he has to kill Batman to save Martha. So he is playing them off each other so the world will see that Superman is fallible, not a god. Why does that matter to him? Who knows… maybe to get them out of the way for the coming of Steppenwolf?
Lex leaves Superman and says he has less than an hour to kill Batman. Lex goes back to the scout ship.
Superman comes to Lois and says he is going to Metropolis to convince Batman to help him or he has to kill him, because Lex has Martha hostage.
Superman: Lois. I have to go to Gotham to convince him to help me. Lois: Who? Superman: Or he has to die. Lois: Clark. Superman: No one stays good in this world. He flies away.
Does the transcript in the last two quotes do this story justice?? It strips back the actors' takes on the lines... but it surely reveals how ill-concieved this whole thing is!
This is what can sometimes happen when one writer writes all the characters in a story. They have a story they are trying to tell and suddenly all the characters are saying the same thing - it's projecting the writer's voice and not the individual points of view of the characters. Suddenly, Superman is talking like Batman...
Anywho...
Diana receives her photo and the metahuman files from Bruce, who says he can share too (she told him that boys don’t like to share). It shows the Flash and Aquaman caught on camera and Cyborg’s father using a Motherbox from Apokolips to save Victor’s life, thus turning him into Cyborg.
Lois asks for a chopper from Perry to get to Gotham. She says it’s personal, and he trusts her so he grants it.
Superman goes to try to convince Batman they need to work together, calling him Bruce… er… When did he find out who Batman was???? He was listening to Alfred and Bruce plot at the fundraiser, but it was never made clear that he "knew". Again, it's an example of something important not being shown. Yes, he has super-hearing. Yes, he can see through Batman's mask/helmet if he's not lining it with lead... But I want to see him do it, so I know , he knows... you know??
Instead of listening or reacting in any way to being called "Bruce", Batman sets off traps against Superman. There's an ultrasonic trap, some machine gun traps... these he knows Superman can beat, but they lure him in and make him complacent. Superman tells him to stop, that if he wanted him dead, he already would be, but Batman keeps setting off traps. Superman - who knows what Lex was up to – starts fighting back. He zooms right into a cloud of Kryptonite gas. Clark breathes it in, and it weakens him. Batman starts beating him badly. The Special-K wears off and Superman smashes Batman through the floor. There's a cool scene where Batman is punching Superman's face and with each punch Superman's strength returns and the punches affect him less and less.
Then… Superman, the slowest super-intelligence in the world, falls for the K-gas a second time… He doesn’t use super speed to get to Batman quickly… he doesn’t keep his distance... use his heat vision... dodge the gas… He just gets hit with it again. He breathes it in... again... And so, Batman smashes him ... again.
Then Batman does a bit of a dark monologue comparing their parental lessons:
Batman: Breathe it in. That's fear. You're not brave. Men are brave. Batman hits Superman with another exposure to the green smoke and gets the upper hand again. Batman: I bet your parents taught you that you mean something. That you're here for a reason. My parents taught me a different lesson, dying in the gutter for no reason at all. Using a winch in his grappling gun, Batman retracts the cable he has tied to Superman and throws him through some stone pillars. Batman: They taught me the world only makes sense if you force it to. Batman takes out the Kyrptonite spear Batman: You were never a god. You were never even a man.
-A vid of this scene:
How in the name of all that is holy does he have the strength to swing him around and smash him like that through pillars?? He uses the cable later when he is out of the Battle Armour, throwing a huge crate against a thug. How does the physics of that work?? The grappling hook does not account for it, because it still needs his strength! The armour might help, but not that much.
Anyway...
Batman cuts Superman's face with the K-spear. He draws it back for the killing strike aaaaaaaaand:
Clark says the infamous words:
Superman: You’re letting him kill Martha!
Bruce stops fighting, taken aback by the use of his own mother’s name, and asks:
Batman: What does that mean? Why did you say that name?!
He has flashbacks to his mother’s death and funeral – she is a "Martha", too… remember?? You haven’t forgotten have you??? It’s all through this movie, just to make sure we don’t!
Now, Batman knows that Superman knows who he is - he knows Batman is Bruce Wayne. Is it a stretch to think he knows about the murder of the Waynes? Why would that come as a surprise, even if that was the reason Superman said it??
So... that's Batman's greatest weakness, his Kryptonite? You say his mother's name in a fight and suddenly he turns into a little boy again?
Anyway, luckily for all involved, Lois suddenly arrives to save Clark for once, saying:
Lois: Clark! Stop! Please! Stop! It was his mother’s name!
For some unexplained reason, that’s enough for Bruce to stop wanting to kill him… Because Superman has an Earth-mum and she has the same name as his mother!?!?!?!
Are you kidding me? What the hell is going on here?!?!?
That's enough to humanise Superman? To remove the concern over him being a threat to the whole civilisation? Because he has a mum named Martha he suddenly doesn't need to be killed anymore??? That's the level of commitment Batman has to his cause??
Did hearing that Superman's name was Clark impact at all? While he is thinking about it, is he joining the dots about this being the Clark Kent he met at the fundraiser? Or, like Clark, did he know already?
It's never looked at.
This is a new low for the writing in this script. That is unbelievable. No, that Batman wanted to kill him in the first place is unbelievable - that this is why he stops is just plain ridiculous.
Regardless, Bruce, having a Darth Vader-esque change of heart, suddenly doesn’t want to kill Superman anymore… and he throws the spear away so it stops affecting Clark. Clark tells him about Lex’s plot, and Batman literally reaches down a compassionate hand and helps him to his feet. Aww... Super Bros...
Lois says that Lex is doing something at the scout ship and another ridiculous exchange follows:
Batman: They need you at that ship. I'll find her. Superman: My mother needs me. Superman goes to leave. Batman puts a gentle hand on his chest to stop him. Batman: Wait. I'll make you a promise. Martha won't die tonight.
Are you kidding me??? Suddenly they're Super Friends? Batman doesn't want to kill him anymore, he's happy he gets the chance to save a Martha! And suddenly he sees the value of Superman? "They need you at that ship?" Why? because Lex is there? Why doesn't Batman go there and Superman go find his mum? Or do both? He is quicker than Batman and at this point, Martha has less than ten minutes left to live...
This script, I swear....
And all of that occurs in the space of a five-minute clip.
Un-frickin-believable.
Anyway, back to the movie they made instead of my saner, infinitely more reasonable one I wrote in my head:
Alfred, always listening, uses Bruce’s cloning of Anatoli’s phone to work out where the Russians are, tracing the original phone's signal. Instead of telling Superman where they are, Batman goes to save Martha himself, and Superman goes to stop Lex.... I think... He doesn't arrive until after Bruce gets Martha... but he went somewhere!
For the record, this is the best Batman fight sequence ever. This is what Zack Snyder does best. It's very brutal. It reminds me of how you fight in the Batman Arkham games, which must have been an influence, and also the fight scenes in Zack's Watchmen film. I think they did these things on purpose. It’s CGI heavy and Batman pulls off some more magical feats with his human strength and grappling hook, but still… It's awesome. The soundtrack underlying it is awesome and compliments the sound effects. Very Watchmen-esque.
Oh - trivia - I saw a post somewhere that said the Latin phrase that inspired the title to Watchmen is graffitied on a wall in this film too - "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" - Who will guard the guards themselves?... or, as it is now commonly translated: "Who watches the watchmen?" Very fitting for this movie. It's on a wall in Watchmen and here as well.
(How do you say: "Who watches the writer's room?" in Latin? I wish someone was doing that too... Google Translate tells me it's "Quis custodiet ipsos locus est scriptor", for anyone who cares as much as I do. Thanks, Google. That's awesome.)
The bit I don’t like about the Batman Thug Fight? Again, he uses guns and either kills people or is responsible for people dying in the fight. He uses a gun to blow up Anatoli’s flamethrower (and Anatoli) and saves Martha…. Although he nearly blows her up too.
Batman: It's okay. I'm a friend of your son. Martha Kent: I figured… the cape… They both nod.
That's funny! Get it!!
He was bloody lucky he didn't blow her up... can you imagine that conversation?!?! That would've given them a reason to fight! "Umm... so... yeah... About your mum..."
(To be 100% fair - other Batmen have done similar things. Michael Keaton's Batman tucked a time bomb into a circus strongman's pants and blew him up in Batman Returns and Christian Bale's Batman lets Ra's Al Ghul die in Batman Begins, when he says: "I won't kill you... but I don't have to save you." And every Batmobile or other Bat vehicle seems to be fitted with missles and machine guns.... so, he is a little soft on the rules in other films too. Except for the grappling hook gun, he just never handles handguns before, like he does here. In the great cartoon series Batman Beyond, the older Bruce Wayne has to use a gun to defend himself when a thug is beating on him - and that's when he knows that it was time to retire. I linked the clips in the titles there if you want it.)
Meanwhile, Clark goes to Lex in the scout ship. Somehow, he arrives just as Batman has already saved Martha... Why and how?????... He could've saved Martha himself in the same time... Sigh, why am I still asking those questions? Why do I still care???
Superman tells Lex he’s lost.
And that is where this ridiculous movie should have ended.
But, of course, it doesn’t…
Lex doesn’t know how to lose. He says:
Lex: I cannot let you win. I gave the Bat a fighting chance to do it, but he was not strong enough. So, if man won't kill God... The devil will do it! (Skipping cut-in scenes) Lex: ... Ancient Kryptonian deformity. Blood of my blood. Born to destroy you. Your Doomsday! Now God... is good... as dead.
- Sigh... if you must: Batman Vs Superman: Lex Luthor unveils Doomsday [HD]
Lex used the birthing chamber, his own blood and Zod’s body to make a Doomsday monster… It’s a pretty smooth-skinned, horrible-looking generic monster, though, at this point.
Superman starts to fight Doomsday and the fight goes outside to the Metropolis Park with the Superman statue from earlier in the film (The FALSE GOD scene). The military engages Doomsday after he beats on Superman for a bit and Doomsday releases a massive amount of energy. Well… that’s new…
Superman takes Doomsday into space where the military nuke both of them... wuh... whhhhhyyyyy?? Doomsday survives and sheds his skin, revealing bone projections and now he looks a little more like the traditional Doomsday… sort of. Superman is floating in space and looks dead and emaciated. As the sun hits him, he recharges and comes back to life.
Realising that Doomsday is Kryptonian, Bruce lures it back to Gotham where he dropped the spear. For some unknown reason – maybe to remove it from harm’s way even further and so no one could ever use it on Clark again – Lois had gathered it up from where Batman had thrown it and - even though Clark was gone - she had thrown it in a deep pool of water!!! Whhhhhhyyyyyy?????
Somehow, now Lois knows this was a bad idea and she has to go back and get it… how did she know that?? No one knows...
Meanwhile, Doomsday brings the Batwing down and Batman is saved by… Wonder Woman! Again… why? It’s a very cool scene and her music is phenomenal… but seriously, why is this even in this confusing mess of a movie in the first place? The answer – to rush through to Justice League… that's it. It's a big, bad mistake, from a story-telling perspective.
Anyway, Lois dives into the pool… the roof comes down and she’s stuck under the water. But of course, Clark’s Lois-is-in-danger-sense is tingling and he arrives in time to save her. He then retrieves the spear, which weakens him and he nearly drowns... What? Yep...
Lois throws it away… again… For the love of God, woman! Stop doing that!!
Hehe... it's fine. It's easy to retrieve this time...
The city around them is getting completely destroyed… Batman and Wonder Woman are keeping the monster occupied. Clark says goodbye to Lois in a heartfelt scene, grabs the spear and sacrifices himself to destroy the monster. Bruce shoots it with his last Kryptonite gas-canister to weaken it. Clark hits Doomsday with the spear, and Doomsday stabs Clark badly in the chest. There’s a last power surge from Doomsday and they both die. Wonder Woman and Batman respectfully pass Superman’s body to Lois.
There’s a bit of a Nuclear Winter sort of fallout thing happening… Why are these people okay?? Remember when a nuke went off over their heads??
Anyway another hard and fast set of scenes follows. Let's summarise... Nearly there...:
A squad of soldiers enters the scout ship and find that Lex communing with Steppenwolf about the three mother boxes via the Kryptonian metal-filing symbols. Lex is in the birthing pool. The image of Steppenwolf disappears.
Lex is arrested and sent to prison – where his head is shaved!! Now he looks like a real Lex... More like Daddy-Dearest...
Perry white looks at a freshly printed newspaper with "The Death of Superman" story on the front. He opens the paper to see a smaller article that Clark Kent was reported dead in the Gotham battle, doing his job… no one suspects… On the same page is Lex’s arrest story for the Capitol bombing.
There is a sombre wake scene at the Kent farm, where Perry and Jenny from the Planet are present. Martha finds Lois up in Clark’s childhood room. They have a moment where Martha hands Lois a package Clark sent there because he wanted to surprise Lois. It was an engagement ring. If I had feelings left at this point, maybe I'd still care... Moving on.
They have two funerals - one for Clark in Kansas and one for Superman in Metropolis. The body is in the Kansas coffin. Pete Ross tells Martha that the funeral was paid for by an anonymous donor. The camera pans to Lois by Clark’s grave and a shadowed figure in the background. Another figure joins him. It is Bruce and Diana. Bruce asks Diana’s help to find the others like her, because they will need to fight. She asks why and he says, “It’s just a feeling.” But we know it’s not, don’t we??? Why don’t they wrap that thread up and have him tell someone about the visions?!?!
Bruce: I failed him... in life. I won't fail him in death. Help me find the others like you. Diana: Perhaps they don't want to be found? Bruce: They will. And they'll fight. We have to stand together. Diana: A hundred years ago, I walked away from mankind. From a century of horrors. Men made a world where standing together is impossible. Bruce: Men are still good. We fight. We kill. We betray one another. But we can rebuild. We can do better. We will. We have to. Diana: The others like me. Why did you say they'll have to fight? Bruce: Just a feeling.
Whaaaaaaaat? Tell her, you dumbarse!!!
We cut to Lex’s jail cell where Batman threatens to brand him. He warns Batman that someone is coming, because he had rung a bell that they could hear out in the dark and among the stars (paraphrasing and summarising!). This is foreshadowing Steppenwolf and Darkseid.
Umm… Bruce was standing at the grave a second ago… then he was in the prison… then we are back at the grave… and Lois is still there.
She drops some of the soil on the coffin. Slowly (like the chess piece at the end of a certain X-Men movie), the soil starts to move, rising ever so slightly... and the screen abruptly goes black.
Aaaaaaand - We're done!
Thank God. It's over.
Join me for the last section for my wrap-up thoughts... if you still care...
Here... Watch this: Very Funny, Very True:
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Previous posts for this series:
NOTE: The pictures and videos used here have been sourced from different internet sites, always linked to under the picture. In the case of comic panels, the original issue numbers and creators are listed, as well as the company that owns them. All rights remain with the original creators and have been used here for entertainment and educational purposes only.
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