BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE REVIEW! 

I would have died if, when Alfred was testing Batman's voice modulator, the voice that came out was Kevin Conroy's.

Biggest complaint: WHY was everything in the trailers??!

To play the Doomsday card this early was a huge mistake...

Your ability to tell a story is beyond impressive.

First Superhero movie I was actually bored watching. What a disaster.

My issues : Script Editing Lex With all the writers at DC how was this approved ?

Spider Man is only in Civil War for 20 minutes but he has more lines than Superman does in all of BvS

When even Kevin Smith has a hard time finding positive things to say about a comic book movie other than "Superman and Batman were onscreen together," you know you've fucked up.

GIVE DC BACK TO KEVIN SMITH!!

What the fuck kind of reasoning is that? I saw a parademon so it doesn't matter that the movie takes a shit on my favorite character... As a hardcore superhero fan, that has been watching and reading Batman and Superman for years, this movie was terrible for those characters, and the fact that I got to see a parademon doesn't change that in the slightest. I was so disappointed in this movie.

Why did Superman call martha by her name and not Mom?

Spot on review. The film has issues, but Affleck nailed it as Batman. Wished they had saved Doomsday till later though.

This movie was absolute dog shit. One of the most extreme cases ever of a movie profiting purely on title.

Snyder and writers are the problem.

Ben was wonderful. About 30 sec. in to it I forgot it was him. He WAS Bruce Wayne. Mr. Affleck, you were superb.

I'm pretty sure they used the word God more in Dawn of Justice than Kevin Smith did in Dogma

Moral of the movie: If your mom's name isn't Martha, Batman will fucking kill you.

It was borderline depressing to watch Kevin, a huge fan, try desperately to like this movie. Dear God, the sadness in his eyes. God bless you, Mr. Smith, I feel your pain.

I really didn't like that Gotham was across the harbor from Metropolis

I've been Kevin Smith fan for an ages now. I've heard him gush over the Flash, The Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, Iron Man, The Avengers, Deadpool. I've heard him do a minute by minute reenactment of the Dark Knight Rises! So, to hear him give a somewhat reluctant thumbs up to this film is honestly a pretty damning condemnation!

If Batman is a gun totting murderer in Dawn of Justice... how the hell is Joker alive after he killed Jason Todd? Or are we going to find out in Suicide Squad that Joker also had a mother named Martha?

I'm giving batman v superman the phantom menace treatment. My own fucking edit.

I was really glad to see that the cave troll from fellowship of the ring finally landed another role.

and to think, those 2 guys fighting in the theater could have come to a peaceful agreement if one had just said his mom's name was 'Martha'.

But Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms

Checked the name of the Russian: Anatoli Knyazev. That's KGBeast. Completely flew by me.

Kevin, everything you've said is so spot on to how I felt. I went into BvS wanting to love it wholly, but I only loved the things I knew were special moments as a DC fan... On a side note, as a chronically depressed person who's been experiencing the worst cycle in a long time, you have made me laugh and smile. I appreciate that, dude. Thank you, so much.

Should've used Metallo instead of Doomsday, Lex could've turned Scoot McNairys character into Metallo after the explosion, obviously they'd have had to do the explosion slightly different but that's not exactly hard

Batman: "DO YOU BLEED?" Wonder Woman: "Yes, once a mouth." Edit: I am leaving it mouth... BECAUSE it's mouth, NOT month.

smh...very disappointed that Kevin Smith still glosses over the "Martha" scene so superficially. Bro, you are way too smart to believe that Snyder and Terrio based that entire moment on the superficial fact that their mothers name Were both named Martha. It extends way beyond that. It was Batman's deepest moment. His self-reflection, his recognition of his errors, and ultimately his redemption. Stop being so...simple. This story was not that simple. Its like you went into this movie and didnt even try to turn your brain on.

I loved the old world weary Batman.

Actually, as the Waynes were coming out of the theatre the poster said: "Now Playing: The Mark of Zorro." On the marquee it said that Excalibur would be opening next week.

PLEASE get Affleck on the show and do an old-school Fatman on Batman 2+ hour interview! Really want to hear that dude talk in depth about Batman and his history with the character #AffleckonFatman

I don't get why people try to argue that it's the DARKNESS that is making people dislike this movie. It's disliked because it's a disjointed mess. Schindler's List was dark but at least I cared about the characters because they had clear motivations and I knew what the hell was happening.

Short version of the review: The writting is weak, character's motivations are all over the place, the characterization is off, Eisenberg's Lex Luthor is cringe-worthy and Affleck looks good as Batman even though he doesn't really act like Batman. But hey, it had 10 seconds of CGI insectoid aliens... so I guess it was good after all!

The Batman parts were great but Affleck needed a Solo movie first man. But the movie was a mess. Come on look at Doomsday for C sake it had no character.

holy shit i just realized while watching this, the scene in man of steel where zod is showing superman the future of his plans where he is being burried by skulls and bones of people that died and he said if you dont join me this is what ill do. that fucking came true, not only did he get killed because of zod and by zod he was burried literally in a graveyard surrounded by bones of humans which he has no real connection to except for his father who is next to him and his mother and lois.

`I'm a friend of your sons` is much more reassuring than I just nearly killed him

I had the same reaction when I saw Bruce levitating with the bats XD

"This is a movie with the 2 most popular superheroes. If we believe there is even a 1% chance that this movie is bad, we have to take it as an absolute certainty!"

I'm pretty sure Batman said "I'm with your son" and not that they were friends. Also, the whole "why did you say that name!" thing Batman did, I think he stopped because at that moment he realized that Superman had a mother just like any other "man" on earth. It made him more human to batman, which is why I think he had a change of heart.

I'm sad to say that in 10 years, people will say that B V S was the "Phantom Menace" of the DC Universe. :(

Hey Kev. Was Affleck's performance better than the one in Phantoms?

Such an awesome movie The Martha scene was not stupid it was about Bruce realizing by killing Clark he was just as bad as the man who killed his parents

Can people stop misinterpreting the end of the Batman/Superman fight? It wasn't just their mothers' names that made them stop, it was in that moment that Batman saw Superman as a human. Seeing him, within an inch of his life with precious few words/minutes left, only ask for Batman to save Martha Kent. You see, before that moment Batman saw Superman as a cold hearted alien who really didn't have any care for the human race. That "if he wanted to, could burn the whole place down." So for Superman to plead for his mother's life, not his own, gave Batman a new way of seeing him. No longer was he an alien, but a human being. Just as much a citizen of earth as Batman. On the surface it is their mother's names that show some equalities between the two but it takes on a completely second meaning upon second viewings/more in-depth thought. THAT is good writing, right there.

Spoiler: Han Solo dies.

I appreciate that Kevin Smith gave his honest opinion of the movie, flaws and all. He's a really thoughtful and interesting guy to listen to. I liked the movie. It had it's problems but Affleck saved it for me. He is such an awesome Bats.

Hahaha "give me the knife, please". The golden child.

Ben Affleck IS the live-action Batman. Dude killed it.

Batman V Superman is a huge disappointment not because it's a terrible movie. But because they had everything they needed to make one of the most fantastic movies ever to hit theaters, and they decided to make a mess instead.

Talking about box office and everyone wanting to see it, it did not do good at all past opening weekend.

Nolan did both "light eyes" and "broken mask" Batman, Kevin. He had the light eyes in The Dark Knight when he was using his sonar, and the broken Batman mask was the poster for The Dark Knight Rises.

The worst reason ever to make Superman fight, and the worst way possible to end the fight. What a disappointment.

Agreed, this movie was fucking ruined by the trailers. Zod, Wonder Woman, Doomsday. Imagine how much more badass that first fight scene with Wonder Woman would've been if they hadn't ruined it in trailers.

Kevin liked it, I am soooo shocked. He loves every fucking thing.

DCEU will be great if it can be written half as good as young justice.

I could listen to Kevin Smith talk about anything....all day. He's got this wise, soothing, bear-like voice. Like he's the guy you'd want to learn the force from, or read you a story to bed.

Even tho Kevin is a positive guy and was saying positive stuff we cant deny that he was little bit sad talking about the movie, I remember he talking about star wars or marvel movies , he talks with a smile in his face , too bad that the movie didn't make the nerdiest guy in the planet excited :// like most of the nerds I like the movie too , surprising more that than other people, but watching kevin talking all sadie made me see that the movie was just okay

Ben Affleck's Batman really reminds me of Daniel Craig's James Bond in Skyfall.

Great review man... I also enjoyed the movie. Affleck played a cool and sophisticated older Wayne and an awesome Batman. I agree with a lot of things you covered in your review, even the fact that some scenes of the movie I also had 'wtf' moments only to be re leaved they were but dream sequences. The fight scene with the thugs in the warehouse is by far the most physical I've ever seen in any Batman movie, a brutal and powerful display of Batman's combat skills, the fact his body amour was taking an onslaught of bullets (even his cowl) and knives, was a freakin awesome display of choreography. Welcomed back the 'Man of Steel' cast, it was good to see them back playing their roles, a nice continuance of the MOS movie and the destruction from the by-standing point of view which also set the reason for Wayne's eagerness to bring down Supe's. Alfred's dialog is so hilarious, he say's some funny shit in the movie, I like Jeremy Irons portrayal of the Bat-butler, reminded me of the old Alan Napier Alfred, cheeky and witty. Wonderful Woman... as far as her portrayal of the Amazon Warrior Princess, pure awesomeness... still trying to figure out her role as Diana Prince because in the most of her scenes, it seemed like she was trying to conceal her identity, worried about exposure to what or whom I was thinking... maybe a mission went sour in her past which threatened her and her kinds very existence... interesting. I'm glad Doomsday never got the chance to mature or there'd be 10 fucking sequels... they did the right thing to kill him off in the movie... there's plenty more villains out there in the DC universe.

its amazing how kevin is capable of talking for an hour about a movie and make it engaging. He doesnt even need someone else to talk to. thats talent

I know you love this universe, Kev, but no, an awful movie doesn't get a pass just because it features a few tidbits that hit you in the fanboy/nostalgia box, and it certainly gets no points on the off chance that future movies might be better. I saw this, and though I'm a fan of all three main characters in the comics, this was the most shockingly inept, flailing, joyless, incoherent mess I've seen on screen in ages.

I wanted to love this movie. I really did. I tried so hard to love it but sadly im very very disappointed. I cannot describe how hype i was for this movie, ever since that comic con announcement, i have counted each day until march 25 2016. I had so many expectations and they were flushed down the toilet. I absolutely loved Man of Steel, one of my favorite movies ever, and in my opinion also Zack Snyder's best movie. But is simple terms, this movie was a fuck up. Visually, it was fantastic, everything else, shit. It had everything to succeed. Fantastic Cast, BEN AFFLECK WAS THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS MOVIE, THE ABSOLUTE BEST BATMAN. BEN AFFLECK IS THE GOD DAMN BATMAN, THE DARK KNIGHT, THE CAPED CRUSADER, THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE. He was one of the only things I loved about this movie, but back to the point, fantastic cast, Henry Cavill is a splendid Superman, Gal Gadot absolutely aced the Wonder Woman role. Amy Adams once again did a great job. The cast was great, its the story that disappointed me. However, i am a hardcore fan, Im still just as hyped for the DC Cinematic universe, especially for the standalone Ben Affleck Batman movie. I just pray that Zack learns from his mistakes and doesn't fuck up The Justice League. That movie will fulfill my childhood dream.

Kevin - I agree with you that seeing the Parademon made my day. I was so happy to see a clashing of futures in the dream sequence between the possible Injustice as well as an invasion from Apokolipse. I have a theory for you, regarding the use of Doomsday and the "death" of Superman. Much like the DC Rebirth comics, this film decided to launch from quite a bit of New 52 story arcs. It seemed to me that Snider was quite literally putting to death the Man of Steel film, even though they had launched off of it. He transforms Zod into Doomsday, thus removing the actor and character from future stories and kills the Man of Steel (instead of Superman). That way we can use the great acting and casting of Henry Cavill as Superman and we can have a "rebirth" of the WB film genre of the characters. Besides, now that Kal-El defeated the giant spider at the beginning of the third act of Man of Steel, no need to stay with the old guard on the future films. Anyway, just a theory or idea as to why the use of Doomsday and the death of Superman.

this movie was perfect I'm so glad they stuck to the DC formula and didn't try to copy the watered down marvel happy kids movies which are good in their own rights most of the time but just ain't dark DC which I love.

I thought the opening 3 scenes were the best part of the movie. Bruce powerless to protect his loved ones as a child, becomes batman and no longer has that problem until the 3rd scene where again, despite him being batman, he is powerless to protect his loved ones. That was a perfect sequence of scenes

lets be Super friends! is not what essentially happens in that moment. Throughout the movie Batman uses his motivation as the death of his parents he watches die in front of him. He believes hes doing justice and even speaks about his parents while fighting Superman. Batman is reminded of his own turmoil when he realizes Supermans in need of his help to save his own mother from thugs. How is that a fucked up moment? How thick of glasses do you need to except that perception.

During the scene when Alfred is working on the voice modulator and tests it on himself, how awesome would it have been if they used Kevin Conroy's voice. The cinema's roof would have come clean off!

I get Kevin's view on the movie. Honestly the "Martha" thing worked for me. It made me think of how much of violence/war seems to need to dehumanize the opposing force. Make them the "other." I saw it as Batman seeing Superman honestly not as a person/human and why he is so able to see him just as a probability of danger or even a creature. When Martha is mentioned, just the fact that Superman has a mom, that he isn't just saving random people. And I guess they decided that using Martha rather than say Lois was a better reason for it to cause Batman to pause. That was my take on what they were going for anyway. But yeah, movie was still nearly joyless, and WonderWoman's look of fierce battlelust was awesome, but after such a grim slog instead of being a cheering point it almost felt out of place. Final Edit: As someone who's watched most if not all of the comic book MOVIES but not read the comics themselves--the bug monster dream made no sense to me as it was introducing new information that Batman wouldn't know anything about. I get that Batman would dream about an out of control Superman, but he wouldn't know about Omega symbols or bug monsters. So was that a vision someone floated into his head?? The Flash breaking through with info made way more sense having watched the Flash TV show.

I don't know if anyone caught this, but I felt like B V S was a redemption story for Batman. Batman tells Alfred that all the "heroes are dead" and he lost all hope for the justice system and took a turn to start branding and murdering criminals. The movie shows a scene where Clark gets photos of the branded criminal and sees him dead in those photographs, which eluded to the fact that if a criminal gets branded with the Batman symbol he or she would be killed by other inmates in prison. In the last scene with Batman and Luther, Batman decides NOT to brand Luther, but instead hits the wall with the Batman brand to show that Batman has decided to change because of the heroic inspiration Man of Steel displayed while giving up his life fighting Doomsday. But that's the thing - it took me a SECOND time to understand THAT through line because the film was edited that way. Great ideas, but poorly edited film.

That Golden Child reference 😂😂

and superman WOULDN'T fall for the gas a second time, that really pissed me off with an audible NO! when i saw it on screen. the fight scenes were also logically stupid

Just make superman act like superman.

This movie is a jar of piss.

In Arrow, Anatoli Knyazev / KGBeast made his first appearance in the Season 2 episode "Crucible" and was portrayed by David Nykl.

Edit out all the dream sequences and visions then have it start at the Daily Planet with the announcement of Superman’s state funeral and you get to do a single flashback from Lois at the graveside where Clark’s body has really been buried to the attack months earlier on Metropolis seen from the ground. This gives Bruce a motivation to rid Earth of this dangerous alien and the trouble he brings with him and the collateral damage it creates. Later we see Clark at the Daily Planet wanting to cover the vigilante operating in Gotham whilst Perry wants him to cover some minor story. Then cut to Batman as he frees the women from the sex traffickers, splicing together footage of girls held captive, and the fight he does prior to freeing Martha (as she is no longer taken captive by Lex). This makes Batman look awesome and is his opening. We get the cops investigating and him hanging in the corner of the room like a bat. Kryptonite is discovered in the Indian Ocean and Lex persuades Congress to allow him to make a “silver bullet” to use against the Superman (should he turn evil) and gains permission to import what has been found in India (which is pure mineral Kryptonite). The detective work of Bruce leads him to intercept Lex’s shipment as he feels he should kill Superman now, rather than wait for him to become a hazard. This makes Batman a stronger Superman nemesis than Luthor. He forges various weapons, trains in order to be strong enough to wear the heavy armor, and forges a Kryptonite spear with which to piece the dangerous alien’s heart. There is a long fight at the end of which Superman is incapacitated by Kryptonite gas, and as Batman is poised to plunge the spear into Superman’s heart Lois turns up just in time and calls out “Clark!” And Batman stops as he realises the true identity of this alien is just the costumed persona of the quite reasonable reporter he met at Lex’s party. Superman is Clark Kent and isn’t some distant aloof alien who plays at being a demigod, but a reporter for The Daily Planet with a girlfriend. Batman doesn’t kill Superman, and Superman then uses the spear to kill Doomsday as in the meantime Lex has decided that this alien demigod is a threat to humanity, if not directly, then through association with characters like General Zod. Doomsday kills Superman, then the flashback ends and we see Bruce and Diana at the Kent farm discussing the need to search for more people who have abilities like them (none of which are foreshadowed as each of their origin films would be an independent setup prior to the first of the Justice League movies). The film ends with the soil levitating from Clark’s grave. Hope.

This movie failed because they weren't confident enough to write a proper Man of Steel 2 movie. Instead it got titled Batman V Superman and guess what they failed at that too, because as Kevin says its technically Man of Steel 2. Batman played a role in this movie but he was not the central figure, Superman was. Batman was just one of the people reacting to Superman's presence on Earth. They were so insistent on shoving so much plot into a single movie and inserting Batman wherever possible that they messed up the overall story of the movie. By the end of this movie you were supposed to care about Superman a lot and the ending was supposed to be emotional. His death in the comics is a MASSIVE thing. But the characters in the movie weren't developed enough, not well defined as to who they were and what motivated them to be who they are. Not only did they play the death card too soon, they cheapened it with the floating dust scene. Did you feel any emotion at the death of Superman? NOPE. And then they went and floated the dust because they are scared shitless of taking any chances. So even if you were remotely moved by Superman's death, which is how it was supposed to be...PSYCHE, he's fine. This movie was a serious disappointment. Oh and they should kill off Lois. Seriously just do it.

This movie would've been good but I think it's missing a giant spider.

Well, "Anatoli Knyazev" is in the credits and that's the civilian identity of KGBeast. Good spot!

"Why would Superman need guards?" Throwaway line, but total flashback to his Superman Lives story. 😂

I think there was some point in the script where Lois Lane is told about the Kryptonite spear, because I have no idea how exactly she knew that Doomsday was weak to Kryptonite just as Superman was. That was some confusing editing/cutting in this film.

He's struggling to say it's shit...

For the love of God, he didn't stop because their mothers' names were both Martha. Batfleck remembers why he started the crusade. It plays to Snyder's Christ allegory; Batfleck's lost his soul and Kal-El redeems him.

Laughed out loud about 15 times. Hilarious review, great sense of humour.

I like the way you are encouraging people to make up their own mind about movies before watching reviews. I totally enjoyed Batman v Superman. I love the dark style DC is using for their movies. It is wonderful that we are getting comic-movies which are very different from the way marvel does them. I think having more variety within all the comic-movies can't be a bad thing.

Ben Affleck was on point as Bruce Wayne/Batman! And I agree 100% that after seeing the Parademons, I was in Nirvana for the remainder of the movie. Enough to forgive some of the Doomsday shortcomings. I really hope Ben Affleck stays on board for more movies and gets some stand alone Batman movies.

Upvoted just for giving props to Bill Finger.

What's crazy is how much DC gives away in their trailers, but they can't give us the end credit crumbs!

The Martha part is not about my mom and your mom. When the phantom zone inmates ask for Superman in Man of Steel, they say someone has been hiding out on your planet. That is all the info Batman has on Superman. He does not know that he grew up on this world. He realizes that Superman has a stake in this world and that he is one with humanity. the moral of the story is about finding humanity in yourself by seeing the humanity in others in my opinion. The next time you watch the film pay attention to how Superman knows that he doesn't belong; therefore, he does not infer in human on human violence. He is saving people from disasters not from other people except in the cases of the ones he loves. This is why he only warns Batman when he crashes his batmobile. It is more significant than what you think.

Batman doesn't stop because of the names of the mothers. He stops because he realises he's become Joe Chill and is now the same as the guy who killed his parents and can relate to superman in that way now.

after seeing justice league I can say BvS was sooooo much better

when he heard superman plead to save martha, he realized he was not an alien, but human

If Batman kills, why would the Joker be alive?

The Martha scene was the one scene i felt truly made sense. They had the whole symbolism scene throughout the entire movie of god vs man. bat man even made superman BLEED to try and peg him down. The sharing the same mothers name wasn't for them to say hey we have something in common lets be friends! I believe it was at that moment batman realized "hey superman isn't just some prick god who blatantly shows off his powers excessively. he's also a human being" Stealth Vs. Frontal assault Night Vs. Day Man Vs. God Batman Vs. Superman

Kevin, the moral of the movie was: If you're in a fight, and you're kickin' the guys ass, and he screams his mother's name, and it's the same name as your mother, you are now best friends.

How does Kevin forget to mention the Nuke!?!?!? That was one of the dopest moments of the movie!?!?

God dam I hate this movie. When ever they did one small thing right they did another 3 things that were utter shit.

Loved everything about this movie. Wonder Legs, Bats and Supahman hell yeah! Something, something, something Wonder Legs, Bats and Supahman the end.

The kevin coster story on the mountain meant to me was that he said as a child his farm was going to be flooded. His father and himself worked all day to prevent the flooding and when they did his grandmother made him a cake as a reward. Little did he know that the stream burst again and drowned the horses. "While I was eating hero cake those horses were drowning" I think the moral of the story was, sometimes you can try as hard as you can and things still don't go to plan. He was trying to console superman for not seeing that the hearing was a trap and that he wasn't responsible for their deaths.

If you wanna hear Kevin give you a trillion spoiler warnings you’re in for a treat.