by Dwayne Mathers

The Dark Knight against The Man Of Steel was one of the movie events of this year that die-hard comic fans have been talking about for sometime. Sources claim the film had a budget of 250 million USD and in its opening week has taken home 209.1 million USD in the US alone. The figures certainly suggest the film is on target for being a success though when you compare its current success to last months Deadpool (A budget of 58 million USD and a domestic take home of over 132 million USD), the two mammoths of the DC universe may be lagging behind Marvel.

Enough of the facts and figures though and lets look at the film pretty much everyone wants to see. The film itself is based a couple of years after Man Of Steel but we do see how the events of Man Of Steel directly impacted the Bruce Wayne character and how that plays into his desire to take out Superman, seeing him as a real threat to humanity. Clark Kent is now a reporter at The Daily Planet, though still trying to make his mark in his day job resulting in clashes with Perry White over the kind of stories Clark should be covering. Clark’s relationship with Lois Lane has also grown and as an audience, I feel, missing seeing how they built their relationship fully is a great loss and as a result we lose something as a viewer and what they have together doesn’t jump out at us.

The majority of the film is the build up to main event and where the lack of real action may ruin the film for many people, I felt that Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor built the story brilliantly. At times his portrayal seemed a little cheesy but overall he brought a maniacal evil to the character that other actors over the years had failed to do. I think i can safely say that without Jesse in the film playing Luthor as the man behind the scenes using Batman and Superman as his puppets in his own game, then the film would have been a flop.

During the first three quarters of the film we learn a great deal about the characters including the first look at Wonder Woman but also a first glance at the other characters that will form The Justice League in the near future. There are a couple of scenes that have you guessing at their meaning but you soon move on, leaving them to formulate at the back of your mind, as you settle in for the fight the world has been waiting for.

For the die-hard fans who have read the graphic novel showing us the fight everyone had wanted to see for sometime, there will be no surprises at how the fight plays out and the fact they have used the graphic novels storyline was definitely the best way to go.

However, with all the positive points to this film, I have to say that for me it just didn’t hit the mark and to be honest, after Man Of Steel, I never expected it to. Affleck’s Batman is a far cry from the performance of Christian Bale. I personally feel that Bale should have been the man behind the mask and more could have been done to pull him into the DC circle once more.

Where the story was strong and some performances screamed brilliance, a lack of spark between the main characters makes this an OK film and leaves me yearning for the release of Suicide Squad which I bet will surpass Dawn Of Justice by a clear mile.

So Marvel v DC in 2016 sees Marvel 1, DC nil so far, but with many heroes hitting the screen this year I expect a close fight between these comic giants.

[imdb id=tt2975590]