The debate rages on and on about what the better film was. Was it the showdown between man and god, in Batman V Superman? Was it the war waged between friends in Captain America: Civil War? Honestly, I couldn't tell you. I enjoyed both movies equally, but for different reasons. Sure, Civil War had me jumping out of my seat for Black Panther but Batman and Superman made me actually care about the issues at hand, and didn't just use them to start a fight between friends. Each of the films had it's own strong points and weak spots. They're equals, they're just opposites as well. Before you continue I want to say there are major spoilers here.
Let's take a look at some of the things that Batman V Superman did better. Going in both films placed an emphasis on the destruction caused by the heroes. Civil War did this in all of the trailers, yet when we watched the film they used it to introduce the registration act and then never mentioned it again except for Wanda and Vision's argument. Batman and Superman it was constantly pounded into your head. Superman enforcing his will in other countries, the fight with Zod killing people and crippling others. We saw victims from his battles over and over again, whereas Tony had one mother tell him about her son. When the bomb went off in the courtroom we saw Superman contemplating giving up and wondering if he was dangerous.
Batman is different, he was called out for his brutality. He began branding people and they would either be assaulted or end up dead once arrested. When talking with Alfred he tries to justify it by stating "We're criminals Alfred, we always have been." Yet, after seeing the news reports about multiple people being beaten or murdered in prison for the brand he gives it up, the next time we see the brand he's using it to threaten Lex at the end of the film. Additionally when Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are about to battle Doomsday, he leads him to the docks, where they're abandoned. The same docks where he chased Lex's goons earlier. He's aware of the damage that could be caused and goes to abandoned areas. Batman felt like he was at fault for the murders and changed the way he apprehended criminals. Superman blamed himself for the damage and not preventing the bomb, deciding he need to actually stand for something, like hope.
Civil War didn't really do this. You can say they went to an empty airport or abandoned lab but it wasn't like the characters specifically chose those places. Captain America was going to get a jet and happened to be ambushed. Then they destroyed countless planes, cars and parts of the building despite having a serious talk about casualties and property damage earlier. Maybe Batman and Superman caused more damage, but to abandoned buildings that looked like they had been condemned. Nobody was moving in tomorrow, but I bet a lot of people missed their flights.
The ending of Batman V Superman also had a lot more impact. Despite Captain America's death being a huge part of Civil War in the comics, nobody from the Avengers died in the film. Additionally the team that was arrested was just broken out of prison and left a cell phone for the others to get in contact with them. There was no real conclusion. They had a fight and were still friends after. The law never actually passed because the meeting was blown up and they never talked about it again, so that's irrelevant too.
Batman V Superman stuck with the comic ending for the most part. Superman is dead, just like when he battled Doomsday in Death of Superman. Additionally Lex has given them information about an alien invasion coming that they'll have to defeat. Wonder Woman and Batman have pledged their allegiance to each other and plan on locating other heroes so that they can plan for the invasion. Lex is in prison and now bald, looking more like the sinister Lex we've come to know. Then, they actually hinted at Superman's return through the dirt levitating on the coffin, because he does eventually return stronger than previously. Batman V Superman told a great story and laid the groundwork for more.
The other thing I enjoyed about Batman V Superman is that it just looked incredible. Zack Snyder didn't write the script, but he did direct it and he is a master of cinematography. You can say the film had a dark pallet, and it did. But, it was played so well. Batman is a master of stealth so seeing him constantly appear from the shadows was amazing. The scene where one of the police officers mistakenly fires on him only for him to jump around and seemingly vanish into the dark is just amazing. When Superman walks out of the burning capitol building with his head held low you realize he feels guilt because he was the most powerful man in the world and didn't even see it coming. Sure, Civil War had some great moments like T'Challa clawing Captain America's shield, but Batman V Superman was just amazing shot after amazing shot, from the opening moments when Martha's pearls wrapped around the pistol and broke to the simultaneous Superman funerals.
On the other hand, there are surely some things that Civil War did better. For starters, the continuity is just stronger. SHIELD didn't suddenly come back into the mix. The fact that Captain America tells Tony "I can do this all day," which is what he told the bully when he was taking a beating in the first Captain America film is kind of awesome. Captain America and Black Widow already knew that Bucky killed Tony's parents so having Steve remain calm when it was revealed was a good call. Keeping a solid continuity is one of the things that Marvel does best with these films. That's not a knock at Batman vs Superman because they only had one previous movie to go on and they did a hell of a job recreating the Zod vs Superman fight from different angles with the exact same time stamps. But, they just don't have the history Marvel does. "Where are Hulk and Thor right now," is a stinging question because we don't know where they are. They sort of just flew off.
Marvel also does a better job making use of EVERY character. There were characters in Batman V Superman that were named, and then never relevant to the story again in any way at all. I'm not even sure why Lois Lane was in the movie other than to annoy everyone. She didn't exactly do a great job of boosting Clark's self-esteem or even reporting. There was no reason for her to be on the battlefield other than to watch Clark die. She didn't even find the spear in time and almost died doing it.
Civil War makes the best use of every character. For the first time Black Widow is seen doing Black Widow things, playing both sides, being an expert combatant and negotiator. Let's not forget she is the one who convinced T'Challa to join them because he was not a fan of Tony after being arrested. Even Hawkeye showed up to temporarily stall Vision basically telling Wanda "That's only going to hold him for a few moments." Hawkeye was probably overshadowed in this film, but he proved to be as strong a moral compass as ever. He's been talking about casualties and damage for a while now and it's came to a boiling point. He continues being a moral compass even when imprisoned letting Stark know he turned against his friends.
The introductions of the characters were great as well. "For centuries the mantle of Black Panther has been passed between warriors of my country, now that my father is dead I also wear the crown," has to be the smoothest introduction to Black Panther possible without doing an entire origin story. We never need another origin story for Peter Parker and thankfully we didn't get one. His interactions with Tony were great. We won't talk about Aunt May, but Peter was great. Trying to hide his secret from Tony when Tony already knew he was Spider-Man was a great scene. The one thing I didn't like is that he was basically brainwashed by Tony and didn't hear anything Captain America said because "Tony said you would say that," and "Tony says you think you're right but you're wrong and that makes you dangerous," and "I'm really trying to impress Mr. Stark."
They also did a great job showing that all heroes are not created equally. Ant Man turned into a giant and dominated the field, but he isn't as smart as Tony, Peter and James combined. Peter has super strength and reflexes but he didn't have the strategic knowledge to stop Falcon from knocking him out with a drone or Captain America dropping a bridge on him and saying "Manhattan (Tony) keep on making it, Brooklyn (Steve) keep on taking it and Queens (Queens) keep on faking it." He didn't actually say those words but after giving Spider-Man the work he let him know he gave it a good shot. On the opposite end, Black Panther ran through everyone except Black Widow's Black Widow Bite, a super tazer that has taken down many people and aliens before, but he still walked through that one.
Batman V Superman had a tendency to underplay the importance of some characters. Batman only glanced at the Robin suit with Joker's spray paint all over it briefly, like that isn't a big deal. Alfred also served very little purpose other than saying "You don't need to be Batman all the time." Lois was almost irrelevant to the story. On the opposite side, Civil War played some characters up to be more than they should have. Tony Stark is probably the smartest person we've seen in The Avengers films, but he isn't that smart. Tony learned Spider-Sense. We know he watched Spider-Man clips on YouTube and in the opening scene he shows his new invention that would allow him to use it. You can't learn Spider-Sense, you aren't that smart, nobody is.
Both films were great, but for different reasons. There's no need to fight over witch is better because they appeal to different crowds. I'm glad Civil War had a happy ending, but it didn't mean anything. Was the ending top Batman V Superman kind of sad? Yes, but it actually had consequences for the future. Did Batman V Superman look spectacular? You know it, but they didn't have a star of all star characters. Batman V Superm and Civil War are equally good, they're just good for different reasons and sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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I'm not really sure there IS a debate on which film is better. BVS is mostly panned and received bad reviews while Civil Wars reviews were mostly good. The two films are used in many film essays to showcase the different directions the two comic companies movies are going in.
ReplyDeleteBoth films DID address the civilian damage criticisms fans were leveling. But BVS lost the point after a pretty good opening (Bruce Wayne running to Wayne enterprises during the Zod fight), because later they still went with the big CGI battle in a city they just excused it by claiming it was an abandoned section of the docks while still destroying MILES of buildings.
MILES of abandoned buildings in a large metropolitan city? Felt like they just added a line of dialogue in post to cover themselves.
Civil Wars whole movie was about this with the focus being on the Accords and the need to sign them. The AIRPORT fight was CHOSEN by Stark as the ambush site to keep the fight away from bystanders. They reiterated this over and over, the opening fight with Wandas mistake, the Accords meeting, the Airport argument before the fight, and they locked up Hawkeye, Antman and Falcon in line with those Accords at the end of the movie.
The movies endings also had differing impacts but BVS' was in no way MORE impactful. The end of BVS pretty much left us where we started with the exception that Batman and Wonder Woman were now friends. But Everything else was the same because they brought Superman back to life at the end which eliminated the importance of his death. It was a plot point in the Justice League movie but not as much of a factor beside padding the run time a bit.
But Civil War broke up the Avengers which arguably is the reason Thanos WINS in Infinity War. Had the Avengers been TOGETHER in the beginning of the attack then likely they would have been able to hold off the Black Order, keeping Thanos from obtaining the Time Stone, and thus the Mind Stone as well.
Civil War also impacted Antman and Wasp as Langs capture and imprisonment was a key factor in the plot of that movie.
Both movies differed from their comic book templates but only Civil War improved the story.
Snyder, for all his cinematographic excellence, was allowed to do ALL THE DC STORIES!
Batman/Superman Brave and Bold, The Death of Superman and Batman the Dark Knight Returns
WHY? Now the DCEU has nowhere to go!
They could have built slowly to BVS as their "endgame" but were too worried about catching up to Marvel.
The BVS fight lacks the impact of its comic counterpart because there's no HISTORY. They're fighting all out and have little to no reason to fight so hard. Maybe Wayne has a bit of a reason but CLark shouldn't be mad at all.
Civil War has been built up to for several films and that's why it works so much better. Sure there were no stakes because we all knew they weren't going to kill each other but the characters made really good advancements in their development.
And...Tony Stark learned SPIDER SENSE???
Uh... I don't remember THAT in the film... Peter doesn't even show any sign of spider sense until Infinity War when he was on the bus...
Make Mine Marvel (except for animation... DC still rules there)
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