Batman vs Superman | CONTROVERSIAL Zack Snyder’s work turns 8 years old; Did you like it?

The film polarized not only the public but also the industry, provoking extreme reactions of love and hate

Between 1941 and 1986, DC Comics published a magazine titled World’s Finest Comics, which initially set out to bring isolated adventures of Superman and Batman, chose, from the 1950s onwards for cost control reasons, to combine the two characters in unique stories; thus resulting in today’s famous crossovers.

In general, these adventures always had enjoyable content for all ages and especially for their target audience, children, where good and friendship always prevailed over the villainy of enemies like Lex Luthor and the Joker. They were also important in solidifying the friendship between the Guardian of Metropolis and the Batman of Gotham as the bromance most famous comic book.

Decades later, starting in 2013, Warner Bros (holder of the adaptation rights to DC properties) found itself in a corner. Its biggest competitor in the film market, Disney, saw every day the economic and cultural relevance of Marvel Studios take off at the same speed with which its films expanded its recently established shared universe in cinemas.

The previous year they had released the first film of the Avengers, hitting the billion mark and presenting the first major comic book film to bring together as many well-known heroes as possible in a cohesive plot (in 1997, CBS released an adaptation of Justice League of America for TV that was and is extremely rejected for all). Therefore, for Warner executives it was imperative to start their own shared universe as quickly as possible.

For this purpose, the director was chosen Zack Snyder, who was previously hired exclusively by the studio, to plan a similar project focused on DC Comics characters. Aided by Christopher Nolan and with a script David S. Goyer (both having been responsible for the trilogy dark Knight), Snyder launched Steel man; Superman solo film that would tell a new origin of the alien, now with references to a much larger universe.

The film had a noticeable success, both financially (managing to pay the production costs) and by generating wide acceptance for the performance of Henry Cavill as Clark KentSuperman. However, the first cracks and signs of what was to come were already displayed at the end of the projection. In the plot, after an extremely destructive fight with General Zod, Superman finds himself in a complicated position; there is no way to imprison him in the ghost zone, there is no way to convince him to give up, there is no way to fight him eternally and, most importantly, Zod himself states that he would never stop until he took the lives of all humans.

In this way, Superman breaks the villain’s neck and part of the public goes crazy in virtual riots. With this divided environment, Warner once again entrusted Snyder to produce a sequel, but this time it should have the function of leaving the ground ready for an adaptation of the Justice League to follow. No previous solo projects from the heroes involved, no patience, no planning. Confirmation along with the film’s logo came at Comic Con in 2013.

Not long after the production of the sequel was announced, it was confirmed that Batman would make his first appearance since the end of the series. Christian Bale. It was immediately speculated that Warner insistently tried to get the actor to reprise the role but, upon his definitive refusal, speculation began about who the new actor would be.

As soon as the uncertainty began, the name of Ben Affleck He began to be constantly promoted as a strong candidate and every time this happened it was followed by criticism and provocations. However, the actor was finally confirmed in the role, precisely designed to bring a Bruce Wayne older and more experienced than Superman, thus confirming that the film would have a great influence on the classic The Dark Knight Returns.

The idea that the graphic novel would have its fair share of importance since Comic Con 2013, when the reveal of the film’s official logo came after a monologue from the actor Harry Lennix reciting a famous excerpt from the work. Snyder had already confirmed that the film would not be a literal and faithful adaptation of the work of Frank Miller, but that I would borrow some concepts presented there; more specifically that of Batman returning from retirement and eventually getting involved in a clash with Superman.

A new casting controversy also came with the confirmation that Jesse Eisenberg would be responsible for giving a new approach to Lex Luthor, moving away from the comic version of Gene Hackman and moving closer to the corporate approach to the character that has become standard since 1986 with Man of Steel in John Byrne. When the first photos of the actor were released, however, they did not meet fans’ expectations of a Luthor closer to the animations and were heavily compared to the Mark Zuckerberg present in the film The social networkalso played by Eisenberg.

And then came the debut and with it a division never before seen in the comic book genre. On the one hand, there was a portion of the public that was truly enchanted by what was shown, arguing that the film brought a different dynamism to the market with more convincing dramas and discussions about what role these super beings would play in society if they existed.

The soundtrack composed once again by Hans Zimmer and the short, however, remarkable participation of Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman’s first appearance in a live action film) were some of the few factors of consensus due to the quality presented.

On the other side, there were criticisms and these can be divided into two subcategories: problematic structure of the film and broken expectations about the characters. Regarding the first, there is a very valid point, which is the complicated post-production process it went through. Batman vs Superman. The version released for theaters presented visible problems regarding the editing of scenes, with sequences of events that seemed broken and the development of subplots that were either resolved unexpectedly or were abandoned, as was the case with Luthor’s problematic plan.

As it turned out later, the studio actively interfered in post-production by removing certain sections and rearranging others. What resulted was a version that clearly had continuity problems and that greatly influenced some critics. The other had clear dissatisfaction with the representation of the heroes.

With Batman and Superman alone there are more than a hundred years of development, breakdown and new development; In the meantime, it is inevitable that certain concepts will remain as references for readers and authors over the decades. “Batman doesn’t kill”, “Superman is a totally optimistic force”, “Lex Luthor is cold and calculating” (pardon the joke). So come BvS and presents the public with basically the opposite of these ideas. Batman kills, Superman is anything but optimistic about humanity and Lex Luthor embraces theatricality once and for all.

The first meeting of the two biggest DC Comics icons in the cinema is not a World’s Finest mentioned at the beginning of the article, not a celebration of the friendship immortalized in that title. It’s friction, combat, different views of the world that will inevitably clash violently. It’s everything a traditional comic-animation viewer or casual audience wouldn’t expect to receive.

In a period in which it became common to discuss and even hope for the breaking of expectations thanks to films like The Last Jedi, Between Knives and Secrets It is Infinity War When we look back to 2016, this was still a concept that was rarely talked about in cinema mainstream and whose reactions generated were quite unpredictable. However, if there is anything more chameleonic than David Bowie they are certainly comic book characters, who constantly reinvent themselves, update and modify themselves; Therefore, the inconstancy of such fictitious beings is something that should be expected.

In the end, the feeling generated ended up being one of deep popular division and fear on the part of the studio that inevitably led to the events of Justice League and basically the premature end of the DCEU (DC Expanded Universe). Zack Snyder He became a pariah in the halls of Warner and basically the board didn’t know what to do with him. Still, eight years have passed and Batman vs Superman remains a topic of discussion on social media and conversations about comic book adaptations. It is, after all, an important chapter in the most profitable pop phenomenon in decades.