Batman v Superman | Movie Review – Mere Paas Martha Hai

David S Goyer, the veteran screenplay writer of such comic book movie classics as Blade and The Dark Knight is well past his prime. He must have seen a lot of 80s/90s Bollywood movies while scripting it because a lot of parts are eerily reminiscent of those movies and Snyder must have been influenced too since he cast Shah Rukh Khan to play Lex Luthor. Chris Terrio who also wrote Argo was probably roped in by Affleck to tone down and salvage something out of the tomfoolery, that the last-hour devolves into.

This should have been a sure-footed attempt at bringing the DC Cinematic Universe alive but all we are left with is a movie without any middle ground. You either have really strong performances with the likes of Ben Affleck, Jeremy Irons and Gal Gadot bringing their A-Game and a very lively, memorable score courtesy Junkie XL, the maniac who also was responsible for Mad Max: Fury Road, or you are left with some spectacularly bad dialogues, bizarre editing and an overabundance of CGI.

It’s not a bad movie to the extent of calling it another Fant4stic and warranting such negativity, that it is currently being exposed to especially in Rotten Tomatoes. We have inculcated an environment of hate, that pitchforks are raised and torches lit at the drop of a batarang. Introducing The Justice League was quite well done in my opinion but would have been way better with some clear editing.

I was pretty disappointed with the Batman and Superman face-off, it felt stiff, and even though Batman was armored that isn’t any reason for us to not see any fluidity especially after we’ve seen the better movement with another character who wears a suit of iron. Snyder is a master of action set pieces, but this wasn’t his best effort. However he did bring us what can be defined as the quintessential Batman action sequence in latter half of the movie.

The other major issue that has to be addressed is how this Batman is a straight-up, homicidal maniac. I know Robin’s death must have pushed him over the edge but Batfleck will slit your throat and won’t flinch. Batfleck has no remorse. His Bruce Wayne is the best since Kevin Conroy. The MVP however can’t be anyone but Gal Gadot. She is Diana Prince. She is Wonder Woman.

I had been wanting to watch this since forever. It is a damn shame when something comes so close to achieving that and falls just short. You need to have a coherent script to make a movie work, all the budget in the world won’t help you accomplish that. That being said I saw enough to be excited for Justice League, who am I kidding, would be paying full price but it’s just plain disappointing when the other team you didn’t like as much growing up is offering a superior product.

Overall Rating – 3.25/5