Batman v Superman at 10: What Holds Up and What Doesn't | REACTION TIME

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Last month, Batman v Superman turned 10 years old. This is one of the most polarizing comic book movies that we have ever gotten. As you are well aware, Zack Snider has a very loyal and rabid fan base that absolutely loves his comic book movies. And then there's a lot of other people that really do not like the movie Batman v Superman and think it is an atrocious and absolutely wastes all the potential that could have been this movie and the DCU and the stories they were trying to tell. So today we're going to do a little bit of a retrospective. I'm going to react to an article looking at Batman v Superman and commenting on what holds up and what doesn't and giving my own thoughts on all of it as well. Let's talk about it.

[00:00:54]Hi, my name is Sean and I love to talk about movies and TV way too much. With that in mind, go ahead and join me down below in the comment section. Let me know what about Batman v Superman do you think has aged well and what has not aged well at all. In particular, if you've watched the movie within the last few years, if you only watched it once 10 years ago and hated it, I don't know if you can comment on how well it's aged. But if you watched it the second time a few years ago and you still hate it, what is it about this movie that didn't work? Or what about this movie do you love? This video is being live streamed over on Patreon. Over there I do average about one and a half live streams per week, a Q&A day, a box office show, and then the reaction time series right here where I record videos live reacting to articles that my patrons submit. You can join Patreon for as little as $2 per month or $21 per year. At the $5 per month, you get my your your name on my end card. And at the top tier, you can do a 30-minute video chat with me each month that you are a member at that level. With all that said, we are looking at an article on Batman v Superman a decade later. Has it aged well? And the fun of this article is it's going to look at the things that have aged well and the things that have not aged all that well.

[00:02:09]I'll give my thoughts on all of their rationes.

[00:02:14]First up, the things that have aged.

[00:02:16]Well, we're going to start on the positive.

[00:02:19]Says the jawdropping opening sequence. I will 100% agree on this. One of the best things about this movie, it's not just that it has a great opening sequence that's like really powerful and reframes the end of Man of Steel, but it's a follow-up that truly feels like a follow-up that the events of the first movie mattered. They affected people.

[00:02:46]And in particular, one of the big criticisms of Man of Steel coming out of the theater was like, "Superman just destroyed all these buildings. What about all the people?" and they went, "That's our next movie." In fact, that's the opening of our next movie. In fact, Batman agrees with you. That's really smart. Like, that's a really clever way to do a sequel that feels like we're building on what came in the past. We're not just telling a standalone story.

[00:03:13]We're continuing it while telling a new story. And also, it's just a great sequence that you are stepping into the end of the previous movie on the ground and you're seeing it from Batman's perspective, Bruce Wayne's perspective.

[00:03:32]That's cool. Like, that's a really good idea. So, I I totally agree with this one. That is a standout of the film.

[00:03:40]Next up, Ben Affleck's performance as Bruce Wayne. Uh this is one of the I think one of the more polarizing aspects. I think certain people were never never able to either get past it's Ben Affleck. Certain people um didn't like the movie and they assigned that to Ben Affleck. But I think at the end of the day Ben Affleck I think when you get past the the movie star stuff can be a really good actor. He's the biggest Batman that we've ever had that he's the tallest of them. And then like he spent 18 months training to look jacked. And Ben Affleck is an Oscarwinning screenwriter and hasn't won as a director, but he directed a movie that won best picture and he produced the movie. So he as the producer won an Oscar. So, this is a guy that is tremendously talented and was rewriting his own dialogue to give like a certain depth to this crazed Batman.

[00:04:40]We'll get back to the crazed Batman later on, but I I'm a big fan of Ben F like Batman. I wish they didn't rush to do Batman v Superman. And so, what we could have gotten is Batman pre-man of Steel. What was he like before he saw Red? And then you see him seeing Red because the one of the problems with this movie is that you're you're seeing a broken version of Batman without seeing the healthy version. And so it doesn't fully work. Then what's really powerful is we get Justice League that you have a Batman that realized he screwed up on this redemption path and you're seeing that corrective. So I think there's so much about Ben Affleck's Batman that's really great.

[00:05:25]Zack Snyder's incredible action sequences. Uh, adding to this, first off, Zack Snyder knows how to shoot action and because like he's a visual director. He is very much about the imagery. He loves uh mythological um iconic imagery. So, even the frame that's on on screen right now, it's an iconic image. It looks very cool. That's what he's great at. And comics are a medium that's all about iconic frames.

[00:05:55]So you can just watch the fights in this movie and there's frames that feel pulled ripped out right out of the comics and there's just shots. And that's why the one of the reasons the trailer was so good is that it's just filled with iconic shots that feel pulled out of the comic. with like Zack Snider imagery.

[00:06:13]I think the one that people talk about the most is the warehouse sequence because it's the best Batman brawler fight scene we've ever gotten live action. Uh obviously easily it's not even close. The Batman has some great beatdowns. It has some cool action, but the warehouse sequence I think still just stands out as like just this all balls to the wall. Go for it intense Batman. It's awesome. Um, but like Zack Snder does action well. So, I think completely agree with this one. And I think some of the action in it is a little bit underrated or gets missed because of the criticisms. So, like the Batmobile chase sequence, it's easy to write it off because Batman is running around with machine guns, shooting at cars, killing people. Understandably, some Batman fans don't like that. And I'm not crazy about Batman as the Punisher either. But as a sequence in and of itself, it's very dynamic, thrilling, and exciting. So that's amazing. Love all of that. What else do we have?

[00:07:16]Then the specific the actual Batman v Superman fight. I will partially disagree on this one. Not fully not fully disagree.

[00:07:26]Partially disagree with this one on the the grounds that I think it's too slow paced.

[00:07:35]first off that the kind of the way that it's done, it kind of has this like a set of scenarios in it. Batman does this, Superman does that, Batman does this, and it kind of instead of just like the warehouse sequences, boom, boom, boom, BOOM, BOOM, FAST, FAST, TRANSITION TO THIS, BATMAN'S GOING THROUGH THE WALL, GRENADE GOES OFF, PUNCH THIS GUY, THROW THE GUY. The Batman v Superman fight is much more like Batman slowly getting into place, pushing a button, Superman's locked in place. It's just much slower paced. And I I think it could have been like I'm not crazy about that. Second thing, I think there should have been two fights.

[00:08:14]There should have been one earlier where Batman doesn't have the suit, doesn't have kryptonite, thinks I'll just show up. I'll set a trap. I'll do that. And he doesn't like he knows he's powerful, but he's trying to figure out it's almost like a test of how strong is he?

[00:08:25]how what is he and do something earlier where Batman easily loses but he learns and he comes back here's everything I need to do to win the fight. I think there should have been two I think there's a little bit too slow pace. So I I wouldn't say that like I'd almost put this in the medium category of this is one of the things in the movie that should have been a little bit better and paid off a little bit better. Not that it's bad, not that I don't like it, but I think there's a better version of it.

[00:08:52]All right, that is the end of our our positives on this list.

[00:08:58]Now, we are moving on to our negatives.

[00:09:01]Now, if you don't know, I I'm someone that really enjoys Batman v Superman.

[00:09:05]Flaws and all. I don't think it's like a a masterpiece. I don't think it's flawless at all. I think it is a very ambitious, very flawed film with a lot of things I love and a lot of things where I go.

[00:09:18]So, how much do I agree with their picks on all of that?

[00:09:23]Things that didn't work so well. All the sequel setups. Yeah. All the world building.

[00:09:30]I think at the end of the day, a big part of what's wrong with this stuff is purely the execution that there's a lot of things in this that's like I think working Wonder Woman into it works and makes sense, but it's they went too far and they went let's continue and let's have a whole subplot where she has information, Batman has information, she has information, we're trying to get information about other metahumans. And so you get to a point in time in this movie where the tension's ratcheting up.

[00:10:00]The uh Lex Luthther's plot is happening.

[00:10:02]He he's making things happen. People are getting kidnapped. Danger's happening.

[00:10:06]Doomsday's being formed. Batman sits down to check his email.

[00:10:12]And you just like talk about something that just lets the air out of the balloon, cuts the tension in the wrong way. We're supposed to be ratcheting up the threat, zeroing in our focus. we've got to stop Lex Luthther and he's got a monster he's creating and Batman checks his email and it just and it's the sort of thing that just like pulls you right out of it like I want a fight. I want Batman v Superman, not emailing, not admin time. And just the the idea of like it just feels so lazy to introduce Aquaman and Cyborg in the Flash by having Batman check his email. So, this one, I think there's something in there of pieces of the Dawn of Justice that could have worked a little bit. And Wonder Woman, I think, was fine. I don't mind Wonder Woman introducing three characters via email, twothirds of the way through the movie when we're setting up the third act is just like a bizarro like, what are you guys doing? Like, one minute Batman is training, perfect set, preparing for battle, next minute he's checking his email.

[00:11:19]Next one. Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Lex Luthther. Uh I I not that I disagree, but to say that it hasn't aged well, this is the this was the criticism right out of the gate. So true. But this was also it's not even it aged poorly.

[00:11:34]It's literally just no one ever liked this. At no point in time did this was this wellreceived by uh almost anyone.

[00:11:42]I'm sure there's some defenders of it.

[00:11:43]The concept isn't terrible. And that's generally speaking across the board. O almost all the things in this movie that are bad. The basic idea isn't bad. The execution is where just it just feels so lackluster. So the concept here is it what would a modern-day Lex Luthther look like? And we're in the era of social media, these tech giants, and you have these faces emerging that are the heads of tech companies. And they went, "What if Lex Luthther is Mark Zuckerberg? Let's do that." Literally, let's hire a Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network to play Lex Luthther.

[00:12:22]That's not like the idea of a tech bro Lex Luthther to modernize it makes sense.

[00:12:30]It like I can follow that. However, Jesse Eisenberg going full Eisenberg with all the he quirks and like here's a Jolly Ranch shirt, like all of the weirdness, I just don't think anyone wanted that.

[00:12:44]And there's this kind of like do you do you just pander to the most obvious thing or do you subvert expectations, do something fresh, new, and different?

[00:12:50]Like kind of which direction do you go with it? And you want to put your own spin on it. You want to be fresh and finding the right way to do that. And I think they got the mix wrong. And I think um the big the cliche when this move when this when the casting was announced when the movie came out was we wanted Heisenberg not Eisenberg. This was he was cast right as Breaking Bad ended the peak of Brian Cranston shaved head fame.

[00:13:19]Who can play someone charming but also terrifying? Brian Cranston. That's really obvious fan casting.

[00:13:30]But it's better than this. It It's better than this. Um, and it's not always bad to be obvious. Also, one of the things about what the Lex Luthther and the comics changed in the mid 80s when the Man of Steel comic came out. Like for decades, Lex Luthther was like the mad scientist that was, you know, running around in a green suit, purple tights, just a mad scientist, evil guy. And then they they changed the character in the mid80s into the version that you know Michael Rosenbomb from Smallville or Superman the animated series but almost every other version is that version that is the guy that's basically evil Bruce Wayne. He's a tech he's he's a big businessman eventually runs for president but he's a guy that publicly is very famous and and well regarded but secretly is evil Lex Luthther. And you saw that in Lois and Clark, Superman, Smallville, of course. But then they do Superman Returns. The cinematic version was a return to the Gene Hackman I'M THE MASTER CRIMINAL MASTERMIND OF ALL TIME, the Gene Hackman stuff from 1978 before they'd redone Super Lex Luthther in the comics. And so in movies when the Batman v Superman came out, we'd never gotten the modern-day comic accurate version of Lex Luthther that had been done in animated shows, uh, TV shows so well.

[00:14:59]And it's not even like you're competing because if you did Brian Cranston, Lex Luthther as the businessman, that is absolutely nothing like that is not copying whatsoever Michael Rosenbomb. Michael Rosenbomb, Brian Cranston, both age- wise there'd be a huge difference because Frank Cranston would have been in his 50s or mid-50s, 60. Um, so they wouldn't come off the same. They're also just wildly different actors. So you could have done that comic accurate ver or modern era comic accurate version without it just being a rehash. But instead they like skipped over that and went straight to let's do our whole own version Jesse Eisenberg going and feeding people Jolly Ranchers.

[00:15:44]I I just think it was a bad idea. Like it it like it's the sort of thing just that's not what were you thinking? This is not the way to do it. There's something interesting in Lex's hatred of Superman. someone who's above him, mirroring the hatred of his father, someone who's above him, and he couldn't dethrone his father, but in his mind, there's a way to dethrone Superman. I think there's a rather interesting concept buried in a quirky performance.

[00:16:09]Back to this recurring theme. Exactly.

[00:16:12]There's a really interesting idea.

[00:16:14]There's something quite deep. And one of the things that DC typically generally speaking is a little bit better at than Marvel is they tend to have movies once again tend this is not universal. There are counterexamples on both sides many counter examples on both sides. There's a few more that are a little bit more thematically rich, thoughtful. And so you have Lex Luthther both on a psychological level, there's this kind of lashing out because of his childhood. And then there's also this um the theological problem of evil. If God is all powerful, why doesn't he stop evil in the world? If God is all good, if God is all powerful, he can stop the evil in the world. And if God is all good, why doesn't he? And so using the problem of evil with this Lex Luthther and looking at Superman, his father, there's a like it's a very deep character that nobody likes because of the execution and all these things that kind of like derailed it. Like the Jolly Ranchers and the just derails everything in it that's good. And that is kind of so much of this whole movie that there's a there's a good idea that's actually quite deep in psychological or like ties into human psychology and emotion really well executed in a way that is a complete distraction that makes you miss the depth of what's happening. There we go. Over reliance on dream sequences. I I'll completely agree with this one. I this is the the Zack Snider stuff that I know he's super into and you can just like like he just loves these images and he what if Batman in a post-apocalyptic and he just thinks of these creative images that are like as a frame they're great like that frame on screen that's a great frame and you know the movie Sucker Punch is that for two hours is just like a set of amazing frames of a set of amazing images that he came in he drew somewhere and they would let me bring it into live action and then you have parts of these this movie and then a little bit of uh Justice League that once again are these post-apocalyptic images. I'm just not into it. That's uh like as a category, I'd be fine to pull that out. And even as much as I love Zack Snider's Justice League like I'm fine with it kind of ending where it's at. The idea of doing the post-apocalyptic world, like I'm not really into I don't need to see that movie. I'm not interested in that movie all that much. So, like I just not not interested.

[00:18:54]So, yeah, I I'm I'm I'm fine with this one.

[00:19:00]Granny's Peach Tea. Um I don't have any problem with Granny's Peach Tea. This feels like a little like it's meant to be a little bit crass and like like it's a little bit of a line in the movie. It sticks out. It's like something that's just so that kind of even as you're saying it go I don't you know I just don't particularly like yeah like I I don't have any problem with this one. I never had a problem with it. I it's just like it's meant to be like a little bit of a something that's just so vile that it pops and it does because we're talking about it 10 years later.

[00:19:41]Then we've got save Martha. Is there another one after this? Oh yeah, we got I think we got Yeah, we got one more after this. Save Martha. This is the ultimate example of man, what a great idea executed really bad because the the central concept of the moment is Batman has been seeing red and suddenly he snaps out of it and he sees a person for the first time. That's a really good idea.

[00:20:08]the specific execution of said idea is um immediately calls to mind of course step brothers and it just feels like the oh no I know what you're going for. I get it. I really do. But this absolutely needed a few more passes. The central concept of the idea is that Batman watched his building crumble on people that he employed that he cared about and he could not save them. And it happened because of that guy in the sky. He's a threat and all he can see is the death and destruction that came before because that guy showed up. He can't see anything but the threat and the evil.

[00:20:48]And he does everything with his intelligence, his resources to try and stop this thing, the could end us without ever stopping to think that's a person. There's anything beyond the threat. And he's being warned repeatedly by Alfred. No, he's not. Like he's not what you're saying. That's not what this is. You need to stop. But he's seeing red. Like if you've got a temper, like I had a temper, you lose your temper. You just see red. You can't see reason. And you just see the threat, the thing you're angry about. And you have someone as alpha and intense as Batman sees that threat, an incredible threat.

[00:21:23]And he's seen the death. And so he's trying to stop it. And he has this fight. And he gets to the moment he's defeated the threat. The threat is down.

[00:21:34]He has his boot literally on his throat.

[00:21:37]He's got a spear that can pierce him and kill him. And the threat, the monster that's going to end all of mankind isn't thinking about his own life. He's not pleading for his life. He's saying, "I need you to save Martha."

[00:21:53]And in this moment, both because this person is not thinking about himself, he's saying, and he's saying Martha specifically, and you have to have that mechanism. What is the thing that will cut through seeing red?

[00:22:06]What was the that'll snap him out of the insanity? What's the mechanism? A reminder of his own pain, the pain that pushed Batman to save lives was the death of Thomas and Martha.

[00:22:23]Those two people died and it pushed Batman to say, "I want to stop other people from feeling this pain. I'm gonna save lives." So in the moment where Batman has defeated his threat and suddenly the threat wants him to save the person that is a child he couldn't save that inspired him to to save all the people he has saved. Why did you say that name?

[00:22:49]Because it's his mother's name. Like the logic of that on an emotional level fully works.

[00:22:58]The execution as you're watching it is very corny. It's clunky and it's awkward. Like you're watching it. What?

[00:23:07]Uh why did you say that name? Why did you say Martha? It's his mom's name.

[00:23:14]Did we just become best friends? Like there's a lot of problems with the execution.

[00:23:20]That's what's so frustrating about so many things in this movie that I think people get so like like put off by the execution that they miss the thing that works inside of it. And that's and I don't fault people. It's not like you don't have to like poorly executed things, but also there's a logic that really does make sense in the Martha moment.

[00:23:44]But man, did they choose the absolute wrong way to do it. Finally, the death of Superman in just the second movie. I will I I I mean, I'll say yes, but it's it's not even that him dying in his own second movie. It's all the other kind of things, too, that uh I I just think it's pretty obvious that like I think we should have had a Batman movie before Batman v Superman.

[00:24:13]And uh like make a Batman movie and it's unclear where it takes place in the timeline in the postredit scene is the start of the opening of Batman v Superman of him seeing the destruction and you realize oh this whole movie I just saw with a Batman that is the Dark Knight but he's not the seeing red dark knight of Batman v Superman. Oh this was actually a prequel to Man of Steel. It's taking place right before or concurrent with Man of Steel. And I I think you do that and I think it sets Batman v Superman up a lot more and you can probably even set up some of the Dawn of Justice in that movie a little bit more.

[00:24:52]Um that's where more where I would be coming from. They were just rushing so fast. Keep in mind the Avengers came out one year before Man of Steel and then everybody went we got to do that. By the time Batman v Superman came out, you already had two Avengers movies. And so they were just rushing to play catchup.

[00:25:12]And so they skipped up skipped over all the setup.

[00:25:16]And there was a trilogy there, I think, that does work as a thing in of itself.

[00:25:20]But is there a better version of Zack Snider's trilogy about the um rise, death, and resurrection of Superman? I think there's a better version that involves these other other movies being set up a little bit more before Batman v Superman. So, that's more where I would be coming from. I don't even know even know if I needed Man of Steel 2 before we got Batman v Superman because I think Batman v Superman is very much a sequel to Man of Steel thematically and story-wise for everyone. It's like how did everyone respond to the actions of Batman v Super of Man of Steel? You see what what it did to Superman. You see what it did to the public. You see different reactions from the public. You see Lex Luthther's reaction and you see Batman's reaction.

[00:26:07]That's that's a really in a lot of ways a really great way to do a sequel, but we're rushing to things a little bit too much. So that's kind of my take on it. Like when I look at Batman v Superman, it's a film that there's just so many things about what was going on with Warner Brothers at the time and changing hands and rushing and you can see interviews with David Goyer about the the pressure they were under to catch up and the movie could have been better and it should have been better, but there's a lot in there that's really great that you still have Zack Snider imagery and you still have um like they brought in Chris Tero to work on the script who had written Argo that won best picture right before this and they had Ben Affleck who worked on Argo as the director and probably punched up some writing too.

[00:26:56]Also rewriting things also a Oscar winning screenwriter. There's a lot in there that I love and then there's all these things THAT ARE LIKE AH SAVE MARTHA LIKE YOU COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER you could have done a better job with that. That's generally speaking where I kind of land on a lot of this stuff and where I I feel about the movie. Let me know what you guys thought down below.

[00:27:18]I'll dive into the comments. I'm very much in the same camp as you. It maybe has more flaws than something like Shazam, but I have more desire to rewatch Batman v Superman, which I think is an interesting way to think about it.

[00:27:29]Like, there's movies that they don't actually make all that many overt mistakes. Batman v Superman makes overt mistakes, and for a lot of people, that just feels like pebbles in your shoe.

[00:27:40]Like, it's an irritant. You just can't get over it. But also, it does a bunch of things great. Whereas this other movie over here is fairly frictionless.

[00:27:48]It's inoffensive. It's very watchable.

[00:27:51]And you can understand why people have these very different reactions to all of them. Uh one is safer. It's not as is polarizing, but then the one that's polarizing does things that make people absolutely love it. Think Batman v Superman works a bit better when you see where the story goes in Zack Snider's Justly, especially with Batfleck and the nightmare teases. 10 years later, I think it's one of the most overhated comic book movies I've seen. I think that there's a pretty strong argument for that because the immediate reaction from so many people was so vitr. What's the wrong word? Very phrased said that wrong. It was just so intense. Um, and people locked in on these things that are easy to pick on and missed a bunch of stuff that did work. Too many plot lines. Man of Steel sequel, Batman movie, Justice League setup. Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition improves the theatrical cut drastically. Yeah. And and that's even part of why the theatrical cut is so bad is that it's it's too many movies in one movie. And so 30 minutes more is actually really important for the film to work and make any sense. And if you're trying to tell a story with that many plots and you trim it too much, it makes no sense. And that's kind of what they did with the theatrical cut of the film. There you have it. Batman v Superman. It's 10 years old. For me, it is an ambitious, flawed film, and I respect that. And I want more ambitious, flawed films. I I kind of like having movies with rough edges rather than every movie just feeling perfectly polished to offend no one. What I like about Zack Snider movies is that there's spicy food. That people that love spicy food love spicy food. People that don't like spicy food can't handle it at all. Polarizing. Zack Snider makes movies like that. Rough around the edges. There's issues, but there's a distinct voice. There's a distinct f vi um um vibe to his films.

[00:29:50]There's a distinct aesthetic. He offers unique value. It doesn't feel vanilla.

[00:29:56]It doesn't feel like his movies don't feel even though they have been, you know, sometimes overmanaged by producers and stuff like that. The ones he actually directs, they don't feel directed by committee. They don't feel a as if everything had to be run through a filter. They feel like Zack Snider's vision. And I want more movies like that. I get they're not for all of you.

[00:30:17]And he probably was never the right person to do Superman, but I'm glad I got his Superman and his Batman v Superman and of course his Justice League. Let me know your thoughts down below. Consider joining on Patreon. The information is down below in the comment section. and keep talking movies and TV too much.