The Snyderverse’s newest blockbuster, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, certainly caused quite the ripple in the water. The resulting Critics v. Audiences created some confusingly contradictory stats: a movie that received a lowly 28% on rotten tomatoes sold out countless audiences – earning the biggest worldwide superhero opening in history. Because, regardless of what critics say, who doesn’t want to see the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight going at it?
Regardless of how great the movie may have been, we can all agree that the movie had some confusing segments. In hopes of bringing some light to these moments, here are the top ten things in Batman v. Superman that probably confused you (and what was going on)!
A Yes-Kill Batman?
Anyone who has ever seen Batman movies (from Adam West to Christian Bale) has most likely grown accustomed to a Batman with one sacred rule: no killing. This even serves to drive the plots: if he could only kill *insert iconic Batman villain here*, he could save countless lives – but he can’t do it!
But this…this wasn’t the Batman we saw. The Batman we saw shot guns, snapped necks, flipped cars, burnt people alive (sorry KGBeast!), etcetera, etcetera. You name it, he killed them. In fact, half of the movie’s plot arc revolved around his plan to kill Superman (not to lock him up in Arkham Asylum with all of Batman’s old pals).
Why is this? Why did Snyder corrupt our childhood hero?
Well, we know of two occurrences in the DC cinematic universe that probably set Batman down this ostensibly dark path. For one, Bruce Wayne’s best friend and Batman’s sidekick, Jason Todd (Robin) was brutally murdered at the hands of the Joker. Secondly, Bruce Wayne watched Metropolis crumble during the events featured in The Man of Steel, Superman’s origin movie. This taught Batman a valuable lesson: the world was a dangerous place – a place too dangerous for naïve values like a no-kill policy that he once held.
Secondly, the fans up-in-arms about this take on the vigilante are forgetting extensive repertoire of kills. Batman’s first comics featured him taking down criminals by shooting them, strangling them, dropping them off of buildings, and throwing them into corrosive acid. Even Michael Keaton’s Batman killed in his debut movie, Batman, orchestrating his death involving a helicopter, some rope, and a statue (sorry for the spoiler, but worth a watch!).
Batman’s yes-kill policy may have caught us off guard, but it makes sense, and isn’t unprecedented!
Lex Luthor…Jr?
Jesse Eisenberg’s quirky performance came across as charming to some and as…well…a little bit weird to others. But one thing caught the attention of various movie-goers: this isn’t actually Lex Luthor?
In the scene where Luthor first meets with Senator Finch, he offhandedly acknowledges that he’s not the Lex Luthor. He corrects the Senator, referring to himself as merely “Lex Luthor Jr.”
Eisenberg is actually playing Alexander “Lex” Joseph Luthor, the son of the world-renown businessman. In Fortune’s profile of the fictitious character, he commented, “”Dad named the company after himself ten years before I made my unexpected entrance into his life,” Luthor Jr. “says” in the interview. “But investors seemed to respond to the idea of an adoring father building a legacy for his precious son. He used that to his advantage. It was a good shtick and, whatever else he was, he was a good businessman.”
Now, don’t be confused – Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor is still the primary antagonist of the movie and of movies to come, but this isn’t the Lex Luthor we are used to (a drastic departure from Kevin Spacey’s stale depiction we’d all like to forget about). This gave Snyder more liberty in his interpretation of the character, giving us the quirky and awkward villain we got instead of the cold and stern one we’re familiar with.
The “Knightmare”
Perhaps the most confusing sequence of the movie was intended to be – Batman’s vision of sorts where he saw a world terrorized by a fascist Superman. In this scene, he gets double-crossed, captured, and chained to await the world’s dictator, Superman. In this world, Superman holds Batman responsible for the death of his love, Lois Lane. Is this just a dream, or was Batman seeing something much more…real? Well…
Am I too early?
Batman awakens to the Flash yelling difficult-to-understand words at him. In case you missed anything he said, here’s the manuscript!
“Bruce! Listen to me right now! It’s Lois! Lois Lane! She’s the key! Am I too soon!? I’m too soon! You were right about him! You were always right about him! Fear him! Fear him and find us. You have to come find us, Bruce!”
Still confused? Well, let me try to condense hours of sifting through theories and analyses for you:
The Flash is traveling from an alternate future to warn Batman. This time-rift right next to Bruce causes his memories from that timeline to mix with his consciousness – he wasn’t dreaming of a possible future, but actually seeing into it. The scene is out of place intentionally (many said it felt like a post-credits scene) because the Flash over/undershot his desired time-travel, but does his best to get his point across to the Bat.
Still confused? Well, I tried!
Omega
Featured in this knightmare are allusions to a big, bad DC villain that comic book fans certainly picked up on. When Batman is overlooking the desert, there is a colossal Omega sign on the ground. This leaves us with two options: either Superman rushed a fraternity, or DC is prepping us for a Darkseid appearance. Darkseid is one of the “New Gods,” and rules the planet Apokolips across the universe. His powers are vast (much like Marvel’s Thanos), including ripping people out of existence and corrupting heroes’ judgement (is this perhaps what has happened to our beloved Superman in this future?).
Parademons
As interesting of a story Superman pledging a frat could have turned into, we can scratch this possibility by another hint: Batman is surrounded and captured by winged, flying extra-terrestrials known as Parademons, who aid Darkseid in his galactic endeavors.
Is Superman in cohorts with the villain in this future? Who knows, but all we know is that the Flash was willing to travel across the time-space continuum to keep it from happening.
The Mother Box
One Easter-egg filled scene showed Bruce Wayne sifting through his flash drive of information he stole from Lex at his party. This scene gave us a formal introduction to the first-wave Justice League members: Wonder Woman (remember the super model from the party? Of course you do), the Flash (remember the loud guy from the Knightmare sequence?), Aquaman (isn’t that the guy from Game of Thrones…?) and Cyborg.
Now, fans of the kiddie show Teen Titans from back in the day might know about Cyborg’s origins, but the rest of us were pretty confused. A man (or rather, half of a man) was being experimented on by someone we are assuming to be his father after some catastrophe. The experimenter procures some black box that floats through the air and attaches to the half-man, filling out his body while causing excruciating pain.
This little black box was a “Mother Box,” a teeny, tiny supercomputer with undefined abilities, ranging from teleportation to energy manipulation. Our old pal Darkseid from earlier has been known to use this technology, so there’s certainly a chance he comes into play with Cyborg’s origins.
As to where Cyborg’s father got the technology, we are at a loss, but I’m sure Snyder will fill us in on this in future films.
Jokes on You
When Bruce is walking through the Batcave, we catch a glance of a suit on display, depicting a sloppily written message “HAHAHAHA JOKE’S ON YOU BATMAN.” This suit belongs to none other than Jason Todd, Batman’s second sidekick (Dick Grayson being his first, graduated training and operates under the name of Nightwing). Who wrote the message? That is open to interpretation, but a certain Batman villain has an affinity for jokes, particularly jokes about dark subjects like death. Still lost? It’s the Joker. The Joker. Come on, you know this stuff.
“MARTHA!”
Remember during the best scene of the movie, when Batman and Superman were going at it, then they just stopped because Superman shouted, “MARTHA!!”? Yeah, I do too, but there was some significance to this. If you recall, Martha Wayne was the name of Bruce’s mother. Now of course, Superman was referring to Martha Kent (Clark Kent’s mother), who was in imminent danger. Now if Superman had dropped any other name Batman may have gone through with killing him, but Bruce’s parents’ deaths are a heavy burden on his heart. In this minor coincidence, he saw into Superman’s humanity. Superman was raised on Earth by a human family, and he was fearing for his mother’s death the same way Bruce had 30-something years ago. This served as a major turning point in the movie, but much of the audience missed this allusion (despite the focus on Bruce’s father very clearly mouthing “Martha” in the opening sequence of the film).
The Bell Cannot be Unrung
After Luthor’s arrest, the Caped Crusader pays him a visit prison. Warning him, Batman tells the Lexcorp head that he will be watching his every move – to which the battier-than-ever (pun intended) Lex responds that the “bell cannot be unrung.” Lex uses a series of “He’s” and “Him’s” to refer to a seemingly powerful being that is on his way. Who could this be, and how could Lex know?
Luthor is most likely referring to our most-alluded-to-but-unseen-bad-guy Darkseid. He is coming and Superman’s death rang a bell – planet Earth is left defenseless. Defenseless, that is, until the Justice League assembles (and until Superman resurrects like we all know he will).
As to how Lex knows of this? Well, there was that rushed scene where Lex is educated regarding the universe’s history by Superman’s ship, overriding the future-grade technology by saying “override.” That’s the science-fiction equivalent of making your password, “password.” Like, cmmon Kal-El.
10 Things That Probably Confused You During Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
And there you have it folks, the top ten things that probably confused you in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. If you have anymore questions, the DC subreddit on reddit.com proves to be very useful – and of course, there’s always Google!