Batman v Superman was DC's rushed attempt at creating a cinematic universe

It was supposed to be DC's shortcut into a cinematic universe. It didn’t work

It also ignited a passion — or perhaps an obligation — for fans to follow every Marvel storyline in the films, even for characters who might not have been able to carry a solo movie in a pre-Avengers world. (Looking at you, Ant-Man.)

With fervor (and profits!) growing for Marvel Studios on the back of its interconnected storytelling, DC Entertainment wanted in on the cinematic universe game. It turned Zack Snyder’s tepidly successful 2013 movie Man of Steel ($670 million worldwide gross, 56% on Rotten Tomatoes) into a jumping-off point for its own cinematic universe by quickly following it up with Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 instead of a solo Superman sequel, which would have been the standard move for the pre-cinematic-universe days. While BvS performed well at the box office, the movie failed creatively: It failed its titular heroes, failed to be the bedrock of the DC Extended Universe, and failed to elevate DC to Marvel’s level on the silver screen. Marvel built up to The Avengers with films establishing four of the Avengers as potential heroic leads. DC tried to take a shortcut and microwave a cinematic universe into existence with Batman v Superman, and the result was an overcooked, overstuffed mess.

Batman v Superman begins by looking backward. We follow Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) navigating a crumbling Metropolis during the climactic battle between Superman and General Zod in Man of Steel. He witnesses firsthand the destruction these overpowered Kryptonians have wrought, and decides, “Well, I guess I gotta kill Superman now, on the chance he breaks bad.” Because as anyone who’s a fan of Batman stories can attest to, Batman’s primary solution is always to kill his foe. It’s why the Joker only lasted one issue!

We don’t need to get too much into the specifics of how much Zack Snyder misunderstands Batman, but the version of the Caped Crusader BvS presents clashes with what makes the character so beloved. This Batman’s singular goal is murder. He uses guns on his Batmobile. He routinely kills henchmen, and brands others with his bat-symbol. If anything, this Batman is less human and more monstrous than the Kryptonian he’s hunting. These are all odd creative choices when trying to establish a cinematic universe headlined by two of DC’s Trinity.

The film spends so much time establishing Batman in this world that it neglects to give the other leading hero his due. Superman (Henry Cavill) mostly just broods in his scenes, pondering with knitted brow as he stands among the masses. At one point when he’s at a Capitol Building hearing, just as we’re expecting to hear him speak about his purpose, his philosophy, and his thoughts on his place in this world, the opportunity is cut short when a bomb goes off, killing everyone around him. He rarely has opportunities to reveal his humanity to the public, or explain his motives as Superman.

When the heroes finally do clash, it’s at the behest of Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), who manipulates Superman into giving Batman the confrontation The Dark Knight has been preparing for. The clash is heavy, with the weight of each blow wreaking havoc on the characters and the environment around them. (Don’t worry, they fight in an abandoned building; after the backlash against Man of Steel’s cavalier destruction of a densely populated city, Snyder goes to great lengths to assure the audience that no Metropolis citizens were harmed in this bout, or the one that follows later in the movie.) The Batman/Superman fight isn’t quite worth the cost of admission alone, but it is one of the more enjoyable parts of this moody, broody two-and-a-half-hour slog.

The fight ends via the infamous and oft-mocked Martha moment. Luthor kidnaps Superman’s mother Martha Kent (Diane Lane) and threatens to kill her, unless Superman kills Batman first. Batman’s mother happens to have the same first name. When Batman has weakened Superman with Kryptonite and is about to kill him, Superman yells, “Save Martha!” (Perhaps it’s biologically ingrained in Kryptonians to refer to their parents by their given names.) Batman is shocked. Lois Lane (Amy Adams) shows up to explain that Martha is Superman’s mother, which is enough to make Batman stop his onslaught.

The execution is clumsy, but the idea behind it works, oddly enough. This is Snyder and the writers’ attempt at humanizing Superman in Batman’s eyes. Batman has his adversary weak and on the ground, moments away from death by Kryptonite spear, when he realizes that Superman isn’t solely a god-like being, he’s also a dude raised by a mother, like Batman was before he was orphaned in childhood. This realization makes Batman emphatically empathize with the Kryptonian who’s at his mercy. Suddenly, Batman sees him as a person, and not solely as a threat. Good idea, terrible execution.

Their differences tossed aside (literally, as Batman chucks the Kryptonite spear away), the heroes pull a 180 and team up to fight a new threat: Doomsday, which, in this re-imagining of the Death of Superman comics storyline, is Zod’s resurrected, mutated corpse. After popping up in a few scenes earlier in the film, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) joins the fight against Doomsday, as justice dawns.

Her inclusion is as clunky as anything throughout the film; there’s no thematic reason why she should be there. Batman v Superman simply attempts to graft too many plots together, so what’s one more for good measure? DC Entertainment wanted to set the foundation for the Justice League (and the 2017 Justice League movie) without even establishing these characters first as heroes in their own right.

BvS even crams in some extra universe-building on top of Wonder Woman’s hasty introduction: One of her few scenes in the movie shows her watching fragmentary videos Luthor has collected of other Metahumans, the future Justice Leaguers. It happens right after Superman learns his mother’s been kidnapped, undercutting the emotional weight of his pain. Instead of lingering with either of the titular heroes, the film cuts to Wonder Woman for some shoehorned-in cinematic universe building worse than Thor’s pool scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The attempt to make Batman v Superman a DCEU launchpad wasn’t helped by its connection to the Death of Superman arc. In the comics, Doomsday is only created so a strong villain can show up to kill Superman. In BvS, his inclusion is a way of showing the world that a united group of superpowered heroes is necessary. But he ends up killing Superman nonetheless, because every great superhero cinematic universe begins by killing off one of its leading heroes. Superman dies in the DCEU before he even knows the other eventual Justice Leaguers exist, let alone before he can establish true relationships with any of them.

Batman v Superman came out in March 2016, but was originally scheduled for May 6, 2016 — the same day Marvel Studios released Captain America: Civil War. Because of their themes and release dates, it’s difficult not to compare the two. On one side, you have a film that tried to speedrun a cinematic universe into existence by pitting its two biggest heroes against each other. On the other, you have a film that builds on eight years of storytelling and character development, including two previous team-up films between the two clashing heroes, Captain America and Iron Man. It shouldn’t be a surprise which cinematic universe is still going strong and which one petered out.

The DCEU wrapped up at the end of 2023 with December’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, though DC Studios’ new heads James Gunn and Peter Safran unveiled their slate of projects for their rebooted DC Universe much earlier than that. While Gunn’s Superman is super-stuffed with other superheroes, it works to establish a status quo for the DCU in ways Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice never achieved.

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is currently streaming on HBO Max.