Batman V Superman V The Element of Surprise

...Wow.

So. Were you hoping to be able to wait until you actually saw BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE to find out things like when/how Wonder Woman would be revealed, whether or not there'd be a major DC villain showing up besides Lex Luthor or, y'know, maybe the entire plot-structure of the movie from start to finish?

Well, too bad - Warner Bros is evidently so anxious to make sure that this thing does AVENGERS (or, now, JURASSIC WORLD) numbers, they've basically decided to go the CAST AWAY "McTrailer" route with the advertising: "Here's the ENTIRE movie, folks! Zero question about what you're getting for your money - just relax and a buy a ticket for "Thing You Already Liked Watching, Now Longer."



SPOILERS FOLLOW!


But yeah, now we know what the "V-ing" is all about (Batman and Superman both see eachother as extralegal vigilantes), the apparent plot-outline (Batman tries to fight Superman, he doesn't win, Lex Luthor does something fiendish, they team up), a rough estimate of when we'll see Wonder Woman (at the very end for the big fight, it looks like) and even the Big Secret WB has been (unsuccessfully) keeping mum about for months: Luthor turns the corpse of General Zod into Doomsday.

All of which jibes with most of the credible rumors from the set and early word on the script(s); namely that despite the "universe-building" task there's no elaborate or "twisty" storytelling planned here, aiming instead for a straightforward super-brawl movie. Given Doomsday's presence, though, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't "kill" Superman at the end as an impetus to form the Justice League i.e. "The big guy is gone, we need to consolidate firepower." That'd be... dumb, honestly, but sounds a lot like a WB studio committee answer to "Why do you need a whole team when you've got Superman?"

Looks like fun, though, and a substantial improvement on MAN OF STEEL in terms of style - I'd rather Zack Snyder BE Zack Snyder instead of aping the Nolans. I empathize with fans who feel cheated out of getting a DC Cinematic Universe that grooves on that source-reverent Gold/Silver Age sweet-spot the Marvel movies have mined so successfully, sure; but variety is nice and if WB/Snyder are indeed going whole-hog on Terrible 90s Comics: The Movie, well... at least it's a novel approach? Like I said, this is supposedly a spectacle-heavy, plot-light movie; and if there's a director more perfectly suited to deliver a succession of high-contrast Jim Lee splash-pages in motion than Snyder I can't think of them.

Well, one way or another we'll find out in about 4 months.

P.S. Who are the winged bug-men at the 2:00 mark? No idea. That whole sequence (Batman in desert-combat gear, Superman commanding some kind black-ops militia, is believed to be a dream/vision sequence - but they look awfully similar in silhouette to Parademons, the minions of Darkseid (himself widely believed to be the main heavy of either the first or second JUSTICE LEAGUE movie.)