No. 61 Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) 67 of 100

 

Watching this film was probably going beyond the call of duty as Shannon’s Wikipedia page states that he did not shoot any scenes for it, with a body replica used for his appearance as the corpse of General Zod. To compound the unnecessaryness I watched the full 3 hour Extended edition. In truth it was OK entertainment but they could have lost an hour with no complaints from me.

The film opens with the 374^th depiction of Batman’s origin. Mrs Wayne’s pearls drop more often than Katie Price’s knickers. We get he’s tormented and driven but they could really just take that as read. Ben Affleck is Bruce Wayne / Batman with Jeremy Irons as his butler Alfred. They are both decent but are definitely a downgrade from Bale / Caine.

Henry Cavill’s Superman is under some scrutiny as his fight with General Zod in ‘Man of Steel’ caused the death of thousands of citizens and we get a fun scene of Bruce Wayne driving through the carnage as it happens. Bruce loses lots of friends and employees in the melee and is pissed off at the Kyrptonian. The government is too, and start Senate hearings to determine the legitimacy or otherwise of the alien.

In the background Lex Luthor is scheming away. He doesn’t like Superman’s power and starts to plot his downfall. He plays Bats and Supes against each other and hacks into General Zod’s ship to get some of his weapons tech.

There is a bit of detection and seeds are sowed for the upcoming Justice League film when Bruce encounters an impossibly old sexy lady who is of course Wonder Woman. All the while Lois Lane is digging about and getting into scrapes for Superman to rescue her from.

After two hours the title fight begins with some purloined Kryptonite sending the fight in Batman’s favour. Just as he’s about to seal the win the realisation that both their mothers have the same name puts them on the same page against Luthor. Possibly having anticipated this Luthor unleashes Doomsday a big CGI monster made of his and Zod’s DNA. The three heroes join forces to fight the beast but who will survive?

This was a decent offering and definitely better than I was expecting. The sets, costumes and action were all good and the film bounced along despite the 180 minute runtime.

The plot was a bit thin and it seemed a stretch to get the two heroes to square off against each other. Bruce Wayne is meant to be super smart but he gets manipulated by Luthor, played by Jesse Eisenberg in what must be one of the worst casting decisions put to film. I wasn’t expecting a Hackman or even a Spacey but this gurning child just stank up every scene he was in. He didn’t convince as an evil genius and just came across as annoying. At one point he gets upset with Holly Hunter for denying him an import licence for his block of Kryptonite – what supervillain looks for import licences?!

As for Shannon, his character is seen in the distance fighting Superman ten minutes in but a positive ID isn’t possible. He later shows up on the morgue slab and, to be fair, the fake face is a good likeness. He’s also seen later on getting dragged into Luthor’s monster making bath. Not exactly one for his show reel but it’s good that the power of Zod is still being felt, with this being the second of his three DC outings with his reappearance in ‘The Flash’ still seven years away at this point.

The film is a bit dark, in the lighting sense and it is a bit on the nose with the religious iconography. There are however enough good fights and action sequences to keep the interest up and they get a lot of world building done. Not watching that crappy Shannon free ‘Justice League’ film again though!

When is Shannon-On? - 10.00 (Maybe) 30.21 (Definitely ) - It’s Only a Model!

Outcome? Dead with bits now hacked off him

Film 3.5/5

Shannon Stars 1/5