Batman V Superman Discussion Part 1 Recap Part 1

This was written several years ago on another site and has been reposted with some updates to the writing.

Batman V Superman Discussion Part 1 Recap Part 1
Batman V Superman Discussion Part 2 Recap Part 2
Batman V Superman Discussion Part 3 Characterization
Batman V Superman Discussion Part 4 General Thoughts and Miscellaneous

Quick note: theatrical cut, not extended.

So it’s time, I know from experience that this will be my most controversial opinion piece I share on probably anything. Please remember it’s just a movie and please, seriously please, don’t quote the Martha scene at me.

In my Man of Steel review I mainly just gave my reactions to the individual scenes but here I want to summarize the plot. The main structure of the movie is three intertwining stories, Batman’s, Superman’s, and Lex Luthor’s until they all meet up and result in the title bout.

Batman

We begin with the standard Batman origin. Dead Waynes, funeral and Bruce finding the cave. It feels like every Batman adaption is required by law to show us this, but at least this one is short and effective and establishes things like Thomas’ last word being “Martha”. The imagery of the mugging feels like it’s straight out of the comics, pearls and all, however, the cave scene reminds me more of Batman Begins than the classic origin.

Next we are back in the final battle of Man of Steel. We see Bruce rush towards a collapsing building to rescue a man with crushed legs and comfort a lost little girl. In my Man of Steel recap I spoke about how realistic the movie was for a superhero fight and that’s what this is. In MoS we saw the point of view of Superman and here we see the point of view of a mortal man, a powerful man, but a mortal none the less as the world crumbles around him while gods battle.

We go then reach the present where Batman is investigating the trail of someone named the White Portuguese. This trail eventually leads him to someone connected to Lex Luthor. He attends a party hosted by Lex using the opportunity to hack Lex’s files. His hacking device is stolen by a mysterious woman though. She returns the device after failing to crack the encryption.

Bruce falls asleep while decrypting the files himself leading to a double dream sequence. First a dream about a post-apocalyptic Earth where Superman rules as a god. He watches as Superman incinerates enemy soldiers with his eyes and wakes up right before dying himself. What he wakes up to is a mysterious vision of (who we will know in later films as) Flash warning him that Lois is the key and to fear ‘him’.

The drive is decrypted, and this is where we learn what Bruce has actually been after. The White Portuguese is a ship that’s transporting Kryptonite. Bruce explains to Alfred that he wants to kill Superman, because he believes that Superman is dangerous and can wipe out humanity in an instant. Alfred pleads with him to trust Superman but it falls on deaf ears.

Batman’s first attempt to steal the kryptonite results in a tense and violent car chase. It’s interrupted by Superman himself. Superman tells Batman to retire, that his justice isn’t needed and lets him go as a warning. Batman delivers the memetic line “Do you bleed?”….. “You will”.

Later we see Bruce watching a senate hearing involving Superman on the news. One of the attendees at this hearing is the man who lost his legs while being rescued by Bruce at the start of the movie. During the meeting Bruce finds out that all the cheques he sent to the man have been returned with writing that blames both Bruce and Superman. Then as an enraged Bruce watches the senate building is destroyed in an explosion that only Superman survives.

After this Batman makes a second attempt to steal the Kryptonite and is successful. He then begins to develop a variety of Kryptonite weapons. Once again Alfred pleads with him, but Bruce again doesn’t listen. From here we see him prepping a battleground and then lighting the bat signal to challenge Superman. This is where we’ll pause the summarizing before switching to Superman.

Superman

We now jump way back to earlier in the film. Lois Lane is in Kenya to interview a warlord in his own camp. Lois’ interview is interrupted when the photographer is killed for being a CIA agent. This leads to Lois being taken away to be interrogated by the warlord. Meanwhile, mercenaries that had been hired by the warlord turn on the warlord’s men, kill them and drive away. Superman arrives to rescue Lois and does so by pushing the warlord through a wall. The whole incident destabilizes the region, and not much is known beyond Superman showed up and a bunch of people died.

Back in the States a senate committee is convened is investigate the effects of Superman on society. The committee leader, Senator Finch takes issue with Superman acting of his own accord with no one to answer to. She poses the questions “which lives count, and which ones do not?” and how he chooses to when to intervene. She invites him to come and speak on his behalf.

On television we see various interviews interspersed with images of Superman rescuing people and being treated with reverence. The interviewees discuss the effect of Superman on society and the inevitable comparison to a messianic figure.

Meanwhile as Clark Kent he keeps hearing about a ‘Bat Vigilante’ in Gotham. He wants to investigate the figure but Perry keeps assigning him shallow pieces on sports and society parties. Ironically at one of these parties he meets Bruce Wayne and overhears Alfred talking to him on his earpiece.

Despite his efforts to hide it it’s clear that the events and what people are saying is weighing on him. He sees the actions of Batman acting without scrutiny and not held to the same standard as him. This is not helped when he’s sent anonymous mail with pictures of Batman’s ‘victims’ where Batman branded someone with a bat symbol. These images clearly get under his skin.

He decides to attend the senate hearing but before he can say anything a bomb goes off killing everyone around him while he looks on in horror.

A distraught Superman talks to Lois about how he no longer believes in Superman and that he hasn’t been doing good. He hikes in the arctic for some solitude and has a vision of Jonathan Kent. Jonathan tells him a story of how when he was a kid he and his dad diverted a river to avoid flooding their farm causing someone else’s farm to flood instead. He felt much the way Clark is feeling now and what brought him out of it was meeting Martha and falling in love showing there was good in the world.

Here we’ll now switch to discussing Lex Luthor’s role in the film.

Lex Luthor

Lex is the string tying this movie together. It’s not obvious at first but in time it’s revealed he’s the mastermind of the events. Through what we see him do and Lois’ investigation of the events in the desert we find out that Lex has been maneuvering Superman and Batman on a collision course. It was Lex’s mercs in the desert that killed the soldiers and framed Superman, it was Lex smuggling the Kryptonite into Metropolis for Batman to take. When confronted by Superman he admits to sending Bruce the denied cheques and Clark the photos to enrage them both. He’s the one who planted the bomb in the senate meeting by hiding it in the man’s wheelchair. He’s been aware of both secret identities from the start of the movie and playing them like a fiddle the entire time. In the background he’s arranged access to Zod’s ship and corpse and is using the ship to perform some sort of revival experiment on Zod.

On the night of the main fight, he’s kidnapped Lois and Martha both. He throws Lois off a building to summon Superman. Superman saves Lois and confronts Lex who confesses to everything and reveals that unless he fights and kills Batman while he records it for the world to see he’ll kill Martha. Lex wants to prove that Superman is not perfect and not a god and to tear him down in the eyes of the world. Superman fearing he has no other choice flies off to confront Batman. Meanwhile Lex flies off to Zod’s ship.

To be continued in part 2.