A few months ago, when I came to know about this movie and also saw the trailer, my first reaction was made of just two words, why and how? Batman and Superman both are superheroes fighting for justice like good against evil, right? Then why on Earth would they turn against each other? What made them or in what circumstances, they became adversary? But more than that to be answered, I have got to know how Batman matched his strength with that of Superman. The Man of Steel is not a human, but rather an alien, a Kryptonian by birth. Since the Kryptonian Star was much older and bigger than our Sun and the higher gravity that Krypton had compared to our Earth, the strong molecular structure in his body cells, gave him this unbelievable strength like a God. We have seen in all previous Superman movies that his strength has no credible limit. What kind of heavy things Superman can move or lift just by using his bare hands? A Car, a Bus, a Ship, a Mountain, a Continent, or even a Planet! Practically all of them. Zack Snyder (Director) has already shown us in his previous movie "Man of Steel" that Superman should have credible limited strength without compromising the laws of Physics. Superman's biological father Jor-El once advised his son Kal-El (Superman) to keep testing his limits and that is exactly what Superman has been doing so far. He is the savior, the new God of Earth.
Batman is 100% pure human. He may be the strongest amongst all humans but in comparison with the strength of Superman, his strength might seem naive. So, why would a human even dare to challenge a God? What compels him to do so? Only anger, hatred, or the quest for vengeance can drive a human to choose such a path of challenging a God in a battle. If I want to spend some words to describe Batman (played by Ben Affleck), he seems to be a little older compared to his predecessors in all previous Batman movies. The actor himself is quite old but it is in the script that this Batman has been acting like a vigilante in Gotham City for the last 20 years and the script never tried to make this Batman look younger. Maybe that is why Ben Affleck was the perfect choice for this role. But surprisingly, this Batman is using Body Armor on top of his usual Batman Suit. He also looks stronger and bulkier than ever as the director perhaps wanted to make him look well-prepared against Superman. But I have noticed one more feature in Batman’s characteristics. Christian Bale who played the role of Batman in the last Dark Knight Trilogy, used to deepen his natural voice while talking with people. Why does Batman do that? Is it the part of disguise or is it because of the reason that no one should recognize his original voice? Take any normal human being or for that matter, take yourself. Somebody will only do that if he needs to make himself look more mature. Come on! Batman doesn’t need to do that. If covering up the real identity is the sole purpose of deepening one’s voice, one should take technical help and that is exactly what Batman has done in this movie.
These two superheroes come from two different cities. Superman represents Metropolis and Batman comes from Gotham City as I used to know from their stories. Some critics say that these two cities are the two sides of the same coin. These two fictional cities were created keeping the city of New York in mind. No wonder someone finds similarities between the skylines of these two cities. Some even say that New York is Metropolis in daylight and Gotham at night. But the stories of these two superheroes were different and so were their cities. Even in this movie, the script has kept these two cities as different ones. When Superman was engaged in that great battle with General Zod in Metropolis, Bruce Wayne arrived at the scene and much to our surprise, was trying to save the employees in the Wayne Tower. Now I am baffled. Wayne Tower is in Metropolis? This Wayne Tower, which belongs to the Wayne Enterprise of which the owner is Bruce Wayne himself, should be in Gotham City instead of Metropolis, isn't it? I guess, the scriptwriters desperately wanted to make these two superheroes fight with each other which would raise the level of interest among the people towards this movie but to do so, they also had to give or construct a very good reason for preparing the ground for this epic battle between Batman and Superman. So, they created one such reason. Bruce Wayne saw his Wayne Tower along with the employees, toppling down to the ground at Metropolis as a result of the fight between Superman and General Zod. Bruce Wayne holds Superman responsible for the death of not only those employees of Wayne Enterprise but also thousands of people in Metropolis. So, driven by the pursuit of justice or the vendetta for those dead people, Bruce Wayne AKA Batman then set his new goal of bringing Superman to justice. Come on! This is superhero vs. superhero you are talking about. One can understand that this is not the ultimate battle because both are fighting for good. Maybe their ways of dealing with evil, are different but any one of them cannot be projected as a villain. Batman just used the excuse of controlling the God like Superman who might be the savior of good at least for now but if not controlled by someone in this world, he might turn into evil anytime in the future, who knows! Keeping this vendetta part aside, if I may say that Batman was simply jealous and couldn't accept the fact that there was a new superhero in town and he had to neutralize this new threat which can snatch away his glory of being the savior of the city. But that was not in the script, just my version of describing the motive behind his intentions for challenging Superman on the ground. Suppose you are Batman and if you know that you are no match with Superman, then how would you prepare yourself even before going to face to face with Superman? You have two options, either you have to raise your level of strength to his level or you have to somehow make his strength down to match with yours. It was no longer a secret to the people of Earth that Kryptonite is such an element that acts like venom to a Kryptonian like Superman and can drain all his powers out for at least a few moments and that might give Batman the window of opportunity to defeat Superman. Then comes the enemy or arch-human nemesis of Superman, if you may see him in that way, Lex Luthor. His highly efficient human criminal mind always tries to find new ways to vanquish Superman. Once Kryptonite was found in the Indian Ocean region, both Lex Luthor and Batman went after that Kryptonite because they knew that Kryptonite was the weapon they needed if they wanted to defeat Superman. Eventually, Batman got that Kryptonite.
When Lex Luthor kidnapped Superman's foster mother Martha Kent and blackmailed him to face Batman's challenge, he said to Superman that even God gets down to his knees before the will of a man. Then came the moment of truth, the superlative battle which we have been waiting for. Batman made good use of Kryptonite and built some special weapons like Kryptonite Gas Shells and even a Kryptonite Spear. Equipped with these special weapons, well-prepared Batman managed to defeat Superman. While fighting with Superman, Batman makes him suffer a lot and delivers some special dialogue like “Smell the fear” during the moment when the Kryptonite Gas Shell bursts and makes Superman vulnerable. Batman even said, “Men are brave but you are not even a man”. Very well, Batman is brave and strong, agreed. But when Superman gets his powers back as the effect of Kryptonite Gas doesn’t last longer, Batman suddenly stops fighting and raises his right hand towards Superman in an almost surrendering posture. That doesn’t match with his dialogues, does it? But I have found an interesting reaction from the audience. If God appears and likes to fulfill your wish that he will give you the power of either Superman or Batman, then what wish would you like to make for, Superman or Batman? Superman because most of the people will agree with you that Superman's powers are superior than those of Batman. Now there is a dilemma. Batman's glory, glamour, and style are not at all inferior to Superman's power. But if the audience is asked and left no option but to take a side, then what would you expect from the audience? If you have thought that most of them would pick Superman, then I am afraid that you were wrong. When Batman was kicking Superman's ass, most of the people in the audience were applauding. I wondered, why? People are emotional and when they realize that even a human can defeat a God with his strong willpower, intelligence, and skill, they easily get attached to that human, and in this movie, Batman. But when Batman was just about to kill Superman with that Kryptonite Spear, Superman pleaded to him to save his mother "Martha Kent", Batman hesitated and got over that desire of accomplishing his revenge. Batman was also stunned for a moment because "Martha" was also a familiar name to him. Batman's mother was also known with the same name "Martha". Coincidence, huh?
Then both Batman and Superman set their immediate goals like Batman to rescue "Martha" and Superman to deal with Lex Luthor. This scoundrel Lex Luthor, with his great criminal mind, had a backup plan for dealing with Superman. Remember that Kryptonian Scout Ship crashed at Metropolis in the movie “Man of Steel”. That Scout Ship was still 37% operational and got the Genesis chamber inside it. Lex Luthor earned access inside that ship by managing a US Senator in exchange for a promise of building a destructive game-changer weapon based on alien technology and delivering it to the government of the USA. As far as I can remember the story of "Man of Steel" was directed by Zack Snyder, I think there were two Master Keys for these Scout Ships. One came to Earth along with the spacecraft which carried infant Superman to Earth. That Master Key which used to contain the conscience of Jor-El, the biological father of Superman, went to the Phantom Zone during the great battle of Metropolis. The other Master Key which was owned by General Zod, was still attached to the Mainframe Computer of that crashed Scout Ship. I was under the impression that the programming of these Master Keys is unchangeable like ROM in our Computers or Mobile Phones. So, that second Master Key could only be activated by General Zod himself. Since General Zod was dead, Lex Luthor used the fingerprint of Zod and activated that Master Key. Well well well, up to this point, the story was acceptable but isn't it obvious that the Mainframe Computer of that alien Scout Ship should have identified the fake General Zod immediately after using that Master Key by Lex Luthor? But much to our surprise, that alien Computer not only accepted the fact that General Zod was dead but also accepted the authority of Lex Luthor. This is proof that even ROM can be reprogrammed in alien technology which is supposed to be much superior to ours. But logically is it acceptable or is it a small error in the script?
The appearances of Wonder Woman and monster Doomsday were expected and so were the very few appearances of Aquaman, Cyborg, and Flash because it was evident that all the characters of DC Comics were gradually coming together to form an alliance called “Justice League”. This alliance is more like “Avengers” which is also based on the characters of Marvel comics. All the events in this movie are heading in the direction of forming that alliance. Frankly speaking, I didn’t like the looks of this monster Doomsday. Even though he is a monster and should look like one if you consider the fact that this monster was the creation of alien technology, you expect little more when it comes to the looks or get-ups of such a monster. Anyway, Doomsday was killed by Superman with that same Kryptonite Spear but before his death, Doomsday also killed Superman. But Superman cannot be killed or he doesn’t die at least in stories. We got the hint just before the end of the movie that Superman is certainly going to come back soon in the next movie.
