If you do not live under a rock you have probably heard that "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" is in theaters. If you have heard that, you probably know that it has received horrible reviews. As it stands now, BvS has a rating of 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The "critics consensus" on the website reads: "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice smothers a potentially powerful story — and some of America's most iconic superheroes — in a grim whirlwind of effects-driven action." That's pretty tame compared to some of the individual reviews. Jason Baily said that "If a filmmaker attempted to combine everything casual moviegoers don't like about superhero franchises, they couldn't come up with a picture as execrable as this one." And J. Olsen called the film "a momentum-less ode to uncreative people everywhere that torches two of pop culture's greatest characters and uses their ashes as its own personal urinal cake." Ouch.
One major reason (among many) that a plurality of critics and laymen disliked this film is its excessively dark tone. In addition to leaving no room for any lighthearted moments, the film focuses a lot on the death and destruction Superman inadvertently causes while trying to save the day. It also features a very uncharacteristically homicidal Batman killing dozens of criminals while using guns. These dark versions of the iconic heroes fall short of mainstream audiences' moral expectations of them. Batman is expected not to kill (and to definitely not use guns) and Superman is expected not to be so careless.
To truly understand why the film's uber-bleak tone made it so hard to watch, one needs to understand why people love superhero films. Of course, most people enjoy the action sequences. The things Hollywood can make happen on the screen continue to confound me, but I think there is a deeper reason the superhero genre has become so popular.
I might be projecting my feelings on to the general public, but I believe the deeper reason people love superhero films is because they let us briefly live in a world of moral clarity. In superhero films, differences in the character, motives and behaviors of the opposing sides are clear. The altruistic hero wants to restore peace to the world, and the selfish and/or psychopathic villain wants to destroy or conquer it. How the film will end is also clear: good will triumph over evil. This makes it easy to know who to root for and to feel satisfied when the right side wins.
In contrast, the real world is full of moral complexity. Heroes are rarely pure and completely selfless, and villains are not always bad to the bone. Furthermore, one man's hero can be another man's villain. Hardcore pro-life advocates see Ted Cruz as a hero trying to fight for the rights of unborn children; whereas pro-choice advocates see him as a villain trying to control women's bodies. Superhero filmmakers steer clear of any disputed moral territory (can you imagine how Batman v. Obamacare: Health of Justice would be received in theaters?), but we in the real world cannot afford to.
We need to decide who we think the heroes and the villains are based on our values, which is not always so easy. There are pros and cons to every decision. Positive and negative consequences to every action. It is particularly frustrating when one comes across new information that recasts one's previous ethical understanding of an issue or situation. Under such circumstances many people simply reject the new information because of how painful it is to have one's deeply held views falsified.
When we go into a superhero movie, we get to leave that muddy moral grayness for a bit — we get to see unassailable good take on indisputable evil, and win. That kind of satisfaction is something we can usually only get from the realm of fiction, and I envy it. Personally, when I see Batman kick the Joker's butt, it makes me wish more than anything that I could be him. I want to be the superhero protecting the world from villainy. I want to know for certain what the right thing to do is. But unfortunately that is not how our world works, so I will continue to navigate this morally murky world of ours as best I can. That is until "Captain America: Civil War" comes out in May, in which case I get to escape again for a little longer.
