Not The Culmination Of Years Of Work

Something I'd forgotten was that, over the Thanksgiving weekend, I saw a bit more of Batman v Superman while at my dad's. It wasn't planned; he fell asleep before he moved the dog out of my room, and I wasn't sure where he was supposed to end up, and I don't like to disrupt his sleep, and there was nothing else on to watch, so there I was.

I got up to about the point where the title characters were beating each other to a pulp. I have to say, if Superman was really going to try reasoning with Batman, maybe don't do the aggressive hard landing with the clenched fists. Float down, hands raised, try to appear non-aggressive. I don't think it would have mattered, Batsy was spoiling for a fight, but it would have felt like a more legitimate attempt to settle things peaceably. I know, his mother was in danger, not necessarily thinking clearly at the time, fair enough.

I'm not sure about this, but I thought, during the fight, there was a moment where the first Kryptonite vapor grenade had worn off, and Bats is punching Superman with increasingly less effect. And I could have sworn Affleck did this hands in the air, "hey, let's talk about this," gesture, right before he got put through a wall. I may be remembering it wrong, that certainly doesn't seem in keeping with the tone of the film, but I laughed about it at the time.

There was a thing I noticed though, that kind of surpised me. Luthor figured out Clark Kent is Superman, accepts that as the truth, and it doesn't feel like much of a deal. Just a way for Luthor to get Superman to fight Batman. Which, yes, is the thing the movie marketed itself on, but Luthor getting that bit of information feels like it ought to be more important. Maybe it becomes a bigger deal later, at that point when Batman has a change of heart because he realizes Superman has a mom, too. Lex screwing up his own plan by putting Martha in trouble and giving the two guys he wanted to kill each other an excuse to make nice.

I guess the problem is the movie universe hasn't yet built this long-running hatred of Superman by Luthor to where it should be a huge deal that's he's found Superman's most-guarded secret.  There isn't really any sign Luthor's been throwing death traps, Metallos, or whatever at Superman since he emerged on the world stage. So it isn't that final, crucial piece Luthor needs to achieve victory over the hated alien that stands in his way. It's just some piece of the puzzle to get these two dopes to punch each other to death. Is Superman really fucking up Lex' plans that much prior to that? Does he even know he should be trying to mess up Luthor's plans? I guess Lex is trying to be proactive, compiling all this information on various super-heroes so he can deal with them before they become problems.