Batman Vs. Superman: Five Biggest Controversies

For a movie that only just received an official name, it seems like there has been an awful lot of [...]

By Jamie Lovett

dawn-of-justice-logo

For a movie that only just received an official name, it seems like there has been an awful lot of drama surrounding Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. It's partly expected for a film that some fans have been waiting their whole life to see, but every new bit of news surrounding the film seems to set off a new batch of outrage on the Internet. Let's look back at the biggest controversies surrounding the film so far. The Name I guess we should start with the name that I just mentioned. After months of waiting, the official title to the film everyone was referring to as Batman vs. Superman turned out to be Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. So what's in a name? Apparently a lot because a lot of fans have been pretty angry about it. They're not entirely wrong. Dawn of Justice sounds like it could be the name of an ironic satire of a superhero film. Personally, I have more of a problem with the "v." party. Batman v. Superman sounds more adversarial than I like. I realize it's mostly semantics, but I'd feel a lot better about the whole thing if it were retitled Batman & Superman. Also, Superman getting second billing in his own film sequel? That seems kind of unfair.

Captain America The Winter Soldier Box Office

The Delay Back in January, Warner Bros. announced that Batman vs. Superman had been delayed from its original release date of July 17, 2015 until May 6, 2016. While Warner Bros. claims it was to give filmmakers the time they needed to to fully realize their vision for the film, fans naturally took it as an indication that said filmmakers had absolutely no idea what they were doing. Then there's the fact that the new release date was one already staked out by Marvel for a then unnamed movie, which was later announced to be Captain America 3. This has led to a lot of partisan fanboy shouting over which company they have no actual stake in has a more legitimate claim to the release date. Most experts expect one company or the other to move their date so as to avoid a mutually detrimental shared opening weekend, but so far neither company has budged.

Gal Gadot's Controversial CommercialGal Gadot Cast as Wonder Woman

Another controversy came when Warner Bros. announced that Gal Gadot would be playing Wonder Woman in the film. The first reaction was, "Wait, Wonder Woman is in Batman vs. Superman?" This led to natural speculation about a potential Justice League movie, which has since been confirmed. The other reaction was complete objectification of the actress, claiming that she could in no way play Wonder Woman because she wasn't big enough. Nevermind the fact that Wonder Woman is a fictional character and therefore has no defined dimensions beyond what the creators give her, or the fact that actors regularly alter their body builds to fit a specific role, especially in superhero movies. Gal Gadot? Too small.

Jesse EisenbergJesse Eisenberg Cast as Lex Luthor

Another casting controversy: Jesse Eisenberg is cast as Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor. There was a whole litany of complaints against this decision, and they're still being recited today. Eisenberg is too young, too subdued, has too much hair, just name it. It didn't help that so many fans had all but confirmed Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor in their minds, based largely on the fact that he was bald in that one television show. Admittedly, Eisenberg hasn't played a character with as large a personality as Lex Luthor, at least not that I can recall, but who's to say he's not up to the challenge? Everyone remembers how wrong they felt like Heath Ledger was for the Joker when he was first cast in The Dark Knight, right?

batman-mobileBatfleck

The biggest casting controversy of them all came when Ben Affleck was announced as the new Batman. The news was talked about so much on Twitter and other social networks that it spawned the celebrity relationship-like nickname Batfleck, as if everyone just found out that Batman and Affleck were an item. Fans were revolted by this news and began having flashbacks to Affleck's last superhero role in Daredevil. But everyone knows that 2003 Daredevil wasn't all Affleck's fault, right? There was also the bad writing, bad directing, and much worse casting choices than Affleck as Daredevil. Sure, there's a lot riding on Affleck's performance in this film, but maybe give the guy even a small benefit of the doubt? Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice comes to theaters May 6, 2016.

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