2014 Movie News Archives

May 22, 2014: Implications of the "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" Movie Title

Dawn of Justice Yesterday's press release from Warner Bros. announcing that the follow-up to "Man of Steel" is officially titled "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" sparked some heated debate across the internet.

Many Superman fans complained about Batman getting top billing in the title, and while that might be the obvious reaction, I've seen some interesting counter arguments debating whether or not "Batman v Superman" isn't so much about Batman getting top billing, but more of an indication of the story and premise of the film.

Is it called "Batman v Superman" because Batman is the antagonist? Is it titled that because Batman is the one confronting Superman?

If it was titled "Superman v Batman", then wouldn't that intimate that Superman was the one positioning himself against Batman?

Or are we reaching at straws, trying to justify the order of the title to make ourselves feel better about it?

Or is it simply a case of "characters listed in alphabetical order"?

Or is it really because Batman is currently more popular and so his name goes first?

Many Superman fans still feel slighted. This was announced as "another Superman movie" by Zack Snyder at Comic Con last year, but currently feels less like a Superman sequel and more like a Justice League prequel. And that's fair enough. If it was announced as such at the start, then I don't think people would feel angry about Batman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg "taking over" Superman's film. If Zack Snyder had announced that they weren't just making another film with Superman in it, but were going to also be including Batman and other heroes as a stepping stone towards making a "Justice League" film, then I think everyone would have been on board with that, and we wouldn't see all these Memes on Facebook about Batman taking over Superman's sequel.

If you take a step back for a moment, and just think about it - we're getting a live-action film with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman all in the one movie! How cool is that?! Forget about whose name is where in the title (let's just call it "Dawn of Justice" and leave it at that), this is a Justice League prequel!

And "Man of Steel" started it all!

Whatever you think of it, "Dawn of Justice" is an obvious tip of the hat to the fact that this is a prequel to a Justice League movie. In and of itself it's not a bad title, but without Superman and Batman's names before it, the average moviegoer wouldn't recognize it as being what it is. The "Batman v Superman" part is the "Ooh! Ah! I wanna see this!" grabber to fill seats at theatres. It may be somewhat childish, but it will resonate with the man in the street in a much more profound way than "World's Finest" or some other variation. Even "Batman/Superman: Dawn of Justice" isn't as attention-grabbing as "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". It's one of those quintessential questions: Who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman? Chocolate or Vanilla? Mac or PC? DC or Marvel?

(Sure, you and I know that Superman vs Batman is a two second fight that ends with Batman a pile of ash in the corner... but, that's beside the point.)

At the end of the day, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" is going to be a blockbuster film. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Steve Younis

You might also like to read an article by Mark Hughes at Forbes.com about this subject.



2014 Movie News

Listed below are all the Movie News items archived for 2014 organized into various categories:

“Superman/Batman” Movie News:

“Justice League” Movie News: “Man of Steel” Movie News: “Justice League: War” Animated Movie News: “Justice League: Throne of Atlantis” Animated Movie News: LEGO Animated Movie News: Christopher Reeve Movie News: Other Movie News:

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