‘Batman V Superman’ Bits: Alternate Doomsday Concept Art, Cameo And Batman Origin Rehash Explained
Like it or not, everyone is still talking aboutBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justiceafter its second weekend…and we’ll probably going to be talking about it for some time yet. In this round-up of bite-sized news morsels:
In mylaundry list of complains and nitpicksconcerningBatman v Superman, one of the more minor offenders was the presentation of the unstoppable killing machine Doomsday. The cinematic version of this iconic Superman foe looked less like his comic book counterpart and more like a cave troll from theLord of the Ringstrilogy rendered in mud. He was disappointing, to say the very least.
But like all superhero movie characters (heck, like just aboutanymovie character), he went through more than a few iterations before director Zack Snyder and his team landed on that final design. Concept artistVance Kovacshas released a batch of concept artto show off a few alternate takes on the character and they all follow the same basic pattern: hulking grey thing with a messed-up face and twisted, muscular body that towers over Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. I personally prefer a few of these to final version, especially the ones that look trulyalienand bizarre. The fact that Doomsday looks so familiar to so many other major CGI baddies in the final film is a bit of a shame, especially when there were so many other options available.
Whether you liked the film or not, thisForbes interviewwith Zack Snyder is a good read, especially as it allows the director to dig deep into his work and discuss some of the decisions he made in makingBatman v Supermanhappen. Here’s one interesting excerpt, where Snyder responds to a question about Batman feeling the need to lift himself up as he tears Superman down:
Yeah, I think it is. And that’s how Lex underestimates us in a lot of ways. He doesn’t think we’re capable of rising, so he has to bring the god down, right? And look, Luthor’s a humanitarian on some level. But in that moment it was about leveling the playing field, and what seems like a vast difference between our perceived ‘god’ and our perceived ‘man’ are really just labels and sort of ways of looking, but in reality there’s this common morality they share — and a really common kind of mythology too.
You know, they’re both born and live in a world where someone can care about them and mourn them, and they can love their mother. And that’s the cool thing, you know we spend so much time with the Martha-Clark relationship that I think it kind of pays off there. You realize, oh, we needed that as viewers, so we could get to a moment with Batman where that moment with Martha resonates. Because we’ve lived on with Clark’s relationship with his mother, so that moment is like, ‘Wow, that’s ringing for me and I feel it.’
When we were shooting the title sequence, that whole idea about, ‘Do we really need to see the death of the Waynes again,’ is a big thing to take a shot at again. But you realize you need it, because it actually pays off. And I really wanted to do it all the way.
So there you go: Snyder wrestled with filming the death of the Waynes for the nth time before deciding it was necessary. Whether that is something to chew on or more fuel for your personal fire is decision you must make for yourself.
Doomsday wasn’t the only aspect of the film to go through multiple iterations. A piece of concept art byVictor Martinezpopped up on the artist’sFacebook page, offering us a glimpse at very different Superman statue than the one that ended up in the film. While the final version features Superman kneeled over and posing like a Greek god, this one is far more alien and abstract. It looks cool, but it’s more than a little creepy and it certainly doesn’t look like the kind of thing you build to honor the hero who repelled an alien invasion. But to be fair, this was most definitely one of dozens of different designs that were thrown at the wall at some point.
Proper spoilers forBatman v Supermanfollow.
By the timeBatman v Supermanhit theaters, many of the film’s big secrets had already been revealed. We had already seen Wonder Woman in action, big chunks of the titular fight were showcased in trailers, and Doomsday, the “surprise” third act villain, had already been revealed. One aspect that managed to stay secret until the film was in theaters was the cameo byKevin Costner, once again playing Jonathan Kent in a vision Superman has while standing on top of a mountain (let’s face it – it’s a weird scene).CinemaBlendrecently interviewed Costner about his new filmCriminaland asked him about it:
It was the last day of the movie for them. They didn’t even have a chance to throw a party they were so tired. It wasn’t like the first thing, where I had a series of four scenes – albeit small – that, I think, built a character. This one was very ethereal. I haven’t seen it either. So I don’t even know how it played in the movie… the metaphor of ‘try to do the right thing, and it has a downstream of something else.’ That was for Zack [Snyder].
I take issue with a few aspects of this scene (does a Superman movie need a moment where Clark’s ghost dad tells him about the time he accidentally drowned a bunch of horses?), but anyone who says that a film is not improved by the presence of Costner is a dirty liar. His cameo, while odd, was a welcome surprise for a movie that had already shown a lot of its hand.
