Note: I'm assuming most people who care about Batman v. Superman would have seen it by now, but I guess I should say I'm talking about that film in this essay. So...spoilers on it, Man of Steel, and Wonder Woman, y'know?
I tried "script doctoring" Jurassic World, so I thought I'd throw out some ideas about what I would have done differently with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Because multiple different films are contingent on the BvS as the flagship, tent pole, or whatever metaphor you want to use for the entire DC Extended Universe, there are likely parts from Zack Snyder's film that had to be in there as setup for the other films. In fact, that setup is part of what makes BvS such a hard film to follow. (In essence, DCEU went the opposite route of Marvel: What if The Avengers had been the third film in the franchise, with only Captain America and Iron Man coming before it? It wouldn't have worked the way that it did. DCEU is in a slightly different position, but the parallel is still there.
Anyway, here's where I would start: Face the moral failings of Man of Steel and use that as the grist for the friction between the Bat and the Cape.
See, it isn't a problem, per se, that Batman kills people (and he kills a lot of people) in BvS. He kills quite a few in the Tim Burton versions, too. Only the Nolan-verse version of Batman explicitly says that he won't kill. That provides the moral grist of the Nolan Batman films. So it isn't that Batman is a killer that I would change--there are plenty of versions of Batman that kill--it's that Superman also kills.
Okay, I'd begin the movie, not with Batman's origin in a dream (I'd like to get rid of the dream sequences as much as possible--PTSD can be shown in ways other than bizarre dreams), but the Metropolis demolition scene that we already get. It's tense, it's exciting, and it's showing a ground-level peril that was missing from Man of Steel (mostly because Perry White and the staff of The Planet don't really come off as characters we care about).
While Bruce is slaloming through Metropolis, he should save someone--because that's what Batman would do--and then he'd notice Zod and Superman crashing down into the subway station. Curious and furious (in other words, Batman's default state), Bruce would scramble to get into position and see what was happening down there. He would see Zod, eyebeams out, trying to fry a family. Superman snaps Zod's neck. Zod dies, Superman screams.
Bruce Wayne is unimpressed.
Cut to a montage of the rebuilding of Metropolis: it's slow--which makes a lot of people angry at Superman. It's not just the guy who loses his legs, but also families that have lost others. Why isn't Superman helping fix what he's broken? He said he'd be around, but he's not doing anything. Clark Kent is sitting in his apartment, listening to the conversations around the city and begins to slip into a deep depression.
Lois shows up at their apartment, surprised to see him looking like quite the mess. "What's wrong?"
"Dad was right," says Clark. "They don't understand me. They're afraid of me. They're right to do that."
Lois argues back, saying that Superman made a mistake and what happened wasn't his fault. "But ten thousand people are dead because of me!"
"Because of Zod!"
You see what I mean: Superman's failures in Man of Steel have to be confronted in this film, and he retreats as a result of the mistakes he's made.
Meanwhile, Lexcorp scientists, who have the exclusive rights to studying the alien technology, find some kryptonite, which, they learn, erodes the cells of Kryptonians. There needn't be so much emphasis on it as the real film has, but, yes, we have to learn about kryptonite and what it can do. This is also a chance for Lex Luthor to show up. Now, in the comics, Luthor is always immensely competent, in control, and unflappable (until everything goes wrong). I don't know if it matters if we get a different Luthor in this one, but his motivations--which in the film are fairly straightforward but delivered so strangely that it's hard to grasp them--would be set up this way:
SCIENTIST: Sir, I think...I think this stuff could kill Superman.
LUTHOR: [staring at the kryptonite with a look of thoughtfulness and greed] Or any other Kryptonian.
SCIENTIST: Sir?
LUTHOR: We've learned the answer to the greatest question of humankind: Are we alone in the universe? We're not. And those that come here are killers. We have to be ready for them.
The audience, of course, would think, No, Superman's the last one, but the other humans on the planet don't know that. The information about Zod's plan was shared with Superman--that's it. So the rest of humanity is reasonably assuming that there are more Supermen out in space, eager to destroy human life on the planet. Luthor is one of them.
Going back to Bruce, we see that he's been studying Superman--much as we get in the real film. He's put together some leads on who he think Superman is, including tracing his accent to the mid-West. A sequence of Batman being a detective comes into play, perhaps with some Batman moments of him hunting down people who know, just so we get some bat-action. Some cameos from the characters in Man of Steel could be used, including a moment where Bruce is driving through Smallville, looking at the ruined buildings. He's stopped at a diner. "Ain't you Bruce Wayne? Say, could you spare $50? I need to feed my kids, y'know?" Bruce sees more of the damage that Superman has done and his resolution grows. He decides he's going to set up a foundation to help Superman victims.
With the tide of popular opinion rising against him, Superman's anger and disillusionment grows. He gets into an argument with Lois and, in a pique of passion, hits the table. It shatters, and he realizes that he's losing control. He flies away, hoping to clear his head.
As he flies--in an homage to the original Superman film--the words of his father and Papa Kent come into his mind. He's majorly conflicted, when he sees a disaster happening nearby. What it is doesn't matter, so whatever strikes your fancy: Saving the exploding shuttle, picking up a sinking tanker, whatever. Just, I dunno, skip the White Savior trope of a bunch of brown people bowing to him. The point is, after saving some people, Superman smiles a little. This feels good. Helping people is the right thing.
Rejuvenated, he comes back to work and gets an assignment to go to a swanky party. Something about a joint venture between Wayne Enterprises and Lexcorp. Happy to be back, he and Lois go together--it's an excuse to dress up and he looks good in a tux. There can even be some playful banter about how he thinks tuxedos are uncomfortable and she jokes about how he wears a onsie with a cape and he can pretend that bugs him. In other words, we get some humanizing moments of Clark, that he's overcoming the mental anguish that's been plaguing him since coming out to the world.
The party is about to start, but the Lexcorp scientist from before comes rushing in, excited. "Sir, we've discovered a way to weaponize it!" Luthor pats the guy on the back, sending up a green cloud of kryptonite dust. "Keep working," Luthor says, frowning at the dust on his hands. He wipes it away, but some of it sticks.
At the party, Lex is introduced to Clark Kent, he makes some eyes at Lois, and, after shaking Kent's hand, is surprised to see that Clark doesn't feel well. Lois is incredibly concerned, pulls Clark to one side, and they chat about what it could be. The mystery has them worried, but Clark recovers quickly and they decide to go on about the party. Bruce Wayne shows up, acting super distracted and in full "Bruce Wayne, billionaire" mode, thus giving us a true example of Batman's alter ego.
Then the big announcement comes: The joint venture is a fund for, as Luthor will phrase it, "doing what Superman never does: Helping people." The new foundation will use Wayne Tech non-lethal weapons to create a way to stand up to Superman for the next time he goes on a killing spree, while Lexcorp will provide financial relief to those affected by Superman-related recklessness. The idea will be to hammer home all of the moral failings that Superman has in Man of Steel and undo the good that has happened with his coping mechanisms.
Distraught, Clark excuses himself, Lois goes after him, and we see Diana Prince walking through the party. Wayne notices her, sees her duck into a hallway, and manages to follow after. He catches her prowling toward Lex's office, moving in a way that shows her competence as a warrior. Bruce follows suit--it's a quick sequence that shows both these characters as capable and not to be underestimated. She arrives in the office and begins rifling about, looking for something. She finds it--we don't see it (but, spoiler, it's the photo from Wonder Woman), because an alarm goes off. Cursing to herself, she moves to take the item, but Wayne steps out and grabs her arm. "You shouldn't take what doesn't belong to you," he says. Then she shrugs him off, sending him sprawling. The reaction should be, "What's her story?" She arches an eyebrow at him and says, "I don't let men hold me down." A sound as guards come into the room distracts Bruce. When he looks back, the window is open and Prince is gone.
Lex is furious that his security systems were defeated, but is appreciative that Bruce tried to do something about the theft. "I'm happy you're happy. I'm also happy that I'm drunk!" he says, deflecting suspicion. Then he says something casually sexist to make him look like a scumbag billionaire before asking, "What did she want?"
"A curiosity, nothing more," says Lex, obviously hiding something but flashing a winning smile. Bruce, in pretended-drunk mode, doesn't react to the behavior, but when he turns away from Lex, his face straightens. Something else is going on, and he's going to figure it out.
Superman returns to Kansas, where Mama Kent is surprised to see him. "It's so much harder than I thought, Mom," he says during their heart to heart. "I try, but nothing I do seems to matter."
"You haven't found who you are, yet, Clark." She pauses. "Or should I say, Superman?"
"Same thing."
"No. I don't think so. You need to find out which one you are, Clark, because you can't be two people at once. Not even Superman is strong enough for that."
Superman flies home, obviously deeply troubled, but at least he has a guide.
******
And that's where I'm going to leave off for now. It's a long enough post as it stands, and obviously I'm considering a pretty long film, since we're (I think?) about half way through. Stay tuned for the second half! Same bat-time; same bat-channel.
I tried "script doctoring" Jurassic World, so I thought I'd throw out some ideas about what I would have done differently with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Because multiple different films are contingent on the BvS as the flagship, tent pole, or whatever metaphor you want to use for the entire DC Extended Universe, there are likely parts from Zack Snyder's film that had to be in there as setup for the other films. In fact, that setup is part of what makes BvS such a hard film to follow. (In essence, DCEU went the opposite route of Marvel: What if The Avengers had been the third film in the franchise, with only Captain America and Iron Man coming before it? It wouldn't have worked the way that it did. DCEU is in a slightly different position, but the parallel is still there.
Anyway, here's where I would start: Face the moral failings of Man of Steel and use that as the grist for the friction between the Bat and the Cape.
See, it isn't a problem, per se, that Batman kills people (and he kills a lot of people) in BvS. He kills quite a few in the Tim Burton versions, too. Only the Nolan-verse version of Batman explicitly says that he won't kill. That provides the moral grist of the Nolan Batman films. So it isn't that Batman is a killer that I would change--there are plenty of versions of Batman that kill--it's that Superman also kills.
Okay, I'd begin the movie, not with Batman's origin in a dream (I'd like to get rid of the dream sequences as much as possible--PTSD can be shown in ways other than bizarre dreams), but the Metropolis demolition scene that we already get. It's tense, it's exciting, and it's showing a ground-level peril that was missing from Man of Steel (mostly because Perry White and the staff of The Planet don't really come off as characters we care about).
While Bruce is slaloming through Metropolis, he should save someone--because that's what Batman would do--and then he'd notice Zod and Superman crashing down into the subway station. Curious and furious (in other words, Batman's default state), Bruce would scramble to get into position and see what was happening down there. He would see Zod, eyebeams out, trying to fry a family. Superman snaps Zod's neck. Zod dies, Superman screams.
Bruce Wayne is unimpressed.
Cut to a montage of the rebuilding of Metropolis: it's slow--which makes a lot of people angry at Superman. It's not just the guy who loses his legs, but also families that have lost others. Why isn't Superman helping fix what he's broken? He said he'd be around, but he's not doing anything. Clark Kent is sitting in his apartment, listening to the conversations around the city and begins to slip into a deep depression.
Lois shows up at their apartment, surprised to see him looking like quite the mess. "What's wrong?"
"Dad was right," says Clark. "They don't understand me. They're afraid of me. They're right to do that."
Lois argues back, saying that Superman made a mistake and what happened wasn't his fault. "But ten thousand people are dead because of me!"
"Because of Zod!"
You see what I mean: Superman's failures in Man of Steel have to be confronted in this film, and he retreats as a result of the mistakes he's made.
Meanwhile, Lexcorp scientists, who have the exclusive rights to studying the alien technology, find some kryptonite, which, they learn, erodes the cells of Kryptonians. There needn't be so much emphasis on it as the real film has, but, yes, we have to learn about kryptonite and what it can do. This is also a chance for Lex Luthor to show up. Now, in the comics, Luthor is always immensely competent, in control, and unflappable (until everything goes wrong). I don't know if it matters if we get a different Luthor in this one, but his motivations--which in the film are fairly straightforward but delivered so strangely that it's hard to grasp them--would be set up this way:
SCIENTIST: Sir, I think...I think this stuff could kill Superman.
LUTHOR: [staring at the kryptonite with a look of thoughtfulness and greed] Or any other Kryptonian.
SCIENTIST: Sir?
LUTHOR: We've learned the answer to the greatest question of humankind: Are we alone in the universe? We're not. And those that come here are killers. We have to be ready for them.
The audience, of course, would think, No, Superman's the last one, but the other humans on the planet don't know that. The information about Zod's plan was shared with Superman--that's it. So the rest of humanity is reasonably assuming that there are more Supermen out in space, eager to destroy human life on the planet. Luthor is one of them.
Going back to Bruce, we see that he's been studying Superman--much as we get in the real film. He's put together some leads on who he think Superman is, including tracing his accent to the mid-West. A sequence of Batman being a detective comes into play, perhaps with some Batman moments of him hunting down people who know, just so we get some bat-action. Some cameos from the characters in Man of Steel could be used, including a moment where Bruce is driving through Smallville, looking at the ruined buildings. He's stopped at a diner. "Ain't you Bruce Wayne? Say, could you spare $50? I need to feed my kids, y'know?" Bruce sees more of the damage that Superman has done and his resolution grows. He decides he's going to set up a foundation to help Superman victims.
With the tide of popular opinion rising against him, Superman's anger and disillusionment grows. He gets into an argument with Lois and, in a pique of passion, hits the table. It shatters, and he realizes that he's losing control. He flies away, hoping to clear his head.
As he flies--in an homage to the original Superman film--the words of his father and Papa Kent come into his mind. He's majorly conflicted, when he sees a disaster happening nearby. What it is doesn't matter, so whatever strikes your fancy: Saving the exploding shuttle, picking up a sinking tanker, whatever. Just, I dunno, skip the White Savior trope of a bunch of brown people bowing to him. The point is, after saving some people, Superman smiles a little. This feels good. Helping people is the right thing.
Rejuvenated, he comes back to work and gets an assignment to go to a swanky party. Something about a joint venture between Wayne Enterprises and Lexcorp. Happy to be back, he and Lois go together--it's an excuse to dress up and he looks good in a tux. There can even be some playful banter about how he thinks tuxedos are uncomfortable and she jokes about how he wears a onsie with a cape and he can pretend that bugs him. In other words, we get some humanizing moments of Clark, that he's overcoming the mental anguish that's been plaguing him since coming out to the world.
The party is about to start, but the Lexcorp scientist from before comes rushing in, excited. "Sir, we've discovered a way to weaponize it!" Luthor pats the guy on the back, sending up a green cloud of kryptonite dust. "Keep working," Luthor says, frowning at the dust on his hands. He wipes it away, but some of it sticks.
At the party, Lex is introduced to Clark Kent, he makes some eyes at Lois, and, after shaking Kent's hand, is surprised to see that Clark doesn't feel well. Lois is incredibly concerned, pulls Clark to one side, and they chat about what it could be. The mystery has them worried, but Clark recovers quickly and they decide to go on about the party. Bruce Wayne shows up, acting super distracted and in full "Bruce Wayne, billionaire" mode, thus giving us a true example of Batman's alter ego.
Then the big announcement comes: The joint venture is a fund for, as Luthor will phrase it, "doing what Superman never does: Helping people." The new foundation will use Wayne Tech non-lethal weapons to create a way to stand up to Superman for the next time he goes on a killing spree, while Lexcorp will provide financial relief to those affected by Superman-related recklessness. The idea will be to hammer home all of the moral failings that Superman has in Man of Steel and undo the good that has happened with his coping mechanisms.
Distraught, Clark excuses himself, Lois goes after him, and we see Diana Prince walking through the party. Wayne notices her, sees her duck into a hallway, and manages to follow after. He catches her prowling toward Lex's office, moving in a way that shows her competence as a warrior. Bruce follows suit--it's a quick sequence that shows both these characters as capable and not to be underestimated. She arrives in the office and begins rifling about, looking for something. She finds it--we don't see it (but, spoiler, it's the photo from Wonder Woman), because an alarm goes off. Cursing to herself, she moves to take the item, but Wayne steps out and grabs her arm. "You shouldn't take what doesn't belong to you," he says. Then she shrugs him off, sending him sprawling. The reaction should be, "What's her story?" She arches an eyebrow at him and says, "I don't let men hold me down." A sound as guards come into the room distracts Bruce. When he looks back, the window is open and Prince is gone.
Lex is furious that his security systems were defeated, but is appreciative that Bruce tried to do something about the theft. "I'm happy you're happy. I'm also happy that I'm drunk!" he says, deflecting suspicion. Then he says something casually sexist to make him look like a scumbag billionaire before asking, "What did she want?"
"A curiosity, nothing more," says Lex, obviously hiding something but flashing a winning smile. Bruce, in pretended-drunk mode, doesn't react to the behavior, but when he turns away from Lex, his face straightens. Something else is going on, and he's going to figure it out.
Superman returns to Kansas, where Mama Kent is surprised to see him. "It's so much harder than I thought, Mom," he says during their heart to heart. "I try, but nothing I do seems to matter."
"You haven't found who you are, yet, Clark." She pauses. "Or should I say, Superman?"
"Same thing."
"No. I don't think so. You need to find out which one you are, Clark, because you can't be two people at once. Not even Superman is strong enough for that."
Superman flies home, obviously deeply troubled, but at least he has a guide.
******
And that's where I'm going to leave off for now. It's a long enough post as it stands, and obviously I'm considering a pretty long film, since we're (I think?) about half way through. Stay tuned for the second half! Same bat-time; same bat-channel.