It Looks Like The Knightmare Sequence May Be Batman V Superman's Biggest Mistake

In his lengthy recap review of Batman V Superman, Kevin Smith says that the Knightmare sequence crystalises the movie's divisive nature for him, pointing particularly to the moment where one of Darkseid's parademons flies down and attacks Batman. According to him, that overriding glee at simply seeing these characters and this world on the big screen is enough to brush aside any amount of sloppy filmmaking for long-standing DC fans, while leaving those who know Batman best from other screen incarnations in the cold.

Now Smith certainly has a point. The release of Batman V Superman has certainly shown a divide between die-hard comic fans and just about everyone else, and the Knightmare sequence is a central part of that, although I'd say it sums up the film for a different reason.

OK, so partway through Batman V Superman, Bruce Wayne is sat at his computer and then all of a sudden we cut to this completely different world where Batman's in desert gear and the landscape is ravaged by pillars of fire and Darkseid's logo. He falls into a trap set by Superman's Injustice-esque soldiers and, after shooting a few of the assailants, is captured and chained up. Superman turns up, looking as grumpy as we've come to expect from Henry Cavill, and after lazering a couple of other hostages, punches Bruce's heart out.

Then Bruce wakes up, only to have The Flash appear out of a portal and shout about saving Lois Lane and Bruce needing to bring the Justice League together. Then Bruce wakes up again, with papers flying about his office, and promptly gets back to Dick Cheney-ing Superman.

It's one of two painfully overt sequences in the movie alluding to the Justice League's formation and their clash with the New God, coming out of nowhere and being forgotten just as swiftly (until a very strange mention near the end which I'll get to). All in all, not a great scene, despite being one of the most interesting isolated short films in this choppily edited feature.

Now I thought the meaning of this sequence should be plainly obvious to anyone with a passing knowledge of DC lore or even just a simple understanding of how movies are supposed to work, but that seems to not be the case.

There's been a recent slew of stories jumping off an interview with storyboard artist Jay Oliva where he presents the case that the Knightmare sequence isn't a dream, but actually a latent memory, with Bruce's consciousness transplanted into his potential future self by a Flash-induced Time Boom, an attempt by future Barry Allen to influence the creation of the Justice League. In layman's terms, it's a time-travel vision.

Everyone's loving this explanation for the scene, allowing them to look at it in a new way and better understand its part in the ongoing DC Extended Universe. But... wasn't that the point of the scene in the first place?

Seriously, how else can you read the sequence than as Oliva describes it? If it was just in situ then yes, I'd happily accept it as a dream, but when you have The Flash popping up to say "Hi" ahead of his LexCorp branded teaser it's clear there's more afoot, no?

I watched various reports on this quote pop up online in confusion, and then it dawned on me; the Knightmare sequence isn't just shoehorned-in foreshadowing to Darkseid (though it is that too), but the biggest mistake in Batman V Superman, a perfect emblem of how confused it is, and no amount of parademons can make up for that.

For a breakdown of how the Knightmare sequence falls apart, click next.