8 Things Everybody Has Wrong About Batman V Superman

4. That "Red Capes" Line Is Supposed To Be Hammy & Awkward

Here's a moment from the full-length trailer that really seems to have irked a bunch of people - especially those who are against Jesse Eisenberg's casting as Lex Luthor. The moment in question has Eisenberg's Luthor theatrically declaring: "The Red Capes are coming... the Red Capes are coming..." - a reference to the poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which has the character of Paul Revere famously warning the American military of an attack ("The Redcoats are coming!"). Lots of people attacked Eisenberg's reading of the line, calling it "awful" and "hammy." What these folk seemed to have missed, however, is the fact that it was plainly supposed to be - Eisenberg's Luthor is clearly delivering the dialogue in question in a mocking, ironic manner. The fact that it has been labelled as "hammy" by a bunch of people makes no sense at all because that is obviously the way the line was intended to be read: weird and goofy. What's more, a lot of folk seemed to have missed what is perhaps the true meaning behind this utterance: whilst it is clearly supposed to juxtapose the Superman-marked soldiers also glimpsed in the trailer, it actually makes more sense as a declaration of a new age of superheroes. Luthor is literally pointing out that the arrival of Superman has triggered the arrival of other superheroes ("Red Capes") such as Wonder Woman and Batman.