Batman V Superman: 10 Mistakes It Made That Justice League Must Avoid

4. Characters That Don't Fit

Lex Luthor
Warner Bros.

The impact of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy can still be felt in the DCEU to this day - Zack Snyder and his team carried on the dark, gritty torch from The Dark Knight Rises into Man Of Steel, solidifying the DC slate as a more grounded take on superhero lore. But in Batman v Superman, in bounds Lex Luthor, an overbearingly cartoonish character that feels like he was plucked out of a Joel Schumacher Batman flick.

Luthor would have absolutely worked in another movie - just not this one. Imagine if Heath Ledger's Joker had popped up in Batman & Robin; it would've been ridiculous. Batman v Superman had a similar fish-out-of-water problem, and Eisenberg's quirky take on the villain just seemed at odds with the darker nature of the entire production.

Justice League needs to be careful here - a character like this can remove audiences from a scene and make them question whether or not the filmmakers understand the story they're telling. If the film is darker, then a Joker or Winter Soldier-type villain would work well, and if it's lighter, a Loki or an Ultron would be a perfect match. As long as everything feels like it belongs in the same picture, Justice League stands a better shot at being more enjoyable.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.