A bit of geek speculation on the latest Dawn of Justice clip
I can't link to it from here, but I'll try to edit later to add the clip. It's the 45-second one from Jimmy Kimmel the other night.
DISCLAIMER: I know that some are already primed to hate on this film, but I don't mind. That just means more space for me in the theater. I also try to take a "yeah, but this part was cool" approach to superhero movies, since they might suck overall but will probably have at least some great moments.
So in that latest clip, we see a couple of great moments that distinguish the characters from each other:
Superman heaves Batman through the Bat-signal spotlight. This is a simple way for Superman to show his general contempt for Batman.
Batman takes it: he doesn’t fight back (in this clip, at least) until he’s where he wants to be. He knows he can’t be faster or stronger than Superman, so he doesn’t waste any effort trying.
Bats pulls out the smoke grenade: he’s so slow and deliberate about it that Superman clearly thinks it’s absurd. He knows that it won’t hurt him, so he thinks it’s no big deal. That’s why he zooms through it rather than blowing it out of the way.
Superman is also spoiled and cocky: he bursts through the cloud and is surprised to see that Bats isn’t where he expected. Superman doesn’t even spot him until Bats cocks that gun, by which point it’s more or less too late.
Superman catches the bullet, another cocky move: As we’ve seen many times, bullets bounce harmlessly off of him, so he catches this one as a kind of F-U to Batman.
All of this shows that Batman is in control of the fight, even if he’s physically getting his butt stomped. Other than Zodd, Superman hasn’t faced anyone who can beat him, so he hasn’t had any incentive to develop strategies other than “be really strong.” For that matter, he beat Zodd by “being really strong.” Batman simply holds off until the time is right.
A friend also made a point about Batman's armor, clearly inspired by book four The Dark Knight Returns. Superman probably thinks that Batman wore it in a futile attempt to put him on equal footing. Actually, the armor is meant to keep Batman from getting squished in the first half-second of the fight. For several reasons it seems likely that Batman doses Superman with Kryptonite at some point (probably that bullet), which drastically diminishes his strength. That's when the armor comes into play, because Bats can duke it out with reduced-power Superman. And that's when the fight really starts.
I don’t know how the overall movie will be, but it’s clear that they planned the fight scene with real care. Fun stuff!
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