People had quite a few complaints about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and chief among them was a Batman who didn't stick to his never kill code. While people enjoyed Ben Affleck's performance, a Batman who was so willingly violent left many uneasy. We all know that Batman definitely killed people in the movie, but we didn't have an idea of how many until now.
The YouTuber Mr. Sunday Movies has made a supercut tallying up every time Batman killed someone in the superhero film.
The final number comes in at 21 kills, not counting the Knightmare where Batman shoots people down in a very specific dream. This is by no means an official count (I don't think they'd ever release an official count of Batman murders), but it's probably the most accurate number we could get. The video comes from Mr. Sunday Movies, a name that might be familiar to some. He's made other superhero kill count videos that have gone viral, like how many people Superman and Batman have killed in all their movies combined, or Captain America's insane amount of kills in Age of Ultron. In fact, it was his Batman Movie Kill Count that Zack Snyder used as an excuse as to why he felt it was okay to have Batman murder people.
The scenes shown in the video include the part where Batman chases after Lex Luthor's goons in the Batmobile, blowing up their cars and crushing them with his glorified tank, as well as the scene where Batman saves Martha Kent by killing everyone in his way. 21 is the highest kill count of any Batman movie; the second highest is Tim Burton's Batman coming in at 17. Maybe it's the age of that particular movie, but it doesn't feel as wrong that Michael Keaton's Batman murders people. It's a bit hypocritical, but maybe we judge BVS harder because it's a worse film and doesn't have many saving graces to help us forgive it.
This video shows Batman killing like 12 people in two minutes with no regret, illuminating the issue in the film. I think that audiences are willing to accept a brutal Batman given the right reasons, but the film is so unabashedly violent. It celebrates Batman's behavior in fist pumping action scenes and explains it away that he's just killing people by proxy. Justice League is supposedly going to feature a brighter Batman looking to change his ways, so it sounds like the hero's killing days are all in the past.
For those of you who did like an edgier Batman, the unrated and definitely more violent Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Ultimate Edition is available digitally right now, with DVD's hitting shelves on July 19. Pick up a copy if you want to see what could have been.
