Henry Cavill Has Surprisingly Few Lines In Batman V Superman

Think "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" is the official sequel to "Man of Steel," the first film marking Henry Cavill's stint as Superman in the DCEU? Think again. 

"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" was a messy spectacle. It continued the story of "Man of Steel" and addressed the aftermath of Clark Kent revealing Superman to the world. Humans both feared him and regarded him as the savior of Earth, and let's just say that there was much debate over the last son of Krypton and his existence. The film also marked the first silver screen appearance of Princess Diana of Themyscira/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and featured a new take on The Batman, with Ben Affleck being cast in the role. Although Batman and Wonder Woman had plenty to do in the film, Henry Cavill's Superman was left behind. For a titular character, Clark Kent/Superman had surprisingly few lines in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," and a Reddit user has the numbers to back that claim up. 

I know that many DC fans have mixed feelings about Henry Cavill's portrayal of Superman — but it isn't an overstatement to say that his acting prowess was criminally underused in "Man of Steel." He has the potential to be a great Superman; he looks the part and is a great actor. He was just never afforded the opportunity. 

Following "Man of Steel," fans wondered if Superman's character would change for the better in its sequel. Nevertheless, a Reddit user has discovered that Henry Cavill only had 43 lines of dialogues in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," despite being one of its two leading heroes.

The task was completed by Reddit user coolerthanabagofice, who rewatched the movie and transcribed all of Henry Cavill's dialogue. In the scene-by-scene breakdown, the user notes 43 lines spoken by the actor in the film — 42 if you eliminate his scream at the end. Superman doesn't say more than five basic lines in every scene, and only a few of them are two sentences long. Even if the superhero appears in more scenes, he's usually quiet and doesn't say a word. It's a little surprising that the makers took Superman's voice away from him, especially when the film's title includes him.

The script also sees Superman saying some stuff that is really out of character for him. When he warns Batman and half-heartedly quips, "The Bat is dead," and "Consider this mercy," the dialogue delivery is pretty off, not to mention almost laughable. It feels like the DCEU never gave Cavill's superhero a chance to be his own character, one who makes his own decisions. It's also telling that Lois Lane and Lex Luthor had more dialogues in the movie than Superman did! 

It's quite tragic that Henry Cavill had only 43 lines of dialogue in a film that was 2 hours and 31 minutes long — it's implausible that his character was once again refused the chance to shine in his own movie.