Why the Martha scene in Batman V Superman is actually very meaningful and important

Throwback to 2016: Remember when people went to see a “superhero movie” featuring two (actually three) of the most iconic superheroes together for the first time? For a lot of them, it wasn’t what they expected. It didn’t feel like a “superhero movie.” It was something different. Superman wasn’t smiling as much, Batman had fallen from his morals and started killing, it took place in a world that hated superheroes and their actions had consequences. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice became one of the most controversial movies of the decade.

There are either people calling Batman V Superman a great movie or one of the worst in the genre. Now, the liking or not liking the different versions of characters is definitely subjective, but the movie definitely had a lot of uniqueness to it. The movie features great dialogues from both protagonists and antagonists, clever parallels and ideologies through writing, and great cinematography. It also includes some amazing action sequences.

To this day, the movie is still argued upon. Batman’s motivations were questioned while they were right there, witnessing those events would cause anyone be like that. He was right there. He saw people die. To Bruce, Superman was just a dangerous alien and this was said multiple times in the movie. But there’s one scene in particular that stuck with everyone, the “Martha” scene.

Why do people hate Batman V Superman’s Martha scene so much?

The moment became a meme since the movie was released. But the actual meaning is talked about by fans a lot. Most of the hate it gets is from people who don’t understand the meaning, maybe because people simply don’t expect parallels in superhero movies.

So what does the scene exactly mean? Did Batman just leave Superman because their mother’s shared the same name?

Well, kinda. Yes, but no. The name “Martha” was just a trigger. When Clark said “Save Martha,” Bruce simply got confused and angry, not understanding why he said so, “is the alien playing tricks on me to save his own life?” That’s what Batman probably thought to himself, hence he asked the obvious question angrily “why did say that name!?”

Learning that it’s Clark’s mother’s name just made him snap out of that kill rage. But why exactly? Well, we see the murder of Wayne’s once again (Bruce remembers that). He witnesses Clark as that helpless child that Bruce was years ago, not being able to save his “Martha.” He could do nothing to stop that. Now he sees himself as the person who killed his parents, Clark as the child. He realizes he became the same thing he hated so much years ago. He forgot why he became Batman. He grew more and more cruel with the time and left his rules and morals, the pain his life had and this job caused was too much.

He thought being Batman would have him get away from the pain that the ‘death’ caused, but that was a lie. Described perfectly in the beginning of the movie “In the dream they took me to the light, a beautiful lie”. So that what happened to him might never happen to someone else. He couldn’t do anything back then, but he can now, he can save Martha now.

Superman could have saved Martha from the warehouse easily, but that moment meant so much to Batman as a character, it’s his redemption. He can save Martha again, he can be a hero again. Martha might not mean anything to anyone in the audience, but the movie asks the viewer to stand where the characters do, to feel what they feel. And Batman even if he had to kill a few terrorists in the warehouse because there was no other way he could’ve saved Martha before the timer on the bomb. It was his redemption. And it was done perfectly.

I agree, sometimes the Christopher Nolan approach of explaining everything is needed, but not in that scene. It’s a clear as day parallel that’s executed perfectly. It’s not subjective. It happened right before everyone’s eyes.