Source: comicbook.com

4. An Incredible Villain

SUPER HUGE SPOILERS IN THIS ONE. DON’T READ UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN THE MOVIE. THIS IS IMPORTANT.

David Thewlis is a flawless Ares. He’s imposing and frightening, but also subtle and clever. Plus I L-O-V-E that Ares design. I was worried by the concept art I’d seen, but in practice it looks like he stepped out of a comic book page.

We’ll talk about the twist later, because it’ll tie into another point I want to make, but needless to say, it works incredibly well. Thewlis spends most of the movie in the unassuming background, but when he reveals himself, it’s grand and impressive. He really does feel like a god walking the earth.

That burning armor, too, holy hell. He is the platonic ideal of the God of War.

In addition, he actually has something the last two DCEU villains (three, if you count the Joker) lacked: motivation. Ares is driven by a hatred for humanity’s capacity for violence that results in his desire to trick them into annihilating themselves. He prods them slightly, but he never forces them into the destructive actions they cause. Say what you will, but that’s a whole lot better than Joker’s “I want to kill people and maybe get Harley back, but not really committed to that”, or Luthor’s “I want to kill Superman because…reasons”, or whatever the hell was going on with the Enchantress (I still don’t get what was going on there).