My thoughts on Dawn of Justice and the future of the DCEU

Rating: 2/10 (22 June 2016)

I've been troubled over this film ever since it's release. Coming out of the cinema initially I was disappointed, angry and upset that the film didn't deliver on what it promised, Batman fighting Superman.
Some may say that it did deliver, that the fight was good and that the set-up was amazing. But my thoughts coming out of the movie were that in an attempt to cash in on the superhero trend, Warner and DC made a movie with their biggest characters to get a quick buck.
Having watched it a number of times, read a numerous amount of reviews and listened to the cast and director of the film, I now realize that they made the film THEY wanted.
The film isn't terrible like some people say, but it isn't a good film like others say. There are aspects of the film that make me, as a fan, squeal a bit at what is to come.
Seeing a parademon on the big screen was a big deal. The Flash traveling back through time, was a big deal. Seeing Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman fight for the first time, in live action, on the big screen, was a big deal.
But unlike some fans who are blinded by the above, I noticed that the flow of the film was wooden, that the story was weak and the motivations of the characters not properly explained.
There are many more problems that I don't want to go back over. But some of these may be fixed with future films, some may not.
The death of Superman before the formation of the Justice League was a waste of a plot line, no matter how anyone spins it. The entire Justice League mourning for the loss of a hero and a friend is a lot more powerful than two kinda friends and a random woman lifting his body to Lois.
The overuse of CGI, in a movie age where practical effects are coming back, ruin what could've been an amazing fight between the Son of Krypton and the Bat of Gotham. And the fact that the entire fight with Doomsday was CG made for more of a whimper of a final fight with the destruction getting out of hand once again.
Having seen Nolan's trilogy, Tim Burton's Batman and having read Batman comics, I know how his parents died. I know that most people going to see the film knew how his parents died. To see that once again in a film that was supposed to be a sequel to Man of Steel and the start of an Extended Universe, it just felt like a repeat of films I've already seen.
There are short scenes in the movie that make no sense and we have no need to even have. A part where we see some Kryptonite get dragged out of the Indian Ocean only to have it mentioned in a way that negates the scene not even 10 minutes later. A scene where Superman sees his dead Dad in some sort of vision? I'm not really sure.
The entire Knightmare sequence, while cool, is not really needed for anything other than to show that Superman can be turned evil and give that slither of credibility for Batman to kill him. The Flash scene is more needed to show that something bigger is going on than Bruce knows.
There is a scene for Bruce that literally has him getting out of bed and looking out of a window. That's it, no other reason for that to be there. Someone is in his bed, but we don't find out.
It's moments like the above that bring the film down in my estimation, that make a film that should've been the defining moment for the DCEU but made it into more of a whimpering mess.
The "Ultimate Edition" may revive some of the love for this film, it may make it a better film. But think about how many Superhero films need a second cut to make it better. Then think about how many of those films were the groundwork for an entire film franchise.
I want the DCEU to do well, I want to see the Justice League on the big screen for as long as Marvel has The Avengers on the big screen. But Dawn of Justice was not DC's The Avengers, it was more it's Age of Ultron.
Let's hope that WB and DC listen to the voice of the majority and make some changes so that Justice League can be the film that we all want it to be.