Finally the DC trinity together on film

Rating: 9/10 (4 July 2016)

When Man of Steel released 3 years ago I was looking forward to the new age of Superman movies, now made for a modern audience but without straying away from the source material too much. And while I enjoyed that movie greatly, I was happy to learn that this one will eventually lead to the current DC movie universe which will also give us the very first Justice League movie.
BvS is only the 2nd movie in this universe. While the movie stands by itself for the most part, it really does follow up on the events of Man of Steel. The premise of the movie: The world is still debating themselves over if whether Superman is the hero they never asked for, or just a magnet for death and destruction. Batman, the self- proclaimed Gotham City vigilante, is building his own hatred towards Superman and the consequences of his actions, and starts planning a way to eliminate him which also includes seeking for other possible "meta- humans" around the world. Meanwhile young billionaire Lex Luthor finds himself plotting an overly complex plan for dominance which eventually involves pitting both 'heroes' to fight each other. Who will win?
Before going to see the movie initially there were two things that I had in mind and these were really my only two prejudgments: 1) Neither of them should die because eventually they have to be in the Justice League, which leads me to 2) There will probably be some Spielberg- like excuse to have them not kill each other.
With only that in mind, I saw the whole flick and I must say I was actually very entertained from start to finish. The movie does throws you off for the first half of it as it seems to throw random happenings at you, but then as you learn more about everyone's intentions to what they do everything starts clicking. The action scenes are very well made and it really makes Ben Affleck a great choice for Batman despite earlier mixed reactions. Henry Cavil remains a great Superman as well, and for the first time, we get to see Wonder Woman in all her live action film glory, which I must say Gal Gadot killed as well. I really like the political approach to the whole conflict, which is consistent with what Man of Steel built and it totally reflects how today's world would react to such events. I liked this version of Lex Luthor.. it was just so brilliantly portrayed. It was just an emotional joyride.
As far as flaws I can say a few things: The theater version does cut out a lot of plot details that are very important specially right at the middle of the conflict, which we get to see in the Ultimate Edition. This is a rather unfortunate decision that has probably contributed to the divisive reception to the film. Also, there are parts of the plot that seemed a bit forced at times. Such as pitting the Gotham and Metropolis people, their meet up with Diana Prince, and the release of Doomsday. Again, the extended cut does help put better context to all of these, maybe if only a little bit more. Considering the intention of the movie and all the universes being mashed up together probably what people were expecting was a more "Marvel" approach of character build up. But we only really got one movie before this one and we will get those in the upcoming years. But, I will give DC the benefit of the doubt and see how they will put everything together. They still have time and they are entitled to do things at their own pace.
Overall yes, BvS is a good flick and it makes justice to the DC Universe. It is not perfect, but it is certainly not deserving of the massive hate campaign it's been getting. The Ultimate edition in particular, is the version you need to watch so you get the full vision of the director.