DC/Warner deserve praise for walking their own path

Rating: 10/10 (7 April 2016)

Having now seen the movie twice, I can say that I genuinely believe it to be great. It is not perfect and does have issues, but which movie doesn't? And given the ambition of this project I'd say it achieves most of what it set out to. I wouldn't outright call it one of the best ever CBMs but will add that the directors cut could change that.
I honestly cannot see where all the negative criticism has come from. I can get that some people would rate something like Winter Soldier, TDK or the new X-men movies higher, but honestly feel people are being intentionally myopic when they rate an utterly crap childish movie like IM3 or AoU higher.
Briefly I'll discuss some highlights and common criticisms. Firstly everyone has heard by now that Batfleck and Gal Gadot killed it. And most if not all of the cast put in good performances and add something meaningful imo. There has been some criticism about many of the characters being out of their element. To this I would simply say that this is a new universe and the characters in this universe are growing organically. The Superman of this world for example is still a new-ish guy, and has been around for just 2 years, so he's still learning. In this context, it makes sense that WW actually seemed like the best and most experienced warrior even in the movie, because she is, and has been around for 100 years. The logic for Batman may not appear to work as well, assuming he's been around for 20 years. He should be more experienced and could've benefited from more exposition, but the hints are there. For example, the killing thing may get more fleshed out later and is easily relatable to the Robin costume. Another example, no one seems to notice that right after seeing the Flash after the knightmare sequence, he would check out the decrypted files and notice the video of Flash in action. Imagine dreaming of someone you've never met and then right after seeing his image in stolen, hacked information about metahumans. Then consider that a person who fights crime for 20 years one day sees 2 aliens level half a city. Also consider what that might do to a person. Batman has been known, even in the comics, to sometimes act irrationally, the stories after Jason Todd's death till Knightfall and Bruce Wayne Murderer/Fugitive being some examples. He eventually gets it together and acknowledges his mistakes, but he does lose his edge and even work against his own interest sometimes. I won't discuss the Martha thing in detail, but I will say that I don't find it surprising that someone who's crime fighting career is based on his parents murder is likely to have an emotional reaction to the mention of his mother's name. And it's also made abundantly clear throughout the film that he is deeply conflicted, and is obviously going through a lot of inner turmoil throughout.
Suffice it to say that I think the depth and coherence is there, for anyone willing to look. While I'm a big fan and avid reader of Batman comics, I realize now that being non- American I simply am not and can never be as emotionally invested in these characters. They may well be mythological gods for a lot of Americans, almost akin to what Shiva and Krishna are to the typical Indian. Or as Joker would put it, you can do whatever with a third grade character like Thor/Ironman and no one cares, but mess with the world's finest and everyone loses their mind. Ppl already have a fixed notion of what they want from these characters. What they're missing though is that this universe is still young, allowing them to learn and grow and become those characters will make more sense when all the pieces of the puzzle start coming together. I've heard some critics say that Zack Snyder missed the forest for the trees, but what they don't see is that the trees have to grow first for the forest to exist. I think Warner/DC deserve praise, because they haven't taken the safe path. They have been brave and taken a risk in their own way and thus have created a truer, more genuine product than the average marvel movie.