Disappointing

Rating: 7/10 (22 November 2017)

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a 2016 epic superhero film, starring Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel himself, and Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader. The film takes place approximately 18 months after the events of Man of Steel, which was a polarizing film, to say the least. While many people saw Superman as a hero to the point of being a painfully obvious messianic figure, others saw him as a threat to the very existence of humanity. When a bombing occurs at the Capitol building, resulting in the deaths of millions of people, this convinces the Dark Knight that Superman needed to be put down once and for all.
To be honest, I found the film okay. It's not a good film, nor is it bad; it's average. What I don't like about the film, however, is that the film tries to hard to be dark. In fact, it's dark to the point that it could turn off potential DC Comics fans. Take Batman for example. Not only does Batman kill criminals in this film, but he also has the tendency to brand his enemies. Batman is also hellbent on killing Superman, though you could excuse that, since he thought that it was ultimately for the greater good. Superman himself apparently has no qualms about killing anymore, since one of the first scenes that we see of him concerns him smashing an African terrorist through several walls. Sure, the terrorist was holding Lois captive, but it just seems that Superman could've tried a nonlethal alternative to apprehending the terrorist. As I had mentioned before, the Christ symbolism is overly present in the film to the point that it could get cringe-worthy.
Another issue that I had with the film was that its plot didn't make too much sense. For example, the Flash appears to Bruce in a dream, which seems odd, as the two hadn't met yet. You also learn about other superheroes via Lex's files, but they don't add much to the film in the slightest. While you could say that they were building up to an upcoming Justice League film, it only serves to make the plot more confusing. In addition to this, it overindulges in action scenes; several of these scenes would result in massive collateral damage that would most likely result in the deaths of billions of people. I mean, seriously, who's going to pay for it? It's practically trillions of dollars in collateral damage.
I also felt that the ending was too long. What I mean is, that it had some moments that it seemed like everything was going to be wrapped up, but it just keeps going. The film is by no means annoying, but I just felt that they were drawing the ending out for all its worth. This reminded me of the ending of Return of the King and how it seemingly didn't intend on ending.
Now, for the big one: Doomsday. Before the film was released, many people were speculating that Zod would become Doomsday, a supervillain that was explicitly created to kill Superman. A nigh-invincible entity that was extremely hard to kill, he was first introduced in Death of Superman, which, as the title indicates, concerns Superman dying after his battle with Doomsday. In Dawn of Justice, Superman sacrifices himself by using the Kryptonite spear to stab Doomsday through the chest, while Doomsday in turn pierces Superman's chest with his spikes. Superman was seen as a hero by a majority of the American citizens, but he's actually to be buried at his hometown of Smallville, Kansas. Since Clark was often described as a simple man, it would seem that he would've wanted it that way. However, Superman was brought back to life through a contraption known as the regeneration matrix, so this may indicate that Superman might return at some point. For now, Batman and Wonder Woman decide to find other superheroes, just in case a bigger threat were to befall on the Earth.
Overall, while I did like the film, the film was far from perfect. For one, I just thought that they overdid the darker and edgier nature of the film that it could turn some viewers off, it seemed that you had to be a hardcore fan of the DC Comics to get the references/plot of the film, and most of the characters were unlikable. I would recommend watching it, though don't expect a masterpiece.