Not bad, but not the best

Rating: 7/10 (29 March 2016)

I was one of the people who were eagerly anticipating this film, to the point where my expectations were relatively high and I pre- ordered tickets for myself and my boyfriend. As our viewing date approached and the critical reception grew poorer and poorer, I started to grow worried that the film would be an unwatchable mess.
Luckily for me, the film wasn't that bad and I'd say that the movie's key flaws can be summed up as follows:
It had somewhat terrible pacing. The story was good, but it really needed to be tightened up here and there. The film clocks in at two and a half hours and my boyfriend was painfully aware of this length, as he kept shifting in his seat during the last hour. If a film is well done, you'll ignore the cardboard theater seats and the numbness growing in the lower half of your body.
The film tried too hard to appeal to both people who knew the source material and the ones who didn't. The film is peppered with various things that gave off the impression of prior films and story lines. For example, we're shown a destroyed Wayne Manor in the film... but no explanation as to why/how it was destroyed. I can only assume that it was related to the batsuit with "HAHA, joke's on you Batman" written on it, but we're never really given a good explanation about this. A person coming into the film with only knowledge of prior films would likely be confused, whereas fans of the comics would probably be able to tell me exactly what happened. It's not that this kept the plot from making sense, but it was kind of frustrating since there was this whole backstory that may never be fully revealed. On the flip side, the story also tried to target the newbies and as such people looking for in-jokes and references to the comics will likely get frustrated by the times where things are spelled out a little too much.
Still, there's a lot to like here. Gal Gadot is amazing as Wonder Woman and my theater actually applauded when she showed up in full WW regalia. There was some back story for her that was never fully revealed, but then I already know that there's going to be a WW movie and that it's going to explore her past, so this is OK.
The action scenes are OK and viewers can watch this without having seen Man of Steel, although they'll enjoy it more for having seen the prior film. Plus the prior film will prepare you for this one's slowness, since it's set up in a similar fashion.
Overall I recommend this. I probably wouldn't really say that you should see it in 3D and all, since so much of it is just talking, but I do think that it's worth seeing it in the theaters at least once, even if only as a matinée.