Expected a Lot More From This One

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2016)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is finally here after the many years of anticipation. I liked Man of Steel and was very much looking forward to this one. Batman v Superman follows the question of whether Superman's actions are justified and how Batman, Lex Luthor, and others react to him. So, is it a good movie? Well there are some things that are good and other things that are not so good.
Let's start with what's good first. The performances are great. Ben Affleck proved all the haters wrong and absolutely owned the role of Bruce Wayne and Batman. Batman was definitely the best part of this movie. He was very fun to watch in the action scenes and also his character is pretty well realized. Henry Cavill is once again solid as Clark Kent/Superman. He definitely gives a better performance than Man of Steel and you can really feel what he's actually going through when he's not in the suit. Gal Gadot is good as Wonder Woman in the limited time she has. Jesse Eisenburg is an interesting Lex Luthor and I guess it was decent. He didn't bother me as much as others are saying. Supporting characters were fine as well, especially Jeremy Irons as Alfred.
The visuals are very beautiful. Zack Snyder is a master in visuals and once again he creates a magnificently looking picture. The action and effects are good for the most part. Any action scene involving Batman was awesome. Ben Affleck blew me away in everything he did in this movie. The big fight between the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel is very fun to watch but it was kind of pointless when you think about it afterwards. Lastly, Hans Zimmer's score was fantastic as always. That's about it for the good.
Zack Snyder makes beautiful films but struggles with pretty much everything else while making movies. And it clearly shows here. The story is a huge mess. There are just way too many stories being told in this one movie. You've got Batman vs Superman, Lex's evil plan, references to future films, and the whole controversy surrounding Superman in this one movie. It was way too much. The movie brushes by some of these stories so fast that you get this feeling of incompleteness by the end. The movie, especially in the first half, has very choppy editing. The scenes switch and cut instantly and it's sometimes hard to connect the dots between certain scenes. I won't even talk about pacing because I think the director and writers completely forgot about it. Also there are a bunch of random dream sequences thrown in there but they make no sense and show up in the most bizarre places. They're interesting and fun to watch but it doesn't make sense why they're in the movie. The references to Justice League are very abundant and really not necessary... at all. Lois Lane is literally a damsel in distress in this movie. Almost every scene she's in, she has to rescued by Superman.
If you've seen the 2nd trailer of the film, you pretty much know the entire film. I feel like this movie would be much better received by critics and fans if we hadn't seen that trailer... but we did unfortunately. Doomsday is involved in a dumb way and he looks terrible. In Man of Steel, the end battle was ridiculous and caused a lot of destruction. And this movie is about whether Superman is to be held accountable for that. Well this movie actually has way more deaths and damage than Man of Steel ironically. I really wonder if Zack Snyder knows that.
Overall, I was disappointed walking out. Batman and Superman were very entertaining to watch but the rest of the film is a huge mess. The biggest problem with the film is that everything is just so rushed. I feel like the title shouldn't have even been Batman v Superman because that was only a fraction of what the movie is about. The movie really focused much more on the Dawn of Justice aspect than Batman v Superman. Honestly I don't know what to think about the future Justice League films after watching this. I really hope they find a new director for the future DC films because Zack Snyder really has a tough time with good storytelling, character development, and balance in a movie with so many important characters in one film. This movie isn't awful but there's as much good as there is bad.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice gets a C-.