Ugly, joyless, leaden piece of sh!t

Rating: 3/10 (28 March 2016)

Despite all the terrible reviews (from both professional critics and the vast majority of my friends/acquaintances), I decided to see "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" for myself, even paying the extra money to watch in IMAX, since that was how the filmmakers intended the picture to be seen. I wanted to give them every benefit of the doubt, give them every opportunity to impress me, or at least entertain me.
Didn't happen. This movie is rotten to the core: Ugly, joyless and leaden. It's seemingly made by a guy who hates both characters and has contempt for his audience. It's mean-spirited, sadistic and misanthropic. It takes great heroes and gives them feet of clay. They don't at all resemble the American icons we've grown to love, even in comparison to Chris Nolan's "Dark Knight" films. "Batman V Superman" is hideous, hopeless and stupid.
Ben Affleck turns out to be the best thing about it, but he's trapped in the wrong movie and I don't like his Batman -- shooting and blowing people up, murdering left and right -- at all. Henry Cavill has a thankless job as super-second banana, so I won't rip on him. But Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor is painful to watch -- he's an annoying little twerp, not Lex Luthor at all, and the very worst thing in a very bad movie.
Gail Gadot is okay, jury's still out on her. Amy Adams, miscast as Lois Lane, remains so and is increasingly irritating. Larry Fishburne's Perry White is nearly as bad as Eisenberg, but a lot of that is the deeply stupid dialog he's forced to deliver.
The last hour is an interminable slog of destruction, interrupted by one extended fight sequence where Batman takes out a building of bad guys that is pretty good. But by then I'd long stopped caring.
This movie sucks. I wish I hadn't paid to see it. It damaged my love for these comic book heroes.