A Highly Enjoyable Flick that Starts a New Promising Franchise

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2016)

"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" isn't the best name they could have given, but I have to admit, I didn't have very high expectations but it sure didn't disappoint. It's a long movie with a task, and that is to develop all the characters they could fit in one movie. Some characters didn't get the attention they needed, but I'm sure they want to save origin stories for standalone and "Justice League" movies.
Let's start with Batman. Never understood why so many people got mad with Affleck doing the role. He actually looks like Bruce Wayne and his performance was a big plus. It won't be hard to enjoy this Batman as much as we liked The Dark Knight. Affleck fits perfectly in the suit and all the fight scenes were better than ever. They perfectly recaptured the tone that fans so much praise and wanted to see. I wouldn't say it's fan service but I'm glad with where they're going to with this. And then there's Superman. It's nothing completely new, although they brought the man of steel to a deeper layer in character development. Even though Snyder doesn't go with the approach of the comics, where the tones are much lighter and colors are much brighter, this approach makes it more coherent as the movie goes on. Other surprising new characters came into the picture as well like Jeremy Irons as Alfred clearly was one, and of course, Eisenberg as Lex Luther was a completely different yet awesome approach to Superman's most popular enemy. Even though, Kevin Spacey was closer to the original in "Superman Returns", this was a performance that stood out and got us all intrigued.
The movie in general is filled with awesome action sequences that satisfy our needs and expectations. Let's not forget it's a 2 hour and a half movie but still, with so many big characters to develop I felt like some parts were rushed, and they could have used that time for more character development and richer side plots instead of long over the top dream sequences where we don't really know what's going on.
To be honest, I'm kinda tired of the superhero movie genre, but I feel like this one is well above average, with CGI filled non-stop action and a budget that can make anything possible.
The critics were pretty harsh in their evaluation, and if you haven't seen the movie, don't let those awful reviews decide whether it's good or bad. I found it to be highly enjoyable.
Visually it is indeed stunning, although the color grading made it way too dark. Sometimes you don't really know what's happening. Nolan didn't have to dim the lights to bring a darker tone in his trilogy, but Snyder likes to darken the colors overall, and that's something present in most of his movies. Visual effects were made by Weta Digital, the same company who brought the revolutionary effects in The Lord of The Rings and Avatar, so it's guaranteed it looks breathtaking. Doomsday looks pretty great, and its a full CG monster with tons of detail.
As a fan of The Walking Dead, I was really glad to see "Maggie" and "Negan" as Bruce Wayne's parents, it's definitely one of the best moments in the movie.
Since I saw the poster in apocalyptic Times Square on "I am Legend", I've been waiting for this movie, I'd say DC and Warner Brothers might have a new promising franchise on the way. I consider myself a fan of both Batman and Superman but I don't read the comics nor watch the animated series, so I'm rating this movie based on what I saw, not what I wanted to see or should have seen.