Overblown, Hyper Technical, Underdeveloped Head Scratcher

Rating: 5/10 (13 April 2016)

Batman vs. Superman had the potential to deliver more than the standard, high-special effects blockbusters that we've come to expect the Hollywood system will churn out, year after year --- like money-grabbing eye candy simply designed not to liberate your mind, but more so your hard earned cash from your wallet. It had the potential to be more than the typical "hero meets hero, fights hero, teams with hero, fights badguy with hero(es)" comic book films which seem to saturate the genre. And it had the potential to deliver a lot more than its solo progenitors (eg Man of Steel) had given us. Yet for all it's potential, for having a great team, for being technically superior, and perhaps most significantly - for having a relatively superior cast of actors - the viewer is left feeling like they've just been shoveled a mass of hot, steaming lava -- brilliant and hot to the touch, but noxious and blinding at the same time.
One of the film's biggest flaws is its attempts at intertextuality, all of which fall flat. While making reference to prior events that are neither explained, nor sufficiently fleshed out, the viewer is left feeling confused at best -- and at worst, wondering if the cutting room floor somehow yielded a trove of scenes that likely should have been in the film, for no other reason than to make sense of what was going on.
Pacing was fairly lacklustre as well. While never boring - and with some exciting (albeit too fast, and 'blockbuster conventional' in their explosion-per second way) scenes, the film's script never finds any kind of balance between the dramatic and the action. Character relationships appear more or less tacked on to give Ben Affleck and the other big players some professional screen time, and the shift to the action scenes is less exciting than it is jarring and unnerving.
Overall - if you're looking for anything dramatic and gripping in the sense of the Dark Knight, it would be best to avoid this -- a movie which is definitely on the action-only side of the Super Hero genre. On the other hand, going to this movie after having a few beers, with a full box of oh-so-buttery popcorn in hand and a good sense of humor, this is guaranteed to be entertaining. The Citizen Kane of superhero movies was likely achieved in the Batman Series - but as Hero-genre answer to Vin Diesel's XXX, this little number works just fine. Just make sure you've got plenty of beer and popcorn in you - plenty.