If You're Going to Watch It, Go with the Ultimate Edition. It's Slightly Better.

Rating: 6/10 (4 July 2017)

There is enough discussion to be had about BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE that it can't possibly be donewelljustice in the limited space here. I was eager to discuss this slow-motion train wreck after leaving the theater in the spring of '16 but my friends were less interested in blowing their cash on a movie that garnered a discouraging 27% on Rotten Tomatoes than I was. After Marvel Studios built a multi-billion enterprise with their comic properties, DC finally realized they were falling behind and there was a load of money yet to be made with their immense stable of characters. Until this point, the only DC characters to be gifted with decent blockbuster films had been Batman and Superman. I mean, this one is still basically just Batman and Superman, but this one is Batman and Superman on screen *at the same time*! It also serves as the jumping off point for DC's dive into their full-blown JUSTICE LEAGUE. Unfortunately, whereas Marvel had the sense to ease each of their less mainstream characters into the public consciousness with individual films for Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, etc. so people less familiar would have some footing before we were given THE AVENGERS, DC decided to catch up on lost time by jumping in head first with this confusing mess of a film where director Zack Snyder and writers Chris Terrio & David Goyer had to accomplish a *lot* in a limited time.
DAWN OF JUSTICE had the complex mission of: (1) introducing a new Batman to audiences (Ben Affleck), (2) introducing a new Lex Luthor to audiences (Jesse Eisenberg), (3) establishing a reason general audiences would accept for Batman to even fight Superman, (4) shoehorning an introduction to Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) into the film, and (5) setting up the creation of the Justice League This would be a lot for any filmmaker to tackle and, in this case, that director is Zack Snyder. He's a man known for his prioritizing of style over substance and, while I've enjoyed his other movies, I couldn't help but feel he was in a little over his head. There was so much jammed into this movie that, when it was cut down to a bloated 150 minutes for the theatrical release, it made almost no sense. Since then I've only ever watched the three hour extended director's cut and I recommend that anyone who hasn't seen the movie and might be curious do the same. It's still bloated and there's still pacing issues and there are still some character decisions that don't make the best of sense but at least the plot is all there and you aren't left with a dozen questions. The much-maligned plot device revolving around our heroes' mothers is still there and still lamethere's not avoiding thatbut the rest of it works a little better. And because the extended edition is R-rated, you can watch Batman murder in even more brutal fashion.
Yeah, Batman murders a lot in this movie. That's just where we're at now. The Batman of DAWN OF JUSTICE is an old, grizzled, cynical Batman who seems tired of fighting crime and watching it have little to no effect, so now he's strapped an enormous machine gun to the front of the Batmobile and he has no qualms with snapping necks or sending criminals to prison with a Bat- branding that guarantees they'll be murdered inside. For that matter, why are so many other criminals in prison so eager to do Batman's dirty work? Aren't they operating on opposite teams? Anyway, Batman's a killer but the good news is Ben Affleck actually makes for a pretty cool Batman. All those years Kevin Smith said his buddy Affleck should be Batman, and he was right. I dig it and I really hope we get a solo Batman movie with Affleck sooner rather than later. Other new additions Eisenberg and Gadot don't fare as well. I love Jesse Eisenberg but I still have a hard time accepting his new eccentric, high- energy spastic Lex Luthor. He enters this movie with a pre-loaded hatred for Superman as if we're just supposed to understand he hates Superman because we, the audience, understand that these characters are enemies because that's what they've always been. How about a little background to explain Luthor's burning hatred for Superman? DAWN OF JUSTICE gives us some half-baked excuse of Luthor hating Superman's god-like status, but why wouldn't he have tried reaching out to Superman first to manipulate him into benefiting his own enterprises? Then maybe Superman turns him down and tells him his practices are less than virtuous and warn him to watch himself before he has to step in, and *then* Luthor feels the need to get him out of the way. Or something. I don't know. I wasn't paid millions of dollars to write this thing but I bet I couldn't done better than "Grrr, he's like a god and I hate that and I'm willing to destroy anyone and everyone to make him gone."
A quick note about Gal Gadot, our new Wonder Woman, before I run out of space (I could go one so much longer with this movie. I wasn't kidding). I was not a fan of Gadot's Wonder Woman in this movie. I had a hard time at first getting through her accent and her line delivery wasn't the strongest. But I've since seen the 2017 solo WONDER WOMAN movie and I couldn't imagine a better choice. When she has more than five lines of dialogue, it's much easier to acclimate to her accent and she can, in fact, act. So Wonder Woman's weak entry into the DC cinematic universe is probably another fault of Snyder, Terrio, and Goyer. She's good and, for the record, WONDER WOMAN is so much stronger than this movie. Running out of spaceuhJimmy Olsen's meaningless existenceuhnonsensical, overly complex conspiracy plot umgeez three hours, really?! Hmmthat final battle anduhuhm Martha!