A masterpiece !

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2016)

I think the story is very well thought-out, even though the critics are complaining about an "incoherent screenplay". I really don't get the negative ratings. Take for example the incident in the Sahara that was planned by Luthor to frame Superman. The critics complain that this storyline doesn't make any sense at all since the villagers were killed with bullets, so how can Superman be framed for it ? What the critics missed is that the surviving villagers testified against superman for being responsible, since they didn't eye-witness the mass killing by Luthor's men. The homeland security didn't disclose all evidence since they are secretly financing the rebels with American weapons produced by Luthor. Hence, they cleaned the crime scene and left superman to take the blame. Lois however, continue her investigation concerning the bullet she found in her notebook, trying to prove Superman's innocence, which leads her to Luthor. After collecting some evidence with the help of General Swanwick, Luthor is finally arrested and imprisoned for this incident and for creating Doomsday. I guess it was too complex for the critics to figure it out !! Another example is the training montage where Bruce is seen dragging a truck tire across the floor and hitting it with a sledgehammer. Some cynical critics considered this scene as being stupid and pointless, since "dragging a tire across a room" can in no way prepare a human to fight a demigod. Well, what they missed is that this training wasn't intended to physically prepare Bruce to actually fight Superman, but just to make him fit enough to wear his heavy iron/armored bat-suit, and move around with it !! As for the fight itself, Bruce prepared for it by simply weaponizing the Kryptonite he stole from Luthor. As for the Martha scene, I found it very logical due to its oedipal subtext: Bruce was about to kill a man saying the same words as his dying father. He was also sacrificing superman's potentially kidnapped mother. Hence, he was participating in the recreation of this whole circle of violence. Add to that the fact that Lois came and begged him to stop, which had a huge impact especially after the Flash clearly told him that Lois is the key to all of this. So all he did was to stop, and took a minute to rethink everything, and being the paranoid guy he is, he concluded he may have been manipulated from the start to fight Superman. Hence, he decided to believe Lois and give this "potentially dangerous alien" a chance, at least until he figure out the entire truth. Of course after Superman's death, Bruce is completely converted as he say: "I failed him in life, I won't fail him in death". Anyway, Henry Cavill is great as Superman here, way better than MOS. Ben Affleck is incredible as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Gal Gadot is OK as WW even though we don't see her a lot. The build up to the fight between our heroes is carefully done. The only thing I didn't like was the introduction of the other members of the JL, which felt pretty rushed. I think they should have just introduced WW in this film, which was more than enough, considering the amount of screen time they got to tell this complex story. I really liked Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor's son (yes, he's not Lex, but Alexander Luthor: his father built LexCorp). So, all in all, great film, great performances by all of the actors and supporting actors (Jeremy Irons is great), a decent script, and breathtaking visuals. Now, I don't think that we r ready for a JL movie yet. I think that MOS 2 should be shot first, at least to cover the Resurrection of Superman, and to introduce other JL members correctly. Also, I would like to have a Batfleck movie in 2017, along with WW, and then JL in 2018 or something. I would also pay to watch a post apocalyptic/alternate universe/Mad-Max style Batman movie directed by Zack Snyder, since the Knightmare sequence was very raw and very powerful. I guess basic raw human emotions can be easily explored in that kind of post apocalyptic setting. It would also be a good opportunity to introduce the Cyborg in this post-apocalyptic world/alternate universe. We shall wait and see how future projects will be developed. Until then, go see Batman v Superman, preferably in IMAX.