Improved from Man of Steel; Not Epic but Decent to Expand into Justice League

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2016)

The most anticipated sequel of Man of Steel has once again attempted to differentiate its own DC brand from those in Marvels through the return of the Dark Knight which continues to amplify a darker, grittier and sombre adventure of clashing heroes. Slightly overlong in term of running time, the film opens surprisingly beautiful with flashback of Wayne's disastrous childhood and further progresses into the reckless fight between Superman and Zod at the end of previous installment. The ambitious and potential major acts in the film - conflict between Batman and Superman, Lex Luthor's motives and the fight against villain at the climax; all seems to be underdeveloped and not well executed, leaving several questions of all the intentions behind. Ben Affleck as Batman is on par with Bale's version but a bit more brutal and stubborn, Cavill's Superman is fine but a bit depressed, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is definitely the gorgeous one and she manages to capture the attentions even with a limited screening time, Jeremy Iron's Alfred owns a great chemistry with Wayne but Eisenberg portrayal of Lex Luthor is over exaggerated. Although heavily CGIs, Snyder has delivered spectacular visual effects and intense actions among the superheroes while the collaboration between Zimmer and Junkie XL are just outstanding to produce different adrenaline driven theme scores for all the superheroes. While it might not be the best superheroes flick, lacks of humors and emotional depth compared to The Dark Knight trilogy, it is an overall improvement from Man of Steel and the Nolan style ending is still impressive enough to further expands into the universe of Justice League.