Why All The Hate? It's Not That Bad

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 2016)

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is directed by Zack Snyder and stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill as Batman and Superman. This movie mostly follows Bruce Wayne as he begins to feel uneasy about Superman, and what he may be capable of when it comes to the existence of the human race. Bruce feels that if this "alien" wanted to, he could wipe out the Earth's population, and nobody could stop him. Due to this disagreement between the two, they end up in physical quarrel that could level monuments...literally.
Now, since this film hit theaters, I have heard nothing good about it, besides the praise around Ben Affleck's Batman. Although Ben Affleck does extremely well, I feel that Batman V Superman is actually a very good film, and a fun superhero movie. Like said earlier, everybody has been praising Affleck's Batman, and for such good reason. Ben Affleck plays one of the, if not the, best live action Batmans we have ever seen. Everything Affleck does in his portrayal as the caped crusader is fantastic, and he plays this character near perfectly. However great the performance, I do have a complaint with the character.
Now, anyone who has seen a former Batman movie, read the comics, or watched any of the animated series' then you know that Batman has a single rule when it comes to crime fighting...he doesn't kill. Not in Dawn of Justice. This dude just mows people down. He uses machine guns, grenade launchers, you name it. He kills people left and right, and it doesn't exactly do the legendary character justice; no pun intended. It does add affect to the character himself, but it doesn't stay true to the comics like it should. As a casual movie goer, it won't do harm, but as a comic book fan, it's a bit hard to swallow, in seeing the abrupt change in Batman's moral code.
Henry Cavill's performance as Superman didn't really change since Man of Steel (2013); he's fine. He doesn't do bad, but he definitely isn't Christopher Reeve. I personally like him better as Clark Kent than I do as Superman, but, like I said, he doesn't do bad. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was a really good casting choice. Although she doesn't have the biggest part in the film, she does pretty good. As far as the character goes, she seemed to just pop up randomly throughout the film, as if the filmmakers tried to keep her character bobbing above water, that way she didn't sink under, but she didn't exactly stay afloat either, if that analogy makes any sense.
Now, Amy Adams does good as Lois Lane, and I still stand by that casting choice. However, when it comes to Lois' actual character, it doesn't work. Throughout the entire film, Lois is on a wild goose chase, trying to figure out some dirty deed that Lex Luthor may or may not have had a hand in (more on him in a minute). Once her mindless subplot is finally over with, she gets involved with the final fight, and basically becomes a damsel in distress. It's at this point in which I realized that the filmmakers really just didn't know what to do with her character. They had her go on some unwarranted quest, just to occupy her character in one way or another. This upset me, because this whole factor took away from the film majorly.
A big controversial topic about Dawn of Justice is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. He's been getting a lot of hate recently, and I can see why. He's a bit over the top, and crazy at times, and I really can understand why this doesn't work for some people. However, this was not the case for my personal experience. I really enjoyed Eisenberg as Lex, despite him being nothing like Lex Luthor from the comic books. This didn't bother me, however, because he actually isn't Lex Luthor, he's Lex Luthor Jr. He's the original Lex's son, and that's why he's so different from Lex in the comics, so it works for me. I like the wackyness to him, even though it's a little over the top at specific moments.
The action in this film is absolutely amazing. Every moment of the battle between Batman and Superman is gut wrenchingly exciting. All of the directing was also top notch. Many people know Zack Snyder for his style over substance, and that applies to Batman V Superman. Although the script is lacking a lot, the direction and action look beautiful, as true with most Snyder films.
Doomsday. Just like everybody speculated, he looks stupid. He looks like a Michael Bay ninja turtle mixed with the character of Abomination from The Incredible Hulk (2008). He also causes too much destruction in the city, and basically cancels out what this film tried to make up for with the destruction caused in Man of Steel (2013). His battle with the three heroes doesn't work out too much, considering he was created to "kill Superman." I say this because he also tries to kill Batman and Wonder Woman as well, which doesn't make too much sense.
The last topic I'll hit is really hard to discuss. All I'll say is that the film made a very ballsy choice towards the end of the movie, but then repeals the decision. It's hard to say without spoilers, but once you see the movie you'll know what I mean. The ballsy decision should have either stayed in effect up until the end, or not have happened at all. If either of this two outcomes would have been, the ending would have been better by a whole lot.
In conclusion, Batman V Superman isn't a bad film, and was very fun to watch on the big screen.