"You're not a god, you were never even a man"

Rating: 4/10 (26 March 2016)

Since the first reviews hit this movie has been getting poor reception. Okay, that's putting it lightly...this movie has been almost universally panned by critics and the question on everybody's mind: does it deserve it? The short answer is 'no'. This movie isn't terrible, it isn't the worst comic book movie of all time however it's not exactly good either. First of all, the good: This movie starts out good, great in fact. As a long time comic book fan the opening scene felt straight out of The Dark Knight Returns, it was shot beautifully, which is definitely director Zach Snyder's strong point. For the most part the entire movie is well shot and looks visually stunning. The performances are decent as well. Affleck (we'll get to him in a minute) was great, Gadot had barely any screen time but hone in what little time she was given. Cavill ups his game from Man of Steel but still isn't given much to do. He still feels rather bland. Everyone else is fine but nothing special with the exception of Jesse Eisenberg. The best part of the movie, hands down, is Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman. He is utterly amazing! Every scene he is in he steals. You really get the sense of a damaged individual who believes he is doing the right thing. Many were sceptical about this casting but he absolutely nails it. That however, pretty much sums up the positives. Now the bad: First of all: the pacing.....or lack of it. For the first hour, maybe more, this movie is incredibly boring. The final hour is then jam packed with non stop action. While at first it was fun to see Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman fighting Doomsday it got old really fast. The entire third act ends up being one giant CGi fest. And on the subject of that CGi...remember when I said this movie was visually stunning "for the most part"? Well here's why. Doomsday looks like GARBAGE. The effects in no way look finished for the entire final battle scene. It bewilders me how a movie that has taken 3 years to make can have effects that look this bad in the final product. The main problem with this film however, is it's a mess. That is the best way to describe it. For the first 10 or 20 minutes it felt like every scene was introducing something new. Sub plot after sub plot and while the film made half-assed attempts to connect all these story lines it never really succeeded. That was then mixed with the fact that this was essentially one big trailer for the Justice League movie. It did feel eerily similar to films like Iron Man 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. There are points in the movie when what little plot there is literally stops dead in its tracks to shove gratuitous cameos in your face - how did this get past editing? This would all be forgivable if the film was at least some what interesting. If its plot was enjoyable. But it isn't. The film really doesn't know what it wants to be. For the first half it is a political thriller that features questions about the need for Superman and weather or not he should answer to someone. This is all dropped in the second half and never brought up again. The whole reason for Batman and Superman fighting feels incredibly paper thin and the 5 minute long fight scene, as fun as it was, really doesn't warrant the movies title. Overall, don't listen to the critics saying this film is utterly terrible. Go see it for yourself and make up your own mind. That being said, don't listen to the mindless fan-boys on YouTube who had made their minds up long before the film was released, either. Keep in mind that I'm not a professional critic and I certainly don't have a "Marvel bias". While I like to consider myself a comic book fan in general if I was forced to choose between the two then I would choose DC every time. 5.5/10