Connecting "Superman II" to Doomsday

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2016)

I've been gone for a while, and this was one of the first films I have seen for a few months. As always, I rate not by my faulty sense of how good or bad a film is, but by how much I enjoyed it. And, despite some huge problems, I really did enjoy this.
As with Zack Snyder's "Watchmen", we have a painted canvas that tells a story - Not as well as he told Watchmen, but as well as he could make it, with the mess he was handed.
And by Mess I mean, why on earth was the "General Zod" story line from Superman II resurrected for Man of Steel? I don't think the Zod story ever was told in Classic Superman comics, and it was not a good story especially since Richard Donner was removed as Director for it - Simply so that Menaham Golan would not have to pay Marlon Brando another 10 million dollars.
But somehow Zod reappeared in Man of Steel. That was the worst part of that film as well.
I have been a fan of Superman and a reader of comics since I was 5 years old, all through the 60's, and there were some great stories told back then. But one thing about the Batman of that era, he never used a gun, he never even touched them. So in the 80's when a Machine-Gun toting Batman appears (even though they were only in his Batmobile), I was shocked. The Batman from Chris Nolan's latest trilogy did not use them, at least not that much.
But this Batman in Dawn of Justice, is an Angry Batman. And a Batman who will use guns, and even kill people with them.
This film starts mainly with the battle of Zod and Kal-El seen from Bruce Wayne's perspective, which gives us an interesting view of what was happening underneath. Ben Affleck did a great job, an aging, angry Batman. being manipulated by Lex Luthor, but not knowing it yet.
Many people have said this film lacked a narrative structure, and it is true. The story is told visually, much like Watchmen was, but lacking Watchmen's great Narration as heard from Rorshach and Dr Manhattan, two very different people telling the same story. In Dawn of Justice, it's much the same way: The story is shown from Clark's view as well as Bruce's and even Lois.
I highly encourage anyone who has not seen this to skip any theatrical versions and go straight to the extended version, which explains much more about the underlying Metahuman stories.
While Bruce is nodding off at one point, is he visited by a Metahuman? He sees a man, who says it is "too soon"- But is it a dream? I am very curious about that, Zack Snyder is very good with little hints like this. I don't know what that meant, but I suppose in Justice League we will find out.
But the breakout performance here is by Gal Godot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, and neither Batman nor Superman know who she's with. She was by far the best Wonder Woman of any Film or TV show, an actress that did not have to go far to really look and act the part.
The one good thing Zack has done with this film is effortlessly merging one of the most popular Superman stories (The Doomsday saga) with the Zod story or Superman II. Zack always does well with films based on Graphic Novels or Comics, and this is no exception. And it stands up to multiple viewings.
I know that they are doing Justice League now, and I'll be very curious to see that. This is one series of films that has to be finished and not left half-told. I just want to see exactly how Zack resolves the issues we are left with. Will he return to a more Comic-based script, or will some writer decide to mix it all up again?
Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quite a bit regardless of the tarring it got from the less talented writers called "critics".