Dawn of something great but flawed (Spoilers)

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2016)

I have been waiting for this film ever since it was announced. That's about 3 years. But believe it or not, as hyped as I was for this film, I walked in with an open mind and with low expectations. I didn't walk in over-excited nor did I walk in riding on the "hate WB/DC" bandwagon (one which many critics were on).
Let's begin with the negatives, and get that out of the way.
Biggest problem was the pacing, film was awfully slow at some points and edited poorly. Especially the first 45-60 minutes, was just back and forth of so many sub-plots that the viewer was forced to constantly recall and keep track of. Film also suffered from a lack of a base story. Because it wasn't a Batman v Superman film, wasn't a Justice League film, wasn't a Darkseid film, it was just a big cluster of everything. Of course, as a film itself, that is bad, but I can say for sure, as more DCEU films come out, BvS will make more sense and will be more appreciated. Something else that bugged me was how heart-less this film was at times, unlike Man of Steel, which was a film filled with heart and moments where the viewer really connected with characters, BvS didn't offer much of that, except for a couple of scenes. Best one being where Superman spoke with the ghost of Pa Kent and the brilliant score of Man of Steel was used, that was beautiful. Now let's speak of characters and the actors. Lois Lane was there, just for the sake of being there. I would be okay with less of her. Now, I love Henry Cavill, but he was overshadowed by all the other brilliant performances and needs to work on being more attention grabbing on camera. Superman had so much screen time and dialogue, but I feel like he was barely in the film. Couple more minor issues, bad dialogue here and there, but otherwise these are the only major issues I had with the film. Would like to mention, before we move on, this isn't a film for children or for people who enjoy constant action and having plot spoon-fed to them.
Now for the positive aspects of this film, where do I start? Oh man.
Will begin with the best part of this film, you guessed it, Ben Affleck's Batman. Brutal, ruthless, smart and just awesome. His Bruce Wayne was perfection. Batman combat was glorious and will make you jump in your seat. Almost every scene with him was great. We get to see a lot of detective skills from him, something that was lacking from Nolan's version of the The Caped Crusader. So many amazing performances, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Jesse Eisenberg, Laurence Fishburne, all great. I wasn't taking Eisenberg's Luthor seriously, at first, but after that Courtroom scene where he kept that cup filled with "Granny's peach tea", I really started liking him. War in Metrolopis from Bruce Wayne's POV was interesting and gave us a view of how humans dealt with those two gods fighting above them. Wonder Woman was easily one of my favourite parts of this film, especially that little moment where she had this smile on her face while fighting, so very awesome. Everyone worked great with the dialogue, of course, except Cavill as I mentioned earlier. Also, I need to talk about that opening intro, did not see it coming from Snyder, and I really liked it. The score fit in perfectly, the opening credits looked good, and it was one of the few moments of the film that had heart. Seeing the trinity fight together was glorious, could not have been more perfect (maybe they shouldn't have revealed it in the trailer though). The cameos from the members of the Justice League was really well done,I was afraid it may interfere too much in the already over-stuffed film, but it worked perfectly. Knightmare sequence was terrifying and almost some of the darkest stuff I've seen from DC in film. Score was great for the most part, but not something you would listen on its own, unlike the Man of Steel score. But Zimmer and Junkie XL killed it with that opening, need to mention that again.
Overall, it was really solid. Film was great but flawed. This isn't your typical superhero film, it is VERY different. Snyder is a visual storyteller and is VERY ambitious, and I admire what he was attempting with Dawn of Justice. But it needed a good structure and not just slow motion shots (which were beautiful) every 5 minutes.
Torn between a final rating, but is somewhere around 7.8/10. Just rounding it up, for now.

Olie