Bat Ego vs Super Ego but still does it's job

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2016)

First things first, I loved this film despite my below comments. It gets a 9 from me and the below dictate why it's not a 10
It's difficult to judge a film poorly when it know's what it wants to be and is true to itself beyond comparison. On one hand, it's not a cinematic masterpiece of deep thought and artistic value, but that was never it's aim. On the other, it satisfied both a connection in it's grass roots mythology and a benchmark for future DCEU films. Remember this is a superhero action film with a HUGE financial investment franchise in mind - Did it achieve that? Yes. Yes it did.
I loved BVS, but at times it felt like it had a little schizophrenia about it. There was almost the feeling of 2 separate films here. Breaking it in 2 halves, it could genuinely be seen that the first act had heavy Nolan influences and the second was dripping in Synder with over played CGI. Admittedly, it was probably necessary to capture the audience with some Nolan familiarity since it has only been 4 short years since he concluded his trilogy of what we all know to be a suburb Batman story. Truth be told, I enjoyed the first act a whole lot more since it was grounded in that sense of reality. With themes of terrorism (The flashback to the MOS Final Battle was very 9/11) and the questionable concepts of both religion and man's relationship with others in a position of power (man or alien). What I struggled to get my head around was the fact that the question at heart was violence, power and destruction and although mainly left unanswered, the only resolution seemed to be... violence, power and destruction!
Batflek, Lex Eisenberg and Wonder Gal were definitely the front runners in this epic leaving poor Super Cavill to mope around delivering the majority of his performance with his eyebrows. At no fault of his, the depth of Superman's character and internal conflict was never fleshed out. I was however, left wanting more of Jeremy Iron's Alfred.
Hans Zimmer's score was a MASSIVE highlight giving it an Superhero Operatic sense. Lex Eisenberg pretty much gets his own 'Imperial March' music. Without this melodic string march, Lex would come across more bipolar teenager than intelligent super villain. Kudos to Hans for adding some character layers to someone who, while entertaining to watch, had no real motive to pin the two supes up against each other.
While not a deal breaker, it lacked a few cohesive narratives and misstepped with quick resolutions without cause and effect. The one that stood out the most for me was Batman's pure despise for Superman simply turning over because their mothers have the same name. Without hesitation in the very next scene he proclaims to Martha Kent "I'm a Friend of your Son"... *** BATMAN: What did you say your mother's name was? SUPERMAN: Martha. Why? BATMAN: Holy $hit! Mine too! SUPERMAN: OMG! We Do have something in common! BATMAN: We should hang sometime! SUPERMAN: Hell yeah! Better yet, we should introducer our mothers! BATMAN: Mine's dead. SUPERMAN: $hit man - Sorry. Well, since you couldn't save your's. Would you mind saving mine while I try to stop this bad dude? BATMAN: Ummm Sure Friend *walks away and cries* ***
The BVS story at times became a little sacrificial to the larger Justice League setup; another plot point, that seemed to come out of nowhere and felt obviously rushed was files on Lex Luthor's computer containing information on The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg. While a great little fanboy moment of internal squeals, it felt cheated in introduction to these future supporting characters.
The real hero in all of this was Wonder Gal. Her place felt more genuine in this world. Fighting for what is right whilst the other brutes fought over each other and their own egos. Her place felt natural. Her follow up film and place in JL is now concrete.
All in all, I loved BVS. I know the above may say otherwise. But you can't argue the fact that seeing those guys together on the big screen is a feat in itself. I hope Justice League will flesh out a little more and fingers crossed it's not ensemble players all fighting for screen time and story.
And for the love of a false god, stop comparing it to Marvel and Avengers - Even via its paper pulp medium, DC have always been a little darker and Grimier - Snyder got that bit right.