Well, this was worse than I ever imagined

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2016)

I have been a comic book fan for the better part of two decades now. At that, I've been mostly a supporter of DC Comics, the publisher who's properties were the first to hit it big on film, specifically Superman in 1978 and later Batman in 1989. Both movies were absolute hits and greatly contributed with making the comic book movie genre a force to be reckoned, so of course, seeing the two title characters together on the big screen has been something that fans like me thought was way over due.
It finally happened in the spring of 2016 after 6 Superman movies and 7 Batman ones. While the Man of Tomorrow has faced a rocky road when it comes to film adaptations ever since the second entry in 1980, the Caped Crusader brought to life by Christopher Nolan in the 21st century is close to universally loved. Many, myself included, were hoping that he could carry on such a fantastic job over to Superman but being justifiably more interested in his own creative projects, he assumed a producer role and chose Zack Snyder as director for Man of Steel and now the Batman-Superman encounter that we have been clamoring since pretty much 1989.
And that's where I found the problem to begin with. In my personal opinion, Snyder is a gimmick director who cannot handle story telling. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule as I think Watchmen is a fun enough adaptation of a source material that was near unfilmable, but Man of Steel was no exception to the rule that are works like Sucker Punch. Thus, I was hardly excited for this movie and every trailer only fueled my apathy. Deep down however, I wanted to be wrong. Of course I wanted to be wrong, it's the two most iconic characters in the history of comic books, why would I want it to be bad?
Sadly, I was mostly right in my negativity. Mostly right rather than completely since this was worse than even I imagined. Not only was Snyder's direction misguided in that it once again focused much more on visuals over substance but David Goyer and Chris Terrio's script had some terribly dull dialogue. Add to that some very lackluster fight choreography, over use of damsel in distress and dream sequences, uninspired score from Hans Zimmer (My biggest let down) and Junkie XL, lifeless acting from the protagonists, this was just a big wreck. A wreck that appeared much more preoccupied with establishing a rushed universe of heroes than with putting out a good film.
As positives, Gal Cadot was a good Wonder Woman but she was hardly enough in the movie to add anything to it. Eisenberg as a baddie was somewhat entertaining if at times exaggerated and not very Luthor like. Like I said above, Snyder is a one trick pony and that trick is stunning visuals so you can add that to things the movie did OK.
Had they been any other characters instead of Batman and Superman, I seriously think I would have walked out. This isn't even laughably bad, it's all around boring. I'm left angry and hoping that Warner Brothers realizes that while the characters have a strong fan base, this type of crap can kill any franchise. They should know better, after all, they have been killed badly in the past.