Not-Batman versus Not-Superman

Rating: 2/10 (27 March 2016)

Okay, Batman vs. Superman. I saw it and I really didn't care for it. In fact, there were some parts I just hated.
But, to start with... Ben Afleck did quite well as Bruce Wayne. A millionaire CEO who actually cares about people that work for him. Who knew? But then things turn to crap.
The bulk of the movie feels like a bunch of smaller vignettes mashed together in a haphazard way.And a lot of times the motivation either doesn't make sense or changes to promote the next violence-saturated conflict.
Speaking of violence:Batman is now a homicidal vigilante. Actually gunning down bad guys in cold blood. The whole lack of morals in a hero bothered me quite a bit. It used to be that Batman would dance on the line between good and evil, striking a balance of doing good work in dark ways. Now, he's solidly in the camp of ugly violent vengeance, not shadowy justice.
Superman is depicted as aloof, disaffected and as an outright jerk at times. He actually just stands around while people burn to death around him. Not even an attempt to save anyone or even help in the chaos afterward. Seems like the writers went out of their way to make the paragon of truth, justice and the American way unlikable. It's less character development and more character assassination.
Then there's Lex Luthor. Played as twitchy, spastic and downright obnoxious, he's quite difficult to take as the arch-enemy of Superman that we've seen for the last 50 years or so.
Characterizations aside, this a movie that's high of flash, low on substance. The worst aspects of psychotic violence fantasies applied to classic heroes who are supposed to embody the exact opposite of that. They're no longer symbols to look up to. I expected more out of my childhood heroes than this.