Mixed Mess

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2016)

One of the most anticipated movies is finally here and the ultimate question about it now is "is it any good?". Well if you check the reviews it's either the best movie ever or the worst movie ever. While that's the most usual bipartisan, polarizing way internet works, it's either Yes or No, either 0 or 1, the truth is as usual somewhere in the middle.
For the uninitiated DC viewers that watched only Man of Steel and are not particularly invested in Superman lore, Dawn of Justice will probably be a incomprehensible cool mess. For DC fans it's almost the same but they can at least understand some plot points. The main point is that it's a mess.
There is really not enough space to inspect all the highs and lows of this movie, because there are so much of either. If anything, it's polarizing af. So I am going to break down just some of the basics.
There's a lot of stuff to like and a lot to hate here. Story is mostly in that other camp. While there are 52 different plots and subplots going on from scene to scene the gist of the story is - Superman is a threat, Batman doesn't like it, Lex doesn't like either of them. Also, Wonder Woman is in it.
Probably the worst part of the movie is that the plot hole ridden story goes in hand with incoherent editing. From scene to scene movie goes all over the place. Batman chases bad guys in a truck with kryptonite, and after 5 minutes of that, Superman blocks him hard, scene ends, Batman goes empty handed. Shortly after, Batman gets kryptonite in a scene we didn't see. It's basically a setup with no payoff in chase scene and then matter resolves anyway without us witnessing it. It's hard to describe editing and pacing of this movie because it's so all thrown together.
If you know your DC stuff, main plots are basically Death of Superman/Injustice/Darkseid/Dark Knight Returns mashed together in not so compatible way.
Characters are also wildly mixed bag of everything. Let's go with the best - Batman is awesome. Yeah, he kills people here and there, but more as a collateral and not a murderous intent. And that's OK, because Batman is ultimately malleable character and you can do a lot with him and still make him great. While some of the decisions he makes here are just dumb, he's still the best part of the movie. Ben Affleck also is great as Batman and Bruce Wayne. Henry Cavill and Superman are like, OK I guess, just like in the Man of Steel. Really nothing to add there. Wonder Woman is kinda tacked on here, and while Gal Gadot is passable as WW I couldn't shake the feeling while watching that' she's actually horribly casted. I'm prepared to let Wonder Woman standalone movie reassure me though.
All the others were fine, Jeremy Irons is OK as Alfred. But except Affleck, Cavill and Eisenberg, others really don't have much of a screen time anyway. And then we come to Lex Luthor. Wow, just wow. Eisenberg does what he does and that's being Jessie Eisenberg. While I'm always open for different versions of popular characters, this was just a bad idea from the start. From casting to Luthor being an aspergerated maniac that behaves really, really weird. That scene with candy and senator, what the hell was that? It was so super awkward.
And then there's Flash/Cyborg/Aquaman shoehorned introduction with all the names, logos and all, in a dramatically formatted email from Batman. It was unintentionally hilarious as all hell.
Script also needs a brief mention, because there are a lot some really dumb stuff coming from characters mouths in this. If there isn't mention of a "god" at least billion times in the movie then there's at least one jar of urine as a punchline to some of the most dumb, own fart smelling, written parts of a dialogue I ever saw in a movie.
Oh yeah, and Superman dies. That was kinda unnecessary, especially if they are just going to bring him back in the next movie, even more so if they bring him back without some really palpable consequences. At least we can all hope for Supermullet.
In a nutshell, a lot of unnecessary characters, scenes and subplots with a lot of explosions, incomprehensible action, no jokes whatsoever (ok, there's one with Batman and Martha Kent), awesome Batman stuff.
They had almost 3 years to actively make this movie more coherent but they didn't. And as much as I would like to lay all the blame on Snyder, one man can't make a movie like this - although he is probably the most responsible for the worse parts of it and that's editing and nonsensical direction. Someone had to green light this to theaters, to edit it, write it, act it, bankroll it. Someone could just say "wait, this is insane, back to the drawing board." but didn't. A lot of dumb things happen for no reason except "next plot point needs to happen".
When things get dumb in BvS, they get really dumb, when they get awesome though, they get really awesome. Only thing I can say for the end - WB/DC, do better! Can Snyder, get coherent stories and directors. It's not that hard, Disney can do it. While I do appreciate the one thing DC always does, and that's doing something different and alternative story wise, and a lot of times it just works (Injustice, DKR, Earth One, Arkham games, Nolan movies, all Batman TV animated outings), and they also do it here, but it just seems like it doesn't click for some (well, a lot of) reason. Then it's probably time to tweak this formula a little bit.