A beautiful, unamitaged mess. But it is really beautiful

Rating: 4/10 (1 May 2016)

Just a preface, I haven't seen Man Of Steel, mainly because I disagreed with the concept of making a dark Superman - not because Superman can't be in "dark stories the way Batman is", because a lot of the time he is - but because of Superman's super-powered boy scout personality makes him as dark seem inappropriate. Nevertheless, I saw this because I love Batman and I love his story lines, and I can say without a doubt that the Batman stuff in this movie is the best things in it.
There are three positives that I can truly get behind: Ben Affleck and his performance as both Bruce Wayne AND Batman, the music score, and the action scenes. Everything else is super mishandled.
The biggest problem with this movie is that it seems that Zack Snyder, David S. Goyer AND even Christopher Nolan came up with absolutely nothing close to the characters they were creating, and one particular character comes off REALLY bad: Lex Luthor, in this movie, is a F***ING JOKE! I know they were going for something different, but this feels like a really cynical attempt to be a Heath Ledger as The Joker type thing. However, whilst The Joker was a original take on the old classic character, he still retained the trademark characteristics and fitted in the Universe. Eisenberg's Lex doesn't, and it cripples the film. Is he a scheming genius? Kind of, but his plan is so contrived that doesn't fit. Is a charming man? Nowhere near. Is he bald? At the end of the film, yes, but the rest of the time his hair is even longer than normal. Is he confident? Actually they take this too far - this Lex is fearless as hell, but it borders on Joker levels of fearlessness, and that was also distracting. Does he think super far ahead for every outcome? NO; he makes Doomsday to kill Superman, without ANY plan for what would happen if Doomsday won. In fact, Doomsday's first thing is to attack Lex but Superman stops him. It's not totally Jesse's fault, as this is the character they were going for, but if so, an actor like Joseph Gordon-Levitt would've been someone who CAN portray charm, scheming and confidence.
Superman is also poorly handed, as Henry Cavill gives no charm or charisma to the character, who also acts totally outside of the Superman way. He has no reason to be angry that Batman kills, because in one scene, he flies a guy in jeans and a t-shirt through a brick wall to save Lois. Fact: that guy died.
This is a movie made for the fans, but it falls apart so quickly under analysis from even the passing viewer: it drags too much, characters aren't really the characters and the casting choices were so bizarre - but to be fair, two of those casting decisions worked well, one of them didn't. They mishandle so many thing about the film, including the ending, which didn't have the emotional weight behind it that it needed. But I am glad I saw it - I just wish I liked it more than I did.