Hot mess of a film

Rating: 4/10 (5 June 2016)

This film could have been so much more; that's the reoccurring theme. There was a ton of things going on and it felt rushed, crowded and confusing. The tone of the film was so dark, at times it felt more like a horror flick. There were a few clumsy attempts to lighten it, but they were at best half-baked and shoehorned in. There was just no fun, no joy to be had here.
Cliche's! Why does Snyder rely on cliche's in a film of this magnitude? Two different times a damsel was held at gunpoint by a bad guy, threatening to "off" her if the hero didn't back down. Why, oh why do directors continue with this worn out trope?
On a good note, I will say that most of the action sequences were well choreographed and staged and the CGI was very good. But then again, there was just so much of it that I felt as if I was the one getting pounded by the end of the film. There was one particular scene in which so much firepower was used to protect an object that it would challenge a small army, but there was no real justification for this use of firepower and later in the film that same object was left barely protected.
The reliance on themes of gods and power were just overdone to the point of obsession. And Holly Hunter cast as a Kentucky Senator was laughable, except that it wasn't supposed to be funny.
The motivations used in this story were also flimsy, sometimes changing the very nature of the character we know. We got too much detail when we needed less and too little when we needed more. All in all, this was yet another misfire by DC and WB and it has me wondering if they understand or even care about their characters.