Worse than Man of Steel, and possibly the worst DC film to date.

Rating: 1/10 (3 April 2016)

If this film were only a disappointment in the face of too much hype, it would've been another good film that undone by the need to temper expectations. After all, one can't be blamed for possibly expecting unrealistic standards for this film, and the temptation to hold it to impossible, unfair standards that it can't possible meet. This was a problem that happened with The Hobbit Trilogy (Peter Jackson 2012- 2014) and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (George Lucas, 1999), which weren't great films but got overly criticized due to unrealistic expectations for them. But this film is so poorly told that it's hard to imagine anyone watching it and feeling intellectually, emotionally, or viscerally satisfied. Many of the issues that plagued Man of Steel (Zack Synder, 2013) are present here. The lackluster acting where people are either too shallow to be engaging or giving a performance that clashes with the rest of the film (Jesse Eisenberg). The weak narrative structure with plot threads that feel superfluous (an interesting complaint considering Synder's proposed "real version" needing to be three hours long). The cinematography is just as bad as before, with highly distracting hand held camera work, a muted dull color palette, and an over emphasis on slow motion to indicate important moments that almost feel like parody. The score is just as lifeless, feeling so much like every other uninspired score Hans Zimmer has cranked out over the past eight years. Synder and Goyer seem to still have a fundamental misunderstanding of how these characters work, to the point where you almost begin to wonder if they truly care about these characters at all or are just here for the paycheck. What makes this film worse is how portentous and pretentious it is, exploiting hot button issues and buzzwords to make it seem more thoughtful and important without any exploration of these ideas. It wants to tell the audience how interested it is in their ideas but anytime it seems to be about to explore the issue it does so in an insipid manner or is distracted by a poorly executed action scene. Further, a movie that questions from time to time how it's characters should use their power doesn't actually seem to actually care about how they use it as long as it looks cool, which might be defensible if it were but everything that is done in this film is either poorly executed or embarrassingly lifted from better films. As a film goes, I am upset by just how badly this film performs as both a philosophically charged action film and as a science fiction drama. But as someone who loves this genre and these characters in particular, the lack of an emotional core or clear appreciation for these character turns this from a bad film to a terrible film. This film is so bad that it retroactively taints Synder and Goyer's good work, as well as makes you actively uninterested in seeing any other films under this current DC administration. So, yes, "it's not fun" would be an excellent way to describe this film.