Disappointing but not a bad film

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2016)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has walked in the exact same direction as Man of Steel did, with too little colour or life and a tendency to overdo everything. Now, this film over does the wrong things. Whilst Jesse Eisenburg takes ages over his poor attempt at a replication of great Dark Knight villains like Scarecrow and the Joker as the weird and overly talkative Lex Luther, Batman and Superman's development as characters suffers. Although both Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill put out good performances, their characters, oddly, aren't given enough screen time or lines to let them develop their motivation to fight each other, and the film doesn't benefit from this as mostly what their fight is is a flash- fest – which, though impressive, doesn't have the drive it really needs.
However, Affleck is brilliant as the new, brutal Batman and as Bruce Wayne, as his interpretation may even be better than Christian Bale's — especially in some fight sequences where it feels just like you're in the middle of an Arkham game (and that's a very good thing). The action in the film is visually impressive, brutal and atmospheric, and the score by Hans Zimmer is fantastic as it is just as loud, in-your- face and goose-bump provoking as you'd want from an action film like it is.
Nonetheless, it feels so much like Zack Snyder has tried to cram far too much material into one film, as the mad 2-and-a-half-hour cuts shows. Needless to say, the story goes overboard, and everything just gets crazier and crazier to the extent that it gets over the top and it feels like it should have just ended half-an-hour ago once the film has finally ended. But then even though it's still 2- and-a-half hours long there is still the problem with Batman and Superman's character development, as 20 minutes of this is taken by some pointless dream sequence which adds NOTHING – so clearly a better editor was needed for this one — or, yes, there should have been more than one film. Furthermore, the story really is a mismatch, and it further supports the lack of quality editing.
To summarise: Though Zack Snyder is a great visual artist as this film emphatically shows, his ideas for films like this seem scrambled and things don't end up quite as cool as they could have. For now, this film is pretty cool, but it could have been so much cooler. I'm excited for what's to come with Batfleck, anyway, and Wonder Woman — but not Aquaman, oh, no, not Aquaman. I'd say this film is worth a watch if you're a superhero or an action film fan, but, yes, don't expect a masterpiece.