8.3/10⭐ Pretentious... or is it?

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2019)

"...you will battle him to the death. Black and blue; fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man; day versus night." - Alexander Luthor
I suppose I'm right in saying that this is a movie of much controversy; you either loved it, hated it or thought it was just meh. This can be credited to a common misunderstanding of the film's content. It has been said that the film does not establish the characters that well and that their agendas were difficult to understand. Maybe you WOULD think that. If you weren't paying full attention to the movie.
As it turns out, the characters were developed surprisingly well. Superman has already established his agenda of providing hope to the world and displays the exact character coherent with that goal throughout the entire movie.
BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE IS SAID!
It is vitally important to understand the context of this film - the DC Extended Universe. This is a dark world. The infamous city of Gotham and all of its atrocities have taken their toll on Bruce/Batman. He is no longer the 'nicer' version of Batman with the no killing rule. Let's get something straight, though. Batman doesn't kill all the time. HE HAS ALMOST BECOME THE "HOLLOW SHELL" THAT IS ILLUSTRATED IN FRANK MILLER'S 'THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS' and was set in motion as inevitable by Heath Ledger's the Joker when he claimed "Batman has no jurisdiction". That said, it is likely that Batman may become more of a criminal eventually. People simply don't want to see this sort of Batman in films.

"In the dream, (the bats) took me to the light...

... a beautiful lie."
This powerful quote is saying that Bruce thought that becoming Batman would make his life and world better, but it didn't. It only made him sink further into his personal darkness. This is sad. A bit depressing, but sad. This is to be expected when "Batman has no jurisdiction". THAT'S RIGHT ALL YOU BALE-OBSESSED FANS! Batman is not perfect. Maybe not even good. Effective, but not always good. HE'S CALLED THE DARK KNIGHT FOR A REASON AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE HE WEARS BLACK! He plunges his "hands into the filth, so that you can keep yours clean", to quote Gordon from The Dark Knight Rises; he is like the dark knights from the Arthurian era: he works by this own methods to serve a kind of justice. Ladies and gentlemen, this... is the true Batman.
Bruce, having spent "20 years in Gotham" fighting its crime and seeing "how many good guys are left... how many stay that way", is terrified that superman will become bad like everyone else (including Batman himself). Only this time no one will be able to stop him.
It was important that Superman said "No one stays good in this world, Lois."
The dying humanity left in Bruce comes back to him when he is about to kill Superman and the last thing Superman thinks about before he almost died was his mother. That struck Bruce hard. It reminded him of his own mother and how much he cared for her. Bruce couldn't kill someone who had that kind of a bond in his life.
When Heath Ledger's the Joker's destructive agenda was mysteriously insinuated people were intrigued, but Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor made sense. He has grown up in an unfair home with a cruel father (hinted at in the 'Smallville' television series) and now does not want some other form of God to rule his life unfairly. Lex claims that God (or rather, anyone who is in a great position of power) is always evil. He says that "the world needs to see the holes in the holy" and since Superman is already being questioned by almost everyone for his reckless actions, Lex wants to seal the deal and make it official. He claims some kryptonite for himself, but has that stolen from him, so he continues his work in the kryptonian vessel. You could say that he used Doomsday as a last resort.
I would like to mention that Lex's script had some excellent parts to it at times.
Is this movie pretentious? Maybe a little, but truthfully, this is a very serious concept. Something truly epic and truly dangerous is going to happen. I haven't seen the ultimate edition yet, but I heard that it is better than the theatrical release because it explains more, though it is 3 hours long.
This is undoubtedly an under-appreciated movie.
But coming from a DCEU fan, Justice League could've used some work and Suicide Squad was trashy and boring at times.