Truth, Justice, Hope.

Rating: 8/10 (25 March 2016)

First things first. This is a great movie. Go watch it now. I'm not kidding,NOW!
I'll wait.
Did you watch it? Cool, now we can talk about it. Yes, by far this is not a perfect movie and reviewers have been having a jolly good time pointing out what is wrong with it. I will do that myself a few paragraphs down. But all things considered, the final product is everything you could expect from the first live action movie featuring DC's Trinity. The action is intense, the stakes are high and the characters are iconic.
Hands down the winner of the Batman V Superman romp is Wonder Woman. She is the one with the least screen time, yet she manages to steal the show in those brief moments. I am really excited about what they can do with her character in her solo movie and in the Justice League movies. I was not sure about the casting of Gal Gadot as Diana, but man what a delight she is. She brings charm, exoticism and blood-lust for battle to the role. Just perfect. She is the true hero here.
From the point of view of the filmmakers, the star of the show is Batman, and boy, do they deliver. I never had a problem with the casting of Ben Affleck, but I was not prepared for the darkness he was going to bring to the role. Finally we get see on film that part of the Batman myth, the borderline psychopath whose obsession and paranoia can get the best of him. But they are also smart enough, and Affleck is an actor good enough, to portray the frailty, the humanity that make Batman the greatest comic book hero.
Superman on the other hand gets the short end of the stick here in basically every way. Which is a shame really, because Henry Cavill gets and embodies the character perfectly and he could do so much with it if they gave him the right material. Don't get me wrong, the arc for Supernan from Man of Steel to this movie makes perfect sense and seems pretty faithful for those of us comic book fans that got invested in the character post-Crisis. Is just that you can see that they could explore the Superman mythos for the modern world in much more depth, they could explore Clark and Lois' relationship in much more depth and they have such talented actors to do it, so the fact the we only get such broad strokes can be frustrating. On the other hand there is always the hope of better things to come.
Zack Snyder gets most of the vitriol from reviewers and commenters and I absolutely get it. However, I think the expectations that people had from him are wildly unfair. You can't compare Zack Snyder to Chris Nolan in the same way that you can't compare James Cameron to Ridley Scott. Each director has their unique style and passions and their work will reflect them, even if they are based on the same characters. In a way that is what makes film great. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that there is a certain narrowness of vision and color blindness to Snyder's body of work, and this movie suffers for it.
Maybe the shortcomings of Batman V Superman seem more palpable to me because Mad Max: Fury Road is so fresh in my memory. That film with such a dark and gritty story, set up in such a stark wasteland, still manages to be colorful and uplifting. And it does not help at all the thought that George Miller could have been at the helm of Justice League. But if we compare any film of the past five years with Fury Road, let's face it, they all are going to come up short.
So let's not waste time nitpicking and pondering what could have been. Enjoy Batman V Superman for what is is: a great thrill ride of a movie and the goddamn Dawn of Justice!