Dawn of Justice!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 9/10 (25 June 2020)

Before I start,, I must say I'll be referring to the Ultimate Edition version of the film (not that I thought the theatrical release was bad,, but I will agree that it was choppy and left a little bit of holes here and there. If they'd included a mere 10 mins of the extra that we saw in the Ultimate Edition then I'm certain people would've changed their minds on this,,
oh well)
I luv this movie!!! I thought Snyder did a great job of including the origin of Batman within the first 5 mins (short, unsweet, and to the point). We see shots of Thomas and Martha Waynes funeral interwoven with shots of Bruce and his parents leaving the movies, and what transpires afterwards. Bruce runs away from the funeral proceedings and falls down an abandoned covered well,, where he finds a lot of new, winged friends (the shot of the bats and Bruce rising up is great!)
Then we see a different version of the battle between Superman and Zod from Man of Steel,,, the version that Bruce sees from the ground in Metropolis. This is what sets Bruce off on his mission for most of this movie. He sees an alien monster fight that kills thousands of people and destroys a lot of Metropolis. He sees red.
Flash forward 18 months,,, Superman saves Lois from terrorists in the desert,, and is made out to have killed a lot of innocent bystanders in doing so,,,
At the same time in Gotham, people are scared,, especially the criminals. The Batman is taking on the job of judge, jury, and executioner in a lot of ways by branding criminals with his Batman symbol. Once
inside the prison, those branded are killed.
I won't bother saying too many more things about the plot,,, don't want to give it all away.
I do have to talk about one scene,, that has been horribly misunderstood and made fun of. The Martha scene - When I first saw the movie in theaters,, I thought the scene was great. Only after seeing all the backlash did I begin to question any of it. Batman wins the big fight between he and Superman. He does this by utilizing kryptonite found by Lex Luthor. Bruce makes 3 smoke bombs out of it, as well as a spear to deliver a final killing blow to Superman. After using 2 of the bombs on Superman, Batman has him down for the count, pinning him down by stepping on his throat! Before Batman drives the spear into him, Superman says, "you're letting him kill Martha," (him referring to Luthor who's had Martha Kent kidnapped in order to force Superman into a showdown with Batman,,, cause Luthor has been playing them against each other). This of course throws Batman for a loop,, mostly bc his mother's name was Martha (and Luthor had manipulated him by saying he let his family die (referring to his work family, of course,, knowing this would haunt Bruce bc of what happened to his parents)). So, Batman's starts screaming, "why did you say that name!?!" It really messes with his head that Superman says this. Then Superman says, "Find him,, save Martha." Enraged,, Batman again screams, "why did you say that name!?!" Lois comes into the scene at this point and runs to plead for Superman's life. "It's his mother's name! It's his mother's name!" she says to Batman. Now,, my feelings about this scene may very well be different then others. I felt like Batman, upon hearing his own mothers name, started feeling guilty about who he'd allowed himself to become. The Batman we see in this movie (before this scene) is not the Batman that we've seen before. He's out for blood, in a way. He has convinced himself that Superman is an evil, alien being who will bring nothing but death and destruction to the world. He's convinced himself that it's his duty to neutralize this threat. Upon hearing Superman ask for his mother's life to be saved, and seeing Lois (who Wayne knows by reputation, at least) pleading for his life,, Batman realizes what he's allowed himself to become, and internally may wonder what would his parents think of him, and what he's doing. All of this coupled with the realization that he's been played (by Lex Luthor), makes Batman see that Alfred was right in an earlier scene of the movie (Alfred - "The fever. The rage. The feelings of powerlessness. It turns good men cruel.") Batman steps away from Superman and Lois,, and throws the kryptonite spear away.
Now, a lot of people have referred to this as a sudden 180 where Batman and Superman become best friends bc their mothers shared the same name. That's fine if you see it that way,,, I just think you're completely wrong. The names being the same is (according to Snyder) how they started to create this scene. The main point is that Batman sees his errors and changes. He realizes that his been wrong (a lot of which is thanks to Luthor's manipulation), and wants to make things right with Superman (or as right as he can). That's what the scene is about!!!
I really liked Alfred not only helps Batman. but also gets in on the action (like how he remotely takes control of the Batwing). I really wanted to see more of the banter between Bruce and Alfred, and their relationship,,, but of course there's only so much runtime, and we've seen that before,,,
Now onto Wonder Woman,,, oh my!!! I loved how she was introduced in this movie. Plenty of screen time to be introduced, and plenty of back story, but not too much (sets up seeing her in WW perfectly).
Okay, now that I've ranted for a good bit,,,
Go watch it!!!