An expensive-looking super hero movie that entertains

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2016)

The visual-effects-heavy Zack Snyder film featuring arguably the two biggest superheroes in comic book history, is one where we find the two protagonists facing off with each other, lending the motion picture its quirky title. The prospect of seeing a square-off between two giants of DC comics-lineage served for many probably as an incentive alone to watch the film on the big screen. And as someone not particularly fond of the purveyor of arts in question (Snyder), I was pleased to see that the experience was worth the while. From the enormous $250 000 000 budget we get a glossy, stylized and action-packed blockbuster, a welcome collaboration between Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL (who made the musical score for "Mad Max: Fury Road"), and a satisfying Batman-rendering by a capable Ben Affleck, among other things.
The film does have appeal. For the most part it looks really good, in the way that is characteristic of Snyder's previous films, and chroma keying (green screen) is hence an important technique in achieving this. The new batman heavy-armour suit looks very cool also and works well within the fight scenes it is incorporated. The fight choreography was gritty and involved hand-to-hand combat that looked fairly realistic. Additionally, the impending confrontation between the two leads was solved in a nice way, without giving away any leads.
So the action is good, it entertains, but better writing wouldn't go amiss. The script by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer is overdramatic and self-important, and narratively speaking it relies more on showmanship rather than craftsmanship. Comparing Batman v Superman to any of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight instalments, although perhaps an unfair comparison, reveals a motion picture of lesser complexity and gratifying scope. It does enough however to sustain interest over 2 hours and 31 minutes and should be complemented for doing so.
The acting by Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck in particular, stood out to me as memorable performances. Gal Gadot playing the character Diana Prince who moonlights as Wonder Woman, also gave a performance that I think will help female superheroines appear more frequently in films in the future. A role that I feel people are very divided in their opinion of however, is Jesse Eisenberg as villain Lex Luthor. Some think he was great; others think not so much. I definitely belong to the latter category and whilst I acknowledge Mr. Eisenberg is capable of incredible feats of acting, I thought he gave an overacted, terribly silly performance that annoyed me beyond belief. His way over-the-top approach to the role was not at all necessary and took away a lot of the joy from the watching experience. Sometimes less truly is more!
It should be said that an intriguing component of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" is that it introduces DC characters that will have new films of their own, as well as platforms for all these to assemble in the coming Justice league films, where Zack Snyder is set to direct. This is "alluded" to in the film, somewhat blatantly, and builds up expectation around the projects in question. Hopefully these films will fare well, as this one more or less managed to do.