Good, but flawed

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2018)

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE is the big superhero smash follow-up to MAN OF STEEL, the Superman revamp starring Henry Cavill. Cavill returns to the role here and appears opposite Ben Affleck, who takes on the mantle of an older, wearier Batman from Christian Bale. I watched the three-hour director's cut of this movie and it's apparent from the outset that there are significant flaws with it. The story doesn't justify a three-hour running time and for the first two hours not much happens at all. The good news is that all of the best drama and action is saved for the climax; when the two heroes finally go at it, it becomes exciting, and things culminate with a city-smashing climax reminiscent of Godzilla at its most fun. I enjoyed Affleck in the Batman role here, and the supporting actors are generally good; Jeremy Irons steps into the Alfred role very smoothly, while Amy Adams gives the most human performance of the film.
Zach Snyder's direction is a bit off, a surprise given he made the excellent WATCHMEN the previous decade. Like Peter Jackson in RETURN OF THE KING, he has no idea how to end his movie and it just drags on and on afte the main plot is tied up. In addition, the almost entire lack of any action for the first half of the movie is a real misstep, and the crushing gloominess of the production weighs down on the viewer quite a bit. My biggest problem lay with Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor; Eisenberg feels like he's doing his best impression of Heath Ledger as the Joker, but he's just annoying here and I ended up wanting him off screen every time he appears. Still, the CGI effects are decent, and the film is suitably 'epic' in feel at times; it's not up to the standards of the AVENGERS movies they're making now, but it's still good clean superhero fun when it wants to be.