Not what expected, but that's a Good Thind

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2016)

The critics have missed the point of the Batman Vs Superman movie. The movie isn't representing an origin story (as the first superheroes movies tend to do) or a Batman '66 story. This is the story of heroes who have been at the game for many years.
The Batman here has been through the ringer and come out on the other side. He is even more damaged than when he first donned the cape and cowl when he witnessed his parents being killed. He has had at least one Robin murdered on his watch, and he is angry and bitter, and no matter what he does or the sacrifices he has made, he realises that he hasn't made a real difference. As he said, criminals are like weeds, every one he pulls out another grows in its place.
The Superman here isn't the Boy-scout portrayed in the comics, he doubts himself, he has moral qualms –especially after having killed Zod to save humanity- and he is confronted by a world that alternates between worshiping him and fearing him. As a result, he second guesses himself. The only thing he really understands amidst the chaos, is sure of, is his feelings for Lois, his relationship with her, and to his own detriment will take action to preserve this without clearly contemplating the consequences.
Batman's ire has been fully directed at this non-human, this alien, who has shown how dangerous and destructive he can be, to the point of obsession – something that anyone who knows Batman can ever accuse him of not being.
These aren't the Batman and Superman of comics at the peak of their careers, these are Superheroes who have been in the trenches for far too long, disillusioned, taken for granted, questioned insistently, and perhaps in Batman's case at least, suffering from PTSD.
Who said that the movie would be an exact representation of the characters in the comics? The thing that ended the fight, the name of the mutual mothers, rather than weak, was poignant because it served 2 purposes. Firstly it humanised this so-believed uncontrollable alien monster, helping Batman to break through his obsession and see Superman differently. And then it brought Batman back to where it all started, the cause of his first becoming the Batman, where he was more innocent, maybe just as angry, but less bitter. The point where he first donned the mask with purer intentions.
It seems to me that people were expecting a Marvel-type Superhero movie, but this is a DC one, where in their respective movie universes Marvel and DC have swapped roles: In comics the Marvel universe is generally grimmer, more serious, where the Superheroes (as Superman put it in the Avengers-JLA crossover) have to work harder. Superheroes aren't respected, and the people who they try to protect are forever trying to curtail them, register them or hunt them down. In the DC universe, the Superheroes are generally loved and respected, the world is less serious and not so grim. You will never have a Flash-type museum for any Marvel hero in the Marvel universe.
In the movies, Marvel and DC have largely swapped roles. The Marvel movie universe is less serious, more fun, less taking itself seriously. Whereas, contrary to this, the DC movie universe is totally serious, darker and grimmer than any DC comic, or Marvel comic for that matter.
Zack Snyder has made no bones about this; he has stated from the beginning that this Justice League universe is dark and grim, that the Flash series of current TV for example, has no place in it. I wasn't expecting a Marvel movie, I was expecting a movie more akin to the Watchmen movie, perhaps one of the darkest, grimmest Superheroes representations in cinema, in which the main villain turns out to have been one of the heroes and another hero is killed by his team-mates in the end to keep from revealing the truth.
People, give the movie a break.