It should have been great.

Rating: 6/10 (29 September 2016)

Dawn of Justice starts off well: the film starts with the Metropolis battle from 'Man of Steel', seen from Bruce Wayne's perspective as the city is pummeled into a wreck. This opening scene gets you right in on this film's version of Batman, but after this bit, we almost forget the yin-and-yang relationship Batman and Superman are SUPPOSED to have in-story, because this film is mostly about Batman; here, Superman is a barely prominent and invincible version of Bats.
Dawn of Justice DOES get some things right, like Ben Affleck's portrayal of Batman (except his killing of thugs) show the strengths this film carries with it. Gal Gadot was GREAT as Wonder Woman; with what little screen time she was given. And Jeremy Irons was a great and (sometimes) comically-cynical Alfred Pennyworth. Zack Snyder does know how to frame shots and compose big scenes with a lot of stuff going on. People have been giving Snyder flack for his handling of the film but they overlook the good things he achieved, like getting Batman to actually look like how he appears in the comics and make Wonder Woman feel like an important character through Gadot's minute role as the character. It would have been nice if Wonder Woman supported Batman's goal to 'kill' Superman instead of staying in-the-backseat most of the time.
For all the good the film has, it suffers from pretty serious flaws as well. Henry Cavill's Superman should have been one of the highlights of this movie, but instead he's easily one of the worst things about it. He doesn't bring new or optimistic life to an otherwise optimistic character, and Superman doesn't seem at all happy with being a superhero who's basically a God. Zack Snyder doesn't seem to know what he wants out of the character. Jesse Eisenberg is miscast as Lex Luthor, and through THIS performance we see everything that is wrong with this movie: unbalanced, too comically silly in a 'serious' movie and too over the top you start to wonder why Zack didn't give Eisenberg clearer or more ruthless direction. And let's not even get started on the screenplay.
The story is where Batman vs Superman should have shined, but we see what is easily one of the most overstuffed messes since The Amazing Spiderman 2: too many new characters with too little screen time, and enough subplots to fill a television series' worth of content; even a film trilogy. We get some references to stories like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Returns, and The Death of Superman. The story is essentially a teaser to Justice League, with TOO MUCH stuffed into one two-and-a-half hour movie alone. You can add lots of subplots to movies, but they should be relevant to what's going on at hand, and Dawn of Justice has too many things that don't add up for THIS story. Did we REALLY need The Death of Superman to the sequel of Man of Steel, THE SECOND MOVIE IN THE DC FILM SERIES?! That's rushing it for a character the audience has barely emotionally attached itself to in the first place.
Dawn of Justice is a big, well-meaning, but ultimately misguided attempt to bring Batman and Superman head-to-head on the big screen; and the film deserved better than overstuffed fan-service fodder. Respectable to Batman, but not much love here for Superman.