Mediocre story, rather long film, dull action scenes

Rating: 4/10 (2 April 2016)

I am a comic book fan since I was a teenager. I am more fond of Marvel than I am is DC, however I have read some great stories published by DC, most of the featuring the Batman. Naturally, I like super-hero films. I am thrilled by the realism and the intensity that some instances of CGI may add to a good story. Because if the story is not good, there is not much to do in order to save the day. I was looking forward to Batman vs Superman ("BvsSP" henceforth). I followed the updates and the controversy concerning some cast choices. I watched the teasers, they had a positive effect on me, since they made me want to go and watch this film. I have seen some of Zach Snyder's films. I thought his work in Watchmen was honorable, but then, that was a terrific story, not to his credit, of course. I liked what Christopher Nolan's Batman's trilogy and I must say I liked MOS. I read some of the reviews for BvsSP, I decided to try and make my own opinion. I will keep it short and pretty much spoiler-free. I thought this was a mediocre film. The story was rather inconsistent, notwithstanding the cast's efforts, the film felt as mediocre to me. I found there was too much slow motion and aestheticism (maybe a bit of Zack Snyder's trademark?), which meant that some touching scenes soon became cheesy and action lacked rhythm throughout the film. A medium zone between Michael Bay and Zack Snyder may be where action scenes are truly efficient. 3D and music did bring some intensity to the whole atmosphere, although some artistic/musical choices did leave me in wonder - a bagpiper at a funeral in Kansas? I found Kevin Costner's presence comforting (anything I should worry about?) and Jessee Eisenberg made for an interesting and convincing Lex Luthor. I have nothing either positive or negative to say about Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. I think they did the best they could to play a fundamentally inconsistent script. Their characters' motivations seemed somewhat unclear to me at times, as much as some elements of the plot. Contrary to Disney/Marvel's The Avengers franchise, BvsSP failed to present interesting, developing characters. All in all, towards the end of the film, I felt the whole thing was a pretext to set up a new franchise. Yet the story felt really mediocre.