Batman v Superman: The Most Highly Anticipated Comic Book Movie of the Year

Rating: 7/10 (27 March 2016)

RATING: B-
This is possibly the most highly anticipated movie of the year. So how does it stack up? Did the producers create a good film? How does it compare to other comic book movies?
I will give you the comparisons first. In my opinion this film is better than Iron Man 3, because it has a better story. In my opinion this movie is better than the 2nd Avengers movie, because although the story in the Batman v Superman film has serious problems and serious plot holes, the 2nd Avengers movie has more serious problems in this regard. This film (Batman v Superman) is better than both XMen 3 (The Last Stand)and The Dark Knight Rises, both of which were dreadful abominations.
In my opinion Batman v Superman is not as good as the following comic book movies, which had good stories, good scripts and/or good character development: Iron Man (the 1st Iron Man film), XMen (the 1st film), XMen 2- XMen United, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Captain America -The Winter Soldier.
The producers of Batman v. Superman try very hard to produce a very good quality film (or even a great film). The final product is entertaining to a certain extent, but to be honest, it misses the mark. To me the film is worth about 7 out of 10 largely because the picture/ cinematography is very good, the action scenes are good, and most of the actors do a very good job (the one exception being Jesse Eisenberg). Also every DC comic book fan is going to love seeing Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman on the big screen. This film excels in using references from other DC movies or referring to other DC characters. The casting (with the exception of Jesse Eisenberg) is very good. Also the movie manages to achieve good diversity in casting because even though none of the major 3 or 4 characters are visible minorities, there are several visible minorities, with speaking parts in this movie.
The major problems with this movie have to do with: (1) the story, (2) a failure to capitalize on the emotional moments in the story, (3) a poorly conceived Lex Luther character, which is poorly explained and (4) the casting of Lex Luther.
(1) The Story
The story is not intelligent enough. The story needed to make sense. Many things could have been better explained or better written. For example: Batman and Superman are both supposed to be the good guys. In order to get these guys hating each other you should have a really plausible explanation. The explanation provided in the movie is not plausible. Batman's hatred of Superman in the movie comes across as petty, jealous, egocentric, and maybe even a little childish.
Another thing that does not make sense: how can Superman hear one of his close associates in danger, but someone else (another associate for example) is in danger and Superman does not hear this.
They needed to come up with a better explanation as to how Lex Luther creates that thing that he creates.
There should have been a better explanation in the movie as to why Lex Luther was opposed to Superman and/or Batman.
(2) A Failure to Capitalize on the Emotional Moments in the Story
For example, there is a catastrophic scene (I am not going to spoil it for you). The director and story writers should have milked this scene so that audience would experience the following: shock, awe, crying, for a prolonged period of several minutes. Instead the audience experiences a very brief moment of shock.
(3) A Poorly Conceived Lex Luther Character, which is Poorly Explained
Lex Luther is presented as a pathological character whose personality is extremely similar to that of the Joker as played by Heat Ledger in the 2nd Chris Nolan Batman movie. Nobody needed to see Lex Luther pretend to be the Joker, which is what we got. (In that Chris Nolan movie, the Joker is a well written Character. When he speaks the audience almost finds itself agreeing with him 75 % percent of the time because he accurately points out some of the flaws in modern society and he artfully mixes lies with the truth.) Lex Luther needed to have a different personality. He needed to have his own personality, not the Joker's.
The Lex Luther character would have made more sense as a Machiavellian, psychological manipulator with political ambitions (think of Kevin Spacey's character in House of Cards, but played by a younger actor).
We never get a good explanation of what Lex Luthor plans to do once he gets rid of Superman and/or Batman.
(4) The Casting of Lex Luthor
As mentioned above, the Lex Luthor character presented in this movie is essentially the same personality as the Joker character from the second Chris Nolan Batman movie. No one needed to see Jesse Eisenberg play this character. Jesse Eisenberg is really not good in this role. Perhaps it is too much type-casting on the part of those who did the casting, but this was a really bad choice.
Overall the writers of these movies need to always keep in mind that they are writing these movies for intelligent adults and not just for 4 year olds.