See it and decide for yourself.

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 2016)

It seems clear that expectations for BATMANvSUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE were simply too high, maybe there was no way these titans of the comic book universe could ever be brought together in a film which would satisfy their millions of fans. Director Zach Snyder and writers Chris Terrio and David Goyer have given us a film that few, if any, will love, and many will actively hate. I found much about it to be frustrating, mainly because of some truly bad choices by the film makers, yet at the same time, there is still much to admire in BATMANvSUPERMAN.
The main problem for me:
The really dour and serious tone of the whole movie; for the most part, both Batman and Superman are portrayed as sullen and grim as the go about their hero business. This is clearly an attempt to make the movie resonate in a post 9/11 world, with its images of skyscrapers collapsing, debris filled streets and innocent civilian casualties, but this movie clearly could have used some of the humor that both Richard Donner and Tim Burton brought to their respective Superman and Batman films. In fact, Snyder and company makes Christopher Nolan look like Kevin Smith. And the dark cinematography is no help either, in every scene I kept waiting for someone to turn a light on, even in daylight. It only added to the gloomy mood.
A script that is a mash up of Frank Miller's epic graphic novel, The Dark Knight, and (spoiler alert) the 1993 comic book event, The Death of Superman. The former is justly acclaimed as one of the finest Batman stores ever written, while the latter has come to be despised by most Superman and comics fans as a worthless stunt. This film is a cut and paste from both, with the stitches badly showing. The script does do a good job of working up the animosity between the two heroes before they then have to unite against a greater foe, Doomsday, who is inserted halfway through the final act. The writers clearly put in a lot of work trying to cover all the angles, but this leads to some clunky plotting, as when Amy Adams's Lois Lane throws away a Kryptonite tipped spear that Batman planned to use against Superman in one scene, only to turn around five minutes later, and have to risk her life to retrieve it. There are a number of scenes that turn out to be dreams, including one from a trailer that caused quite a bit of buzz some months back, seeing it now makes all seem like a big cheat, especially when one dream sequence contained one of the best fights in the whole movie.
Jessie Eisenberg's Lex Luthor was as bad a casting choice as I feared. I realize Snyder was going for an original take on the DC's most famous villain, but Eisenberg plays him as a hyper kid badly in need of his Ritalin. Eisenberg's Luthor is simply not menacing enough, because you need a big bad that's a real big bad when have a movie starring two of comics marquee heroes. I walked away wishing Snyder had gone with Bryan Cranston, who could have played a cunning and confident Luthor, the kind last seen on the animated series YOUNG JUSTICE, which was a more solid piece of entertainment than this film. And we're never clear about Luthor's motivation, he's just rich and nuts and doesn't like super heroes; at least Gene Hackman's lust for real estate made sense.
What I liked about the movie:
Ben Affleck's take on Batman as a weary vigilante who has been at it for 20 years, he comes as close to Frank Miller's character as anyone ever has in the past. He possess the both the drive and charm to be believable as both Bruce Wayne and The Dark Knight. Affleck's choice to play Batman earned him and the producers a lot of criticism, but they can hold their heads high. The same for Gal Godot's Wonder Woman, a character who could easily have been left out of the script, I really bought as the ultimate Amazon, and when she squares off against Doomsday, we believe she can hold her own. I have no problem with Henry Cavill's performance as Superman, but it is another case where the script lets him down. In many of the old comics and cartoons, Superman often uses his smarts to come up with a clever way to defeat the villains, yet this movie calls for Superman to use his brawn alone. This is especially true in the final showdown with Doomsday, when Big Blue has to sacrifice himself to defeat the monster, any casual fan could easily have come up with a better, and happier, ending than the one Terrio and Goyer provide.
The action scenes, especially when Superman and Batman square off, this is one part of the movie that absolutely does not disappoint. It allows Affleck's Batman to prove himself a master tactician and a foe every bit as worthy of Superman.
The path laid out for the future. We get a couple of all too fleeting glimpses of The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg, who will all come together in what I hope will be the long awaited Justice League movie. And was that a hint about Darkseid coming?
There is a solid supporting cast, including Lawrence Fishbourne and Diane Lane, back as Perry White and Martha Kent respectively. Jeremy Irons does a solid job as Alfred, while Holly Hunter, as a United States Senator, does not have too many scenes so that we do not have to put up with her annoying voice for very long; real United States Senator and Batman fan, Patrick Leahy, keeps his streak of appearing in every Batman movie going; but a couple of demerits for wasting Jeffrey Dean Morgan in an uncredited cameo as Thomas Wayne.