Pretty good, even if it falls short of expectations

Rating: 8/10 (25 March 2016)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a mixed bag, yes. Yes, it is bloated and unnecessarily loud at times. Yes, the first half of the movie feels disjointed. But this is certainly not a bad movie. It is not popcorn fluff. It does raise a lot of real questions on how the world would react to superheroes. This brings me to a common thread among most of the reviews I have seen. That Superman is not 'cheerful'. That batman is 'brutal'. Lex Luthor is too 'eccentric'. And these characters are not 'supposed' to be this way. This is what has irritated me the most. The real question to be asked when looking for character motivation is not 'what would Superman do?' The real question to be asked is 'How would an alien, who is feeling responsible for getting thousands of people killed on another planet, feel like?' I doubt he'll be cheerful. Ditto for Batman who's so disillusioned with criminals and crime that he just doesn't care anymore.
I really liked the movie. It's gorgeous and edge-of-the-seat stuff. It's generally well-acted. The conflict between Batman and Superman is well set up. The cameos are awesome! It feels real and high-stakes.
I guess it comes down to the minor judgment about a movie before we go watch it. I went in with the thought that this one will be awesome. It turned out to be pretty good. Even if you go expecting a crime against superhero movies, I'm sure you'll come out feeling it was not that bad. Anyway, I'm really excited for the other DC films.