A miraculous beautiful disaster.

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2017)

"Black and blue. God versus man. Day versus night. Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham". Amongst the plethora of superhero films, BvS definitely stands out as, much like the titular characters, it has many conflicting sides. It's a fan's dream and a critic's nightmare, a visual wonder yet a narrative mess. The build-up to this film's release was insane with all sorts of marketing thrown everywhere. To be fair, this is two of the biggest superheroes meeting on the big screen for the first time as well, so naturally there was excitement in the air. Furthermore, it is a sequel to "Man of Steel" as well as a major expansion on what is now called the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). So, with all this in mind, did BvS live up to the hype? Eh, let's take a look.
Plot: Over a year after the battle for Metropolis, Superman continues to save the day as usual, but events are unfolding that are making humanity question the actions of their newfound alien savior. Batman in particular has become concerned that the Kryptonian is too much of a threat to the Earth, so he takes it upon himself to eliminate him, bringing the two into conflict. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor seeks to bring his sinister plans into fruition.
Let's start with the good: The actors give solid performances. Ben Affleck especially defied all expectations despite all the controversy surrounding his casting, a worthy successor to Christian Bale. Henry Cavill does fine as Superman, Gal Gadot (another controversial choice) did a nice job as Wonder Woman, and Jeremy Irons is solid as Alfred (the best performance in BvS). The others like Amy Adams (Lois Lane) are fine, but I'll tackle on Jesse Eisenberg later. The special effects, though largely dominated by CGI, are visually appealing (a natural talent for director Zack Snyder) with several iconic comic moments brought to life in stunning fashion and the action scenes are of a higher quality with some great choreography (a fight scene involving Batman in a warehouse is arguably the best one). The title fight, while not as epic as the Zod battle in the last film in my opinion, does offer enough enjoyment to go around with plenty of cool moments. The climax involving the Trinity is also a thrill to watch. BvS is also blessed to have Hans Zimmer create the music, which is something that is a true pleasure for the ears alone. The film central theme is man's relationship with God, which is an interesting angle to tackle with Superman even if it's on the nose at times.
Now to the dark side of the coin: The overall story is not told competently. There are many contrivances, characters do illogical things, and the plot holes are quite big. It's also pretty clear that DC and WB wanted to compete with Marvel that they threw in so much stuff from the comics without any true cohesion. There's one scene involving cameos in an email done right in the middle of the film, stopping it dead just for fanservice and sequel baiting. If this was done via post-credit scene, it'd be fine, but since that's not the case, it's a nagging distraction. In fact, there's so much sequel baiting it takes up a large chunk of the film, which Marvel did well to avoid in most of their films. There are dream sequences that are not used or explained properly, the ultimate reason for Batman and Superman to fight is so easily avoidable yet the writing demands they fight anyway, and plot elements from specific comics are used without any true understanding of what made those elements work in the first place. The film's dark, gritty tone is distracting at times, fitting for Batman but not so much for Superman. There's also a major Superman character that's killed off just because Snyder couldn't figure out what to do with him in the DCEU (which he laughed at).
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor (technically Lex Jr. but whatever). Talk about a serious miscast. Now, Jesse is a good actor but the material he's given conflicts with a film trying so hard to be taken seriously. Lex is very over-the-top, which, while amusing at times, is too much like the Joker or Jim Carrey's Riddler. He seems to miraculously know things with no explanation whatsoever and feels pretentious to the point of utter hypocrisy. His motivation, though given a brief explanation, is weak beyond compare and his plans are not only questionable but also have more holes than a screen door.
Rarely have I been truly conflicted with a film. For every good thing BvS offers, there's a bad one to counter it. It's a true stalemate of cinematic wonder and blunder that I can't give a definitive rating. This conundrum of cool and calamity has two versions: theatrical and extended. The theatrical cut has better pacing and gets to the point more quickly, but suffers some bad editing and leaves out vital details. The extended cut, with 30 minutes of extra footage, thankfully clears up many inconsistencies and fleshes out some characters + story elements but you feel that half hour. I'd say BvS is still worth a watch, but your individual expectations may give you different conclusions about it.