Battle Royale (w/Cheese); Gadot's WW is the show-stopper worthy of her own film (no fear; it's in the works!)

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2016)

BATMAN v SUPERMAN : DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016) *** Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Diane Lane, Gal Gadot, Harry Lennix, Scoot McNairy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan. (cameos: Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner; Voice of Patrick Wilson) Director Zack Snyder's follow-up to the ill-advised reboot of Superman in MAN OF STEEL does a better job (not saying much) of this grudge match between The Caped Crusader (a forlorn Affleck better as Bruce Wayne than the Batman) and Supe (Cavill the Pill) as Gotham's hero finds himself tasked in taking down Metropolis' alien 'savior' with gusto and reserves at the ready. While the bloated screenplay by Chris Terio & David S. Goyer goes on to much with some sequences (um, yeah we all know how Bruce's parents died already; get on with it!) Snyder wisely employs producer Christopher Nolan's colleague Hans Zimmer to score the epic bitch slapping fest with gusto and brio. While the Battle Royale of billionaire vigilante with an arsenal of Kyrptonitic weapons and taciturn Kal-El brings it for the most part it is about twenty minutes too long but saving grace is comely Gadot as Diana Prince, AKA WonderWoman who steals the show and wakens things up in the climactic fiendish plot by Lex Luthor (annoying tic-fest Eisenberg who overacts beyond words) to create Doomsday (an ungodly blob of goo) to destroy the Dynamic Trio. If you see it, by all means do so on an IMAX screen (at the very least to take in an 80 foot giantess, the aforementioned WW).