Really, not that bad.

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2016)

Going into this movie, I was expecting a horrible film of the likes of Fant4stic. This, due to all the bad stuff I heard and read about it. Expecting a train-wreck, I was pleasantly surprised with this movie.
First: the cinematography was beautiful. I even dare to say sublime. As well was the casting. Ben Affleck is by far the best Batman/Bruce Wayne in any live action piece. Jeremy Irons, although a bit young for the role, is an excellent Alfred.
Having said that, I must admit that BvS is not without flaws. It has gotten red flag - and for good reason. I can list them: 1.) BvS is trying so hard to set up Justice League, that it forgets to be its own movie from time to time. Lets call this the Age of Ultron flaw - where tie-ins seem more important than the actual movie. 2.) An overuse of dream sequences makes it that it's hard to determine what is dreamt and what is real. 3.) The movie backs away from the questions it raises. Instead of Superman's trial - for instance - we got... something else... 4.) The movie goes out of its way of saying that there are no normal people around when the big fights occur, as if it's scared of innocent bystanders getting killed (while this issue was the whole raison d'etre of the Batman/Superman conflict); as if it's trying to reassure it's audience. I get why they felt the need to do that, after MoS, but they should have stuck to their guns. This hammering to the fact that there's no innocent bystander casualties is counter productive. 5.) Lex Luthor was miscast and misdirected. He came of more as the Joker than he did Luthor.
Then, there is the ending. Which I thought was a bold and interesting choice: taking one of the heroes out of the equation; and have the Justice League be started in his honor - instead of him being part of the Justice League. But mere seconds before the credits rolled - they backed away from this premise. Ruining the ending.
In short: this movie could have been really good, if it stayed focused on its own story. There were some bold choices that did not work but were left in the movie - and some that might have worked if they didn't back away from it. It seems that this is the problem with DC-movies: they don't really know what to do, making them not live up to their potential.