Affleck is good, story is weak, dialogue is bad. Wonder Woman impresses.

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2016)

Ben Affleck is good. Indeed, the cast is mostly good. But Affleck shines. The story is weak and doesn't really make any sense. It kinda fizzles out at the end. The narrative raises questions, or appears to, and then throws in some big action scenes to (hopefully) make us forget those questions. Much as Bruce basically forgets his desire to kill Clark and (inexplicably) refers to him as a friend!! The dialogue is often bad. Very bad. Bad enough to make you have to stifle chuckles from time to time. The film has an overly-serious, self-important tone. Jesse Eisenberg's Lex is terrible. He doesn't have one good scene. Zack Snyder seems to believe that the best way to tell a Superman story is to focus on politics, debate, morals, misery, regret and lots of destruction. It's like he read hundreds of comics and thought: This would be so much better with Senate hearings and sorrow. The result of all this is a dour character who does not resemble Superman. Snyder has a clear vision of who Superman is, but it's completely the wrong vision and it's one that nobody is likely to find all that interesting. Except Snyder, who is clearly fascinated by it. And by the idea that heroes should be punished. The Batman scenes are better than the Superman ones, and they always advance the story. Bruce is always doing stuff and getting closer to his goals. Clark, meanwhile, is always moping and saving Lois. Then moping some more. Clark is always miserable. So is Bruce, but at least Bruce is always moving forward. (Until the very end, when he just changes his mind. Because. Because he does.) The movie is too long, but still manages to be quite pacy because we are always jumping from Bruce to Clark to Lex and back again. It's well structured, just saddled with a script that is badly written. Every twist and turn is telegraphed far in advance. Nothing is subtle. Wonder Woman impresses, but doesn't get enough screen time.
5/10