As much as I'd like to love this movie, it's too overwhelming

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2016)

I just knew that my overinflated expectations for this movie would let me down. As usual with IMDb ratings, people giving it ecstatic 10s are exagerrating, while haters rating with 1s are not doing the movie justice. For starters, allow me to give a little background, so that the reader knows from whose perspective this review is given:
a) I'm not exactly a DC fan, or a comic book fan in general (never really read any since I was a kid)
b) This can be inferred from the previous point, but yes, I'm also not a Marvel fan either. I enjoy those movies, but find most of them to be overrated.
c) I did quite like Man of Steel. I thought Superman to be an outdated and overall boring character at first, but that film managed to present him in a more relatable and believable way.
I will begin by stating my opinion on the movie in general, going in chronological sequence.The movie's opening presents Batman's origin story in a brief fashion. It's emotional, well-shot and does a good job of giving some background for those few that don't know who Batman is. Flashforward to the events of Man of Steel's final moments and we get Affleck's Bruce Wayne running around the city trying to save people. All of that is great, goosebump- provoking and really sets the tone for the terrific movie to come. Another 18-month flashforward and, unfortunately, the problems begin. The whole buildup act (~1,5 hours) of the movie just seems off. This might be because of messy rushed editing (LOADS of cuts to black), or the abundance of sub-plots, which are not that hard to follow, but are bluntly stitched together rather than being artfully intertwined. The titular conflict happens closer to the last hour of the movie, is somewhat brief and overall underwhelming - it turns out, most of it was already shown in the trailers! What is laughable, is how the conflict gets resolved - basically, Batman spares Superman only because he hears him say "save Martha", which just so happens to be both their mothers' name. Yes, because you call your mother by name when you're close to death. Then we come to the Doomsday fight. My first complaint is that his creation (by Luthor) is explained in a very sketchy fashion. Allow me to elaborate (and don't read this if you seek to avoid what may be considered as major spoilers). So, the downed kryptonian ship had fully functional birth pods in it, which should produce babies in some way. However, apparently, when you put a cadaver in it and add a few drops of human blood, the birth pods go ahead and create a towering monster. So you're left wondering, why would they work this way, what would happen if you don't add any blood (would they just reanimate a corpse?) and why on Earth would Luthor go ahead and create this atrocity when the onboard computer outright said that it contains tons of information about the kryptonian race and other star systems. Oh, not to mention, that he gets into the ship first, when it has been around for almost TWO YEARS and is opened by simple fingerprint recognition, and both the ship and Zod's corpse were in the government's possession all this time. The fight itself is executed well and it's thrilling to watch, but quite short (especially considering how deadly and unbeatable the creature seems at first) and its ending yet again feels anticlimactic and fails to produce any emotional impact.
Now a few words about the characters.
Superman - I liked Cavill's performance in MoS and I liked it here, too. He's conflicted and I have no problems with that.
Batman - He's an absolute beast. I sense a lot of fan backlash incoming, but this Batman kills. Not even kills, but brutally murders dozens of people. Sadly, he only gets one fight scene with random goons, it occurs almost near the ending and was partly shown in the trailers already. Nevertheless, he differs from previous Batman iterations and I think that's good. Definitely looking forward to his standalone movie.
Wonder Woman - Awesome. They've basically done what they did with Superman back in MoS: they took an old cheesy character in bright tights and made her actually look formidable and imposing. Also hoping her standalone flick will be a good one.
Lex Luthor - Eisenberg is alright, but nothing exceptional here - just a manipulative conniving bad guy. Also, in the very end, Batman pays him a visit in prison and instead of snapping his neck, which seems like the first thing this version of Batman would do right away, just threatens him.
Lois Lane - damsel in distress. Enough said.
Cameos - While intriguing, I found them to be way too blunt, the filmmakers basically shove them in your face. There is also super strong implication that an even bigger threat is coming, and from what I understood from reading the comments, it's a villain named Darkseid. Okay.
Overall, it just feels like too much was cramped into this. As a result we get a situation somewhat similar to Avengers: Age of Ultron - a movie that is good and has potential to be something great, but is burdened by all the universe-building, hints at sequels and all that. An R-rated 3-hour version is coming on Blu-ray and while it may solve the hasty editing problem, I'm not even sure I want to watch it. I wish the DCEU well, it's got potential, but sadly this is not the ultimate superhero blockbuster I was hoping for.