Much better than expected, very enjoyable

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2017)

I was never a fan of comic books, but I've enjoyed comic book *movies* based on their individual merits and I don't subscribe to that whole DC vs Marvel thing. Iron Man and The Dark Knight are two of my favorite movies from the genre and, well, after Batman v Superman's dreary, soulless debut, I went into this with low expectations. After seeing so many 10 out of 10 ratings on IMDb, I was highly skeptical, especially with a number of bad reviews, calling this film 'mediocre' etc. I need not have worried.
It is excellent, and not just in comparison to its predecessor. I suspect superhero fatigue is the cause of some negative reviews, and frankly some reviewers complaints seem bizarre, like they missed some important dialog, or something. Avengers had an alien spacecube macguffin, and this has three, so yeah, the motives of the villain tend to be pretty simple in superhero movies, something I'd like to see addressed in future. Since so many villains tend to be underdeveloped, I can hardly fault this film for falling foul of the same problem (so I won't). Still better than Thor 2's villain!
The villain, while being a rather generic 'destroy the world type', has well written lines at least. And I thought he was brought down in a clever way (with callbacks!) His main purpose is to bring the heroes together, and it's quite well done (yes I'm surprised).
The character interactions are a highlight, not just with the primary cast but the supporting actors too. Victor Stone's tragic presence was palpable and I found his origin and capabilities fascinating, and hey, Aquaman isn't a joke anymore (though a bit heavy on the 'aquabro' stuff I think). Ben Affleck is probably my favorite version of Batman/Bruce Wayne, Gal Gadot brings her usual warmth and heart to the role, and the Flash had the right amount of levity to lighten the mood (though I can see some people finding his quips a bit too much)
Some have called this movie disjointed and 'stitched together', though it's not nearly as bad as suggested, and flowed quite smoothly for the most part. Events are explained to just the right degree, without too much or too little exposition. The overall visuals have rather uninspiring cgi and seem a bit dated, and the palette is 'confused', probably the result of bringing in another director once Zack Snyder had to step away (condolences to his family). But again, when it was over I had a smile on my face and I will definitely catch it again soon.
P.S. For the love of god, get Joss Whedon to edit BvS into something watchable, I'm sure there's a halfway decent movie in there somewhere.