Coming out of the movie theater I was more than satisfied. I liked it better than Man of Steel, which I liked as well. Reading some people's reactions to the film they put this as one of the worst super-hero films ever. On the level of Amazing Spider-Man 2, Iron Man 2 or 3, Hulk and a few other films that they named. I would have to vehemently disagree with their assessment. There were poor of bad parts to this film, but nothing that was abhorrent.
Let me give quick kudos to Jeremy Irons as Alfred. Ben Affleck, who many people thought was going to suck due to his performance (/movie as a whole) in Daredevil. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Obviously not playing as big as a part as Bats or Supes in this film she did good. Her "reveal" at the end and subsequent fight I was loving it. The triumvirate, so to speak, of DC and perhaps of Comics in general, fighting together. I was excited and elated to see this pre Justice League duke it out with Doomsday; a feeling I did not get so much from Marvel's Avengers.
There is room for growth with Lex Luthor to become the person we are accustomed to in the comics and what has been portrayed in the animated format, but Jesse Eisenberg's rendition was ok. He can only do so much with the script and character. Who knows how much leeway he did have to branch out. I did not like the fact they used Lex's son. I want Lex, but maybe this Lex Jr. can become the Lex we like. I came away with a similar sentiment towards Eisenberg's portrayal of Lex as being inspired or imitated from Heath Ledger's Joker. Similar to how the 90's Batman films made Two-Face and the Riddler, Joker clones done by Jack Nicholson (more so Two-Face) - not cool. If anything I have more of a problem with the mannerisms of Lex Luthor more than the dialogue. What was said seemed true to Lex, but some of the wackiness to his character - not at all.
I felt sorry for Laurence Fishburne as Perry White. I liked him in MoS, the scene where he goes back for Jenny (in MoS) as the World Engine/Ship was about to kill them. Good stuff, along with him running with Jenny - Laurence moved some weight. Lol. However, as one reviewer said his dialogue was poor and there was probably nothing he could've done. Like "Clark you got sports". First off I am pretty sure a chief-editor doesn't randomly assign people to different sections. I view the Daily Planet as their NY Times, Washington Post, or Wall Street Journal. There should be a sports writer on your staff who covers ... sports! Surprise. So I felt that was bad on the writers and I'm sure Snyder could have, ya know changed that up a bit.
One thing odd was how Lois Lane knew she may want to grab the krypton spear after dropping it in the water. That was inexplicable.
The whole pacing and editing issue, which I talk about a bit more later, did not bother me nor affected my understanding of the story. I'll have to re-watch it to see how smoothly or not it transitions. The Dark Knight had smooth transitions and flow where certain characters would talk about another and the next scene would continue the story with said mentioned character. The bounty that Gamol sets on the Joker's head is shown later on with a couple of guys coming to collect. I will say this movie was tailored more for the comic book community than the "average" viewer. I understood the references, like Barry Allen coming to Bruce's dreams to warn him about Superman, that Bruce was right all along, that Lois was the key - Injustice story arc. I will admit the uniform through me off as I did not see the Flash symbol, I thought it was Cyborg using some of Doomsday's technology - which was shown later as how Cyborg came to be - to travel through time, but I still understood what was being foreshadowed. The desert dream sequence right before the Flash's appearance also alludes to Injustice and Darkseid with the Omega symbol stamped on the barren Earth along with his troops. Some people apparently had trouble keeping up with what was a dream or real or whatever and I don't understand - it was simple to follow.
Where to place the blame for shortcomings in movies can be difficult. A lot of people are blaming Snyder for the story, characters, editing, pacing, etc., but he may not have the much influence in some areas. Like the script. Sure an actor can ad-lib or the director say do "y" instead of what is in the script, but the basis is done by the writers. There are editors who the director works with, but they know editing it is their job. Now whoever did edit may suck or Snyder had a lot of authority and he sucks, but these problems can't be solely placed at Snyder's feet. Hell, I've heard that really a movie is the producer's baby, hence why Best Picture is given to the producers. That a producer has more control of how the film turns out than the director.
Overall I came out with a positive experience, more than what can be said about Avengers: Age of Ultron which I felt to be a little too similar to the first Avengers film. So much so, that I gave up watching Marvel films in theater because they have become too formulaic. BvS created a world that asked how would we deal with someone like Superman. How would the world view him now that he is known. Batman who has dealt with twenty years of Gotham dredge must be wary of a person who could easily wipe out the world. Clark Kent, growing up as an unique boy that does have human tendencies as I'm sure Kryptonians had as well, dealing with how to exist in this world. Call it growing pains. Everything isn't sunshine and rainbows like in MCU or doom and gloom. There is an ebb and flow. This movie was darker and I had no problem with that. MoS set the stage of revealing aliens to us. The fight with the Zod showed us how strong they were. Most Marvel films lack social commentary or any meaningful questions. It is like the companies switched persona. DC back in the day was light, campy and followed the Comics Code Authority. Marvel on the other hand decided to "rebel" and not care about the seal of approval, commenting on the current issues and being edgy which DC then copied as well. But in their respective cinematic universes Marvel is safe, campy, and having predictable humor - as if nothing is ever too serious or dangerous.
I liked Batman v Superman.
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