Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice picks up where 2013’s Man of Steel left off. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. A good Superman movie has yet to be made despite numerous attempts. Man of Steel had a fantastic first hour, and Henry Cavill (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., television’s The Tudors) is a credible Superman, but this script was left in the wrong person’s hands. Director Zach Snyder (Watchmen, 300) tends to really overplay things. The constant explosions, over-exaggerations, 30-minute fight scenes, and blaring sounds, and complex, drawn-out storylines destroyed Man of Steel for me and almost did the same for this movie as well. One of my friends mentioned that this movie never allows you to come down. It’s like a rock concert where one loud track extends into the next loud track over and over without allowing the audience to calm down and compose itself. I have felt that way about both of Snyder’s first two DC Comics efforts. I’m not sure why you would sign on a director for each chapter in a movie series so far in advance. On the other hand, I understand why you would want to lock up the main actors. If you have a different actor playing a lead character, sometimes the audience cannot focus on anything other than the change, and you lose them for the entire film. But there have been plenty of successful franchises with different directors (Star Wars, Aliens, Mission Impossible, and the James Bond franchise, to name a few). If a movie scores a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes (which Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has), I think the onus of this failure has to fall in the hands of the director. And it’s not like Snyder had raved reviews for Man of Steel (56% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). I don’t see the rationale with locking up a director who hasn’t proven himself when you don’t have to. And that is what it seems like Warner Brothers have done here.

That’s enough of an aside for my criticism of Snyder. Back to the movie…As mentioned, it picks up with Superman and Zod (Michael Shannon – Take Shelter, Midnight Special) battling atop the city of Metropolis without, seemingly, any regard for human life below. While some see Superman as a hero, a savior, or even a deity, some who have suffered from his aftermath and are angry and others who are fearful that one being’s all-encompassing power, however, good those intentions may be, is not a good thing for society (insert your own Donald Trump reference here as you would like). One of those individuals is an angry Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck – The Town, Gone Girl). He sees the destruction caused by the Superman/Zod battle, and while good prevailed over evil, in this case, Wayne (and others) believe that there was a disregard for human life and wants Superman to be held accountable. One of Wayne Enterprises comes crashing down and crushes the legs of one of his employees. Other employees were killed in the collapse of the building as well. Wayne is as angry as we’ve ever seen him before. Chris Nolan brought out the dark side of Batman and how the consequences of his actions weighed heavily on him. Nolan and Bale’s Batman was depressed and confused, but I don’t know if we ever saw him this angry. For sure, we never saw him this angry and incapable of making a change. Wayne also believes that Superman is too powerful. And rightfully so. Will he has proven that he uses his power for good, what happens if something happens that causes his flick to switch. What if something happens to Lois Lane (Amy Adams – American Hustle, The Fighter), the woman in his life, and Superman seeks retribution? If he is human, he will go through the gamut of emotions like us. If he gets angry, nothing in this world can stop the havoc he can wreck. Bruce Wayne knows this, as does Senator Finch (Holly Hunter – Thirteen, The Piano). As head of a committee on oversight and reform, she holds Superman accountable for his actions that destroyed Metropolis as well as a separate incident that may have injured a bunch of innocent people in an unnamed African country.

At the same time, Senator Finch is in talks with Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network, The End of the Tour), a researcher and developer who has secured some Kryptonite that had been pulled out early from deep in the Indian Ocean. He intends to make it into a weapon in case Earth experiences another attack from other Kryptonians. He has Zod’s body in safekeeping, and because he’s Lex Luthor, we know that evil is lurking behind his often engaging, sometimes psychotic personality. Luthor is hiding behind a mask of goodwill to unleash fury on the world in hopes that he can put his hold on the world. And without getting into specifics, Luthor makes his impact. I wasn’t quite sold as Eisenberg playing Luthor when I first heard about it and, based on the trailers; I thought he was going to be a disaster. But, while I’m not his biggest fan as a whole, he is an acting heavyweight and certainly held his own, and then some, as Superman’s arch-nemesis.

But ultimately, we want to see what the title infers. We want to see the confrontation between Batman and Superman. And we do get to see that. And it’s spectacular. But as spectacular as it is, it’s nothing that we really haven’t seen in other action movies before. The first couple of Iron Man movies really set the bar high for superhero fight scenes. Nolan’s Batman movies were unique and awesome as well. But now it has almost become a game of trying to each previous superhero movie’s fight scenes. The same thing occurred in the late ’80s/early ’90s with fight scenes in action movies starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others. Are elaborate fight scenes necessary to make an action movie a good action movie? It’s debatable. Many would argue yes. I would argue that it isn’t always necessary. Sure, it’s super exciting when it is done really well. But when nothing is added that we haven’t seen before, these scenes sometimes get lost in the shuffle. And, not to get too nerdy here, but how exactly is Batman supposed to compete with the most powerful superhero in all of the DC universe? Superman has the powers of flight, superhuman strength, x-ray vision, heat vision, cold breath, super speed, enhanced hearing, and nigh-invulnerability. Batman has zero superpowers. But Superman does have one weakness (yes, if we watched the cartoons, we know that). It would be ridiculous to think that Batman could compete with Superman without this weakening agent coming into play.

As far as the casting goes, some have questioned the casting of Affleck as Batman. I am not one of those people. In a movie that features many heavyweights, Affleck stands tall. Now I believe that if you couldn’t get it done as one superhero, you shouldn’t get a chance to portray another one (Ryan Reynolds has gotten me to change this philosophy…I know he ruined The Green Lantern, but he absolutely killed it as Deadpool). And, honestly, when first hearing that Affleck was going to be Batman, I completely forgot about the forgettable Daredevil (which actually wasn’t THAT bad). Daredevil was released in 2002, which was right around the low point of Affleck’s professional career. This was right around the time of Gigli, Jersey Girl, Surviving Christmas, Pearl Harbor, and Paycheck, where I felt he was going for (pardon the pun) a paycheck more than anything else. However, he did star in the very under-appreciated Changing Lanes during this time frame as well. I’m not going to lie; I actually liked Pearl Harbor a lot even though it was one of the longest theater experiences of my life and, as a former high school history colleague called it, “a cheesy love story that took center stage over the biggest attack ever on US soil.” But Affleck reinvented himself as a director and has hit three grand slams in his three first efforts behind the camera (The Town, Gone Baby Gone, Argo). In doing so, he re-instilled the public’s faith in him as an actor. Sure there have been a hiccup or two along the way (2013’s Runner Runner, for example), but I think he was a fine choice to portray Batman. I didn’t see what was in it for him. While Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is a completely different franchise from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, there is still a taste in our mouth that this should still be Christian Bale’s role. Batman has proven to be a difficult character to portray, but Michael Keaton and Bale have proven it can be done. And Bale has been the best. Why replace the best when there isn’t much of a chance to be better? Also, why spend time in a superhero franchise when you are capable of so much more? Personally, I would much rather see Affleck spend the next decade directing and starring in more original movies than to see him donning the cape. In my honest opinion, there has never been a director with three better movies to start his career than Affleck. I remember a few years ago that I was worried about Affleck leaving the film industry to focus on a career in politics. I thought about all of those years that he would not be making movies. Now I’m worried that his time as Batman will prohibit him from certain projects, much like the portray of Iron Man has really restricted Robert Downey Jr.

Also being introduced in this movie is Dian Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot – Triple 9, Fast & Furious). Was she needed in this movie? That question is debatable. It certainly was cool to see, but it was just another layer on a script thick with subplots. The introduction of her character would have had served more of a purpose if she didn’t have her own origin movie coming out in 2017 or if her origin story had already been introduced. I thought Gadot was great as Wonder Woman. She really didn’t have much screentime at all, and I just thought enough was going on without her. I certainly don’t think that her character’s introduction would have got lost along the way, but I do think it could have waited. It certainly would have made the movie shorter (which would have been a good thing). Plus, if she is going to be introduced, she deserves more screen time than she got. Long story short, it was great to see her, but she either should have had a bigger part of the story, or her introduction should have waited for a later movie just because we already had so much happened.

Also playing roles in this movie are Jeremy Irons (Reversal of Fortune, The Mission) as Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred, Diane Lane (Unfaithful, A Walk on the Moon) as Superman’s mother Martha, and Laurence Fishburne (What’s Love Got to Do with It, The Matrix), as Perry White, editor-in-chief of The Daily Planet. We also get to see Luthor’s villain Doomsday for the first time as well.

This is a solid superhero movie. It is hard to find a niche and break through the mold in a day when more than a dozen superhero movies are made. It is especially hard when a superhero is as recognized as both Superhero and Batman are. While I believe Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War will both end up higher on my end-of-year top 10 list, it certainly doesn’t mean that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice should be discounted. No, it was not perfect. It was too long. It was too loud. And its main action scene is so overblown, unoriginal, and tiring that your mind wanders to many other things completely unrelated to the movie. The score was Hans Zimmer’s worst in recent memory. There were also too many storylines happening for a single movie. The storylines of most importance were otherwise rushed through (the introduction of Wonder Woman) or shouldn’t have even been included at all (the quick looks at Flash, Aquaman, Silas Stone). Also, it is eluded in this movie that there will be no Robin in any forthcoming movie. It’s quick, but it’s fairly decisive. If you can see through this movie’s deficiencies and go in with an open mind that hasn’t been impacted by what the critics have said, I really think you’ll see more positives than negatives that will keep you anxious for both the forthcoming Wonder Woman and The Justice League movies that are each set for a 2017 release.

Plot 9/10 (honestly, there is way too much going on, but at its root, there is a solid foundation for what is to come later)
Character Development 7.5/10 (I would have liked to see more with the development of Wonder Woman…I know she is getting her own movie that I have high hopes for, but it seems like there will be some backtracking involved that isn’t necessary…I almost would have left her out and let her own movie lead us into The Justice League Part One)
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 9/10 (absolutely nothing wrong with the acting here…Affleck is a far superior actor to Cavill, but Superman is a far superior character to Batman)
Screenplay 7.5/10 (entirely too ambitious…this screenplay definitely should have been stripped down some)
Directing  6.5/10 (Snyder is not my favorite director…)
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 6/10 (Hans Zimmer and John Williams are the kings of the score, but this was not Zimmer’s best…rarely will I complain about a movie being too loud and the sound too overbearing, but this is one of those times)
Hook and Reel 9/10 (yes, it is long…and yes, the battle scenes, while spectacular, didn’t offer much that you have not seen in other superhero movies…but unlike what many others have criticized this movie for, I never found it to be slow or boring)
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
79.5%