Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) - SPOILER-FREE Review

Editor’s Note: this is an old, unformatted, unedited review. The author’s opinion might not match the original thoughts written in this article.

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, and Gal Gadot

Runtime: 151 min

Batman V Superman was one of the most anticipated films of the year. Everyone wanted to see this two superheroes fighting like crazy and I was definitely one of those fans. This is a direct sequel to Man Of Steel, the opening scene recaps the events of the Superman's fight with Zod, but from Bruce Wayne / Batman perspective. Superman is being judged by the population because of all the destruction he caused, Bruce Wayne is not fine with this since many people he cared for died and Lex Luthor is planning something evil in order to benefit from this superhero's fight.

Starting with the actors:  Ben Affleck was amazing! He killed it as Bruce Wayne / Batman! Every single scene with him was pure entertainment and I bet he shut down all the critics with this amazing performance! As Bruce Wayne, he was compelling, interesting, I cared about him, and I understood his reasons for hating Superman. As Batman he was a bad-ass, probably the best-looking Batman that we've seen so far and I can't wait for his solo movie. Congrats Ben!

Henry Cavill as Superman was fine, nothing special, he served his character well. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was a pleasant surprise, I was really happy to see her in this movie and she was great, even if only for some brief moments. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor ... I don't think he was bad, but he was definitely not good. He tried to go for that insane personality and it didn't work out, but he was still very good on some scenes. He was ok, I guess.

The fight was incredible! I loved it! All of the action in this film was fantastic which proves that, even if a movie is amazingly good-looking, ... It can also be a total disaster.

Zack Snyder seems unable to tell a story, there are a lot of problems with missing pieces here and there to justify most of the actions that are fundamental to the film. There are things that just don't make sense, the second half of the movie felt like I was watching a different film! Lois Lane is treated like an object. She has something, then she loses it, then she has to go back for it, then she falls from a building, then she's drowning ... She's, without a doubt, a character that needs to be in this movie, but it seemed she was there just ... Because.

Another problem I had with this film was the lazy set-up done to the Justice League movie: there's a scene where Wonder Woman receives an e-mail from Batman, with info on this other superheroes that will be part of this group we all know about (they even designed the logos of each superhero! WHY? Who gave himself the trouble to design some logos for a top-secret association? ON AN E-MAIL?!). It's so forced, it's the lamest set-up ever done ... It seemed like the movie stopped for advertising and then came back to continue its story, it didn't make any sense.

There are two main issues that I still need to discuss, one of them is my only problem with Batman in the whole movie: HE IS KILLING EVERYONE! Why?! He's killing people all over the place, exploding them against trucks or shooting them with a machine gun! Zack Snyder completely forgot Batman's moral dilemma, he was always that guy that was on the edge, but would never dare to cross it. The Joker played with him so much because Batman constantly refused to kill him, he was not a murderer! In this movie, he has no problem with it and there's no explanation throughout the whole film. Of course, I know why he changed, we all know why (Superman killed a lot of people and there's also other arcs from comic books that explain this), but they never show a scene to justify his actions.

The other one is about the ending (no spoilers of course): they go for the bold ending and then ... They back off. It's not something that people will talk about, but it messed with me because this movie had everything to be an awesome piece of art. It wasn't because they didn't take the right decisions when they needed to and they didn't give a backstory or a justification when it was mandatory.

There were a few more problems about Superman's motive to fight Batman and some other details that were solved or improved in some way in the extended edition, but I have to say that, even if it wasn't a bad movie, I was disappointed by it (especially with all the hype before its release).

| A+ : 9.3-10 | A: 8.7-9.2 | A- : 8.0-8.6 | B+ : 7.3-7.9 | B: 6.7-7.2 | B- : 6.0-6.6 || C+ : 5.3-5.9 | C: 4.7-5.2 | C- : 4.0-4.6 | D+ : 3.3-3.9 | D: 2.7-3.2 | D- : 2.0-2.6 | F: 0-1.9 |

PS1: Movies nowadays can't seem to make a good solo movie because they're more concerned about setting up this whole universe instead of, first, making a good movie! Deadpool did great because it focused on being a good film and now we all want a sequel! It can't be that hard ...

PS2: I decided back when I watched this movie in theaters that I would try to avoid, at all costs, trailers. If you've seen BvSlast trailer, you've basically seen the whole movie. There are a lot of movies that are losing their surprise twists or even their excitement because of this huge trailers that need to have everything there. Honestly, I recommend this to everyone: just stop watching trailers. Read the plot summary, check the cast, read some articles about the movie and, if you find it interesting, go watch it. Just ignore all trailers from now on.