This film showed real promise with a fantastic opening sequence that got everything right in my opinion, setting up the character of Batman in a very clever and emotional way. Damn shame though that the film then goes and throws all of that away; because dream sequence. I'll start with what I liked. Ben Affleck as Batman; sure he was a miserable character, but this is an old Batman, it's understandable that he'd become more hateful and grumpy. Throwing away his morals, however, this is something that I'm actually not all that fussed with, at least not now I've seen the film. Him being an older, more hateful Batman, maybe it would make sense that he'd throw out his moral code, which would have been fine, if they addressed it at all in the film, but they didn't, not once, which really just makes it look less like they were trying. When Wonder Woman shows up, she's also cool, less so than Batffleck, but still cool, her character doesn't get the same background as Batffleck, which would be fine if they skipped it to make the film less bloated, but clearly that wasn't the reason. Clark Kent kind of takes a back seat in this film, oddly, with Batman getting more story. The majority of the supporting cast from Man of Steel return here, with reasonable results, they don't complicate things too much, and Jeremy Irons is great as Alfred, though he's not really a butler in this film, being far more involved in tech and strategy. And now for Lex Luthor, who is just off, not in a good way either, his character is just not good, he's crazy for the sake of crazy, and more often than not he's just annoying. I see exactly where they were going with Lex, and they failed, it just doesn't work. And now we've pretty much wrapped up what I did like, and I can come clean, this film is a complete and total mess. Let's start with this, this film is really crammed with things going on, no doubt an attempt to push as much Justice League down our throats as possible, but there was just so much going on, so many stories all happening, and it doesn't come together, it's just a wonky, disjointed collection of stories that are, for the most part, completely flat, like the sub plot with Lois Lane and the mystery bullet, Wonder Woman and her photo, and of course the terrible info dump that happens in this movie; it's painfully obvious why that's there, because Justice League set up. This film is so bogged down by all the crap that it becomes really boring at a point, and its ending is really crap too, dragging out seemingly endlessly, and then finally ending, on a cliffhanger, because Justice League. I swear, people were already leaving as the last shot of the movie was on, then the credits finally started and the Cinema just drained, everyone cleared out, there was no patience or hesitation to leave that cinema.
The film is directed by Zack Snyder, you know you can at least expect some beautiful imagery, and this film has that, great special effects, minus a certain cave troll, good cinematography, and a superb soundtrack. But even that starts to fall apart upon the arrival of the cave troll. And while I, again, loved the opening, some of the imagery just ruins everything, and you'll understand what that means when you see it. I didn't even mention the sodding dream sequences, my god, the dream sequences. Very rarely is a dream sequence used successfully in films, and here's a good example of when it's not. They're like the Justice League info dump, it feels lazy and forced, and it bogs the movie down. But that brings me onto another issue I had, the film's tone was a complete mess too. It's all over the place, one minute it's Lex Luthor being awkward and crazy, then Batman, then Daily Planet, and the tone is constantly shifting to accommodate all this crap, and like the crap itself, it's disjointed and awkward, which is one of the biggest contributors to how boring this film was. The film's tone isn't the only thing that's not consistent, the pacing's off too, one minute you're bored, and then things blow up, sometimes figuratively, other times literally, and the titular fight just kind of happens, without the slow build I think it would have benefited from. The titular fight is cool, but it's hard to get really invested as the characters' motivations aren't really given time to develop, Superman in particular, who's ultimately strong-armed into the fight more than anything. The big finale fight is longer, but even then, the special effects in this fight are a lower standard to the rest of the film, probably down to the presence of an entirely CG monster that looked laughable, followed by an ending that didn't end, ironically enough. Back to the titular fight, the fight itself was really cool, with both of them getting some brutal hits on each other, and neither of them ever really being in a better position, until the fight ends way too soon. It actually comes across as the movie makers wanted to make a Justice League prologue, but they needed some Superman and Batman in there so they could market it as Batman V Superman. It's a great example of how so many films these days feel the need to establish a world and set up a series and spinoffs and what not, even if it compromises the quality of the film as a whole, to a point, I'd call that mismarketing; given that in this 151 minute long movie, about 10 minutes maximum is actually Batman and Superman fighting.
I feel the need to stress that there are things I liked in this film, Batffleck was pretty cool, Wonder Woman was also pretty cool. The film looks great for the most part, has a good soundtrack, and the titular fight is really cool. But the titular fight is only a small part of this movie that is completely rammed with side plot upon side plot and Justice League set up upon Justice League set up, and it all becomes lost in its own inconsistency and lack of structure. I think I found a good summery for this film while we dissected this film and devoured pizza; it's like a beautiful Tapestry, great to look at, but there are countless loose threads sticking out of it, and pulling on any of them will cause the thing to fall apart, it's a messy movie, plain and simple, and I would not recommend it.
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