A little delayed, but as promised, saw Batman vs Superman on its first showing on Thursday night and here is my pretty spoiler-free I think review of it. First of all, I'm not a DC homer, I'm not a Marvel homer. I love both and wanted so bad for this movie to be good, especially because a lot of the whole success of the future DCEU hinges on its success. With that said, I couldn't help but be pretty disappointed walking out of the movie theater. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't what I got. I found the movie confusing, the editing was terrible, the music was disappointing, the action was a ridiculous over-the-top cgi orgy (particularly the whole doomsday sequence), and probably worst of all, I found the characterization of both Batman, Lex Luthor and Superman to be awful. The funny thing is that I actually love both Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, but hated how their characters were portrayed in the movie. Who they were and why they did what they did was just downright confusing and made no sense. Same thing for Lex Luthor, who I'm still unsure of whether I like or don't like Eisenberg in the role. I just kept asking myself why on all three of those characters all throughout the movie. The movie was also super weird in the fact that they tried to pack way too much stuff into one movie in trying to set up the whole universe, yet beyond even that stuff, the movie had a ton of other unneeded crap that they could have cut and focused more on the needed stuff. It was just stupid and confusing, particularly in many of the dream sequences. Shoot, I even found myself bored at certain points in the movie which is very rare for me. Lastly on the bad side, I know the movie is dark and I kind of even like that in the Man of Steel way. However, as the movie went on, it is almost like it shifted somewhat from Man of Steel dark to Watchmeny dark in a way I didn't like at all. Almost too artsy like.
With all that said, while I really found myself not liking the movie overall, there was a few things I liked. For one, I truly have come to love some of the casting, particularly those of the trinity (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman), and especially Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Its too bad the characterization of the characters has darn near ruined the good casting. Hopefully future movies can still right these wrongs. Also, the Batman scene shown in the previews was pretty spectacular and fun. Wish there was more of that and less CGI-crazed Doomsday energy surge crap.
In the end, I can't say I've ever been as disappointed in a movie as I probably was with this one. Maybe that is partly my fault too. I REALLY wanted this movie to be good and it just wasn't for me. Maybe others saw it differently than me. Shoot, while many completely gave up on Snyder after Man of Steel, I was one of the few who really liked Man of Steel and have continued to stand by him hoping for the best in this movie. So, with Batman vs Superman, I gave him another shot, and the dude has now completely shattered even me. Consequently, I now want Snyder as far from the DCEU as possible and really hope they change things up to where he never directs another DCEU movie again.
With all this said, I do realize that this film seems to be pretty overall hated by critics and very divisive in the fan community. Apparently there are some fanboys who loved the movie and still stand by it. That just isn't me. I also find it interesting how many people say that if you like Man of Steel, you will probably like this and even think this is better than Man of Steel, and if you didn't like Man of Steel, you wouldn't like this. Well, I really liked Man of Steel and really didn't like this movie and would rate it quite a bit worse than Man of Steel, so apparently I'm alone on that island then. Surely I would think there might be a few more like myself. Who knows though?Would love to hear other's thoughts on the movie. If it is worth anything, I do really want to see it again with its extended blu-ray version they plan on releasing to see if things get any better. Maybe they will some.
