Movie Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Where to even begin? Quite frankly, I didn't expect much from the film given how it was universally panned by critics, but Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't entirely awful. Far from it, actually. The visual effects, as expected, were absolutely impressive, the action sequences weren't too heavy-handed and mind-numbing enough to put Michael Bay to shame like Man of Steel, and that final act was riveting. The performances were also uniformly good. Henry Cavill was still pretty charismatic and while I had reservations with Ben Affleck as the new Batman, I thought he pulled it off quite nicely. It was Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman though that had me squealing like a fangirl. Haha. All that being said, the film certainly had its fair share of problems. The plot, for one, was too cluttered that it felt like it didn't know if it wanted to be a political action thriller or a Justice League setup. The pacing was terrible - the first half was hard to pass by and it grew tiring long before the climax kicked in because it was just too much of everything - the editing felt choppy, and Lex Luthor was perplexing to say the least. Clearly, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was heavily flawed, lacking laser sharp focus and was too ambitious to a fault, but still a solid piece of entertainment. 7