MOVIE THEATER/FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIE REVIEW: “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” stars Ben Affleck (Gone Girl, Good Will Hunting), Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. [2015]), Amy Adams (American Hustle, Enchanted), Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me, The End of the Tour), Diane Lane (Inside Out [2015], The Perfect Storm), Lawrence Fishburne (The Matrix, Mystic River), Jeremy Irons (The Lion King, Die Hard: With a Vengeance), Holly Hunter (The Incredibles, Raising Arizona), and Gal Gadot (Furious 7, Knight and Day). It is directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) and is written by Chris Terrio (Argo, Heights) and David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, Jumper). Bruce Wayne (Affleck) seeks vengeance towards Superman (Cavill), after destroying most of Metropolis, including one of his Wayne Enterprises. Lex Luthor (Eisenberg) also looks to Superman as he wants to put his powers to the test.

This is it guys, the film we have all been waiting for! I can’t begin to explain how much this movie has surrounded my life in the past few months. I have argued over it, discussed it, and ridiculed it for many days, and now I have seen it. For the most part, what I predicted it would be was told by the raging critics, so I walked in with very low expectations. And guess what? They were met. This movie has to be one of the most misconstrued, disappointing, and exhausting films that I have seen in a while, and no, I wasn’t paid by Disney to say this. I’m not a hater of DC, nor do I loathe superheroes. In fact, I was rooting for this to be a success before the first trailer released. I love DC and their properties, and I was hoping that they would do good in this. Sure, “Man of Steel” was underwhelming, but there’s always room for improvement. The thing with this, however, was that no improvement was made. Actually, this release was a step down, and here’s why. First of all, this plot was a load of messy ideas that couldn’t share the limelight. Many story lines slapped me in the face, but none of them could find traction. You have the Batfleck character arc, the clean-up of “Man of Steel,” the evil deeds of Lex Luthor, a shoehorned Justice League arc, and a trash-heap known as Doomsday. All of these attempt to bloom, but only the Batfleck scenario survived. I will tell you that Batman was the best part of this movie. Almost everything involving him was fun and it provided the strongest story. It’s what you would expect out of Batman. But the rest, oh gosh, just throw them away. The first part of this movie was meant to be a political “thriller,” detailing what Superman has caused and how Batman would deal with it. Most of it was boring, offering me some interesting parts to keep me focused. But it was better than the second half, which basically took all the seriousness, threw it out the window, and opened its arms to zany, outrageous CGI orgies that shifted the tone of the plot. There were good action scenes, I will admit, but there is hardly any purpose to them. Out of all that I have seen, this would have made a great Batman film. He was the center of the flick most of the time, leaving me to wonder why it wasn’t called “Batman: with Guest Star Superman.” Heck, the first ten minutes of this movie, where it showed Batman’s origin, was better than the entire film. Ben Affleck did a good job as the Dark Knight, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more from him. As for Superman, he has to be one of the worst characters of this growing DCU; and the sad part is, he’s my second favorite DC character. Everything involving him (for what little there was) felt like filler, as he did crap. All he was there for was to respond to the public or any of our other characters. He never had a say for himself. All we got was a blank expression and maybe an angry face. He was just…there. I hate their interpretation of him, and I wish that they could tear the whole thing down, get a new actor and writer, and start again with him (except no origin story). Since we are on characters, let’s get to the next part of this release. Everyone except Batman, Wonder Woman (Gadot), and Alfred (Irons) were horrible. One thing that I got right in my predictions was Lex Luthor. He was atrocious. He basically represented what parody films make fun of. I don’t know who signed off on it, or why any comic-book fan would accept it, because it was the worst incarnation of him that I have seen in my life. He was a bumbling buffoon, who was supposed to be the “comic relief,” but I never bought into it. Every time he came onscreen I was ready for them to cut away. As for Lois Lane (Adams), well, she’s the same: bland and uninteresting. Why she had a larger part than Superman in this, I will never know. Her whole investigation had nothing tangible to the story as everything she found out we were already aware of. She was worthless, and Amy Adams’ portrayal of her is a dismal one. In case you all wonder what I really thought about Wonder Woman, I will say that she was fine. She didn’t have much of a role, and often felt thrown in, but she did good for what she had. Now we get onto the three things I liked: visuals, action, and cinematography. For the most part, the special effects were good. There were some cringeworthy effects, like Superman pulling the boat, but overall it fared well. Action-wise, this movie was strong. Seeing Batman and Superman fight for eight minutes was cool and even the Doomsday fight offered some good entertainment. The cinematography is always good in these as I love the color tones and way it is shot. It’s Zack Snyder’s strong suit (if only he could write a concrete story). But that’s pretty much the only things I can say were pure pros. The rest was either bad or okay. Batman had great scenes (even though I don’t understand why he killed many people), there was great action, and the visuals were good. If I could take these and throw the rest of what was put on-screen away, I would. There were several plot holes, simplistic writing that would make me sigh or roll my eyes, and little purpose to anything. This film, like Superman, was just…there. It’s only a roadblock to the Justice League, which should’ve came first. I wouldn’t recommend people to see this in theaters, but wait until it comes out for rental. It wasn’t the worst superhero film that I have seen, but it definitely wasn’t that good either. FINAL SCORE: 45%= Burnt Popcorn

This movie has been inducted into The Burnt Hall of Shame.

The scoring of this film has changed as of June 24, 2016. It does not affect the rankings of March in a disastrous way.

Here is the trailer: