Jean-Paul’s Rating: 3/5 stars
Bottom Line: No, it’s not THAT bad of a movie. Sloppy? Yes. Lazy at times? Yes. Worth your time to see? Meh.
Maybe it’s just the soft bigotry of low expectations I had going into the movie because of all the atrocious reviews, but man calm down people. This movie wasn’t THAT bad. I mean, it is a Zack Snyder movie so it’s going to be lazy and style over substance and chock full of outdated machismo, but it still has its moments.
I think a lot of the hate comes from the irrational dislike of Ben Affleck. Comic geeks had it in for him ever since he was cast as Batman. Guess what? He’s a very effective Batman and I would pay to see him in a stand-alone Batman movie. Henry Cavill has always been a mediocre Superman through no fault of his own as he certainly looks the part, but Superman’s not a terribly interesting superhero to begin with unless you have a good story writer which hasn’t been true for Cavill. Amy Adams as Lois Lane is criminally underused in any practicable way except for damsel-in-distress. Jesse Eisenberg was an effective Lex Luthor even if I don’t quite like the insane genius where the emphasis is more on insane than on genius.
Yes, there are glaring problems with the movie as many reviews have pointed out, but much of these problems are usually forgiven in other superhero movies. Much has been said about how Lex so easily manipulated Batman into wanting to destroy Superman. Folks, it didn’t take a lot of convincing. Lex didn’t set Batman down that path. Batman had pretty much decided for himself from Superman’s own actions that Superman was a menace. Lex just kind of goaded him a little. Now, how Batman and Superman finally face off is incredibly silly and lazy film making, but how they got to that point wasn’t. Wonder Woman’s story line? Held together by spit and baling wire. And the whole experimental bullets thing was beyond stupid. And the dream sequences? WTF? Seriously, WTF? Then there’s the gratuitous insertion of scenes that set up the next couple of DC superhero movies, but that’s forgivable. There is also the fact that the movie is subtitled “Dawn of Justice” and there’s not much Justice going on in the movie. It refers to the establishment of the Justice League, but besides a brief blurb about Batman wanting to set one up right at the end, it played absolutely no part in the movie.
A masterpiece this movie is not. You will also likely miss nothing if you skip the film completely. That said, don’t be scared away from seeing it just because of all the hate springing up around it. Yes, it is a deeply flawed movie, but it also succeeds at being entertaining if you sit back, take a deep breath, and say to yourself, “It’s only a superhero movie, not ‘Gone With the Wind'”.