First, SPOILER ALERT. This whole post contains massive spoilers so please watch the movie first and come back here again to see if you agree with my thoughts.
This here was another one of those super rare cases that I was able to watch the movie much earlier than the rest of the world. And even then in that first viewing, there were already these issues that have woken me up early in the morning because they just didn't sit well with me.
[Also, check out my video on the top 5 issues from the movie here:]
By today, I have caught it a second time yesterday. So now, let's start with the biggest problem.
1) Superman's motivation to fight Batman
The subplot of Martha getting kidnapped by Lex Luthor was one of the worst plot points in this movie.
It took away all that's compelling in Superman's belief that "the Bat is dead". If Superman had his own reasons, be it strong or misguided, it would have made for a better fight for the audience. It would have given the audience someone to root for in the actual story, instead of thinking in our heads that he's doing this only because of his mother.
And then it was all made lamer when Superman "had to" confront Batman; which he didn't even try hard enough and they ended up fighting each other. This wasn't the right motivation for Superman. It should have come from his own point of view on the situation. Instead, he was forced into it. Like a puppet.
And nobody likes that kind of plot points. Remember Hawkeye in The Avengers?
2) "Batman v Superman"
The movie is Batman v Superman and the actual fight was only about 10 minutes... in a movie with a running time of 151 minutes. I felt cheated.
Even that first tease where the Batmobile rammed into Superman wasn't really a tease when the whole scene was shown in the trailers already. We saw that scene coming a mile away and we already knew how that scene would end. Same goes for the first time Clark and Bruce met. That first confrontation was shown in the trailers as well.
So what was left? The one and only fight that was nowhere near as epic as it could have been from a fanboy's point of view.
But with the recent news of a R-rated cut in the Bluray, that gives me more hope that we'll have something better soon, just like The Wolverine's R-rated cut.
3) The first half
Why are there so many things crammed into the first half. Everything intertwined together and felt convoluted and confusing. There's the subplot with the senator, there's the one with the guy in the wheelchair, there's the one with Superman running away and dreamed of his father, there's that lengthy dream sequence with Batman.
All these things, poorly edited together, caused more confusion and frustration than adding value to the story.
4) Setting up future films
Remember that scene in Avengers: Age Of Ultron where everyone, even casual cinema-goers, were complaining about that weird Thor scene when he went off on his own and ended up in a dream sequence inside a cave? There's one in this movie too!
We find Batman (in a cool Bat-suit for the desert climate) with his own army, only to be ambushed by Superman and his army and some crazy Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones-like insectoids. And that whole fight choreography was poorly executed with the first soldier that Batman attacked, already anticipating to be brought down.
And then ending with what looked like The Flash time-travelling to find Bruce. I couldn't tell for sure if it's Flash but he's the only one who could time-travel. And he did look like Ezra Miller; but if it was, that was some horrible acting. I didn't know what he was trying to do. And why would he appear in Bruce's dream? He can time-travel, not dream-travel.
So from this long sequence, I believe it's setting up Darkseid and The Flash's standalone movie. But haven't Hollywood learned from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Avengers: Age Of Ultron? These things don't work!
5) "Dawn Of Justice"
We were promised that this would be the "Dawn Of Justice". What did we get? One scene with Wonder Woman watching the other members on video clips? That's it? We should have gotten one scene right at the end, even without costumes, to see these future superheroes together in the same scene.
6) Wonder Woman's 34 minutes
7) Lex Luthor discovering the secret identities
How did Lex figure out the secret identities of both Superman and Batman in the same movie? We didn't even see how he figured it out. But he Clark Kent a newspaper clipping and Bruce Wayne those cheques so as to incite the fight between them. How???
8) Is Lex Luthor stupid?
Lex kind of orchestrated the whole fight between Batman and Superman (more so Superman than Batman). Lex is supposed to be, and did show signs of, being calculative and manipulative. So how is it that he couldn't see Superman and Batman working together to stop him?
9) How does Lex Luthor know Kryptonian stuff?
How does Lex know he needed the finger prints of Zod to open the hatch? (Krptonians still uses finger prints? That's a whole other issue there.) How does he know to dip Zod's body into the pool? How does he know to include his blood into the pool? That whole conversation with the A.I. is a giant question mark in and of itself!
10) Death of Clark Kent and Superman
I would salute DC and Zack Snyder for killing Superman in this movie... if he stayed dead.
Had that been the case, this was a moving, touching, well directed death scene for Superman because I felt that sense of loss and pain from his loved ones left behind. The final battle with Doomsday was made even more epic because of the immense loss and sacrifice of the world's greatest superhero.
But that's not the case, is it? At the very end of this movie we already saw something happening with the coffin. Clearly this wasn't the end of Superman. Clearly Justice League will have Superman. No way DC is going to have a Justice League movie for the very first time on the silver screen and not have its most iconic character and brand name attached to it!
So if they are bringing Superman back, are they not bringing Clark back? It's going to be such a hard sell to convince Perry White and the whole Daily Planet that Clark actually didn't die, seeing as how Perry printed the death story of Clark. So did Perry print that story without any proof of death?
Would Superman then reveal that he is in fact Clark Kent upon his return? He can't work in The Daily Planet anymore if that is the case.
But if Superman stays dead, then I will love this movie even more. But for now, it's a 7/10.
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