Bryce Lawson’s review published on Letterboxd:
Leading into this film my expectations were not through the roof because of the second trailer that seemed to ruin a lot of elements of the film. Although I feel that trailer should not have come out I surprisingly really enjoyed this movie. But there is still some problems keeping me from giving it a higher score.
First I will start with the positives of the film. The key factor I needed for this film to really work was Ben Affleck's portrayal of Batman which he nailed. His version of Batman is very different than any other previous Batmans showed on screen. He is a more brooding, dark, violent Batman that will do whatever he wants to get the job done. In the future I am looking forward to seeing a solo Batman film.
Henry Cavils performance of Superman in this film really won me over on caring about what happens to superman more so then in Man of steel. I felt his relationship with Louis Lane was much more heartfelt and less forced than before, it really extenuated the humanity of superman which payed off in major scene at the end although the filmmakers kind of didn't follow through with it.
The introduction of Wonder Woman could have been forced but it turned out flowing rather well and Gal Gadot did a solid job with what little scenes she was in. The performance of Jesse eisenberg as Lex Luthor I felt could have really ruined the film but I enjoyed his new approach to the Lex Luthor character. His motivations for wanting to get rid of superman could have been a little more fleshed out but for the most part it was handled well. The direction style by Zach Synder was really well done with some stunning looking shots that look straight off the comic book page. The actions scenes all looking great especially the solo batman scenes and the batman and superman fight.
While I enjoyed this film way more then I was expecting due to the trailer and bad word of mouth it did have some negatives. I wish it would have focused more on the Batman vs superman storyline instead of slightly forcing in plot points to set up the justice league film. The forced aspect of shoving doomsday into this film really is what I disliked the most, in the comics he is a major villain of superman and I felt they could have saved him for another film although they did pay off what happens in the comics it still was kind of forced. Some of the points that set up the justice league were not really even fully developed and you only really know what's going on with those scenes if you know what happens in the comics such as in the batman dessert dream sequence. The filmmakers also did a very ballsy plot point at the end of the film that started true to the comics and left me feeling very emotional but instead of leaving it a mystery they basically ruined it in the last shot.
I feel many other people are kind of being to harsh on this film since they made us wait three years for it and it is the first time the worlds two biggest super heroes of all time go head to head anticipation was through the roof. But for the most part I think Zach Synder did a great job with the film although it has many flaws I enjoyed this more than man of steel and it set up the DC movie universe has something completely different from marvel which I feel is a good thing. I highly recommend anyone go see this movie in theaters even if you leave the film dissatisfied I don't think you will regret seeing it. Grade B+