This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Clayton Terry’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a significant improvement over Man of Steel and is an undoubtedly enjoyable movie experience. But...it isn't...a good...film.
I really liked A LOT of this movie. To start, Ben Affleck was an awesome Batman. While seeing him use guns was a bit uncomfortable, it was worth it because of how badass he was. His scenes were my favorite of the whole movie, especially the opening scenes that were used to quickly and effectively establish his origin story. I also found Jesse Eisenberg to be a really interesting character, and I quite enjoyed him when he was on screen. Was he a Lex Luthor? No, but I frankly don't care because of how little I have invested in Superman. The direction improved noticeably over Man of Steel , and Zimmer's score truly elevated the film to new heights, making it feel like you are watching a Christopher Nolan movie.
But you aren't.
And you know that because of the writing. And the pacing. And the editing. While I will be the first to admit Nolan is not an incredible writer, this was much worse than anything he had ever produced. Many important aspects of the film are glossed over or left completely unexplained. Were they trying to keep the runtime short? The movie is two and a half hours! No, it was pure writing laziness. So many plot holes become apparent while watching the movie. To name a few: How does Doomsday absorb energy and grow stronger? How is Doomsday even created in the ship? And you are telling me that after watching thousands of his employees die, after almost two years of loathing and rage and months of preparation for the war, the ONE thing that makes Bruce Wayne realize Superman is a good guy is the fact that their moms have the same name? One could make the case that it is humanizing Superman but I believe that is just lazy writing. Sometimes the writing can fall short and other aspects of the film make up for it. Nolan's direction does a great job of hiding plot holes. The performance of actors came immerse us in the story so much we miss moments of bad story telling or wonky dialogue. This movie did not have any extraordinary piece to hide the plot holes and writing.
And as a side note, Wonder Woman, Doomsday and any future Justice League members did not need to be in this movie. They were shoe horned in and they contribute little or nothing to the plot except useless set-up.
In the end, this movie is a bunch of really nice montage videos, but it is not put together to make a quality film. This lack of identity (are we Man of Steel II , Batman or Dawn of Justice ?) means that they put more than they needed to in this film and thought over saturation would make up for the fact that little effort went into the writing.
This had enough potential to where I will see the next two DC Cinematic Universe movies but if the quality doesn't improved, I will lose all hope for our caped crusaders.