mason’s review published on Letterboxd:
So. Here we are. 2016's superduper hero movies have come and gone. And I've seen them all. Now, I can say with certainty that somehow, some way, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice is the best of them all.
Yes. The best.
While Civil War blows more and more air into an air-balloon gone wild and spoonfeeds it's audience an argument about world politics, Batman V. Superman does the opposite. It pops the balloon before it's finished expanding and doesn't start a conversation. It ends it by sticking its neck out.
While X-Men tries to recapture the glory days with an 80's throwback and a story scraped from the bottom of the barrel, Batman V. Superman punches nostalgia in the teeth, fully embracing the chaos of real life, which is always stranger than fiction.
While Deadpool mugs at the camera, ridicules cliches and then lives those cliches as if they're new again, Batman V. Superman forges new ground and expands its mythos, one-liners be damned.
While Doctor Strange makes a pathetic attempt to stick out from the superhero crowd, Batman V. Superman takes its legendary characters into new cinematic territory that is worth exploring longer than in a 5-minute special effects showcase.
Suicide Squad is total shit. So let's move on from that.
Like it's predecessor, the flaws of Batman V. Superman are easily avoidable. If you cast someone different as Lex Luthor, don't allow a jar of piss within 800 feet of the set and cut out any and all training montages and dream sequences, you'll have a pretty kickass movie on your hands.
I like that our superheroes are up to interpretation. There's no definitive Batman. There never will be. There's only the Batman we have and the Batman we used to have. The same goes for the man of steel. So, if you're one of the people who has written this off, I'd encourage you to take that into consideration and appreciate this beautiful disaster as the movie it is, not the movie you want it to be.