This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Jason’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
First Viewing: Spoiler Review
As I mentioned in my non spoiler review, this is a flawed movie, but it's also got a lot of fantastic moments.
The biggest plot problems are it gets too complicated at times. Why does Lois need to get trapped under water trying to get the Kryptonite spear? She doesn't. The whole plot of why the duo fight too is also over complicated, although I might warm to it on subsequent viewings. The plot is good in places too.
One of my favourite parts of the movie was the scenes surrounding the question of Superman. The philosophy of Superman was questioned and without doubt, this was one of the best scenes of the movie. I also loved the fight scene. The hits have real weight and it's shown that even with all his planning and tricks, Superman is almost as strong as Batman. We are also shown that Superman would absolutely destroy Batman in a fight with no planning or tricks, so all is fine with me. I loved when Wonder Woman showed up during the fight with Doomsday, she is incredible and her theme is badass! She is on par with both of the titular heroes.
Parts of the movie I didn't like were the setting up of the JL. It felt clunky and out of place. The scene where Bruce sees the files Lex has are fine, but the scene with Wonder Woman looking at the files felt hugely out of place. The setting up of the JL also slowed down the ending.
Leading me to the Death of Superman. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet really. Of course he's coming back, but I'm just not sure whether I liked it or not. I'll see in the following days and viewings.
Batman is absolutely terrifying too in this. His first scene is incredibly scary, as the man screams while being branded. The way he fights is absolutely incredible, and every punch and hit feels incredibly powerful. Oh, and he hits Superman over the head with a sink! What the fuck! His dream sequence is very well directed by Synder and is just one of the parts of the film he deserves credit for, instead of derision.
I felt that the Batman origin story, the murder of his parents would've been better off being cut from the start and only used in the scene where Superman says "Martha".
I really liked the creation of Doomsday and the use of Zod.
In all, it didn't really live up to my expectations. The first 45 minutes and from the big fight to the Death of Superman were incredible and probably 9/10 for me, if not more. But the film does get a small bit bogged down in the middle. I'll be more sure with more viewings.