David Rosario’s review published on Letterboxd:
*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
It's more unfocused than "Man of Steel" and sometimes you can feel it struggling to support the weight of everything that it's trying to be (a sequel to MOS, an intro to the new Batman, a precursor to Justice League, etc.) but by no means is "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" a BAD film. Au contraire! While I can perfectly understand why average moviegoers would be turned off by a lot that happens in this film, it's clear that Snyder and company were making this one for the diehard DC fans. But it certainly is a shame that they didn't take a page out of the Marvel playbook in terms of accesibility, because they left just about everybody else on the outside looking in.
Because the positives did outweigh the negatives for me, I'm going to start with the aspects of this film that didn't do it for me. My biggest problem was that big hulking, Abomination looking thing that they called Doomsday. The origin made absolutely no sense (somebody's going to have to explain to me how dead Zod+Lex blood+Kryptonian regeneration chamber equals....that). The design of the character reminded me way too much of the cave troll from Lord of the Rings. The CGI in this movie for the most part was used well, but the fights scenes involving Doomsday relied on the effects so much to the point where it was difficult to get emotionally invested in the battle. It's cool to see Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman team up to fight a bigger threat, but the "wow" factor is significantly lessened because they're just fighting a generic CGI baddie.
My other big problem has more to do with the way the story was structured, which I'll attribute to the script as well as the editing. The first hour in particular is very clunky in the way that it presents scenes, cutting away from one storyline to continue another, only to jarringly cut right back to the storyline you were just watching, making you wonder why they couldn't have just pieced it together more cohesively. Once the main conflict between the titular characters is set up, I feel that the film found its footing and was able to focus, for the most part.
However, I do think that some of the Justice League teases felt oddly placed and inconsequential to the story at large. The subplot involving Lois Lane investigating a bullet doesn't really go anywhere and easily could have been left on the cutting room floor. Also, as cool as the "Knightmare" sequence was, it will completely alienate casual audiences because it feels so random and does little to move the story along. And though it was nice seeing Pa Kent again, did really we need to see him?
Those issues are the kind that I could easily overlook on the first viewing of the film, but upon rewatch, it's kind of impossible not to acknowledge that those flaws do exist. That being said, there's just so much of this film that brought joy to my fanboy heart. It's impossible not to get excited about the two greatest superheroes in comic book history meeting up on screen for the first time and when the long-awaited showdown finally happens, it was everything that I needed it to be and more. I'd be hardpressed to say I wasn't smiling like an idiot when Wonder Woman showed up and kicked all kinds of ass. Gal Gadot wasn't given all that much to do, but she's great in the scenes that she's given and now I have even more confidence that she can headline her own movie.
Now in regards to Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, he was my biggest concern going in because I wasn't sure what to make of him from what I saw in the trailers. Color me pleasantly surprised because I thought he absolutely killed it. This is a vastly different take on the character, but once I got a sense of who this manical genius was, he quickly won me over with a performance that some might call over the top, but resonated with me in just the right way. "Granny's Peach Tea" is going to stick with me for a very long time (you'll see what I mean).
Zack Snyder is a master of bringing incredible action and a sense of scope to any project that he takes on, and "Batman v. Superman" is no exception. Storytelling woes hold this movie back from greatness, but there are flashes of brilliance sprinkled throughout. Ben Affleck is the most fascinating live-action iteration of Batman ever brought to screen (even though Kevin Conroy will always be the caped crusader to me). On an emotional level, the film reached me in a way that I didn't expect it to, and it was more than just me being overjoyed at finally seeing a Batman/Superman movie. They got me to care about THESE versions of Batman and Superman and to utterly despite THIS version of Lex Luthor (in a good way). I'm eager to see where they take these characters in the "Justice League" films and beyond.
"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" is one of those movies that I can perfectly understand why people won't care for it, but for me, it mostly delivered on what I was hoping for when I first heard a few years ago that the "Man of Steel" sequel was going to loosely incorporate elements of "The Dark Knight Returns." I'm crossing my fingers that the 3-hour Director's Cut/Ultimate Cut being released in a few months alleviates some of the issues I had with the film, but right now I can confidently say that this theatrical cut is certainly better than the current Rotten Tomatoes critic score might indicate.