The opening credits show a set of events showcasing a combination of a dream which Bruce Wayne calls a ‘beautiful lie’ and the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents. I do have to say the movie could have done without the dream sequence in the beginning as it really did not add to the character of Bruce Wayne or rather if it did it was not explained properly in the beginning. One of the best moments of the movie are in the beginning as we see the destruction in Metropolis caused by Superman fighting Zod from Bruce Wayne’s perspective. The thing that stood out for me is that as soon as the destruction begins, Bruce Wayne’s helicopter lands in Metropolis, we find out later that Gotham and Metropolis are sister cities. I guess this works as a plot point through the movie as we see later on but it seemed rather odd and made the earth shown in the movie really confined to small spaces. The way Bruce Wayne runs into the debris cloud while everyone else runs away from it is in essence Batman as we know him. The music for this whole scene is similar to the man of steel action scene and melds really well with the entire moment. We witness the establishment of Bruce Wayne’s hatred towards the Man of Steel as he hurls Zod into a building holding a girl who has just lost her mother in a destroyed building in all the chaos. We get a sense humanizing moment for Bruce Wayne in that scene as he is trying to comfort the lost girl but as we see later down, this anger from the destruction starts a destructive path for Batman.

The events of this movie mostly takes place 18 months after the Metropolis fight. This is a city which has built a monument for Superman and includes a wall with names of people who died during the battle. It seems that Metropolis has branded Superman as a hero while some still question his nature and the fact that his being on earth allowed Zod to wreck havoc on earth. When Lois is in danger, we are shown that she is often saved by superman who comes out of nowhere yet he has to watch the news on TV to see that a girl is dying in the fire. There seems to be a disconnect here as we are not shown how Superman can track Lois being in danger but we told to take a leap of logic that he can. I still think as I did during Man of Steel that the relationship between Clark/Superman and Lois Lane moved too abruptly and did not get a chance to simmer. I guess after 18 months we are led to believe the relationship has gone even further but it would have been nice to have the identity hidden in Man of Steel and revealed in this movie. There are many moments where this could have occurred especially at the very end. This is one of the weaker points of this movie where it could have made this relationship even more meaningful.

There is a pivotal and remarkable moment that I think many other reviewers seemed to have missed when reviewing the movie and it is a point which is shown in passing and with such subtly that if you do not pay attention, you cannot have that moment again until you see it again. We are showcased Bruce Wayne as Batman for the first time in an abandoned building where he saves women from are being trafficked by an individual. The trafficker is chained to the wall and branded with a bat symbol. it seems Batman has started doing this recently as this is the second instance in past few weeks that this has occurred, we are also told that anyone with this Bat symbol is marked for death in prison so in essence Batman is sending people to their deaths in prison, not for rehabilitation. When we see Alfred who portrays wonderfully by Jeremy Irons, he sarcastically asks Bruce Wayne, ‘New Rules?” as he shows a newspaper image of the trafficker who was branded. There is a clear implication that Batman is becoming aggressive, brutal and getting closer to the edge from being for vigilante to being solely a criminal. Alfred tells Bruce that everything has changed, that as gods hurl thunderbolt from the sky and millions die, there is a sense of rage, powerlessness that turns good men cruel clearly hinting to his master Bruce that his methods are becoming crude and unmistakably evil.

Now there will be many people from comic book readers to movie goers and nerds in general who will be outraged by the idea this Batman shoots and kills blatantly (in future sequences) and indirectly in present. There is a sort of canon that batman never kills except where he has before (The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight returns) although one might argue that those were tangential graphic novels rather than the usual comic books. I would give Snyder the benefit of the doubt here as he had already stated this batman is inspired by the one in the Dark Knight Returns and we are judging the movie with these characters rather than judging the characters in the movie.

Lex Luthor is considered an iconic DC villian for Superman and the Lex of ‘Snyderverse’ takes a direction unlike never before. Whereas most other iterations of Lex Luthor show him as a conniving, intelligent yet confident individual, The Lex in this universe is not the confident kind at all. He is shown as a young genius who has built the Luthor empire on the back of his father’s success. There is a heavy handed idea that Lex is a broken individual inside who shows confidence on the outside but he is extremely fragile on the inside. This is showcased in the speech he gives at his party where he forgets his lines, loses his train of thought, gets frustrated and starts mumbling. He is also shown as a sort of militant atheist who hates the idea of a God. Due to the abusive nature of his father he believes if there was a God he would have saved him so the idea of a God in his head is that of evil and thus God cannot be good and if he is good then he cannot be all powerful.

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman

We see this playing out when he tells Superman that he wants the world to see the fraud that superman is. Some of his performance does seem a bit over the top especially in the very end though that could be due to his erratic nature coming full circle and the inner Lex Luthor breaking out for everyone to see.

We are introduced to Kryptonite for the first time in this universe and it has pretty much the same properties as that of every other Superman movie in that it weakens superman when he is around it or if he ingests it. Seeing the other subtle and some prominent changes Snyder has made, I was surprised but also pleased that he chose to keep things with Kryptonite relatively simple. We get a heavy hint near the end that Lex Luthor leaked the information of Kryptonite trying to get into Gotham’s ports so that Batman knows about its existence and its purpose. The ‘How' is never explained and we are left to our imagination that this is either through the detective work of Bruce Wayne or the conniving nature of Lex Luthor as both are extremely smart but polar opposite successful spectrum of how they approach the world. The subtle hints added by Snyder really allows the person watching the film to imagine different scenarios and this aspect of the movie was quite well done by Zack Snyder at the end.

The character of Superman played by Henry Cavill is still going to be hotly debated after this movie. There is a signicant quartet in both the eyes of public and comic book fans that the Superman presented in ‘Snyderverse’ is not about ‘Truth, Justice and the American Way’, that he is not the ideal people will want to wish to be but in fact is a depressed, sad, broody version which is going nowhere. I kind of stand in the middle of this as I want to give Snyder the benefit of the doubt as I have heard from a number of interviews that this Superman’s story whose end point will eventually be that of hope and ideal for people in that universe. I would think the ending of the movie is a major trigger point for this regard. How I see Superman is that in Man of Steel he is shown as afraid then hopeful and in Batman v Superman he is shown as doubtful and in the end we get the hint he gets his redemption. Now I do hope that the future of Superman from this point leads quickly towards Superman becoming an ideal fo humans as Jor El says in his speech to Kal El in Man of Steel. If Snyder does deliver on that hope of the classic superman in the end, then the entire Man of Steel and Batman v Superman suffrage will have meaning and a purpose. I look at these movies as stepping stones from one movie to another as the overall story progresses so this is the only reason I am still hopeful we get a Superman in future films who is not filled with doubt and and fear anymore. Henry Cavill gives a decent performance as he did in Man of Steel but I feel a more ‘hopeful’ portrayal will reflect in his performance as well in future DC movies.

Lois Lane gives an OK performance in this movie and she does a lot more real journalistic work than she did in Man of Steel which I believe was good for her overall character arc. Her relationship with Clark/Superman is shown as more pivotal than her being a journalist at the Daily Planet. There was a lot of talk about how Gal Gadot would portray Wonder Woman. Some initially thought she was too skinny for the role but all the naysayers have been proven wrong as even those who hated the movie for the most part really liked the character of Wonder Woman and the potential her upcoming movie has because of this entrance. Most of the first half of the movie is where we are shown Diana Prince who is portrayed as being as sneaky as Bruce Wayne but her entrance in the final battle of the movie is nothing short of epic. we get hints of the entire fighting style and powers of Wonder Woman but there is a lot more to come and there is a great amount of anticipation which has risen because of a strong action showing by the Wonder Woman character.

The African desert side plot is a bit awkward and does not add much to the storyline but there is an attempt to show that Lex Luthor is trying to frame Superman’s global image by having his henchmen kill a few villagers just before Superman arrives to save Lois Lane who is being held hostage by a misogynistic terrorist. There seems to be some scenes which clearly are missing and this was recently confirmed by Zack Snyder. Still, the sequence adds little to the story.

Holly Hunter also takes part in a side plot which makes much more sense and in facts adds to the character of Lex Luthor and Superman. She is a state senator from Kentucky resistant to the idea of Superman as being good for mankind but is seen as much less aggressive in that approach as Lex pushes her to approve the import of Kryptonite as a deterrent against what he calls Meta Humans . She calls hearings to hold Superman responsible for the African and Metropolis incident and the incident that follows is shown as being a catalyst to push Batman over the edge and fight and kill Superman as he views Superman’s presence itself as a threat.

The action scenes in the movie are as you would expect from Snyder..Epic! except for the fact that the fight billed for the movie is too short for my taste but for what we got it had a bigger impact emotionally than maybe the ending battle. The car chase Batman is part of sort of reminds of the dark knight chases but with a lot more guns and a lot more damage. This car and ‘Truck’ chase also gives us the first encounter between batman and superman which is short and to the point. The top billed fight however is where there are some top action sequences and is more like a weak fighter with brass knuckles while a stronger fighter playing defense and on weak on drugs (You will see what it means when you see it). The ending for this fight is a point of contention with many cringing at the thought that just because Superman has the same name as Batman’s mother, Bruce simmers down while those who liked it consider it delivering an emotional punch and having a deeper meaning than just the names. Both Cavill and Affleck are great in this final moment. Batman, as we saw earlier is an experienced, weary and toughened hero. The Metropolis battle puts a huge dent in his idea that there are no ‘Super’heroes and anything so immensely powerful can be extremely dangerous. You would clearly know this if you have read Batman comics where Jason Todd turned from the 2nd Robin to villian Red Hood as well as other examples. He views Superman as a flawed hero who can easily turn to the dark side like those before him. This thinking and anger at the destruction of Metropolis and where Batman was helpless led to him becoming angry and cruel as we discussed earlier. This leads to him planning to kill Superman with Kryptonite and in the one on one battle almost thrusts the Kryptonite laden spear into his heard when he hears Superman shout his (Superman’s) mothers name. Superman is there in the first place because he wants to convince Batman to help him find his mother or kill him as Luthor requested. In those moments when Superman takes his mothers name which ironically is the same name as the mother of Bruce Wayne, Batman falters and becomes confused and distraught why Superman was taking the name of his dead mother. If you have followed Batman mythology there is a consistent theme which is true even in this movie, that the death of his parents triggers this feeling of guilt and revenge inside of him which leads him to become Batman. It was his parents death which results in him taking the law into his own hands to stop cruelty from criminals, not enforce it. It was his ‘code’ that to avoid death when possible. All of this emotion seems to come back to Batman as he steps back until Lois makes a timely entry to the place where they fight and she mentions that Martha is the name of Superman/Clark Kent’s mother. We witness Batman’s emotions snapping him out of the state where he was going to be cruel and kill someone asking for help which is the antithesis of the very existence of Batman as a symbol itself. Could the ending of the fight have been better framed ? Yes, but if you get the meaning behind it it works very well.

We come to another controversial part of the film which has been aptly labelled as ‘Knightmare’. Now many critics and viewers were confused by this and even those who were not considered this a dream. Flash in the comics has the ability to time travel and between dimensions. The dream as we call it is likely an alternate earth or Batman’s future. In either case Batman is even more different than we are used to see him, he uses the gun to shoot like a mercenary. Suffice to say he has completely lost his code and is the leader of mercenaries. He is also acting in the light, this again is different whereas he usually acts in the dark. There is a giant Darkseid logo, something which Batman wouldn’t know of. There is a lot of debate if this sequence should have been in this part of the movie or at the end of it but it is regardless of the editing choice setting a platform for the future of the DC universe. At the end of this ‘dream’ we see Bruce waking up and confronted by The flash who is talking through a portal. He shouts through the portal that Lois Lane is the key , being right about Lex and to fear him which could be alluding to Darkseid. When Bruce ‘wakes’ up , papers are flying all around behind him which is the clearest indication that that Bruce was taken by Flash to either an alternative reality or Batman’s future. T

The final battle is Doomsday v Superman/Batman/Wonder woman. Now here is another point of contention within the audience. Doomsday has an epic storyline in the comics but he is reduced to being a side villain in Dawn of Justice. Created as a Krypton abomination using the blood of Luthor and the body of Zod, Doomsday has the ability to feed on energy including energy of blasts and punches to grow stronger. In the comics, Superman fights Doomsday to the death with fists and fury until both are bleeding and both die. Here, the battle is between the DC trinity. This is the battle where we are introduced to Wonder Woman as a superhero character for the first time and it is amazing. We see Wonder Woman trying to single handedly take on Doomsday but Doomsday keeps on getting stronger. The battle ends with Superman spiking the Kryptonite spear originally meant for him into the heart of Doomsday but at the same time Doomsday thrusts his fist straight into Superman , causing both of them to die. It’s not as dramatic as the comics and not as emotional as the Batman v Superman scene so the impact is not as big as I was expecting.

The end shows Superman’s funeral as a state funeral in Metropolis and Clark Kent’s funeral with Superman’s actual body in Smallville. This seems quite fitting as only those who knew him best show up at his actual funeral. There is somewhat of a fitting irony in all this that the film starts with the funeral of Bruce Wayne’s parents which defines batman and the it ends with Superman’s funeral which will come to revive Batman as a symbol. We hear batman and Wonder Woman talking of uniting the other superheroes for the danger that might be coming. This is alluded to when Batman visits Luthor in prison who tells him the bells have rung and the other gods of the universe are coming. There is a very interesting arc for the Bruce Wayne story in this movie. The movie as we saw starts with him branding criminals with the bat logo however he only threatens Lex with the logo and leaves him be, again showing he snapped out of his cruel nature when he realizes superheroes like Superman can be a force for good.

The movie was quite good but the pacing and scenes were a bit disjointed. This did not take away from my enjoyment for the movie for what it is and for the future hinted with Justice League. Snyder seems to have moved scenes from one plot to another like a comic book does where there are comic panels showing one plot then jumps to another plot and so on. This can be somewhat jarring in movie form but I know where Snyder is coming from, he literally created the movie from the story boards while treating the story boards as comic book panels. I am hopeful that the directors cut fleshes out the story a lot more not only for me but also for disliked the movie. I don’t believe this is a bad film, if you want to nitpick , you can but as a broad story if it is better than a lot of other comic book movies. I believe many critics and nerds are critical about this movie from the framework that the characters Snyder has in the movie are not how they should be portrayed and this is fine but this is what we have and when I look at the movie for what it is, it is quite good. if I look at the movie for what I want the characters and tone to be, then it isn’t good. Fortunately for me I like to appreciate the creator of the art form’s work rather than fantasize how the characters should be. In this regard I very much enjoyed the movie.