The movie receives a lot of fair criticism. It also receives a lot more unfair criticism. It's a solid middle-of-the-pack superhero movie. Remember, comic books are generally not high art. A few are excellent examples of storytelling, a lot of them are decent, and most are just pulp trash that happen to be fun to read.
Here are some relevant points, in no particular order.
1) It's a little **** up that you are watching a Batman/Superman movie for Wonder Woman. Accept this and move on. The best parts of the movie are the ones where Diana Prince is on screen. Even the spoiler Farsky whined about. Which, by the way, is actually quite sensible when you realize that the Justice League doesn't exactly have Nick Fury, and Lex Luthor's evil villainous plot doesn't stop with Superman.
2) And you are going to watch this movie for Wonder Woman, because Wonder Woman. No amount of negative reviews are going to change that. There's really no sense in pretending to be outraged because of what Farsky posted. You're not fooling anybody. Wonder Woman. It's that simple.
3) This is not a Batman and Superman movie. It's a Batman movie with Superman in it.
4) Superman is a shitty character. While it is possible to tell a good story involving Superman, and some people have done so, it's safe to assume any given Superman story will be incapable of being "good" because Superman can't be personally inconvenienced without stupid kryptonite bullshit. Yes, even the original Superman with Christopher Reeve, while it has excellent actors (Reeve in particular), fails to pass the bar for "good". The plot is, at best, marginally better than Batman Forever, and it's remembered far more fondly than it deserves to be due to Reeve's tragic accident that rendered all movies he ever starred in forever immune to any criticism, and prevents us from recognizing that time has not been kind.
5) Dawn of Justice is far and away the best Superman movie to date, because it manages to personally inconvenience Superman without stupid kryptonite bullshit. Yes, best Superman movie to date. Yes, even compared to the original Superman with Christopher Reeve. No, I'm not thinking of Superman III or Superman IV. Yes, Superman I. From 1978. Where he does the stupid time travel thing to save Lois Lane.
6) It's a two and a half hour movie where about two hours worth of stuff happens. There was too much time spent trying to justify the fight between Batman and Superman, and too much time dedicated to generating hype for the brawl, which really is what the trailers should've been for.
7) Batman and Superman are overused and played out in cinema, and it shows. Warner Brothers spent too much time milking the cow, and audiences are tired of Batman and Superman.
8) If watching Doomsday smack some ***** doesn't get your blood pumping, you don't need to be watching comic book movies.
9) There is an expectation that a movie involving both Batman and Superman should be the best movie ever, eclipsing Avengers by a wide margin. This could be a reasonable expectation given the iconic status of both characters, or it could just be a personal problem. Given that Superman is a shitty character and no story involving Superman should be expected to be good, I'm going with the latter.
10) Batman has now had his 8th movie. Batman's origin never needs to be told again in cinema. Flashbacks involving a pre-Batman Bruce Wayne are prohibited. I feel very strongly this should become federal law, as the lone exception to our First Amendment guarantees to freedom of expression. Your free speech ends when you want to show Batman's childhood in a movie. You should also be stripped of your citizenship and deported.
11) Zod and Doomsday were not used too early. Stories that do not feature similarly powerful opponents simply do not merit Superman's involvement. Superman should not be seen again until the Justice League have just gotten their asses handed to them.
12) People really need to stop whining about Superman being responsible for all of the destruction Zod caused. Superman didn't do most of that damage, or even some of it. He did a little bit of it.
_________________ Buckle your pants or they might fall down.
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