Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

This film is a something of a mess. A loud, ponderous, pretentious mess. One that takes the two most popular and beloved DC comic properties and crashes them together in the hopes of kick-starting a cinematic universe to rival that of Marvel. Well DC certainly has its work cut out for it if this is the best they could do. So much going on, so many characters and none of it particularly interesting. Lois Lane, Alfred, Wonder Woman, each are wholly irrelevant. Even Lex Luthor, well portrayed by Eisenberg and the only moderately well written character, seems perfunctory here. Allusions to other Justice League members like Aquaman and the Flash are more confusing than exciting, and I kept asking myself where all the money went? As its massive 250 million dollar budget didn't seem to make the action scenes all that impressive either. Cavill as the Man of Steel has zero to work with. I almost felt bad for him as he's nothing but a prop. Affleck as Batman is not the disaster most people expected, as his aged, brooding portrayal of the Dark Knight is actually rather effective. The inevitable epic confrontation, though somewhat contrived and misleading, is the only slam dunk this film achieves. It's great and I don't see even how the harshest of critics won't have a smile on their face for that 15-20 minutes. But that still leaves over 2 hrs of over-stuffed, unfocused monotony, far too much for even a film saddled with this much expository responsibility. For the most part, a major letdown and the first ever 800 million dollar worldwide disappointment.