“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justicea�� Tries Too Hard to Jump-Start The Justice League

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” opened in theaters March 25 and has since received very mixed reviews. BvS received an average rating of 5/10 from Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5/10 from IMDb. So does BvS live up to all it was hyped up to be? And more importantly, should you go out and see the movie?

Short answer — if you’re into super heroes, why not? There are definitely pros and cons to BvS and it left me with very mixed feelings while walking out of the theater. There honestly are a lot of things that BvS does well that could have led to a great movie. However, there are a lot of things that the movie did wrong that took away from that.

First let’s talk pros — I was initially concerned when Ben Affleck was cast as The Dark Knight, but Affleck did a great job of portraying a hero who is tormented by his past. Jesse Eisenberg also did a great job of portraying Superman’s arch-enemy Lex Luthor. I can’t personally speak for the portrayal’s accuracy to Luthor’s character in the comics, but I can say that for this adaptation the jumpy, slightly insane Luthor that Eisenberg portrays really fits the movie. So overall the portrayal of characters was intriguing and entertaining. The cinematography in BvS also fixed a lot of what I had problems with in “Man of Steel,” so bonus points for that.

Now let’s talk about the cons of the movie. Let me sum up the main problem with BvS in three sentences — “Batman vs. Superman?” Oh you mean that movie

where Batman fights Superman for maybe 10 minutes for some arbitrary reason? Oh, by the way, Wonder Woman is here.

BvS tries to fit way too much information into one very long movie. DC Comics is really trying to catch up to Marvel by jump-starting The Justice League — similar to Marvel’s Avengers. However, they’re doing it too fast. In BvS there isn’t enough time to feel attached to Superman, who we only just met in “Man of Steel,” or this new version of Batman from director Zack Snyder. Not to mention Wonder Woman who is just kind ofa�� there. This all really hurts the movie and leaves the audience confused for a great part of the movie.

So considering that there’s so much good and bad in this movie, BvS truly deserves its mixed reviews. Adding to the mixed reviews, I personally give “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” a 2.5/5. I love super hero movies and honestly didn’t walk out of the theater disappointed, but BvS is trying too hard to jump-start something they haven’t built yet.

So should you go out see the movie? If you like Batman, Superman, or the DC universe there’s enough in this movie that you should enjoy it. But be ready for a long haul and a bit of confusion throughout. Watch the trailer here.