The Man of Steel vs the Caped Crusader. The battle of god vs man. Superman against Batman. The movie with the subtitle “Dawn of Justice” was awaited by movie buffs and fans alike for more than a year. Does it rise up to the expectations?

 The general consensus among the critics is that the movie did not. They gave it a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. That being said, they must have seen a different movie, because the one I saw wasn’t nearly as bad as that. The general audience seems to agree: on Rotten Tomatoes 72% of it liked it, and the IMDB rating is 7.4%.

 The critics’ main complaint was that in the attempt to set up the Justice League franchise, too many characters were shoehorned in, but the criss-crossing of their respective plotlines didn’t make for a cohesive story. Renowned Youtube reviewer Jeremy Jahns said that Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was just not convincing, acting more as a socially challenged weirdo than the mastermind businessman that appears in most DC media. He also said that the only solid part in the movie was the Batman story, with which I happen to agree – in that it is a very well-built part.

PhotoCo: Vlaicu Motrescu

  The truth is that the movie wasn’t bad – it was just too ambitious. While it was too crowded indeed, that didn’t take too much out of the fun. Batman V Superman had solid storytelling, and the characters were interesting, despite their multitude. The action scenes were sweet and awesome, and were exactly as satisfying as you would expect from a superhero movie. There were too many storylines stuffed in, but in the end, they all have closure, and the narrative thread always had solid, believable plot twists right when the story was seeming to get dull.

 Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was a good movie, despite its flaws, contrary to the critics opinion. It actually got a better IMDB  score than its previous DC Universe installment, Man of Steel, who got 7.2. While it is crowded and at times messy, it makes for an entertaining flick, and it sets up the stage for the Justice League movie, which can even clear up or retcon the mistakes done in this one.  

Rating: 4/5

Vlaicu Motrescu, Staff Reporter