Three years ago the DC cinematic universe kicked off with 2013's "Man of Steel", the brand new origin to the popular superhero Superman. Mixed would be a kind way of putting peoples reaction to the movie, no myself personally I loved this movie, and will defend it until my dying breath. Three years later we're getting the next entry it the DCU, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". Does this entry live up to the otherwordly hype behind it? Or does DC take yet another step back behind marvel?

In BvS, the world is till reeling from the events at the end of Man of Steel, SPOILERS! Superman kills Zod and in doing so, destroys nearly the entire city. Now eighteen months later, the world is calling for justice, and some even for Superman's head. One of those people is none other then Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), who see Superman as a foreign terrorist of sorts that needs to be stopped. Meanwhile Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), just wants a normal life as an average reporter, while also being the most powerful man in the world. While Batman pursues his own for of justice, this also leads the two into conflict with Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenburg), a young tech mogul whose got something against Superman, and will stop at nothing to destroy him.

Now the best part of this movie is Ben Affleck's Batman. He 100% completely nails it in this role, and becomes the best Batman we've ever had on any screen. I remember three years ago when the world lost their shit over his casting, and now everyone is being forced to eat their words as he completely makes the role his own. He portrays Bruce as a sad, broken man, whose on his last legs as both Bruce Wayne, and more importantly, Batman. This is not your typical Batman, he has no problem using lethal force on criminals, and you know what, that's okay too, seeing as they drew their inspiration straight from Frank Millers amazing comic run "The Dark Knight Returns", in which Batman literally shoots people in the face, so to see him be more violent and brutal here isn't that big of a shock for me.

The supporting cast here is also very excellent. Jeremy Irons portrays Alfred, Bruce's Butler and confidant in all things Batman related, in a way much different than Michael Caine did in the Christopher Nolan movies. He's sassy, making actual funny one liners, and has several powerful scenes with Affleck that work. Amy Adams returns as Lois Lane, and while it's still annoying how they keep trying to shoehorn in something for her to do, Adams owns the role, and brings a lot of likability to the character. Laurence Fishburne returning as Perry White, also has several great scenes and only make you want to see more of him in future movies.

This brings me to the two performances that I know I'll catch the most flack for, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. I gotta say, I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Eisenberg plays Luthor in a way we've never seen before. Is he a little off the walls? Yeah, does that sometimes hinder his performance? Every now and then, but I personally enjoyed seeing a Lex that has deep hatred for Superman, and is wildly unpredictable, not knowing if the smile he flashes at you is a genuine one, or if your about to die. I ate it up. Gadot, with her very limited time as Wonder Woman, does indeed shine here. Granted they probably should've held off on bringing her in until Justice League, but when she kicks ass...she kicks ASS!

Now, this film is directed by Zach Snyder, a director whose received so much sh*t from people over the years, he can build a boat and sail to a far away land with it. Here he shines again in my opinion, bringing his best skills to the forefront with a movie like this, the visuals are top notch in this movie, especially the final fight between the trio and Doomsday, which I thought looked amazing and blew me away. Granted he still has a few things to work on in his storytelling abilities, but he's by no means a bad director in my opinion.

Now the problems I have with the movie are largely technical. The editing for example is down right terrible in this movie. Proper editing should go from A-B-C-D-etc. However the editing in this film is like this, A-Q-B-7-I49, it's that jarring, how they didn't realize that is beyond me. Also the score, which is done by the amazing Hans Zimmer is largely terrible, with tracks that just don't fit the characters there being played behind them. Also the actual fight between Batman and Superman results in nothing more then a fist fight in a building...and that's it. And the reason why the fighting stops is beyond stupid! I won't spoil it, but it's eye rolling inducing. And again without spoilers, the very end left a very sour taste in my mouth.

Cavill's Superman isn't bad, but he's just so wooden in this movie. He tries to emote, you can feel the effort from the actor, it's just not there. Speaking scenes between him and Affleck were somewhat hard to watch, as Affleck was acting circles around Cavill, several times over. I'm not 100% ready to write him off as a bad actor, but...he needs to give a great performance already, quickly! Before he's written off as pretty block of wood #27.

Overall this movie is good, not great. And for some people, the face that it's not great will automatically make them hate it. For others, they just love to hate on my boy Snyder. But for me, I was enjoying myself the entire time the movie was going and am looking forward to seeing it for a second and possibly third time. I say check it out, judge for yourselves, this is one of those movies where you can't judge it by what the critics say, it matters what we the audience say. As a member of said audience, I am very happy for the next step in the DCU.

Final Grade: B-