When you bring together “The Bat of Gotham” and face him against “The Son of Krypton” and throw in a few other heroes and villains along the way, what good can come from this? The new Warner Bros. movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice directed by Zack Snyder premiered March 25, 2016, struggled to answer this question. Snyder, who also directed Man of Steel brought yet another action packed superhero film to the big screen- with this movie being a step up from Man of Steel.

The movie takes place two years after the battle between Zod (Michael Shannon) and Superman (Henry Cavill) destroyed Metropolis and its people. The damage and death after the fight left many people angry and helpless. One of the questions that came to my mind when first hearing about this movie was why would these two god-like heroes want to fight each other? How would the writers think of a logical way to make two of the best superheroes collide? It turns out that during the fight between the Kryptonians, Batman (Ben Affleck) was in Metropolis as Bruce Wayne and witnessed one of his building fall to the ground, killing everyone inside. This left him angry and convinced that Superman was a threat to humanity. Batman then embarks on a personal vendetta to end Superman’s reign on Earth.

Although a lot of people were doubtful about Affleck playing Batman I found him entertaining and good. I think Affleck looks, moves and fights very similar to Batman in the comics, although I’m comparing still images to moving ones. Also, when you compare Affleck’s Batman to someone like Christian Bale, who also has played as Batman, Affleck is a little better suited for the role. Both actors play the part very well but it’s the small things that can play a big factor in who can play Batman better. Small things like Affleck’s height and body shape, which looks a lot more like Batman’s in the comics, makes him better to play the part than Bale.

There are a lot of familiar faces from Man of Steel– Lois Lane, Perry White, Martha Kent, Clark Kent, and a few new characters only seen in the comics – Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), is an Amazonian superhero and Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), Superman’s arch-nemesis. Gadot said to Interview Magazine, “I didn’t want to do the obvious role that you see in Hollywood most of the time, which is the heartbroken girl who’s waiting to be rescued by the guy” from this Wonder Woman fits key criteria that Gadot looks for when playing a character. In one of my favorite scenes of the movie, Wonder Woman enters during the final battle and looks like a badass. Eisenberg, as Lex Luthor, was not like a lot of people expected. People expected the old school version of Luthor- middle aged and bald- but the writers updated him. A lot of people were disappointed in the route the writers took and Eisenberg’s interpretation of Luthor. However, I feel he made Luthor seem like the sociopathic person he is in the comics, making his scenes good.

However, I found the movie to be very disappointing at the end because I was expecting much more. The fight between these two heroes was very short and did not have a entertaining build up. Like a lot of fans I really wanted these two heroes to fight because it not only shows who is better but also whether superpowers would win against tactics and fighting strategies.

With so many Batman and Superman movies out there the writers had a hard time thinking of ways to make this movie unique. That is why they borrowed ideas from other places like the comics- The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman. For example, In The Dark Knight Returns a baby is kidnapped and the kidnappers are threatening Batman with killing the baby. This puts Batman in a position to kill the kidnappers, which is almost exactly the scene when Batman saves Martha, Superman’s mother. Also, In The Death of Superman, the villain Doomsday, who is a rampaging, mindless, murdering monster that kills Superman, was taken and put in the storyline of the movie.

At the end of the movie, I thought sitting for a total of 2 hours and 33 minutes was a little long, especially when some of the scenes were a little dull, like Batman’s multiple flashbacks, which made me lose focus. However, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a definite must watch and worth seeing because it opened up the doors to the Justice League, Part One another film many people can’t wait to see that comes out 2017. I give this 6 out of 10 because although it wasn’t as good as I expected, I was entertained.