Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

As always, there are spoilers throughout this, read at your own risk. One paragraph discusses an especially big spoiler and is noted as such.

I liked the way they set up the Justice League. They could have chosen to have them meet each other as the first Justice League movie unfolds, but that stretches the limits of chance and wastes time in the story. Having Bruce hack Lex's files on the others provides a much cleaner, simpler way of them all getting in touch. Those files do not include data on Shazam and Green Lantern, which is probably because they haven't been cast yet. It'll be interesting to see how they meet the Justice League. I find it fascinating how they've cast Shazam's nemesis over a year before Shazam himself.

For those planning to stay till the bitter end, don't bother. There's nothing even remotely resembling a post-credits scene. I figured they wouldn't want to be seen as copying Marvel, but I mean, Fox does it with the X-Men movies. The rumor I heard was that they were going to do it in the style of The Watchmen, where there's a montage over the beginning of the credits, but nope.

DO NOT READ THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE. <MAJOR SPOILER>I am currently taking bets on whether Superman comes back from the dead in Justice League Part 1, 2, or the cliffhanger ending of 1. I'm assuming Henry Cavill's already been confirmed to appear, so I'm not taking bets on whether they try to hide the fact that he's coming back at all. Remember folks, we saw a coffin and hands, but not a face to that body. Also, I read something about levitating dirt, but I personally missed that bit. I wonder how many people are going to poke at the fact that both Clark and Superman died on the same night and that they both disappeared after the incident in Washington (probably to do the same thing Kara did in this week's Supergirl and mope on the couch watching TV and eating comfort food).<MAJOR SPOILER>

The dream sequences tie-in to the upcoming Justice League films. There's clear references to Darkseid, with both parademons and the omega symbol being prominently displayed (even in the marketing). Then there's the bit where <spoilers>Barry time-jumps into Bruce's dream and tells him to "find us" and that "Lois Lane is the key."</spoilers> Also, people have speculated that Lex Luthor learned about Darkseid from the scout ship's database and that's what he's talking about in the end scene.

In other news, I'm ready for the Wonder Woman movie. So f*cking ready.

I've decided I want Daisy Ridley to play the Green Lantern. I don't care how they justify it, just give it to me.

I thought the Martha Kent rescue scene took place much earlier in the film. In the final trailer, there was the scene of Batman beating people up in a warehouse. I thought that was just a generic "Batman beats people up" scene. So when I didn't see it in the first half of the film, I assumed it was part of the stuff that was cut to reduce run time and keep the PG-13 rating. Turns out it was just part of the last act.

My personal theory about Darkseid is that it's going to play out the opposite of Batman's dream. In his dream, Superman was corrupted by Darkseid to become a tyrannical ruler of Earth. The problem is how can Batman be dreaming about Darkseid if he's never heard of him? My guess is that Batman was corrupted by Darkseid before the film even began. It explains how he wants to kill Superman instead of just talk to him and how he can dream about Darkseid without ever having seen the omega symbol or a parademon before.