Used with fair use from DC Comics
Superhero films hold one of the most massive following audiences of any movie genre, but after seeing “Batman vs. Superman Dawn of Justice,” the question is “why?”

The first seemingly small issue with this movie is the writers hardly bothered to create a storyline that could be followed by people who have no prior knowledge of the superhero universe. For someone who is very unfamiliar with the life of Superman, there are a lot of moments that need previous knowledge. Apparently, Superman has human parents and he lives on earth for a long time, but let’s gloss over that like the movie did and focus on some other completely unrelated mini storyline.

The amount of external back story each character has creates a confusing separate life completely void from the main plot line. The writing makes it seem as though the movie should be a practical joke on the audience. It’s quite possible during production one of the writers said, “Let’s have Batman mention a dirty bomb coming into Gotham then forget about it for the next 45 minutes because we can.” Oh, and not to mention there actually never was a dirty bomb; that scene is just one of dozens of equally perplexing and aggravating moments within the film.

However, Lex Luthor, played by Jesse Eisenberg, proves to be a strength for the production. Eisenberg plays Lex, who slowly delves into power-driven insanity as well as Heath Ledger (RIP), who played the Joker back in “Batman: the Dark Knight.” Eisenberg captures the audience with not only his extravagant and insane character but also with the complexity of the mind that is Lex Luthor.

The first 45 minutes of this unreasonably long movie hold the most captivating moments. Most of it sets up the movie and the struggles between characters, also giving a little, but not much, backstory into why Batman and Superman became enemies. Not to mention, the first real fight scene happens a ridiculously long time into the film, which for a superhero movie is blasphemy.

The entire movie paires mediocre acting from almost every character with even worse writing and storyline. It felt as though all two-and-a-half hours only exist as some sort of reasonless setup for an entire new batch of future Justice League movies with monstrous budgets. Yet somehow it brought in over $216 million internationally in the box office and continues to sell more tickets.

Rating: 2/10

Just go see Zootopia