Wooden' Henry Cavill and a 'giant turd' for a villain: what the critics thought of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Zack Snyder's long-awaited superhero gladiator match, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, is finally upon us. The film, which stats Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader and Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel and sets up DC Comics' expanded cinematic universe by introducing us to members of their Avengers equivalent The Justice League, is poised to take up to $350 million at the global box office this weekend.

So who cares what the critics think? Well, Warner Bros might once they digest the less-than-enthusiastic reviews Dawn of Justice has had so far. Our own Robbie Collin was left disappointed and confused, to say the least: "The first hour in particular is so haphazardly assembled, I honestly wondered if a reel had gone missing from the projection booth," he wrote. But he's far from alone; after the initial positive premiere reactions, all-out raves are thin on the ground, with many reviews reserving praise for Ben Affleck and certain action sequences and not much else. 

Make up your own mind when the film opens on March 25, but in the meantime here's what the critics thought:  "I’m a huge fan of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, and long considered it his best film. Batman v Superman has now taken that crown, however. Instead of typical 1-2-3 predictable storytelling and shot-framing, Snyder time and again chooses more personal approaches, framing action sequences in terms of perspectives... Batman v Superman has big, bold, breathtaking action in a story propelled by character conflicts on a mythic scale. The result is visually stunning, with powerful emotional storytelling and awe-inspiring action spectacle." "It’s tough to take all the hardcore emoting seriously, particularly as the emotional heavy lifting is designed to be done by the occasional maudlin line in brief pauses between the explosions. For a film so concerned with its characters’ inner lives, there’s a fundamental disconnect going on here – enough to make you yearn for the lighter touch of the Marvel films." Rating: 3/5 stars

Ben Affleck and Zack Snyder Credit: © 2014 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Ratpac-Dune Entertainment LLC and Ratpac Entertainment, LLC/Clay Enos

"There are more than a few dazzling sequences in Batman v Superman, including an apocalyptic dream battle in which spindly, winged terrors, imported straight from a Guillermo del Toro nightmare, buzz menacingly in the margins, while poor Batman gets the batstuffing kicked out of him in the foreground. Incidentally, the brutality of Batman v Superman is the heavy-duty, bone-crunching sort, a factor you might want to consider if you’re thinking of taking very small kids... The stunning and aristocratic Gal Gadot shows up, all too briefly, as Diana Prince/Wonderwoman: It’s a delight to watch her laugh in the face of danger, which is exactly the opposite of the demands placed on poor Cavill and Affleck." "All the Internet resistance to Affleck being cast as Batman seems silly when you see him sharing the screen with Cavill, as Affleck is easily the superior actor. (Cavill is solid, but there’s not all that much difference in his facial expressions registering anger, fear, pain or love. He winces quite a bit.) There’s not a moment when we don’t believe Affleck as Bruce Wayne or as Batman... Jesse Eisenberg’s twitchy, self-conscious mannerisms can be irritating in some performances, but he’s a creepy delight here as Lex Luthor." Rating: 3/5 stars "Snyder, juiced up by Hans Zimmer's caffeinated score, throws everything at the screen until resistance is futile. Better than Man of Steel but below the high bar set by Nolan's Dark Knight, Dawn of Justice is still a colossus, the stuff that DC Comics dreams are made of for that kid in all of us who yearns to  see Batman and Superman suit up and go in for the kill. Suck on that, Marvel." Rating: 3/4 stars

Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck Credit: © 2015 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Ratpac-Dune Entertainment LLC and Ratpac Entertainment, LLC/Clay Enos

"The filmmakers can’t work out whether they want to be in Metropolis (Superman’s stomping ground) or in Gotham (where Batman clings to the shadows), whether they’re making a dark, Oedipal drama or serving up comic book escapism; whether this is a story of a real rivalry or just a testosterone-driven buddy movie in disguise. The token addition of Wonder Woman (Gail Gadot), plucked off a plane to help save the world, only serves to confuse matters further." Rating: 3/5 stars "Ben Affleck is fine as Batman, once you get past the fact that he’s Ben Affleck in a waistcoat. The problem is the film’s vision of Batman. Fans of the same old beats will be thrilled to see the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. Again. And young Bruce falling into a bat cave. Again. For fans of new beats, there’s the fact that this Batman is apparently some sort of demented Oracle, enduring endless, detailed visions of possible pasts and futures complete with fully choreographed fights." "Following a wonderfully camp training montage in which the Dark Knight furiously pumps Batbarbells and chucks a tyre around, he and Supes go cape-to-cape through the slums of Gotham, a sight to justify the slow and gloomy build-up... It’s here at last, amid the crumbling masonry, that the movie discovers its joie de vivre. Which is why it’s a shame that Snyder feels the need to throw in a hulking, city-smashing Uruk-hai afterwards. A climax to a climax, it’s CGI overkill, making for a generic and exhausting denouement." Rating: 3/5 stars

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor Credit: © 2014 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Ratpac-Dune Entertainment LLC and Ratpac Entertainment, LLC/Clay Enos

"Snyder is one of the interesting visual directors working today. I think he did legitimately great work in movies like 300 and Watchmen. And even a terrible movie like Sucker Punch was at least fun to look at. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is, visually, Snyder’s least-interesting film. It’s like all the “controversy” surrounding the plot of Man of Steel got to his head and he decided to play it safe. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the equivalent of aiming for the fairway instead of the green, then shanking the ball out of bounds anyway." Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly "I get that this mano a supermano story line is a sacred text among comic-book aficionados, but Dawn of Justice doesn’t do the tale any favors. It’s overstuffed, confusing, and seriously crippled by Eisenberg’s over-the-top performance. As the megalomaniac tech mogul hell-bent on bringing our heroes to their knees, the actor is a grating cartoon of manic motormouth tics. He might as well be wearing a buzzing neon sign around his neck that says “Crazy Villain.” Luthor schemes to weaponize some Kryptonian relics left behind by General Zod inMan of Steel and create a rampaging monster named Doomsday that, to my eyes, resembles a giant turd."

Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck and Zack Snyder Credit: © 2014 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Ratpac-Dune Entertainment LLC and Ratpac Entertainment, LLC/Clay Enos

Devin Faraci, Birth Movies Death "Each scene is ponderous in its attempt to be meaningful and iconic, rendering every moment in the movie a phony pose. Heavy, overbearing score thunders above it all, reinforcing the po-faced absurdity. The film reaches for an operatic thunder and ends up with a wet, limp raspberry... Henry Cavill is a wooden log throughout most of the film, giving a performance so lifeless and dull that it feels like a protest. His Superman alternates between being a mopey bore and a real asshole, two qualities for which the character is not usually known." Rating: C+ Kate Muir, The Times "As the latest incarnation of Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot is less convincing than her male counterparts due to an ill-written role that fails to explain her presence, motives, change of mind - or indeed the fact that everyone else is in bullet and fireproof suits while she is still in black leather lingerie." Rating: 3/5 stars

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

"The villain here, Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor, is so intensely annoying that, very early on, you wish Batman and Superman would just patch up their differences and join forces to put the squirrelly rascal out of his, and our, misery... Loaded with vocal ticks and gushing with smarmy ripostes and threats, the character is loathsome without an ounce of insidious charm; if the legacy of the studio's Dark Knight films might have suggested anything, it should have been in the area of great villains, but here there is just a great vacuum." "Batman v Supermanimproves on Man of Steel by introducing a terrifically effective Batman (the world’s greatest detective actually detects!) and a complicated Lex Luthor, giving us some of the best versions of those characters that we’ve seen on screen for a long while. It’s far from perfect, but it’s largest sins can be overlooked because of the massive feats the blockbuster actually accomplishes."
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is not a good movie. It offers a truly unengaging Batman and then allows that character to dominate the proceedings while providing a painfully mopey and grim Superman-and-Friends narrative where the only ray of light comes from its homicidal arch-villain... But my word is it BIG in all the best ways. Maybe I’m deluding myself, but I still have an interest in this crazy DCEU scheme, especially if the rest are going to be as visually dazzling as this one.