Batman and Superman are two of the most beloved fictional characters of all time. They are real characters with admirable personalities and exciting adventures. So, when a director is given the task of adapting a superhero’s story they have every advantage. All that is needed for a superhero movie to be great is a decent director and decent writers who understand the story.

Unfortunately, the producers hired a bumbling, incompetent director and team of writers that managed to blouse up the story of Batman and Superman. This movie is just so frustratingly bad because all the potential it had was wasted.

The director, Zack Snyder, apparently doesn’t understand the premise of character and plot development and that is what kills this movie. Everything in the movie just happens without any prior indication that it is going to happen and most of the actions of the characters are not elaborated on at all.

Batman just decides to start branding and killing criminals. Lex Luthor just decides to develop an experimental bullet and just decides to somehow birth a colossal beast named Doomsday.

In addition, Both Wayne and Luthor decide to resent Superman and the movie doesn’t give any insight as to why. The problem is because most of the scenes in the first half are choppy, 20 second long moments of uninspired, unintelligent and unnecessary dialogue that contributes nothing to the plot or the characters. It looks as if the editors cut out critical scenes that would’ve pushed the story forward.

It is widely known that Batman is the world’s greatest detective and always adheres to his one greatest moral: never kill. In “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” Bruce Wayne is possessed so much by rage and revenge that he doesn’t see through Lex Luthor’s scheme and has no problem killing many people. This is not Batman. And Alfred is not the old, wise butler to be his moral compass like he should be.

Superman’s corruption of power is elaborated more in the trailer than in the movie. We don’t know why he changed so drastically from “Man of Steel” and we don’t know why he hates Batman. I’m sure they both have good reasons to want to kill each other but the movie never even hints at it. And the reason they stop fighting each other is extremely anticlimactic and uncreative. Batman and Superman’s mom have the same name so of course they have to become great friends right when they realize this.

Lex Luthor is known to be this hardened mastermind of evil but instead he is a more whiny rendering of the Joker. His motives are not made clear whatsoever and he just decides to hate Superman.

It seems that the only people that would like this movie are those that read the comic books or browsed the Wikipedia pages of all the DC superheroes because they will understand what is actually happening. For instance, one of Bruce’s many unnecessary dream sequences shows him outside a destroyed Metropolis where he is attacked by mercenaries and weird flying creatures. Right when he is subdued the scene switches to some superhero (the flash, maybe?) traveling back in time to tell Bruce that he was right. Right about what? That nightmare sequence is never mentioned again throughout the movie and is clearly just a way to establish a basis for the Justice League movies, but it ends up being so forced along with the cameos of Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash.  

These are just a handful of the major plot holes among a sea of minor plot holes. Plot holes are acceptable if an engaging story can get us to care about the characters and ignore these brief lapses in logic. However, this movie has plot holes galore among the forced scenes that by the end of the first hour we just want it to be over.

I will admit that there were two very good scenes. One of the very first scenes is of Bruce saving innocents from the collapsing buildings during Superman’s battle with General Zod from “Man of Steel.” It is a very powerful scene because it shows that day from a different perspective and is the only instance for the audience to see why the Bat vigilante would be angry at Superman.

The other is the only good fight scene in a movie that should be known for great, innovative fight scenes. Batman ambushes a group of mercenaries hired by Luthor. The combat that ensues is more impressive than any other fight scene from “The Dark Knight,” but is ruined when Batman kills several of the enemies.

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” is the most frustrating kind of movie. A movie that had so much potential to deliver strong symbolic themes of justice and power and corruption but ends up being a mess. It stems from Snyder’s misunderstanding of the nature of these heroes and villains and his inability to coherently tell this story.