The Caped Crusader. The Man of Steel. This past Friday, these two iconic superheroes met for the first time on the big screen.

A movie combining arguably two of the most popular superheroes in history is no easy task. But for the most part, “Dawn of Justice” was up to the challenge. Following the highly successful “Dark Knight” trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, Zack Snyder takes the helm with Ben Affleck portraying Batman. Henry Cavill returns as Superman, delivering another respectable and convincing performance following his 2013 standalone movie, “Man of Steel”.

Undoubtedly, Affleck was easily the most criticized component of the film, under plenty of heat after being cast for the role. However, Affleck was hands down the best part of this movie. The most interesting and intense scenes came when Affleck was portraying the disgruntled Bruce Wayne, followed by brutal fighting sequences with Batman. Affleck as Bruce Wayne was a match made in heaven. An eccentric billionaire playboy with a dark side, Affleck just had to be himself to play Bruce Wayne. Bale is arguably the most popular Batman of all time, leaving big shoes to fill in this movie. Affleck’s depiction of the Dark Knight, however, did a great job following up Bale’s legendary performances. Batman’s fighting style in “Dawn of Justice” was brutal and merciless, something fans have only seen in the “Arkham” video game series. My favorite scenes of this movie all came when Affleck was showing just how imposing his Batman was. Affleck delivered a convincingly strong performance and proved the doubters wrong.

Considering the title “Batman v Superman”, critics and fans alike probably expect equal screen time for the two colossally popular heroes. Achieving the proper balance was crucial to the film, having to introduce Batman’s character, while building upon the Superman storyline introduced in “Man of Steel”. Unfortunately, this is one of the more glaring problems with this film. At times, the plot jumps from idea to idea so fast that it’s too much to keep up with all at once. Perfecting the distribution of screen time amongst the two heroes was no easy task to begin with, but “Batman v Superman” almost tries too hard to force everything in. It seemed like every scene shift came with a burdensome new plot point that eventually became more of a headache than entertaining. One can make the excuse that jumping from one character to another’s conflict so rapidly was necessary for a movie combining different heroes, but the presentation of these scenes came out more sloppy than anything. Considering the movie is already 2.5 hours long and they had trouble fitting every concept into the film, one can only imagine how much of a pain the rumored three hour uncut DVD version will be.

Ultimately, the good in this film (fighting sequences, Affleck’s portrayal of Batman) outweighed the bad (forceful scene shifts to fit every idea in). However, for a movie that delayed its release date by nearly a year in order to give the filmmakers “time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story,” this movie undoubtedly has it’s flaws. Living up to the hype that “Batman v Superman” set itself up for was nearly impossible, and this film showed that. Overall, this movie was worth the watch despite its structural errors. Regardless of how ruthless critics have been toward this movie, “Batman v Superman” is a movie that viewers should give a chance.

Pros:

• Ben Affleck’s Batman portrayal
• stunning visuals and fight sequences

Cons:

• forceful scene shifts
• lack of fluidity between ideas
• not enough Batman