I believe the award for most CGI destruction within a two hour period will dubiously go to Zack Snyder’s Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, which is basically DC comics answer to the folks over at Marvel and their cinematic universe. Unlike Marvel, DC is throwing together their films at a fast rate instead of taking the proper amount of time to fully realize their potential. Unfortunately, that is one of the many reasons why Dawn Of Justice ends up a disappointment.

Snyder has an act for adding the best finishing touches on any of his films, whether that’s the blood-soaked epic 300, his remake of Dawn of The Dead or Watchmen – the long-time director has a sense of authority with his works. He uses flare when necessary and strong motifs even when we aren’t searching for them, the visceral life-like qualities with how he makes films can quench any fanboy over. If it’s the scale you’re after than Batman V. Superman will do the trick, but if it’s the scope of the landscape, Dawn of Justice has a hard time finding the correct tone to even scratch the surface.

As any origin Batman film must, the film opens with the background of how poor Bruce Wayne came to be the caped crusader (his parents were gunned down by a robber) – if you’re counting, this is probably about the 30th time we have seen the masked vigilante’s parents slain on screen.

On the heels of 2013’s Man Of Steel, where Metropolis and Gotham are trying to co-exists with one another, the two cities learn of Superman’s (Henry Cavill) existence, a god-like creature who seems to draw the line with his bursts of destruction. Is he a good guy? Is the question many citizens are asking which is the motive driving Wayne (Ben Affleck) as he plans to stop Superman before he can become an even bigger menace to society.

Que Jesse Eisenberg as the wacky, psychotic, and sometimes over the top, Lex Luthor who plans to pit the two star crossed heroes against each other in a gladiator match for the ages (if you wish to avoid the plot of what Luthor plans to do stop reading now). The egotistical billionaire plans to devise a weapon capable of killing Superman from some long-lost kryptonite found beneath the depths of the Indian Ocean. And JUST in case that wasn’t enough, he also uses the remains of Michael Shannon’s Zod to create Doomsday, who in hindsight looks like a deformed mutant transformer on steroids.

I understand the need to kick-start your Justice League films Warner Bros. I really do, but at the expense of your most bankable characters is a bit of stretch. Dawn of Justice has it’s moments where it’s easy for me to forgive the constant overstuffing of subplots that left me more confused than satisfied. The incarnation of Doomsday at the end felt more like a tag than an actual villain. While Snyder stayed true to the character, I couldn’t help but feel how unnecessary his presence seemed.

I suppose a kudos is due for finally giving Gal Gadot the time to shine as Wonder Woman towards the film’s climax, even if it felt a tad underutilized. As did Jeremy Irons as Alfred who has about ten minutes of screen time altogether. Snyder tries too hard to incorporate as many characters as he can to compensate for lost time, while also never knowing how to end the film. And when it finally does end it leaves us with a cliffhanger that will be enough to justify the next 10 installments.

Than I suppose you probably want to know about the ACTUAL showdown between our titular characters. Sadly, it too feels a bit anti-climatic, as opposed to the Dark Knight trilogy where the action built up to serve a purpose, here the action builds up to only “ok” payoffs.

But when the action is locked, loaded, and focused that is when BvS is something to witness, it’s the kind of moment when Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman are standing next to each other for the first time in cinema history is when I realized how much I truly loved these heroes.

All the lackluster build up and overstuffed nonsense aside, BvS still has some instances of pure gold that save it from being the next Green Lantern and proves to me that Justice League is not doomed after all, but it will need substantial planning in order to ensure greatness. After all, Synder should know that with great power comes great responsibility. B-