Movie · 2016 · Action, Adventure, Fantasy · 2h 32m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 0.7/10 (1.7M ratings)
The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world.
Overview
Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.
Ratings
Curator score: 0.7/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Letterboxd: 2.46/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 28%
Metacritic: 44
TMDB: 6.0/10
Director
Zack Snyder
Production
Warner Bros. Pictures, RatPac Entertainment, Atlas Entertainment, Cruel & Unusual Films, DC
Cast
Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Jesse Eisenberg, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, Tao Okamoto, Brandon Spink, Lauren Cohan, Alan D. Purwin, Mark Edward Taylor, Hugh Maguire, Michael Shannon, Hanna Dworkin, Tiffany L. Addison
Where to watch
TNT, TBS, tru TV, Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A grim, overstuffed superhero collision that swings hard for myth, politics, and operatic scale, but often buries its best ideas under murky plotting and self-serious excess. If you like deconstructive comic-book epics, striking imagery, and big swings more than clean storytelling, it has value; if you want buoyant action or character clarity, it’s a slog.
Best for
Viewers who enjoy dark, deconstructive superhero films
Fans of stylized, high-contrast blockbuster visuals
People interested in mythic, political takes on comic-book heroes
Audiences who don’t mind messy structure if the ambition is large
Skip if
You want a fun, breezy superhero adventure
You prefer tight plotting and clear motivations
You’re turned off by grim tone and heavy-handed symbolism
You dislike long runtimes and overloaded third acts
Overview
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is less a crossover event than a collision of anxieties: about power, celebrity, militarization, and what happens when icons become weapons. Zack Snyder stages it like a doom-laden myth, with cavernous spaces, apocalyptic imagery, and a constant sense that every gesture is being made under historical pressure. When it works, the movie feels weirdly serious in a way most superhero blockbusters avoid.
Worth noting
The problem is that the film keeps tripping over its own scale. It piles on dream sequences, conspiracies, and franchise setup until the central conflict gets buried beneath exposition and tonal whiplash. The title fight has real visual force, but the emotional logic is often blunt, and the movie’s fascination with grimness can make it feel more punishing than profound.
Bottom line
Still, there’s something compelling about how uncompromising it is. This is a blockbuster that would rather be accused of excess than of blandness, and its best images linger: gods framed like monuments, cities reduced to collateral, heroes treated as symbols before they’re people. It’s a flawed but distinctive studio epic, more interesting than it is satisfying.
Top Letterboxd reviews
davidehrlich (2.5★) · 2688 likes
DO YOU BLEED???????
[whispers in baby soft voice after Superman flies away] "you will."
uguuhhhhhhghghgh …i kinda liked it. at least until the fighting starts, and it becomes a three ring circus of shit.
the first half of this movie shows the best of what superhero movies could be, while the second half swan dives into the worst of what they so consistently are.
the rare superhero movie that even *attempts* to drum up real stakes, Snyder manages to get… more
russman (1.5★) · 2619 likes
I always scroll slowly through my emails one sentence at a time.
For dramatic effect.
Lucy (4★) · 2291 likes
it is honestly so hysterical to me that the entire movie is just batman and superman having an almighty pissing contest while wonder woman was minding her business the WHOLE TIME and at the end they've made a gigantic mess JUST because they don't like each other and everything is absolutely fucked and she finally has to step in like "OH For Fuck's Sake. These Fuckin' Dudes. Really guys? Seriously bros? Honestly Boys?" but she ZOOPS in anyways and helps their collective toddler asses Boy oh boy that's good
•lily• (1★) · 1962 likes
How the fuck do you make a film called batman vs superman boring
pd187 (1.5★) · 1581 likes
remember when everybody hated batman movies because the gay guy making them was having too much fun