One of my all time favourite moments of film was watching Superman rescue Lois Lane for the first time in the 1978 Superman. I was about 4 years old I think, watching it then in 1989 at home. It was in this scene Superman finally reveals himself to the world “look up there!” the people of Metropolis shout up as he catches Lois mid fall and then the crashing helicopter. In mere minutes the world has been gifted a hero and they cheer him on. There is no fear because immediately they are shown he has come to help them.
For me this is definitive Superman. A man who is an alien to this world, with his own home long gone and no one he can relate to, but a man who was raised by the best in humanity. He’s someone who wants to help not because he can but because he wants to.

This is not a complicated thing to do if you wish to make any subsequent films on the character but it seems this is difficult for director Zach Synder of the Man of Steel and Batman V Superman films. Synder prefers to make films about a dour, almost depressed Superman who for a good portion of Man of Steel avoids being the hero and symbol of hope the world need. When he finally does decide  to reveal himself collateral damage is never his concern.
There have been many complaints that in MoS the battles Superman takes on result in innocent lives being lost. The defence is usually “but he needed to stop the threat no matter what” and this irks me for a very simple reason. He is Superman. He can travel faster than sound itself. To him time moves slower than you can imagine. So when numerous civilians need to be saved from falling buildings, trust me he’s up to the task.

To counter these complaints the whole plot of BvS is based on this. We are introduced to a world 18 months later who mostly fear Superman (thanks to the numerous think pieces the film shows on tv). So instead of the symbol of hope for humanity we have the people asking for him to be regulated. This plot point is backed up with Batman’s fear of Superman and what he could do if left unchecked. And this “plot” is the majority of the film.
I won’t run down the details of the plot because I honestly can’t put its stupidity into words, besides it would only spoil the “fun”. But suffice it to say nearly every character is barely acting anything like their comic book counterpart. Especially our main “heroes”.
The Batman we get (while very impressive in his fight scenes) is fuelled by fear of the unknown. I don’t want to sound too fanboy here but Batman fears nothing. He is the fear. There is a particular thing they do with the character that is so insane, so blood boiling maddening that I could go on for a paragraph on but it would step into spoilers for those who care.
Superman is a depressed hero who lets negative press get to him. In several scenes where moments of peril for innocents are being hinted by a mile off to us audience he does nothing when disaster strikes. Read back to my note that Superman is.. you know really fast.
I think there is an attempt at creating a realistic Superman film with MoS and BvS. How would the world react right now if it happened. And to a degree that is an interesting idea. But that’s all it is, an idea. Because the better film to make is an actual heroic Superman film not some think piece of which the director and writer do not have anywhere near enough skill to accomplish.

There is also of course the attempt at setting up the expanded universe of the Justice League with the subtly of a hammer to the face. What I imagine has happened is for the past few years Warner Bros have been watching Disney Marvel getting all that comic book movie money and they want that too but they want it all right now. They don’t want to wait, they’re Warner Bros, they want it now.
Remember back to Iron Man in 2008. It was just an Iron Man movie, great trailer, great character and which in turn was a great film. But then you heard that there was a scene after the credits, new idea at the time. The scene was Nick Fury saying to Tony Stark “… I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative” That’s all it was. It was enough for the audience (in the know) to collectively go “oh dayum”. It wasn’t forced into the main film as a plot point and for the rest of the standalone Marvel films that’s what we continued to get, teases that built on each other until it cumulated in The Avengers. It was earned, it was done with skill.
BvS has no patience, they need to get Justice League cameos out of the way right now because that Justice League film is coming in two years.

It’s this lack of respect, subtly or elegance with the source material that angers the most. It’s bad enough to change major elements to the characters but to put them into film this boring is borderline unforgivable. And boring it is. If you’re turning up for the big fight advertised on the posters, trailers, toys, lunch boxes, then turn up 2 hours 20 later into it’s bloated 2 hours 30 run time. Nothing of genuine interest happens before that. Trust me.
From a film making point of view it is almost annoying to watch. The film cuts to scenes so frantically, so often and always with no effort in set up it starts to dizzy you. There’s a very simple thing you need to do in making a film, have an establishing shot and/or have a piece of dialogue in the previous scene to link to the next shot. In almost every case in BvS this isn’t done. All I can think of what happened here is Synder gave his editor the 3 hour cut and said it needed to be 2 hrs 30 by tomorrow. The result of this hacked edit is a film with such random narration and frankly odd flow to it.

To wrap up I’ll lament on the last great Superman film that unfortunately a lot of people didn’t like too much. It was Bryan Singer’s 2006 Superman Returns. Considered to be a “love letter” to Donner’s 1979 Superman and it was in my humble opinion.. perfection.
This was a direct sequel to Superman 2 where he’s left Earth for a while and the world had to find a way to move on without him. A heartbroken and angry Lois Lane writes a Pulitzer Prize winning article “Why the world doesn’t need Superman” and she too moves on personally. When Superman finally does return he for a brief moment takes the article to heart thinking he isn’t needed anymore. Disaster strikes of course and he realises he has to step up again and we’re treated to a moment that echoes that first rescue in 1978 Superman. The people look up. They cheer. “Superman Returns”

That film gave us the hero we knew but added its own layers. The loneliness of Superman was touched on but never so much that made him into some sort of depressed hero. It had ideas on what he thought his legacy would be and of the upmost importance it was fun.
BvS is not a fun film. It is the result of people thinking they know better with the comic book material and having little to no idea on how to construct what actually should be an easy story to write. It is bogged down by its own depression.
It made me angry to watch. And tired.

So instead, watch the Superman Returns plane rescue again. Feel the goosebumps and excitement again. And smile.