"Batman v Superman" reviews have been anything but great. Critics have been pretty uniform in pointing the finger at director Zack Snyder as part of the film's problem.
The key recurring criticism of "Batman v Superman" is that the story is heavy-handed, confusing, and detracts from the action. Independent, Slashfilm, Examiner and Gizmodo have all uniformly branded the film "convoluted." And while the director certainly has a distinct and typically well-received visual style, words like "convoluted" and "confusing" reoccur in reviews of nearly every film Zack Snyder has ever directed.
"Sucker Punch," for example, was a 2011 film about a young girl sent to an insane asylum. To escape, she creates a series of dream realities in which she and her friends become zombie slayers, samurai, World War II soldiers, and, oddly enough, exotic dancers. ScreenRant called the film a "confused mish-mash of fantasy set pieces retro-fitted with a convoluted narrative."
"Man of Steel," which introduced us to Henry Cavill's Superman, was similarly criticized for its heavy-handedness. NYDailyNews references more "convoluted events" in the plot and NYMag writer Matt Zoller Seitz called the film a "convoluted and violent" retelling of Kal-El's origins.
"Watchmen," the adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel, received an overall warmer reception, but the convolution remains. Both MovieGuide and New Republic deemed it "convoluted." Wall Street Journal called all the heavy-handedness in the story a type of "psychic suffocation," with USA Today calling the plot "pretentious and overheated."
Critics hypothesize Snyder's mixing of ideological conversations into action movies is an attempt to one-up Christopher Nolan, the director behind the acclaimed "The Dark Knight" trilogy. The Atlantic even went so far as to call "Man of Steel" the "The Dark Knight-ification of Superman." The official New York Times review of "Batman v Superman" also questions if Snyder is trying to emulate Nolan.
Snyder certainly has big, bold ideas about things like morality, divinity, and humanity, but critics are routinely disappointed with how he clunkily executes them within big budget films.
Snyder is signed on to direct the upcoming "Justice League" films, but Warner Bros. has to be listening to the criticism of "Batman v Superman." What really matters is how the film does at the box office. Right now, it's on track for a $180 million opening weekend.
