Starting with the good. Ben Affleck's performance. He played a great haunted Batman. I liked his chemistry with Irons. And when ever he was on screen he generally out acted and out classed them all with ease. He looked truly great in the Bat suit, although I thought he looked ridiculous in the dream sequence in a trenchcoat over the bat suit. Sometimes he suffered from 'teh puffy' look. But otherwise he was a feast for the eyes. His fight scenes were glorious. Truly like the Arkham games.
However his character is totally brought down by being a murderous swine of a Batman. What sticks in my throat even more is we are given no reason why he has become so murderous. Alfred hints that he wasn't always like this, or maybe he was just talking about things in general as the "It wasn't always like this" line is so vague. But either way it's a bastardization of Batman, and I hated every second of it. Made worse by the fact that nobody, not even Alfred, pulls him up on it. Making Alfred look as bad for letting it slide and still supporting a murderous vigilante.
Speaking of Alfred, Irons was solid, and had good chemistry with Affleck. But I never got that emotional bond feeling that you should get between Bruce and Alfred. They didn't feel close, or that they shared a personal connection or history. I'm not judging too harshly because hopefully it will be done more so in the Batman solo movie (if we get one).
Cavill's Superman in this is hands down the worst Superman we've had in the movies. Even Routh out classes him. He is a stoic character, who shows little emotional range other depression and self doubt. Cavill was so wooden in so many scenes, he failed to evoke any proper emotion in scenes that should have been emotion filled, and he was completed acted off the screen by Affleck. I feel like he had the same expression on his face for most of the movie. I don't entirely blame Cavill. The script and direction also share the blame for turning Superman into a wooden depressing bore.
Now for someone truly terrible in every way - Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. I say whole heartedly with no exaggeration that he is one of the worst CBM villains ever. He was a cartoonish caricature, with paper thin characterization, no clear motivation, and hammed up the movie as a truly annoying character. Why was he doing what he was doing? Why did he hate Superman so much? We get some fleeting mention of his dad hitting him, but it's never elaborated on. If you coughed you'd miss the line. He was always the worst part of the trailers for me, and people kept saying what we're seeing is just a facade act for his real menacing persona, but he was a cartoony ham all the way through.
The last scene with Batman is cringe worthy. The way he got his bald head was really anti climatic and dull. I haven't disliked a CBM villain this much since the trinity of woeful villains in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Now for the ladies. Amy Adams was decent. But somewhere between MOS and this what ever chemistry she and Cavill had fizzled out. I didn't feel much between them in this. Maybe it's because Cavill was so stoic and wooden this time around, but Amy was at least trying. But she can't achieve much when the effort was one way. I still really like her as Lois. Along with Affleck and Irons, she felt like she was actually giving a damn.
Gal Gadot was serviceable. The huge exaggeration about her scene stealing characterization is a classic example of fans totally over exaggerating something. Her entry into the movie saving Batman's butt was cool and all, she looked great in costume and kicked ass beautifully, but she was just an action piece. We learn almost nothing about her character, she has very little personality shown, and the bulk of her screen time is her being totally silent just observing stuff and looking hot. I'm sure she'll be a great Wonder Woman in her movie, but her presence here did not warrant the insane praise I've been reading about her.
Doomsday was one of the worst parts of the movie, and should never have been included. Half the time all I saw was electricity and fire and explosions around him, and I didn't know what the hell was going on. CGI characters were flying all over the place in CGI explosions.
It was also WAY too soon to do the death of Superman. Cavill's Superman has not earned that story yet. This is only his second outing, and there was just no emotional impact there, and I didn't believe the world grieving for him the way they did at the end. Only Lois and Martha's grief seemed in any way real.
Now regarding the actual Batman vs Superman conflict, it lasted all of what 7 minutes? They shared so little screen time together, most of it not even them in any conflict. The way it was resolved with the whole Martha thing was absolutely ridiculous. I thought people were half kidding when I read about it, and there was more to it than they were letting on. But no Batman ends the fight and sides with him just because Superman has a mother named Martha who was captured. Lazy and stupid writing wrapped into one. I don't know what they were smoking when they thought that was the way this epic showdown fans have been waiting years to see should end. Not enough face palms in the world to do it justice for how silly that was.
The amount of dream sequences in this was so frustrating and half the time I had no idea what was going on with them. The worst one had to be Batman's one in Mad Max land. Utterly pointless and a total WTF sequence.
The movie was choppy, rushed, badly edited and never gave the audience a chance to breathe and absorb the rapid succession of quick cutting scenes. I feel like it was several movies chopped into pieces and crammed sloppily into one. I hear there is an uncut version coming. There must be at least another 30 minutes of footage to add on.
The JL email cameos did nothing for me. I really didn't like how Flash looked. The fact Superman is still alive at the end makes all the dramatic stuff about his death seem totally pointless. At least the comics showed his loved ones and colleagues live without him, miss him, and mourn him for a long time before his eventual return. There was fall out and consequences explored there.