After Man of Steel's building-destroying fights between Zod and Superman, this film delves into the aftermath of that destruction, the victims and survivors left to put pieces back into place in their lives. With Lex Luther's aid, their wrath is heightened and the city takes the alien to court.

A government that needs to control everything wants to reign in Superman's boundless humanity by deciding where he can use his powers for good or bad! But a dastardly plan by Lex turns Superman into a villain. Meanwhile, in Gotham, Batman prepares to punish the caped flying danger to mankind by using a piece of Krypton as a weapon.

In his search for a way to subdue his foe, Bruce finds compelling information that there are more metahumans living amongst them, and Diane Prince become his first recruit, or at least he tries.

The story is solidly told, with enough exposition to draw deep lines in the separation of good and evil, and enough grey area to make our heroes combat each other- hard! With Lex's creation, called Doomsday, the three heroes must unite to stop the beast, and one will sacrifice themselves with death to save everybody.

Snyder's dark take on the Dawn of the Justice League assumes we know both Batman and Superman's backstories and that we've seen the recently released Wonder Woman film. Even Alfred reminds viewers Wayne has been fighting evil for 20 years, and a graffiti covered batsuit tells us the Joker has had his day as well. And Batman's vigilante justice is cruel and final in this movie, even if the jail murders aren't by his hand (Lex may play a part)!

This shorthand serves to focus more on the story at hand. The way public opinion is easily swayed. How a hero can be painted evil by a stroke of fate. And how a simple conversation can dispel the deepest of hate towards enemies at war by finding a common bond, as Bruce and Clark do at a critical juncture.

Some hints at the upcoming Justice League film scattered throughout, but mostly for Zack's cut, like future Flash's warning.

On first viewing when it came out, even though my inner fanboy loved it, I did feel it was a bit over the top and fragmented, but seeing again after watching Zack's Justice League put it in a whole new positive light! A visionary filmaker gave us three masterpiece films unappreciated until all three have been watched! Brilliant!

No idea why this page still has such bad reviews, even after we have the extended cut. The theatrical cut really doesn't do it justice. Absolutely loved the movie, beautiful cinema!

Both time, re-analyzation and the release of the extended cut have shown that this movie was underrated at the time of its release.

Zack Snyder attempts to tell a deep and unique story here. In hindsight, the theatrical release seemed to have been cut down for general audiences and unfortunately, elucidating scenes went with it. This is a story of a disillusioned and hurting Batman who is on the path to villainy before ironically discovering renewed hope and faith through trying to take on the one person his rage is pointed to - Superman. I think the Martha scene is fundamentally misunderstood and so much more poignant than it gets credit for: a mirror is held up to Batman and he finally realizes what Alfred had been trying to tell him - that he has become the type of person he originally swore to bring to justice.

While I do agree that the script could have been rewritten slightly to make the interactions and motives between the characters a bit clearer, it is ultimately a very unique, refreshingly dark story grounded in hope and sets the stage for what was to come.

Lastly, the marketing for this movie was so spoilery! Had Wonder Woman's arrival in the final fight been kept out of the trailers (for example),the moment upon first viewing would have been EPIC. General message to marketers: learn to tease better.