Posted this in the local MN section, but thought I would share thoughts here as well. Go see it.
I went into this movie with pretty low expectations. but I liked it.
The Tone: Yes, it is dark and gray and rainy and serious throughout most of the film. They used slow motion walking or bullet casings falling to the ground to emphasize the seriousness, but it wasn't overdone in my opinion. It's just more serious than campy - a lot like the Nolan Batman films in that way. I'm sure they wanted to keep the tone from previous DC movies and differentiate from what Marvel is doing. But there were 2-3 funny lines in the movie as well that got smiles out of me.
The Characters: I like the casting for all the heroes. Had my doubts about Ben, but he pulled off a grim Batman really well. Gadot's Wonder Woman is awesome and I left wanting to know more about her character. Eisenberg's Luthor comes off as more of a combination of Lex and The Joker. I always envisioned Lex as a lot more like Tony Stark - super smart, super rich, super arrogant, super greedy. He's all that, but also completely mental. Its cool to find out how he is manipulating things, but feel like there should have been more of a clear motive behind his actions other than just messing with the heroes. Background characters like Lois, Alfred, Perry, Martha Kent were all great in their supporting roles.
The Storyline: Unlike Nick, I totally bought into why Clark and Bruce find themselves on opposing sides. Batman sees massive destruction from Superman's battles and is personally impacted by it. He is worried about anyone having that much power with no checks in place. He's a vigilante too, but innocents get killed in Superman's battles and he struggles to relate to that. As a reporter, Clark sees how vicious Batman is with the bad guys. His whole concept is striking fear into people, which is very alien (and wrong) for Supes. Great contrasting between the two philosophies right down to taking time to show Superman in love vs. Batman not even contemplating an heir to the Wayne estate. They pepper in Wonder Woman really well too - she's a smaller part of the overall story, but not forced in. It's a long movie (2.5 hours), but almost all of the scenes were worthwhile and contributed to the story.
The Action: Say whatever you want about all the other aspects of this movie - if you didn't like the fight scenes then you're a soulless hater who should be banned from ever seeing another action film. Every single fight scene was ridiculously fun. The Batmobile is kick butt awesome and Bats uses that bat-cable trick like he's Spiderman. The final brawl at the end is crazy good. I didn't understand everyone's power set, but they captured the slugfest/light show perfectly from wide shots to the close ups.
What could have been better: I really didn't care for Bruce's dream sequences. I get why they were included, and they were fun to see by themselves, but it really disrupts the flow of the movie. Lex is just weird as a bad guy. I would have liked a more polished, less crazy Luthor and more explanation for his motives. Maybe he's more of a lunatic in the comics - my interpretation of him is more like the Lex from Smallville. The Justice League setup is a little overdone. Can't say more without spoiling things, but the setup for another movie was a little more heavy handed than it needed to be. I would have liked a happier ending too.
Overall, I'd give this movie an 8 out of 10 after expecting about a 5. I will definitely see it again at some point. For those that care about the stats, its worth noting that while the Tomatometer is at just 33%, the 124,000 audience ratings have it at 79%. Don't wait around for the credits - there is no extra footage.
