It is rare I get a chance to see a film in theaters and even rarer -bordering on the unheard of- for me to see a film twice while it is in theaters yet that is what happened yesterday with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS from now on).

Since the film’s release only a few short weeks ago, a curious thing’s happened: There are many who appear to be taking this movie mighty personally.

When the movie neared release, I saw plenty of people already gearing up toward disliking the film.  As I mentioned before, many had good reason: They looked at director Zach Snyder’s track record of films (including Man of Steel, the film BvS is a sequel to), and didn’t like his work and therefore were sure or at least suspected strongly this work wouldn’t do it for them.  When the film was released, the critical reaction was incredibly negative and the Rottentomatoes.com rating remains at a genuinely terrible 28% favorable among critics.

And yet…

The film is a box office hit (not that this was ever an indicator of movie greatness) and I suspect there were many like me who went to see the film, looked at those reviews and the very negative statements coming from others, and couldn’t help but scratch our heads and wonder if these negative reactions were exaggerated.

Of late, these negative views have moved from trashing the movie to finding any way at all of dismissing it…including attacking its massive box office numbers.

Take for instance the headline on this article presented in Inquisitr which was posted approximately 13 hours ago (4/17/16):

Batman V Superman Just Missed Another Embarrassing Target

The focus of the article is that Deadpool, another superhero film, may wind up beating BvS in terms of domestic box office take.  The author of the piece, Aric Mitchell, sounds positively giddy in reporting on the film’s “disappointing” and “embarrassing” U.S. box office.  This is true yet the bottom line is that BvS’ global take is higher than Deapool’s by (as of this writing) nearly 50 million dollars.  Is there anything positive for the author to state?  Well, midway through the article he notes:

All that said, however, the film (BvS) is unlikely to lose money.

O…kay?  I mean, both Deadpool and BvS are big box office hits and both are making obscene amounts of money.  Yet because BvS may not quite make as much domestically as Deadpool this counts as an “embarrassment”?!  By this logic I suppose  the makers of Citizen Kane should be embarrassed by the fact that all these damn superhero movies are drawing more than it did in its day.

Elsewhere, on a webpage devoted to one of the bigger names in the comic book industry, someone (I’ll keep their name anonymous as I’m more interested in the message presented) posted the following regarding BvS:

The supporters of this movie must have biceps like watermelons for all the water they choose to carry for it.

Really?  Because someone likes a film another doesn’t, it somehow reflects badly on the one who liked it?  Am I therefore some kind of phony and am simply defending the indefensible?  Or could it be that I happened to find enjoyment in something which some others did not and we have a simple difference of opinions?  Is that so unheard of?

As I said above, I get the feeling this difference in opinions has become personal.

When I originally saw BvS a few weeks back (you can read my original review here), I was hoping for the best but, based on those early reviews, expecting the worst.

What I found was a surprisingly ambitious film that juggled many concepts and ideas at once.  While it faltered at times, I found BvS, overall, a terrific product.  Mind you, it is a superhero film devoted to mature audiences (this is probably one source of the gnashing of so many teeth as there are many who wanted an “all ages” film) and I suspect the upcoming Director’s Cut of it, rumored to be a little over three hours long vs. the theatrical version’s 2 and 1/2 hours, will wind up being better overall.

Still, having now seen the film a second time (This time in 3D), I still can’t understand where all the hatred comes from.

First thing’s first, however: Was it worth seeing the film in 3D versus the original 2D I saw it in?  Not really.  The 3D effects were interesting but hardly earth shattering.  Seeing the film “flat” is fine.

Now, to the film itself: As I said, I still think its terrific, though I will acknowledge a few issues.

To begin, I’m still unclear about the whole Superman attack on the terrorist camp bit.  As presented in the theatrical cut of the film, Lex Luthor’s henchmen use special bullets to kill the villagers/terrorists and one of the bullets gets lodged in Lois Lane’s notebook.

The villagers’ deaths are blamed on Superman and this somehow was because of these special bullets but, as I just stated, I’m not quite getting why this is the case.

Perhaps in the Director’s Cut this is explained a little better but all I can do is suspect and theorize the bullets disintegrated when they hit human flesh (they are super-sophisticated bullets) and the kill wounds therefore looked like they came from Superman’s heat vision.  This is why Lois Lane winds up with the only bullet from this massacre as it didn’t hit anyone before getting stuck in her notebook.

This, admittedly, is pure guesswork on my part and the film obviously should not have the audience guessing the significance of this.  The theatrical cut of the film simply doesn’t explain this very well and my hope is the Director’s Cut clarifies this issue.  Regardless, it wasn’t a “make or break” type thing for me.

Later Batman has his “Apocalypse”-type dream and, at least in this theatrical cut of the film, I felt it was ultimately unnecessary and probably should have been left out.  I suspect it was left in because it was a well done bit and hinted strongly at Darkseid’s coming, which is one of the major subtexts of this film.

Finally, there were those who found the whole “Lois Lane dumps the spear then goes back to get it” kinda silly but on second view I realized this sequence evoked a very similar sequence found in the climax of the film Excalibur (you think the marquee boasting the coming of Excalibur at the beginning of the film and during the Batman origin re-telling was purely there “just because”?!).  The sequence also played out as a nod to Richard Donner’s Superman film as well.  So while it was odd to me when I first saw the film it didn’t bother me quite as much on second viewing.

Anyway, those three issues were minor compared to the things I really liked about the film:

Superman’s ambivalence about his place in this world and the fact that some view him as a savior while others view him as a destroyer.  He is genuinely torn because at heart he’s a good person who tries to do good but realizes sometimes doing good has unintended consequences (this is obviously a shout-back to what occurred at the end of Man of Steel).

After all these years and after all the different incarnations, it was a surprise and delight the way the filmmakers dealt with the character of Batman/Bruce Wayne.  This was an original take on the character even as it used -and did not ignore- his previous history.  Here we have someone whose world-view has radically changed.  His anger and sense of outrage were inflamed by the events of Man of Steel (we witness that film’s conclusion through the eyes of Bruce Wayne in one of the film’s standout sequences) and this has changed him for the worse.  Batman is singularly focused on destroying Superman, who he views as a danger to mankind, and this singularity in focus makes him fall prey to being used by others…

…which brings us to Lex Luthor.  Many didn’t like the character as portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg but I liked it.  Behind the character’s oddity is a darkness and, like Batman, a singularity of purpose as well.  Only Lex Luthor is revealed to be smarter than Batman/Bruce Wayne as he is able to finesse situations around him to get the two to fight.  At the end of the film, when he hints at the coming of Darkseid, it was a chilling and sobering scene.

Wonder Woman’s appearances were delightful and just long enough to add that little extra something to the film.  If they had devoted more time to her it might have detracted from the story being told.

So, overall, I still like BvS.  The film was ambitious, surprisingly deep, and hardly the flop so many seem to want to make it to be.  I remain interested in seeing the Director’s Cut.