The assignment is to pick a film to watch critically, analyze it without bashing.
Batman VS. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Critically this movie is panned hard, for taking itself too seriously and the tone being off. The film is both the Birth of a hero and this world's Superman and then the return of a vigilante the Batman. The films core conflict is between two men battling due to the manipulation by this secretive third party. The reason it does not work for me in this film is that it feels completely forced. There is so little authenticity and from being so drastically off from the source content's point of view. "The Dark Knight Returns" offers these two icons reason for their clashing ideology rather than being pawns moved toward and inevitable conflict.
The flaws of the film are in the storyline, visually it is full of both iconic recreation and interesting interpretation. However visually speaking the twin cities in the film Gotham and Metropolis lack distinct character of their own. They're intended to be foils of one another, light and dark. In the film there is no distinction between the two. The tone of the film is dark and has the stylized visuals Snyder cultivated in Watchmen and 300. What appears in the frame is well lit and each character has their own tone. One of the best things as a fan was to witness a Batman fight sequence that felt like he was in control no matter how many foes.
There are quite a few points in which the film feels forced. There are too many dream sequences; 3 for Batman and Superman gets his own all to foreshadow events to come for no reason at all. It seems as though they're grasping to create a bigger franchise as they are 11 years behind Marvel's cinematic universe. As for forced easter eggs: the perspective meta-humans to justice league members, all seem like nods for the sake of having them there. There are points when Superman lets men with heavy artillery to threaten the Batman. When you get to the actual fight the film's title is based upon there's so little to it. Ending anticlimactically and humorously with the "Martha" moment. The team-up immediately following the fight seems illogical as well.
When comparing this movie to 2008's The Dark Knight the pitfall is in the antagonist. Joker pushes Batman to become different versions of himself, taking him to places he's never thought of. There are too many antagonists, or rather proposed "villains" for this film to offer the weight it tries to carry. I could go on forever about the differences in Christopher Nolan's writing than what appeared in this film. I will always shell out my money for comic book movies, but it is my own hope to be a part of creating them.