Wow, even with all the bad reviews to prep, I'm still surprised by the bad choices in this movie. The overemphasis on universe-building (at one point during the film's action climax), thinking that characters learning information is story, the constant Plot Stuff, the daydreaming and nightmaring that grinds what story there is to a halt, and the film making the crucial, crucial error of thinking that Doomsday is interesting to watch.

Along the way, Snyder demonstrates, as always, that he has a painterly attention to crafting monumental images. There's a shot of Superman and Doomsday laser-eye-ing each other that, taken purely as a color-soaked tableau, actually earns a previous scene that dwelled on a fresco of angels and demons.

But goddamnit, he's not a natural storyteller at all, and - absent of strong material to work off of - he turns this movie into a self-obsessed punchathon, the same way he did with Man of Steel. And boy oh boy does he not believe in Superman as a character. That kind of person doesn't fit in his worldview, which is identical to the warden from Shutter Island: