The summer movie season kicked off early this year as “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” opened on March 25. The movie is 2hrs 30min making it one of the longest superhero movies to date. The film was shot in Detroit and featured many landmarks such as the old Michigan Central Train Station and the Marathon oil refinery. The movie made $166 million dollars domestically and $420 million worldwide during its opening weekend, breaking box office records.

Batman, played by Ben Affleck, is older and more experienced than the Batman that many saw portrayed by Christian Bale in the Dark Knight trilogy. Henry Cavill’s Superman returns with director Zack Snyder from “Man of Steel.” This is the first time that fans will get to see Batman and Superman on the same movie screen together, while also getting to see the big screen debuts of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash, not to be confused with the Flash from the CW network’s TV show of the same name.

With so many characters in the movie, some wonder if DC should have taken the Marvel route and done the solo movies first so the fans could get to know and love the heroes instead of jumping straight into team up movies.

Israeli model turned actress, Gal Gadot, who was in the last two “Fast and the Furious” movies, has few lines but kick butt action sequences in anticipation for her solo movie as Wonder Woman, set to release this summer.

Henry Cavill plays Superman but falls short as Clark Kent. Amy Adams overshadows him as Lois Lane. In the only romantic sequence in the film, Lois and Clark are in their apartment bathroom, and Cavill’s Clark awkwardly kisses Lois in the bathtub.Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor is more of a nervous, maniacal version of the character than the witty version that Gene Hackman popularized in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies or the calm and calculating Kevin Spacey version in the 2006 “Superman Returns” reboot. In “Batman v. Superman,” the character development and storyline are clearly afterthoughts.

There is a lot going on in this movie, so it is not too much of a spoiler to tell viewers that Lex Luther is used to try to link all the pieces together. Batman is tricked by Lex Luther to think Superman and his alien race is a threat to the world. In a flashback, viewers see Wayne Tower crashing down in Metropolis in a cloud of ash, killing and wounding hundreds, clearly recalling video footage of the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Superman is characterized in Bruce Wayne’s flashback as the alien missile that caused this tragedy. The flashback is replaying a scene from “Man of Steel” where Superman was fighting General Zod from Krypton in order to save Earth from Zod’s evil plan. Apparently not knowing the backstory of the events that led up to the fight in “Man of Steel,” Batman is bent on fighting Superman and is tricked to steal Lex Luther’s kryptonite to use against Superman and make him “mortal.” Without his invincibility, Batman is able to fight Superman, and nearly kills Superman were it not for the fact that Clark Kent’s mom and Bruce Wayne’s mom shared the same name: Martha. This shows how convoluted the plot of the movie is as it tries to frame a reason for the Batman v. Superman cage match.With the negative reviews from many film critics, including Ben Kendrick of Screen Rant who sum’s it up best by saying, “Batman vs. Superman” is DC’s Iron Man 2 - an okay movie that prioritizes a shared universe set up over developing a coherent story and layered characters,” Warner Brothers is rumored to now be looking to move Zack Snyder off of the Justice League film that has been planned for a 2017 release.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, some sensuality.