The highly anticipated debut of Batman and Superman on the screen together battling it out has finally been released in theaters. Director Zack Snyder ("300," "Watchmen") joined the DC Universe with "Man of Steel" in 2013, which received mixed reviews. To put it in simple terms, "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice" was... Disappointing.

Here are some notes I took from the film:

First off, Ben Affleck was phenomenal as the Dark Knight. He really impressed me in this film. When he was initially cast to play Bruce Wayne/Batman, he never truly got the support behind him. After all, he is following up Christian Bale's rendition of the role from Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy. This is no easy task to follow up. Affleck did a great job of capturing the old, a bit worn out Bruce Wayne that was written for this role and I think he proved doubters wrong in the film big time.

As for Henry Cavill, who portrays Clark Kent/Superman, I am personally not a fan of him in this role. I think he was cast as The Man of Steel because of his looks. He looks like Superman. He doesn't impress me. I'm not necessarily saying he is bad but... He isn't good either. His acting in this film is a middle-of-the-pack portrayal of The Man of Tomorrow.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Lex Luthor and well... *sigh.* I gave him the initial chance when he was cast and I was wrong. I'll be the first to admit it. I'm not sure whether I should blame him or the writing team but the way he depicts Luthor is unimpressive and honestly, kind of annoying. It was poorly executed and the casting choice was substandard. Both Kevin Spacey and Bryan Cranston, two incredible actors, were considered for the part and I think either of them could have had a substantially better performance than Eisenberg. Go back to creating Facebook or whatever you did, Zuckerberg.

The actual plot has its moments, but looks eerily similar to a slice of swiss cheese. Plot holes throughout the entire film. Also, the amount of times I had to ask myself, "why?" was too many. The first hour or so of the film has zero linear story telling at all. Unless Zack Snyder was trying to recreate Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (which, let's be honest, is impossible), the first hour of the movie seemed unnecessary. It was all over the place. Here is a scene. Here is another scene. A scene here. A scene for everyone. Oprah could have had a field day with the amount of scenes she could just give away.

Each scene just jumps from one to the other. Basic storytelling tells us to use cause and effect. "This happens, therefore this happens, which causes this to happen...etc." After a bit and a specific scene, the story starts to become more clear and relatively watchable.

The following isn't necessarily a spoiler because it was in the trailer of the film, so I'm not counting it. If you weren't aware, I apologize.

Superman villain Doomsday appears late in the film and this is the point where we are supposed to see all of the heroes come together and fight. The birth of "The Justice League." Yippee! Exciting right? No. It's too forced and almost seems unnecessary. He just kind of shows up and Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman (who is also in the trailer) are all fighting together at last.

The fighting and framework that is within the movie is pretty rad. I will not cheat Zack Snyder out of credit for that. The man knows how to put together fighting sequences (See movie "300" and Gerard Butler's abs). Snyder can create beautiful looking pieces and set a scene to look phenomenal.

I know it seems like a lot to take in and I definitely do not want to scare anybody away from going and seeing the film. After talking it over with my group of friends who went to see it, we deemed it as a "guilty pleasure" flick. You know, those films that didn't necessarily do well with the critics and you wouldn't want to admit that you love the movie, but if it shows up on television you aren't going to change the channel. Those movies.

I give it the benefit of the doubt with them attempting to set up future Justice League movies and how well Ben Affleck performed. If they want the DC Universe to be successful, Affleck needs to be at the core of it all, whether it is writing/director or continuing as the role of Batman. It is a movie worth seeing at least once even if you are the slightest bit of a superhero movie fan at all.

Now, when does "Captain America: Civil War" come out?

My Rating: 6.5/10