As Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” opens, we are treated to the back story of young Bruce Wayne, cutting rapidly back and forth between the death of his parents and the seeds of his future persona, setting the dark tone that will persist throughout the rest of the film…

Actually, scratch that. About five minutes into “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” an older Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) witnesses a massive battle between Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod (Michael Shannon) that leaves a massive wake of destruction in its path. Bruce watches as many civilians die in the process, setting the gritty, action-packed tone that will persist throughout the rest of the…

Nope, hold on. Ten or fifteen minutes into the film, we cut to eighteen months after the battle with Zod. Reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is taken hostage by a terrorist organization in a vaguely Middle Eastern setting, and after Superman comes to save her and is framed for more casualties, Washington, Metropolis and Gotham City begin to question what limits should be placed on Superman’s powers, setting up political undertones that will… You get the idea.

Herein lies my biggest issue with “Batman v Superman”: For all of the themes and ideas it is trying to convey within its two and a half hour runtime, the narrative itself is running in so many different directions that it never figures out exactly what it’s trying to be.

The first two thirds or so of this film is a textbook example of how editing can turn what could have been an okay film into a subpar one. Given that this film is a sequel to Snyder’s “Man of Steel” (2013) where Superman’s character had already been largely set up, the first third is mostly dedicated to setting up Batman’s character (for those who may still be confused, this film largely ignores Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy in terms of story). I feel that this maybe could have worked, but when the film is also trying to juggle setting up Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) as the villain, the politics behind Superman’s powers, the reason for Superman and Batman to fight in the end, and introducing characters for a sequel, it seems that no one plot thread ever really gets interesting before it’s interrupted by something else.

Between all of that, the film struggles to make time for action sequences prior to the third act. Most of the early fights lack tension due to hasty set ups or being dream sequences; all in all, it felt like the creative team saying, “Let’s stick an action sequence here, the audience might get bored!” A noble thought, perhaps, but not effective.

By the time the third act rolls around, I could feel the team behind this film making a one final push to grab the audience; unfortunately, it didn’t feel successful. After an overall disappointing battle between the film’s namesakes, Batman and Superman unite to take down Lex Luthor and his CGI monstrosity, Doomsday. While there are some great moments during these final battles, much of the fun is dampened by the sweeping CGI and grayed, muddy aesthetic. I understand that much of these scenes couldn’t be done without CGI, and the scenery is meant to hold up the apocalyptic tone, but that doesn’t necessarily make it greatly entertaining.

What this film really needed was two great actors at the helm portraying Batman and Superman, and although I really wanted to like them both, Affleck and Cavill only deliver decent performances at best. This isn’t to say they are terrible as their respective characters; both certainly look the part and get the general idea behind each hero right, but neither necessarily reaches the levels of charisma or strength that previous actors have brought to these roles. Despite this, I have to give Affleck credit in particular for putting on his best face for Batman despite Cavill having a full movie behind him in his role.

The cast as a whole, however, is mostly solid. Amy Adams plays a great Lois Lane and I’m very happy with the amount of screen time she received. Laurence Fishburne and Jeremy Irons also give entertaining performances as Daily Planet editor Perry White and Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred respectively; the same goes for Gal Gadot who, without spoiling anything, proved to be a strong choice for her character near the end of the film. The one choice for the main cast I could not side with was Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor; although I’ve liked his performances fine in the past, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was doing a subpar imitation of Heath Ledger’s Joker throughout most of the film. Whether that is on him or the director is beyond my knowledge.

I really do admire some of the choices made in this film. The cast is mostly fine, the score is solid, the cinematography is overall pretty stellar, and I do appreciate that Snyder and his creative team has put a lot of effort into creating a dark, serious tone that tries hard to examine the more human aspects of superheroes and their culture. This is not “The Avengers,” nor should anyone expect it to be given how Marvel has pushed the more comic book elements of their films and characters compared to DC.

Still, I am left wondering what “Batman v Superman” could have been had it been willing to have a little more fun with itself. Most of the political talk of Superman is dropped by the film’s third act anyway, and since we are dealing with a spandex wearing super-alien and a filthy rich vigilante dressed up as a bat at the end of the day, I can’t help but feel that this battle of the egos missed some fun opportunities given the audience’s established suspension of disbelief.

On the other hand, this film could have gone even more intense and dark. I know that Snyder had taken some inspiration from Christopher Nolan, but had he gone all the way with his darker tone, I wonder if this film could have been as gritty and brutal as “The Dark Knight” (2008). Regardless, “Batman v Superman” lies somewhere in between, and without a focused narrative or particularly strong leads to carry the weight of its concept, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what DC has in store for the future of its properties. I’ll be waiting for you, Justice League.