I think you all need to chill if I'm honest. Too many of you take these reviews far too seriously. I think these issues are amplified now due to meme and nerd culture as well as social media, but critics aren't an infallible entity. If anything, the quality of the average critic today is worse than it used to be. That tends to happen when there are simply a lot more of them, and all try to make their voices heard. And even back in the day, classics like Predator, The Thing, Godzilla, Scrooged, and Vertigo were all met with critical disdain when they released. There are likely many more I've forgotten due to age. Now, I certainly don't think BvS is going to be a classic (there are about five movies in this entire genre that will stand the test of time with three likely being Nolan's), but it's far from being a bad movie, and you all need to detach yourselves a little from this all. All that should matter to you is if you enjoyed the movie or not. If you didn't, then feel free to destroy. The critics are just expressing their feelings along those same lines.
The only time reviews matter are when they affect the bottom line. In this case, I think BvS is bound to be affected to some extent. Marketing is all about influencing people (and it does work on everyone without exception so folks shouldn't look down on the general audience because we're all part of it), and social media today means negative buzz can spread pretty quickly before general audiences get the chance to really make up their mind themselves. However, it shouldn't hurt the movie enough to stop it from being a financial success. It's opening pretty strong internationally at the moment, but by Monday, it'll be pretty easy to tell if it's on lock for a billion worldwide. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things if it clears that, as long as Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman also do over $500 million each when they release. It'll be important for those movies to recover some momentum critically so social media and comic nerds buzz can be taken advantage of in the future. You don't want to be fighting against parts of the tide. It's better to just absorb it all.
I think Zack Snyder is just one of those directors who critics simply don't like. His movies seem to fare well with audiences in general, but I don't think his overly ambitious yet clunky style is going to do him any favors anytime soon critically. His movies always contain flaws, and critics clearly aren't ready to be forgiving with him.
Having said that, this is a rare instance where we can see just how much social media and negative critical reception can affect a tentpole movie like this. Man of Steel has been divisive amongst comic fans, although other indicators would show that it did well in general, but three years of negativity and caution amongst that audience has now exploded in the worst way possible with this critical lashing. So, it's really interesting to see what happens next. No brand is infallible, and Batman, just like Star Wars and Spider-Man, has fallen before, but we've never had a situation like this before. You're talking three years of concern, and three years of the elitists and diehards being negative, but that has been rewarded. I don't remember another scenario quite like this, and with such a big movie.
If this movie ends up having decent legs, and passes the $1.2 billion mark (which is the barrier I feel it needs to go beyond for me to consider it a good financial result when looking at the Batman brand), the dissonance on display between the general audience and critics is going to be another one of those Predator moments.
