I Hated Zack Snyder's Batman V Superman 10 Years Ago. Here's What I Think About It Now

"There was a time above, a time before. There were perfect things, diamond absolutes. But things fall, things on Earth. And what falls is fallen. In the dream, it took me to the light. A beautiful lie."

These are the opening lines of director Zack Snyder's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice." His superhero blockbuster literally begins with Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) reciting poetry over a "Batman's origin greatest hits" montage. 10 years later, I remain compelled by that choice. I'm also conflicted about much of what happens in the ensuing 2 hours and 31 minutes of Snyder's ever-divisive superhero epic.

Seeing "BvS" for the first time on opening weekend in March 2016, I walked out of the theater hating it passionately. Writing for /Film at the time, David Chen called Snyder's "Batman v Superman" a "gorgeous mess." That description remains amazingly apt. The difference (for me at least) is that this movie looks very different a decade removed. Time has been strangely kind to Snyder's wildly dark, uneven, visually impressive, overstuffed take on DC's heroes. A decade's worth of slowly diminishing returns in the realm of superhero cinema has painted this movie in a different light. 

2013's "Man of Steel" kicked off Snyder's vision for DC's messy cinematic universe. I was never a big Superman fan, but, messy or not, I loved the first two-thirds of "MoS." The third act isn't as great, but I bought what Snyder was selling. That made the opening minutes of "BvS" all the more intriguing.

The shift in the opening minutes to a street-level POV from Affleck's Bruce Wayne during the climax of "Man of Steel" is fascinating. All of the destruction in the name of heroism by Henry Cavill's Superman has a cost, a cost that impacts Bruce directly.

Zack Snyder offers us a unique way into this relationship. Save for the fundamental misunderstanding of Bruce Wayne's greatest tragedy, with Thomas Wayne (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) being a foolhardy tough guy defeating the impact of that death, the opening sucks you in. That little bit with Thomas Wayne is a precursor of things to come. For every great idea this movie has, there is an equally frustrating one.

Indeed, despite all of the controversy over Ben Affleck's casting as Batman, he commits to the role and is remarkably effective as the Caped Crusader in the film. It wasn't Affleck's choice to make the character murder happy. Affleck's choices? Chef's kiss. Not getting more of the actor in the cape and cowl, particularly in a solo movie, remains a profound missed opportunity. His performance stands out even more now than it did back then.

Snyder has never been one to do things the safe or obvious way. Superman killing Zod? Michael Shannon has defended the controversial death in "Man of Steel" personally. To this day, I still see that argument and understand the choice. Batman happily killing henchmen like they're NPCs in a video game? That, on the other hand, takes away one of the primary things that makes Batman interesting. If he's all too happy to kill, what's the point?

Henry Cavill, himself a great Superman who never got a great Superman movie, similarly never got "Man of Steel 2." In the case of "BvS," he kind of takes a backseat to Batman. Even so, building out the DC Extended Universe around these two iconic heroes being at odds with one another is bold.

Again, I'm taking the good with the bad here, including the destined-to-be-divisive choices.

"Batman v Superman" still feels bold now. Our entry point to the wider DCEU was through division. There's no other superhero movie quite like it, for better and for worse.

It's undeniably stylish even when it's maddening. Bruce Wayne running into the wreckage in the opening when everyone else is running away? That's powerful. Amy Adams' Lois Lane throwing the kryptonite spear into the water only to nearly drown retrieving it shortly after? Absurd.

Zack Snyder may have defended the now-infamous "Martha!" scene. I cannot. It f*****g sucks. But that leads to Ben Affleck kicking ass in that warehouse to save Ma Kent. It might be the greatest Batman sequence ever put to film. For every bad element, there is a good-if-not-great one. For every head scratching casting (Jessie Eisenberg as Lex Luthor), there's an inspired casting (Jeremy Irons as Alfred).

"BvS" still feels like an art film made by a guy who rides a dirt bike to work after drinking a Monster Energy drink. Snyder's vision is both serious as a heart attack and comic book-y. It makes sense that Snyder wanted to call the film "Son of Sun and Knight of Knight." The mystery box of it all doesn't fully make sense. Lex Luthor's plan is flawed at best. But there's imagery that sticks. It's visually grand.

For all of its many (many) perceivable faults, this movie has a clear vision. It doesn't feel like it was made on an assembly line with a different shade of paint. That's part of why it remains captivating, despite itself. I'm endlessly compelled by it. I am endlessly frustrated by it. There are movies I like far more that I've seen fewer times. There's something to be said about that.