Pros:
- It swings for the fences, it doesn’t play it safe. It’s a massive tonal shift from the first film, and it’ll alienate some viewers because of that. The first one was an epic with some funny moments sprinkled in, this one is a saturday morning cartoon. And personally, I welcome that kind of bold, creative decision making. The plot feels like it comes out of a silly 80’s film, and it works because of the vibe of the film.
- It has a very unique way of testing its characters. It isn’t just a simple: here we have bad guy x, he has powerset y, we have to beat him. The conflict in this film is much more internal and character based than your normal superhero flick. You get some great character arcs because of that.
- The action sequences are fantastic. The opening sequence alone makes this worth a watch. Furthermore, there are some awe inspiring beats that Patty Jenkins nails.
- The villains are good characters, much better than the last film to say the least. Pedro Pascal is great. Kristin Wigg is good too, and gets to play a lot of different facets. I don’t agree with the assessment that she should’ve been cut (her motivation differs enough from Pedro Pascal’s character to justify her as a villain in this story).
- The filmmaking it just top notch all around. The visuals (Matthew Jensen deserves a lot more work) and score are terrific. I didn’t quite get Zimmer’s choice to play [spoiler] the BvS Batman theme during the climax [/spoiler], however.
- There is a sense of fun to it. Again, the 80’s references are extremely exaggerated, but it works because of the cartoony tone of the film.
- Chris Pine makes a welcome return.

Cons:
- Though I see improvements with every film she’s in, I still don’t think Gal Gadot’s a strong enough actress to carry a franchise. Her line delivery is very wooden for the most part. Zack Snyder fucked up DC films in many ways, but his legacy contribution has been casting actors who have a good screen presence (read: they’re hot), but lack in the acting department (Ben Affleck excluded). If you’re bringing Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and Henry Cavill to compete with the likes of Chadwick Boseman, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, RDJ and Scarlett Johansson, I question your decision making. Also, you’re putting needless pressure on good filmmakers like Patty Jenkins and James Wan to cast a very strong supporting cast in order to do the heavy lifting for their own films. If this film had a supporting cast with actors of the caliber of Gal Gadot, you’d end up with a B-film. Thankfully, it doesn’t.
- The way they force the invisible jet and golden eagle armour into the plot feels lazy, and creates some continuity questions for the first film.
- It doesn’t have major pacing problems, but it’s a little too long.
- Some CGI issues.
- Minor point: I don’t like how unsubtle the message of the film is spelled out during the opening scene. It makes the film way more predictable than it should be.

7/10