10 Movies That Peaked In Their Opening Scene

5. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

The Movie

Zack Snyder strikes again, this time with one of the most anticipated - and, ultimately, disappointing - movies of the last decade.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice arrived on a tidal wave of fan hype, aided by a (mostly) fantastic set of trailers, which promised one hell of an epic showdown between the Caped Crusader (Ben Affleck) and the Man of Steel (Henry Cavill).

Despite oodles of impressive style and a remarkable Affleck performance, though, BvS was a thoroughly sloppy mess of half-baked ideas, conflicting tones, nonsensical subplots and wonky CGI. The Ultimate Edition fixed some of these issues, but it's still an incredibly rough film.

The Opening Scene

Just like Watchmen, all of the film's promise is wrapped up in its opening sequence, which juxtaposes the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan) against Bruce's dream of him running away from his parents' funeral and discovering the Batcave.

It's beautifully shot - as you'd expect from Snyder - wonderfully scored and gives audiences the most ravishing rendition of the Waynes' deaths yet put to screen. And yet, the rest of the film's bloated run-time can't match the elemental power of these images ever again.

Even the titular throwdown between Bats and Supes is a weirdly forgettable damp squib, lasting barely five minutes and ending with, uh, that moment.

When your movie is 151 minutes long and is supposed to climax with an epic superhero showdown but reaches its artistic peak five minutes in, you know you screwed up.