10 Movies That Unexpectedly Confused Audiences

Batman v Superman is one of those movies which really just needed to deliver what was on the tin: two of the most iconic superheroes in history beating the ever-loving snot out of each other.

But Zack Snyder being Zack Snyder, he of course decided to turn a seemingly straight-forward grudge match for the ages into a shockingly convoluted, over-plotted 151-minute slog.

Though the movie's three-hour Ultimate Edition does clarify some of the nagging plot discrepancies, it doesn't really elaborate on Lex Luthor's (Jesse Eisenberg) nebulous motivations for making the heroes fight one another, nor the totally bungled execution of that infamous "Martha!" moment.

Given the appeal of the titular attraction, this is absolutely a film that didn't need dozens of characters and almost as many subplots.

All it needed was a setup, an end-of-first-act fight which Superman (Henry Cavill) won, an end-of-second-act fight which a more-prepared Batman (Ben Affleck) won, and then a third-act team-up against a bigger villain.

Instead it was obsessed with senate hearings, an offputtingly mopey Man of Steel, and being basically anything but the stripped down mano-y-mano superhero slugfest it should've been.