By now, the term “cinematic universe” is as ubiquitous as “blockbuster movie.” We can thank Marvel Studios for that; Nick Fury showing up to recruit Tony Stark for the Avengers Initiative at the end of 2008’s Iron Man signalled that superhero stories on the big screen could be told like their comic book counterparts on the page. Long, interconnected stories became the rage after Marvel showed the industry the profit potential of having characters popping in and out of each other’s films, the way you might find the Human Torch making a cameo in a Spider-Man comic. 2012’s The Avengers was the culmination of five lead-up films in the burgeoning Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it created a future where anything from a comic would be possible on the big screen.

It also ignited a passion — or perhaps an obligation — for fans to follow every Marvel storyline in the films, even for characters who might not have been able to carry a solo movie in a pre-Avengers world. (Looking at you, Ant-Man.)

With fervor (and profits!) growing for Marvel Studios on the back of its interconnected storytelling, DC Entertainment wanted in on the cinematic universe game. It turned Zack Snyder’s tepidly successful 2013 movie Man of Steel ($670 million worldwide gross, 56% on Rotten Tomatoes) into a jumping-off point for its own cinematic universe by quickly following it up with Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 instead of a solo Superman sequel, which would have been the standard move for the pre-cinematic-universe days. While BvS performed well at the box office, the movie failed creatively: It failed its titular heroes, failed to be the bedrock of the DC Extended Universe, and failed to elevate DC to Marvel’s level on the silver screen. Marvel built up to The Avengers with films establishing four of the Avengers as potential heroic leads. DC tried to take a shortcut and microwave a cinematic universe into existence with Batman v Superman, and the result was an overcooked, overstuffed mess.

Batman v Superman begins by looking backward. We follow Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) navigating a crumbling Metropolis during the climactic battle between Superman and........

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