Well done, as always.

Maybe that’s why I loved Batman v Superman.

I saw the film the other night and, while it’s not perfect, I absolutely loved it. I was literally excited when I left the theater. I told everyone that would listen that I loved it and thought it was for other reasons: I’m an Affleck fanatic; I was a big fan of the two comic storylines on which it was based — The Dark Knight Returns and another that includes a spoiler in the title; I loved the batcave and this version of Alfred. But the reasons you lay out probably play a much bigger role than I first realized.

I’m a realist bordering on pessimism and I can be a bit of a cynic, but even as a kid, I found Superman boring precisely because he was the boy scout that was squeaky clean and, moreover, he always won. There was nothing there. To me, Batman had more charisma and more fun while also having more difficulties and, frankly, failures. He was more complex, in both the comics and the excellent Batman: The Animated Series. (It’s for this same reason that when I was a WWF fan as a 7-year-old, I preferred the not-perfect Macho Man over Hulk Hogan, who also always won via the same tired tropes. I was a child and that still annoyed me.)

The last thing I — and apparently others — wanted was another version of the 1978 Superman: The Movie. Not only did they try that with Brandon Routh, but it just doesn’t work in today’s world. If a life form like Superman were to show up in real life today, there would be hearings and there would be someone — Elon Musk? Probably not—that would devote his time, brain, and resources to curtail him, if not actually kill him.

It’s not a happy film. And it’s clearly not what most critics wanted. But, weird as it is to say, this film spoke to me on many levels.