Back in November (right here), I talked about how casting can count for so much in a comic book movie, how it really helps when you have actors who look the part when a movie is based on another visual medium like comics. Well, after seeing Batman v Superman last weekend, I stand by my opinion on casting.

Now, if you’ve seen Man of Steel, you know that Henry Cavill made a good Superman. Regardless of how flawed (and untrue to the character) that movie was, Cavill has the chiseled jaw and dark good looks that make you think, yeah, he is Superman.

I’ll admit that when Ben Affleck was announced as Batman for this movie, I was highly skeptical (ok, I was pretty much in the hater camp). But my feelings about his casting mellowed a bit as the months went on, images of the Bat-costumes were release, the trailer came out. I wasn’t entirely convinced he could pull it off (and yes, part of that was residual bitterness over Daredevil), but I was willing to give him a chance. And I have to say, Affleck did make a good Bruce Wayne in BvS. Unlike many others, though, I don’t think his Batman was all that impressive, especially when you look at the fight scenes and consider that it almost doesn’t matter who’s in the suit. Some portions of Bat-fights were CGI (in a couple of instances glaringly so) and the majority of the rest of them could have been stunt men and it would have made no difference – you couldn’t tell who was in the suit.

But then there’s Wonder Woman. From the beginning I’ve said this was the biggest casting mistake they made for this movie and I was right. Gal Gadot does not impress. Facially, she has the slightly exotic look you would expect for the character and she has the necessary long hair, but that’s where it ends. Physically, she is not believable as an Amazon warrior. Yes, we all know that Hollywood refuses to realizes there are actresses larger than a size 2, but there comes a point where it’s ridiculous. Gadot was just ok as Diana Prince – again, she had a bit of the look, but lacked the bearing of an Amazon Princess. She simply didn’t have the presence. And even though the Wonder Woman costume looked good and the fight scenes were ok, it simply wasn’t believable that this waif was as strong as the CGI was making her look. I am a Wonder Woman fan – it’s one of the few DC characters I follow – and I wanted to be excited when she showed up in BvS. But I wasn’t.

And Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Ok, the look of Lex is a little more open to interpretation because he has changed in the comics and cartoons over the years. But who thought it was a good idea to pair an older Batman with a younger Lex? Let’s just throw continuity right out the window! And though much of it was due to Eisenberg’s acting, there was no moment I thought that Lex was a highly intelligent, megalomaniacal, soon to be super villain.

So there you have it – some of the casting in BvS works and some of it doesn’t. That’s not the only problem with the movie, of course, but I’ll leave it at that for now.