Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice stars Henry Cavill and Amy Adams have defended the film after its critical mauling.

The superhero blockbuster is expected to top the box office chart after its Friday (25Mar16) release, but has received disappointing reviews, earning a woeful 30 percent score on review aggregation site Rottentomatoes.com.

On being told of the negative response to the film Henry says he believes fans will defy the critics and send a message to those who had slammed the film in print.

"What is really going to matter, I believe, is what the audience says," the Superman actor tells Yahoo! Movies. "Because they're the ones who are buying tickets, they're the ones who want to see more of this kind of story or not and so the audience's voice is loudest and after this weekend the audience, at least partly, will have spoken."

His co-star Amy Adams says that those thinking of watching the film should ignore the reviews and make their own mind up after seeing it in the cinema.

"I know that Zack (Snyder) doesn't make the movies - or none of us - are making the movies for the critics," she tells the website. "You can't go into it with that perspective. I know we really hope the fans like it and so far the reaction has been really positive on that front. If you're interested in a film you should see it and form your own opinion rather than just going on the word of somebody (else)."

The actors' performances have earned praise, but critics have slammed its director Zack Snyder for its inadequacies.

Robbie Collin of Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper slammed the film, writing, "No major blockbuster in years has been this incoherently structured, this seemingly uninterested in telling a story with clarity and purpose."

While Sky Movies reviewer Rich Phippen writes, "That Snyder has been given the keys to DC's cities is frightening. Unless he's willing to find a form of storytelling that doesn't involve throwing indestructible people into doomed buildings, it's hard to imagine Supes or Batman getting out of the rut he's bulldozed them into."

One of the film's stars who struggled to hide his disappointment at the news that the film was badly received was Ben Affleck, who responded to Henry's defense of the film only by saying, "I agree."

Despite the negativity surrounding the movie, Zack and his stars are scheduled to return with another installment in the DC Comics franchise, Justice League Part One, next year (17).