Eisenberg's portrayal of Lex Luthor has been described as unorthodox compared to most depictions of the character, with his performance in Batman v Superman receiving mixed reviews.

He writes that "The casting of Jesse Eisenberg, decidedly recalling his portrayal of Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg, updates Luthor as perhaps the first truly millennial movie villain: secular, arrogant, entitled, narcissistic, obsessive in his quest to tear down the values of the old guard.

While giving off a welcoming public image, Luthor secretly manipulates certain events such as hiring Russian mobster Anatoli Knyazev to plant evidence of Superman mass-murdering an African warlord's soldiers while the superhero rescues Lois Lane, leading to the Man of Steel coming under heavy scrutiny.

Senator June Finch and other government agents for an import license for the kryptonite and access to a Kryptonian scout ship left from the Battle of Metropolis.

Luthor is then arrested after implicitly communicating with Steppenwolf in the scout ship, then sent to Belle Reeve Penitentiary with his head shaven, unable to stand trial due to pleading not guilty by insanity.

Luthor appears in a slightly more extensive role in Zack Snyder's director's cut of the film compared to the theatrical version.

His escape from prison following Superman's resurrection is also shown in detail during the epilogue, as he finds a mentally insane inmate at Arkham to take his place while he implicitly slips out, with a guard discovering the farce during a roll call.

[b] Jesse Eisenberg appeared in-character as Lex Luthor in a Turkish Airlines advertising campaign aired during Super Bowl 50, in which he promotes flying to Metropolis in a tie-in to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

[16] In particular, Jesse Eisenberg's part as Lex Luthor in these commercials was praised, as Dirk Libbey of CinemaBlend noted that "he matches up well with Bruce Wayne by playing the welcoming billionaire business man.

[18] As a promotion of Zack Snyder's Justice League on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, talkshow host Stephen Colbert portrayed Luthor in a parody of the film's epilogue, with Luthor mistaking Deathstroke for Deadshot and Deadpool and breaking the fourth wall while attempting to explain issues with character licensing and continuity within the DCEU and other superhero franchises such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men film series, and Sony's Spider-Man Universe.

[6] His performance in Batman v Superman received mostly negative reviews along with the film itself,[20] later earning him the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor.

[22] However, in a retrospective, more positive review of the film in 2020, Travis Bean of Forbes wrote that Eisenberg's performance, which he described as essentially a "wicked, delirious version of Facebook's founder," was "misunderstood" by the majority of audiences when first seen in 2016, and that in 2020, Eisenberg's "fascinating take on DC universe’s most heinous, destructive villain would be incredibly relevant to our current volatile political climate.

"[14] Renaldo Matadeen of CBR.com revisited Eisenberg's casting as Luthor after viewing the actor's performance in Vivarium and gained an appreciation for what Zack Snyder saw in him.

"[23] The plot description and characterization were adapted from Lex Luthor at the DC Extended Universe Wiki, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license.