So, I had little else to do today and I was curious. The 3 hour Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition was for sale via FIOS On-Demand and I bought it and watched it.
The additions DO help. They don’t do anything to make Eisenberg’s portrayal of Lex Luthor less fingernails-on-a-chalkboard grating, but they do help to flesh out Clark Kent. Just a couple extended scenes, but they work to make Clark less grim and bitter. Also, the pacing seems better than I remember from the theatrical version. The cuts between scenes are still as jarring but at least the movie was a bit more enjoyable than it was in theaters. Still no better than a 7 out of 10, but that’s a number grade better than I had it before.
BTW the warehouse fight scene when Batman rescues Martha Kent is even more brutal. I loved that fight.
That is good to hear. As I wrote in the original thread, I liked the movie. In some ways I will even say I enjoyed it more than Civil War (which I also liked, I will hastily add before I get hung). I am wondering if it will hold up on a second viewing (waiting for the Blu Ray release for that).
Snyder’s version of Superman still stinks but it feels like he is trying to fix it. Sounds like the new added scenes are a part of that effort.
General consensus seems to be that this cut is actually a decent to good movie.
That, if you hated the ‘tone’ of the theatrical version, you’ll still likely hate this, but if you hated the storytelling, you’ll be satisfied by this version.
Horses for courses, but even with the Ultimate Cut, I liked Civil War a LOT better. I saw it in theaters three times and I’ll watch it on TV probably as many times as I have watched Avengers or Winter Soldier.
Haven’t seen the theatrical version so I can’t compare, but I thought the extended version is just ok. I liked the first half. Dealing with the aftermath of the first film and the questions of Superman’s duties to humanity was pretty interesting. I also liked the small moments of intimacy between Clark and Lois. Affleck and Irons where pretty good as Batman and Alfred. I got an old married couple vibe from them that I found amusing.
The second half is pretty bad. Lex’s plan made little sense and hinged on everybody acting stupid. Batman’s motivation to fight was really odd seeing as I got the impression he kinda already had evidence of wrongdoing by Lex, or something.
Wonder woman didn’t really belong in the movie, though I did enjoy her banter with Bruce Wayne. The sequelbait was really clumsy an should have been left out.
The movie had a real vague sense of place, if that makes sense. Both Gotham and Metropolis were kinda indistinguishable. I had a hard time figuring out where some scenes were happening. As far as I can tell the final fight was in Metropolis, but why is the bat signal there? Did Bruce transport it from Gotham? Why are there totally empty dilapidated city blocks in Metropolis? That’s more of a Gotham thing. Everything’s so dark and dreary you have no sense of geography. We’re fighting on a deserted island all of the sudden. No, wait, we’re back in Metropolis now, apparently. But not to worry, there’s no people there, a nameless aide to the president so helpfully informed us.
Was the two fat guys, who looked like construction workers, making out in the theatrical version? In the scene where Clark’s on a ferry there’s two guys casually making out behind him.
I watched the Ultimate Edition and did not see the theatrical version.
This movie was terrible. Half the time I kept thinking, wtf am I watching, none of this shit makes sense. There is no sense of motivations of the characters. And when they do act, they act in incredibly stupid ways. I think Snyder actually hates the characters upon which his movie is based.
That, and clocking in at 3 hours I kept wondering when it would get going but really even the action sequences were boring because there were no stakes. That and the movie kept going on and on. And kept going. And then kept going some more. The ending was so stretched out I can’t imagine what the hell the point was. The de nu mah happens, then there is 20 min more of footage that is pointless.
Totally disagree.
Civil War made me feel a hell of a lot more than BvS. The only thing I felt about BvS in the theater was emptiness and futility. The UC is better about that, but I still care about the characters in Civil War 100 times more than anyone in BvS.
I have not yet seen the Ultimate Edition either, I’m waiting for the BluRay, but this is pretty much how I felt as well. I really enjoyed Civil War, probably my third or fourth favorite Marvel film, and as great as the action was, it had no stakes because they were pulling their punches for each other, the villain’s plot made no sense, and the motivations for the final fight were just way too coincidental and stretched. Still, I can enjoy it as it is for what it is and still recognize it’s weaknesses.
BvS, OTOH, I understand the criticisms towards it, but other than the sloppy editting in the theatrical cut (which, as I’ve heard, are much better in the Ultimate Edition), a lot of those criticisms are things I actually found appealing. For instance, Batman’s “lack” of motivation toward’s fighting Superman, that he shouldn’t have missed those obvious things, is exactly WHY it’s compelling. I’ve seen a couple of the new scenes that flesh it out a bit more, but the point of this version is that he cannot be reasoned or bargained with, and once he set his mind on destroying Superman, nothing was going to stop him. That’s exactly why Lex was able to manipulate him while also gaining so much more knowledge on the other metahumans that he never did.
The problem is, unfortunately, a lot of the motivations in the theatrical version were left up to the audience to piece together, and some of them I didn’t get until after multiple viewings, and still others I didn’t get until I read about some of the new scenes added. For instance, learning about the small tidbit with Santos and the brand was something they cut out but helps flesh out Batman’s actions, Lex’s plan, and even why Superman was so quick to stop trying to talk to him after interviewing Santos’s wife/gf/whatever.
But again, I get why it’s not a film everyone likes. It delves a lot farther into the DC lore than Marvel does into it’s own, and even Deborah Snyder mentioned in an interview that one of the lessons they took away from BvS was that fans aren’t particularly interested in the deconstructions of those characters, even if that’s the part I loved most. I mean, Batman and Superman are pretty much the two archetypes upon which almost every other superhero is based, if any superheroes need a deconstruction, they do. Oh well…
It’s still funny to me, though, that I’ve talked to literally dozens of people about BvS in real life, and all but two of them either really liked it or downright loved it and didn’t get all the hate, and even one of the two that didn’t love it liked it but was just kinda meh about it, and the one who hated it doesn’t like any superhero films, so I don’t put much stock in that. I got pretty much the same reactions to Civil War as well, and mixed on which one was better. Yet, on the internet, it seems like EVERYONE just HATES BvS and LOVES everything Marvel does. I just really don’t get the Marvel vs DC fanboyism where one is flawless and the other is the worst thing ever. Yeah, push come to shove, I like one more than the other, but I want as many good films as I can get, a rising tide lifts all ships and that sort of thing.
Yeah, none of that is accurate. They were initially pulling their punches, but by the end when Tony was fighting Steve and Bucky, no punches were being pulled. The villain’s plot made perfect sense and was refreshingly simple and straight-forward, particularly compared to Luthor’s plan in BvS. The motivations for the final fight weren’t stretched at all and it was not coincidental by definition: Zemo set things up that way.
Also, while T’Challa Son Of T’Chaka has naturally heard of this quaint custom you call pulling punches, he has no desire to actually see such a thing done.
Superman actually says that he’s pulling his punches. “If I wanted to kill you you’d be dead already”.
A superhero in a comic book movie should at least have elements to aspire to. There are no heros in BvS - assholes the lot of them. Superman is hope, or at least he should be. He is the best of us, all the time. Snyder’s Superman is to be feared. He’s a stoic, depressing, quick to anger, killing machine.
Batman is a sadistic asshole that apparently is very stupid, a terrible detective, likes to brand people to cause them future suffering, has no problem shooting tons of people, and straight up kills dozens of people.
Lex apparently has a crack team of graphic artists that like to create logos for future adversaries. And his plan was what, release Doomsday so that he could kill Superman, or Batman, or both…and then…be left with freaking Doomsday on Earth. That’s wonderful. And the idea that Darkseid was influencing him completely neuters Lex as a character. My wife seriously thought he was secretly the Joker because the characterization was so off base. I have your mom - go fight Batman or else! …OK - derp. Not like he could hear the heartbeat of Lois and stop fighting for the fate of the world to rescue her from falling in a puddle, or save her randomly as she is pushed off a building, or jaunt to Africa to take out a terrorist warlord…noooooo, Lex has his Mom? Holy shit let’s go murder Batman then instead of trying to save her. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
I took my kids to see Civil War. It dovetailed nicely in terms of conversations we’ve had about the role of government, monitoring, control, etc. BvS is not a movie I would let them see. Aside from the fact that it’s fucking terrible, it’s so incredibly dark and without hope, and makes no sense. The animated movie Justice League: War was much much better.
And Martha? Really? I totally want to kill you and will devote tremendous time and resources to do it, likely killing a bunch of other people in the process, but wait, you’re telling me your mom has the same name as my mom? No one ever made that connection…totally new information! I swear I think a trained monkey must have made its way into the writer’s room and took a dump on the script to come up with that crap.
Civil war has competing ideologies building up for multiple films, and had character motivations clear as day. Captain America apprehensive about totalitarian control because, hey…Nazis. Stark feeling guilty about the weapons of war he enriched himself on trying to redeem himself by giving up control. Compared to Civil War, BvS is like a shitty student film that was a poor re enactment of Bum Fights.
Did not see it in theaters. Have only seen the extended edition. I thought it was made by someone who obviously does not know what the characters are about. I think DC stands for “Dreary Cinema.” Clark/Superman was so mopey. God that sucked. And Batman in the comics I’ve read was never that stupid to fall for the manipulations. The cool thing about Batman was that he’s usually one step ahead of everyone else. And Lex Luthor? It wasn’t even close. I chose not to see it in the theater based on my experience with “Man of Steel.” And based on this experience, I probably won’t see any more DC movies period. Not until they reboot them or something.
If only they’d get Christopher Nolan to make a film adaptation of “Kingdom Come.” That would be epic.
