Batman vs Superman Ultimate Edition review

Personally I was one of the people who kind of liked Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice when it came out at the cinema. It could have been better but visually it was amazing and story wise it was a little like a fan wrote it. The way it picked out elements from different comics and jammed them together to make an action packed movie was appealing at the time.

I found myself defending the movie a lot when talking about it to friends and general people I met. The movie wasn’t perfect but as far as a comic book movie goes it was pretty well rounded although a lot of elements just didn’t line up.

When all the hype around the Snyder cut of the Justice League movie came out I felt like I wanted to revisit Batman vs Superman and found there had been a directors cut released called the Ultimate Edition. The new version is three hours long adding over 30 minutes of previously unseen footage to the film. Now I’m not sure why that 30 minute was cut from the movie, whoever decided to cut it was crazy. The new version makes so much more sense and just feels like a complete movie.

One thing I didn’t like about the original version was Jesse Eisenberg being Lex Luthor, he just felt a bit crowbared into the film. He didn’t seem too smart and didn’t have a lot of impact in the overall events of the movie. Now in the Ultimate Edition totally reverses this and makes Lex live up-to his comic book legend status and he pulls the whole story together.

The big game changer for me was how the Ultimate Edition shows Lex has been manipulating Bruce Wayne for two years turning him crazy, he blames himself for his parents deaths and blames Superman for the damage done in the final battle of Man of Steel. This was skimmed over in the original version but shows how Lex has this huge plan to manipulate everyone around him. I genuinely think Eisenberg may be my favourite Lex Luthor now, Sorry Gene Hackman and Michael Rosenbaum, you were good but Jessie just nailed it.

This also helps later on when the big battle between Batman and Superman comes to and end, in the original version so many people seemed to think Batman stops killing Superman because his mother is named Martha too, it was a long running joke and one of those things you kind of ignore in a comic book movie. In the Ultimate Edition because it gives you time to see Lex manipulating Bruce into thinking his parents death was his fault, during the fight Superman reaches him and shows Bruce that it was Lex all along. Bruce then takes the opportunity to save Supermans mother because he couldn’t save his own mother and this part of the story gives Bruce clarity and closure over his parents death. Again it all feels like the extra thirty minutes

Overall I highly recommend watching the Ultimate Edition, it’s an amazing version of this classic. I really wish things had gone better and we were further into Zack Snyders DC universe but thanks to the fans support we are getting closer to finally seeing the Snyder cut of the Justice League and moving on with more movies.

Posted by Adi Mursec on July 20, 2020