Movie Review – ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (Ultimate Edition)

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

At last! I’ve seen the ‘ultimate edition’ of ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ on Google Play! It’s been a while since I last saw ‘Batman v Superman’ at the cinema in 2016. With the upcoming release of Zack Synder’s extended cut of ‘Justice League’, I decided to check out his extended cut of ‘BvS’. 😀

My initial impressions of ‘Batman v Superman’ weren’t that great. I enjoyed the film when I saw it at the cinema, but it ended up being a mess with so many storylines and characters being introduced. The film would’ve benefited just having Batman and Superman together fighting crime in the world.

In the end, the movie focused on Batman and Superman fighting each other for convoluted reasons; the two hating each other; the introduction of Wonder Woman; the introduction of Lex Luthor, the apparent Doomsday/Death of Superman story and the set up of the Justice League by Zack Synder.

Now this film could’ve been good had the story been clearer and easy to follow. I didn’t find that to be the case when watching it on the big screen. I hoped when watching the ‘ultimate edition’ of ‘Batman v Superman’, I might be able to understand this film more and the characters’ motivations.

Did the ‘ultimate edition’ fulfil my expectations and was it a better experience compared to the theatrical cut of ‘Batman v Supeman’ on the big screen…No! No it didn’t and no it wasn’t. I’m sorry, but even at 3 hours in length, I still found the film quite convoluted and it’s a much darker film than most I’ve seen.

I can see what Zack Synder was trying to go for in trying to present the arguments for and against Batman and Superman being superheroes and whether they’re a danger to a society. But with all the other elements added into the film, it just made it messy and even I couldn’t follow the film at times.

The film of course stars Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman. I like the actors’ performances, but I wish we had a film to introduce Ben Affleck’s Batman before this one and I really wish we had a ‘Man of Steel 2’ starring Henry Cavill’s Superman.

There’s also Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth and Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. I feel I know Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman more since seeing her movies. 😀

I wouldn’t like to criticise Jesse Eisenberg’s acting as Lex Luthor as he’s doing the best he can with the material he’s been given. My criticisms for Lex Luthor are to do with how he knew Clark Kent was Superman and Bruce Wayne as Batman since there weren’t any scenes having those explanations.

Even in the ‘ultimate edition’! I can’t say I recognise scenes that were new in the ‘ultimate edition’ compared to the ‘theatrical cut’ since I haven’t seen the ‘theatrical cut’ in a long time. I’ll have to do a compare and contrast on both versions of the movie when it comes to doing a full-length review. 🙂

There is a sense of the film being more violent in the ‘ultimate edition’ compared to the ‘theatrical cut’. Again, I have to be sure on this since I haven’t seen the ‘theatrical cut’ in a long while, but I’m getting the impression of the film being more violent especially with longer scenes and more action.

I’m glad I’ve seen the ‘ultimate edition’ of ‘Batman v Superman’ at last! I still can’t say this is a great superhero movie, even in extended form. It’s a shame. The film could’ve had so much potential starring two well-known superheroes if the plot was clearer and there weren’t too many characters.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂