Batman Vs Superman was an overall lousy movie. It had too many ideas, and was rushed in its execution of them, to the point where it gave us only fragments of storylines and left us scratching our heads as to what exactly was going on. There were some shining moments to be sure, but overall it wasn’t very good. Especially considering the buildup and excitement surrounding the project. This was to be what many fans had waited to see their whole lives… a face-off between the two greatest superheroes of all time. And the movie wasn’t that.
Luckily, the extended cut or ultimate edition, or whatever it’s called is much better. The movie still leaves some things to be desired, but this is a more fleshed out and enjoyable film. What led me to consider that it might be was seeing The Snyder Cut of Justice League. That movie was far superior to the Joss Whedon cut. But the two movies were essentially made by two different directors, and made with completely different tones. Whedon’s was colorful and poppy and Snyder’s was dark and artistic. This two different directors element was not the case with Batman Vs Superman. Both were done by Snyder. So one would think that the extended edition wouldn’t be that much different. And yet surprisingly it is.
Both editions have the excellent opening of watching the events from the end of Man of Steel (the Superman vs Zod fight in the air,) from Bruce Wayne’s point of view, down on the ground. One does have to wonder why Bruce wasn’t dressed as Batman trying to save people from buildings during that time, but even still, it’s always great to see something from a previous movie now shown again, from a different point of view. Kind of like how Lord of the Rings The Two Towers opened with the aftermath of Gandalf’s fall or Spiderman Homecoming opened with seeing the events of Captain America Civil War from Spider Man’s point of view. But again, this cool opening is in both versions of the Batman v Superman movie, so it is not something that differentiates the two editions.
What is, however, is all of the mention of Gotham vs Metropolis. These two places are really built up as two different cities close by to each other. I’m surprised we never got a look at a map to see where each one was located. That would have been a smart move. But what we do get is conversations about a Gotham vs Metropolis football game, and newspaper reporters in Metropolis writing articles about the goings on in Gotham. In fact, the first hour or so of the movie is all about the reporting.
Now that’s both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because it’s interesting, and in this edition it’s very clear that there are three different characters doing three different investigations at the same time. The bad thing is that there is pretty much no action in the first hour. We’ll come back to that point later. Regarding the investigations, there’s Lois Lane who goes out to a desert in Africa where she finds herself in trouble and Superman comes to save her. Only some goons are there, who work for Lex Luthor and shoot up a village. Superman is blamed for it (for some reason.) And now back in Metropolis, Lois is trying to find something out about the bullets that will prove Superman is innocent. It’s all very confusing and contrived, especially regarding the special bullets. But we get the gist about how Lois is trying to use the bullets to restore Superman’s reputation.
Clark Kent, meanwhile, is investigating the Batman. Or trying to. His boss, Perry White (Lawrence Fishbourne,) keeps getting in the way, trying to pull him off the story, to cover something else. And Batman is trying to investigate Lex Luthor. There are two different lavish party scenes in the first half (one of them at Lex’s house,) and in both of them, Bruce Wayne is trying to get information and runs into Wonder Woman. At the party in Lex’s house, he tries downloading information from Lex’s hard drives. And then he goes to find Wonder Woman at the second party (which seems to be at a museum,) to get his hard drive back from her, which she stole from Lex’s house.
If the first half of the movie seems plot heavy and not action heavy, that’s because it is. The first real action scene (not counting a brief moment where Batman fights a bunch of goons in the desert that turns out to just be a dream,) comes a whole one hour and ten minutes into the movie. But boy is it good. This is Batman in the Batmobile driving around a shipyard, taking on all kinds of enemy vehicles. It’s a car chase and a shootout and all kinds of fun. At one point Batman even drives right through a ship. This is good stuff.
And then it’s back to the story. But things are getting better. Lex uses an angry former Bruce Wayne employee to blow up a congressional hearing. It’s a move that catches us off guard and really wakes us up. Lex is trying to import krypton and the Senate wasn’t letting him do it. So now he blows up the hearing of Superman and not only does he get what we wants with the krypton, but he gets the public even more against Superman, for him not stopping the bomb despite being right next to it.
Lex’s plan is to use the krypton and Zod’s body, which he has now gained access to, to create a new being. In the original film, exactly how this happened wasn’t so clear. In this movie, there is talk of chyrsallis and metamorphosis, and it’s clear that Zod’s body is being put into a sort of cocoon that will transform it. Now, throughout this movie, Lex Luthor is planning. He’s trying to destroy Superman’s reputation and he’s trying to get krypton and he’s trying to create a new powerful monstrous being. But why? Why does he hate Superman so much? He has a moment on a rooftop with Superman where he explains that know gods came to save him from his father’s cruelty while growing up, and that if god is all powerful, he cannot also be all good. It’s one or the other. And Lex wants to prove that to the world.
So Lex pits Batman and Superman against each other. He has his goons kidnap Superman’s mother, Martha. Then he sends Superman after Batman, telling him that he will only instruct his guys to let Martha go if Superman kills the bat. And this leads to the big showdown fight. And then to Batman going to save Martha, rescuing her from a warehouse, in what is by far the best action scene of the movie. Why exactly Superman can’t do this himself, I’m not sure.
And then we get the big fight against Doomsday, Lex’s creation. It’s Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman all teaming up together. It’s fun and exciting and a whole lot. It’s a giant CGI spectacle. And it’s great fun seeing these three heroes team-up.
At the end of the day, Batman V Superman is still not a good movie, regardless of the edition. There needed to be more action in the first half. And the villain needed to have a more clear motivation. Lex literally explains that thing about his father in one quick line. It’s a blink and you miss it moment. And that’s all we are given for understanding this villain, despite him being the central driving force for the entire movie, orchestrating pretty much everything that happened here. The Extended Edition is better than the theatrical one, but it is still a movie that leaves much to be desired. Luckily, the Snyder Cut of Justice League makes up for it.