TheMunkeyBoy
I decided to rewatch this after giving it a 6/10.
I watched the Ultimate Edition and I'm glad I did. Now it makes sense. It's long - but, it's so much better.
Whoever edited it down should be held responsible for the bad ratings.
This is a great movie.
Please, watch the Ultimate Edition, which is what Zack Snyder intended you to see.
tomr-28618
This was probably one of my most anticipated movies so far and leaving the cinema back when I first saw it I couldn't really formulate my opinion on it properly.This review will be about the Ultimate Edition of the film...Let's start with the negatives and get them out of the way first.
Lex Luthor was a very odd character and felt very out of place due to how he was written and performed.Doomsday was atrocious to say the least, the creation of doomsday was clever using general zods body but he felt crammed in and messed up the tone, as well as looking pretty bad.Wonder Woman, again was crammed in.The Justice league set up was bad and rushed.The is messy due to the action being spaced out until the end where it just goes overboard. The editing itself also is jolting mainly in the first act.The Batman and Superman conflict was way too quickly resolved and the entire movie should have been built mostly around this with world building for the future DC movies being less and also more subtle. The film just felt too big for it's own good and tried to do too much at once.The only interesting character in the film was Batman, the rest were just okay or bland.Now for the positives...
Batman as mentioned was interesting to watch and Ben Affleck gives a great performance. He felt fresh and different whilst still having the classic batman feel. Probably my second favourite on screen Batman after Christian Bale.The acting overall was good to great, with the exception of Jesse Eisenberg (although I do think he usually is a good actor).The Action scenes such as the warehouse scene and the dream scene were great. They were well filmed and we'll choreographed. The warehouse scene was so detailed and intricate giving it a great visceral feel. The dream fight being one shot also made it stand out and was visually impressive.Speaking of visuals, the film looks very good in terms of cinematography and most of the visuals, besides Doomsday and some other small elementsThe choice to progress Man of Steels story in this way by having the end battle from that film tie into batman and Lex Luthor character motivations, as well was as the overall story concerning Superman's place on Earth was clever and interesting.
Most of the music for this film was very good although not as memorable as the Dark Knight trilogies soundtrack for example. The worst piece on this soundtrack would have to be Lex Luthors theme which does fit the tone of his character but as mentioned he feels out of place and therefore this piece does and it feels a bit silly in comparison to the rest of the music such as Batman's theme.Overall the positives do outway the negatives but it is still a conflicting film to watch as there is so much that could have been done better such as tightening the script to focus more on Batman and Superman's conflict and forget about the Doomsday and Lex Luthor stuff. Also having a Batman vs Superman movie might have worked more at the end of the DC cinematic universe as there would be no need for the world building at that point. Still the film is somewhat enjoyable and I do recommend the Ultimate Edition as the plot is more cohesive but it does still feel to busy and messy a lot of the time.
Kirpianuscus
I am not a fan of Marvel universe. maybe, I am too old for that and for series I am too selective. the only reason for see the film - the memories from childhood about this super-heroes. the only sin of film - it has the ambition to propose too much. a new perspective, a new hero, a predictable confrontation, a villain from so many other films of same genre. the great virtue - the performances. and the effort to give a nice definition for super hero. in essence, all good point and flaws and mistakes of the film from same genre.
rmartin5588
I'll start by making it clear I have only ever seen the Ultimate Edition. I'm aware of what was cut out for the theatrical release, so I will concede up front that most of the criticisms about pacing, editing, and missing bits of plot at release were merited.With that caveat out of the way, I must reiterate that this was bar-none the boldest superhero movie I have ever seen. To me, it was arguably the best as well, though "best" shouldn't be taken to mean "most enjoyable." That honor easily goes to "Thor: Ragnarok." What makes BvS stand out among other films in the genre is that it takes two characters who have been done to death since the 1970s and brings them up to date. I recently tried to watch "Superman: The Movie" for the first time in a number of years, and while it was still good and Reeves will always be iconic, I just couldn't take it seriously. I'll put it this way: If the story in BvS was "stupid" in your view but Superman turning back time by spinning the earth backward on its axis didn't seem like one of the dumbest things you have ever seen -in any movie from any genre- to the extent that it outright ruins the movie for you, then your opinion about BvS isn't worth much. Nostalgic bias was always going to be a problem for this movie, and the way people reacted to and reviewed "Man of Steel" was telling in this regard.That brings me to Zack Snyder's take on Superman. You know, that guy whose status as the first extraterrestrial ever encountered by humanity was a total non-issue in the old movies. Apparently, Snyder has a similar view to my own in that his take on the Man of Steel makes his being an alien a core piece of his identity. He may look like any other (absurdly attractive) person, but he knows what he is, and that makes him perpetually uncertain of where he fits in this world. He is essentially good and really does care about people, but he struggles to truly empathize with the likes of us. To be human is to be frail, and that is not something he can easily relate to. This is the root of his conflict with Batman.Just as Clark struggles to genuinely relate to most people, Snyder's Batman either refuses to or otherwise just can't relate to Superman. He doesn't see him as anything but a threat regardless of Superman's clear good intentions. Remember, a small group of Kryptonians were able to bring humanity to the brink of extinction in less than a day, and Bruce Wayne is nothing if not a realist. He didn't know the guy from Kansas. He only knew the god from another world.While Batman's anger toward and fear of Superman are readily apparent from the start, Superman's inability to imagine things from Bruce Wayne's perspective only becomes truly apparent during their first real interaction. This reminded me of the animated version of the "world's finest" storyline, where Superman judges Batman harshly for using fear tactics and threats of violence (also, actual violence) to get the job done. Superman wasn't willing to consider what it would take for a human man to fight criminals and save innocents, or what that life would do to him over time. Just as Batman didn't see the guy from Kansas, Superman didn't see the man who lives his life trapped in one brutal, unthinkably traumatic moment (this was beautifully conveyed during the film's opening moments), and had spent his whole adult life bearing witness to humanity at its absolute worst.The conflict between these two characters is as old as human history. They want the same things, but they can't understand one another. So they fight. And what a fight it was.Watching a fight between, say, Captain America and Iron Man was, to me, more frustrating than anything because each understood the other's perspective perfectly. The fight between Batman and Superman in BvS was genuinely gut-wrenching, as intended, because they would have understood one another if either had tried. The whole sequence hilighted Batman's tactical prowess and ability to control a situation. Maybe the most badass thing about the fight was that it ended exactly where Batman planned. That brings me to the big elephant in the room named "Martha."I can't recall exactly which YouTuber put it this way, but if you thought the "save Martha" exchange was about their mothers having the same name, you had your brain turned off. The brain-on people have explained this to death, but it bears repeating. This was the moment when Superman became humanized to Batman. He was about to die, and his only concern was for his adoptive human mother. He still believed that the man about to take his life would do the right thing. Even with the cowl on, there was no mistaking the look on Batman's face. It was the look of shame, guilt, and sudden uncertainty that says "What am I doing?" Turns out even the most brutal, angry version of Bruce Wayne is better than Tony Stark at knowing right from wrong. At knowing that he had gone too far.From there, the third act was a series of truly impressive (albeit mostly CGI) fight sequences, beginning with what I regard as the undisputed champion of Batman fights. Nothing in the Nolan movies (and especially nothing in the Burton movies) even came close. Go ahead, try to convince yourself that Batman and Bane taking turns punching one another in the face until Bane's mask broke was a good fight sequence. No, this was a fight straight out of "Arkham Knight," and it was glorious. The battle against Doomsday really was one for the books. From the moment Wonder Woman arrived accompanied by the intense sounds of Tina Guo's electric cello to Superman's tragic, heroic death at the hands of Doomsday, I was glued to the screen. Sure, the mere presence of Doomsday spoiled the end to a degree, but watching the Man of Steel laboring to carry that kryptonite spear towards certain death was no less impactful. A brief word on Jesse Eisenberg's take on Lex Luthor. At least one other reviewer on this site already said it best when they pointed out that this was his origin story. If you consider his scheme objectively, he is actually one of the more formidable incarnations of the character. If we're lucky, we'll eventually get to see a Snyder Cut of "Justice League" and find out where this story was actually meant to go. For the record, Joss Whedon and Danny Elfman both should have said "no" to taking a dump on someone else's art.
