If you’ve seen Batman v Superman as its standard release and you were confused about the story, or perhaps you felt the movie was messy, well then the ultimate edition may be for you.
It’s Snyder in all his glory yet again, with great visuals and style, and with an even messier story structure than Man of Steel (2013), and possibly one of the most bizarre villain portrayals seen in superhero movies in a long time.
I guess the question to be asked is: Does the Ultimate edition add anything to the story? Well the answer to that is a little foggy – first we need to know what was wrong with the standard version of Batman V Superman. Well it’s the same issues that have plagued Snyder’s films since the beginning, messy editing, uneven characters, and a blurry plot. Does the ultimate edition fix all these issues? No, but it does help fill some gaps in the story. Does the ultimate edition make the characters more likable? No, not really, but you understand their motivations a little more. These films can’t entirely be fixed with editing, but it could be improved and made to be more digestible as a story if some big parts were scrapped or rearranged; furthermore, the characters within the film have issues of their own, from being overly-emotional to illogical. It seems Snyder has the tendency to force many characters into a corner when building his story, and when a character is rushed then the story-telling suffers the consequences.
By itself, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a loyal adaptation in some ways, but completely derailed in others – the added context from the ultimate edition gives deeper perspective and helps shine light on some of the messages that Zack Snyder implanted in this film, it has more depth than your standard MCU film, but fails to do the fundamentals correctly.
5.9/10
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