Men of Tomorrow

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2016)

The Ultimate Experience BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE – ULTIMATE EDITION (★★★★★/5 Stars.) Just a quick recap of what I experienced the night of the BluRay released: biased or not, this was the best extended cut film I've ever seen.
While Aliens remains as one of my all-time favorite movies, the Director's Cut added scenes that were pretty good and enhanced the characters. Was it 100% necessary to the overall experience? No. It's safe to watch either cut and enjoy both.
I'll probably never see the theatre cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice again. And this is coming from someone that gave that version ★★★★½/5 Stars and is my current favorite movie of 2016.
This 'Ultimate Edition' cut boosts the theatre cut tenfold, without a shadow of a doubt. Characters were enormously fleshed out, emotions merely touched on before are thoroughly explained and an incredible amount of needed tension/investigations helped the viewing.
I saw the original three times in the theatre so it was easy for me to see the difference of larger character arcs, brand new scenes and even a simple one line of dialogue that added to the character interactions. This is not to say the theatre version didn't deliver. On the contrary, I still stand behind my four and a half star rating. These additions (or cuts?) simply made the experience better than I could've predicted.
Though I wish they had released this instead, I can fully understand why they didn't. Maybe, like Jonathan Kent in Man of Steel would say: the world isn't ready for this, they thought the risk too high. Perhaps. But, at least we all have it now on home video to enjoy dozens of more times.
***
Final thoughts: Like I stood behind my theatre cut review rating, I stand behind this five out of five star enthusiasm. BUT there was one thing I did NOT like. The comical fact they added the words "Ultimate Edition" to the opening credit's title. Seriously? That was unnecessary.
Mercifully, I got over that instantaneously when this version flew past my expectations.
(The following is my original review of the theatre cut back on 3/24/16)
When I was young, Chris Reeve's "perfect hero" Superman was my world. I idolized him and tried to be the good person he was had he been real. I even rejected any variation I saw of him not being so high on a pedestal.
Well, I just grew up.
Batman v Superman, or BvS, was so radically different (for both Supe and the Bat) it even completely shifted gears from its "new" origin story film, Man of Steel. This version of the superheroes and villain was so, ah-hem, alien to me, I loved it. I loved how it was made as both real and comic bookish at the same time. I also loved how there was so much here, so many details and plot directions, it demands a second and third viewing which I will gleefully comply with.
It would be completely hard to give away a synopsis without ruining all the twists and turns, but suffice to say, it begins where Man of Steel left off, only, from Bruce Wayne's point of view. And from his angle, it's not hard to understand he's wildly concerned about Superman's great powers.
As his suspicions increase, Superman has his own direction on how the "real" world might view him and his place here. And of course, it wouldn't be a based-on-comic-book movie without someone in the background cooking up their own plot.
Honestly, that's as vague as I can be to be fair to everyone else reading. Not to mention, I do need to see it again for my own sake of figuring everything out as there was just so much in this movie I know I missed.
I enjoyed the hell out of this. I loved the changes. I loved the new Bat. I loved how Superman/Clark was both updated but with so much of the spirit of the old. Heck, I even loved the new Lex's persona I've never seen before.
Even though, in this DC take on the Marvel trend of universes, Man of Steel was first and set some of the foundation, this is the one that is really going expand the DC universe to many more movies that I am going to welcome with open arms.
This is just my quick take on this movie. I have a feeling this initial great feeling I had here isn't going to wane; if anything, I think I will even rate it higher with additional viewings as I believe Director Snyder really had deeper meaning I was too blissfully overwhelmed to catch.
If you have an imagination to expand on your expectations or preservation of your past, I believe you, too, might love this new direction.
***
Final thoughts: While the world loves Marvel more – to each their own, I love the fact we didn't have to wait 5-6 movies to get many of the great DC Superheroes to meet. Though I know we have a couple of stand-alone Superhero movies following before the Justice League movie, I am appreciative DC didn't try my patience as Marvel did to get to their group hero film.