BvS Ultimate Edition

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2017)

Batman vs Superman shortly follows the aftermath of Zod's destruction in Metropolis. Bruce Wayne was personally affected by this when his building was decimated in the resulting destruction. Superman is found to be put under scrutiny by the government who hold him accountable for his actions. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is covertly smuggling a Kryptonian material, known as Kryptonite, into Metropolis in order to weaponize it. As both Superman and Batman pursue their own investigative forms of justification, they grow more and more hostile towards each other and the battle between man and god commences.
Now I loved how dark the film was. Snyder has always had a way with visual splendor and he doesn't disappoint here. Some of my favorite scenes were when Superman was flying around the world saving civilians. This film constantly moves forward and has a feeling of precedence. Lastly, the music was incredible. Ben Affleck was great as Batman. The suit had a fantastic design and I really liked the robotic voice. I also surprisingly preferred Zack Snyder's Alfred better than any version of the character I've seen before. Alfred had more of a presence and a purpose in this version then in the previous installments. The handsome Henry Cavill has all of the right looks, but I sadly think he came off quite wooden in some of his scenes.
The script certainly has its issue. The dialogue was well written but the problem was the direction of story. The writers should have completely scrapped the Doomsday plot line and focused on the main idea behind the film, the Ultimate clash between Superman and Batman. In the theatrical version, a lot of the plot lines weren't explained. However, in the Ultimate Edition, the story was far more coherent. The Ultimate Edition showed Clark's investigative reporting, scenes that were very much needed to explain his motivations. But the weird dream sequences, which did not have anything to do with the story, should have been removed to reduce the overblown length of the film.
The briefing that was sent to Diana (Wonder Woman) was silly. Those scenes were simply a fan service and were obvious attempts of setting up the Justice League. And really, logos? Speaking of Wonder Woman, she felt like an incredibly underused character.
The film eventually reaches its action CGI climax to remind us that this is a superhero film after all.
Bottom line is that the Ultimate Edition really saved BvS for me after my disappointing view of the theatrical version. Let us not forget that despite the improvements, this film was good but not great.