Zack Snyder's flawed masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2020)

BvS is the audacious Man of Steel sequel that WB and Zack Snyder knew the general public didn't want but thought they could sneak by them anyway by including Batman, Wonder Woman, and teasing Justice League. Lucky for the fans, they were wrong. The General Public hated it, but we loved it.
It has a lot of the same themes and is a trial by fire just like MoS only this time, Batman and Lex Luther are the ones playing the bad guy and pulling the strings. You could argue that this makes it redundant to MoS and i wouldn't argue with that. I think its a complimentary piece to Man of Steel. It's the B-side, the Disc 2, of the same Album. It tells a different side of the same story.
While MoS is a movie about an Alien finding his humanity and his place in our world, BvS is a movie about humans coming to terms with their place in a world where they are no longer at the top of the evolutionary ladder. And while in MoS the themes are explored through Clark's point of view, BvS explores them through Batman and Lex's point of view. They represent the part of humanity that doesn't worship this new Superman blindly as a god, but who fear and mistrust the power that Superman has and hates him for the powerlessness that he makes them feel. Again, BvS complements MoS and delves deeper into its core themes.
Unfortunately as I alluded to before, it tries to do all that AND move the DCEU forward AND set-up Wonder Woman AND Justice League.
And while I loved Diana/WW/Gal, it was just too much. That stuff along with the Martha scene where Batman is all of a sudden cool with Supes where the only things I disliked about BvS. The Martha scene and friendship happened way too fast and didn't feel earned. Everything else was great.
Some other things that jumped out at me while re-watching were how much more emotionally impactful Superman's sacrifice was at the end. This was because this version of the movie had more scenes between Lois & Clark and scenes of Clark's investigation of Batman.
In general, the plot of the Extended Edition is much more fleshed out. Clearer. Lex's motivation, his plot to setup Superman, Lois' investigation, Batman's revenge journey, Lois & Clark's arc, etc. were all well developed and made perfect sense. The cinematography and score were stupendous. The cast tremendous. Zack Snyder's directing was superb. Gorgeous visuals and jaw dropping action. And lastly, Chris Terrio's script, especially his dialogue, blew me away.