Thoughts on the Extended Version of Batman V Superman

So Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice has now been released in its original 3 hour version before director Zack Snyder had to cut it down to the 151 minute version we all saw in cinemas back in March.

I will avoid in this review talking about my overall feelings on the film itself as I covered all that back in March both on here and on my Radio show but what was this cut the one that if Snyder had had his way we would've seen back in March like?

Well this is easily the best cut of the film and it is also the cut we should've gotten back in March but Warner Brothers panicked at the last minute and most likely ordered Snyder to cut it down to 2 and a half hours in case they could get the maximum impact in terms of sessions in a day (which are most often taken up with nearly 20 minutes worth of ads, now I love previews but that is ca-razy) and well if you go even a sliver beyond 150 minutes its considered a huge gamble and given the huge amount of story this film has now in this 3 hour version something has to give.

And sadly something that did give was the use of Clark Kent in the release version he barely did anything and had little to no screen time whereas here he actually gets a really good story arc of his own where he actually goes to Gotham and does research on the Batman and the effect he leaves on the city ("He is Angry and he's Hunting" says one man.)

The other is the fully realised Africa sequence which should NEVER!!! have been cut to shreds in the release version and this time it actually plays out like a fun Superman action scene in the beginning of the film (though he really didn't need to save Lois for the 9 BILLIONTH TIME I mean seriously the handling of her has been farcial since Superman II) and sets up the rest of the film very well.

Sadly however this version is not the night and day difference I thought it would be and what also became the case with James Cameron's the Abyss back in 1989 where he had a 3 hour cut (a 3 hour cut) that he then had to cut down to get the maximum session times in a day and the Special Edition he released in 1993 pretty much rendered the release version unwatchable.

Where this film and this version goes so very wrong is sadly where I feared very genuinely where the film would end up when I saw the now infamous 2nd preview for it back in December of last year and that is instead of the film culminating in the titanic fight between 2 iconic superheroes instead it's with a CGI Monster that looks like they cast the Cave Troll from Lord of the Rings.

Not to mention shoving in a pointless Wonder Woman cameo which Gal Gadot gives all she can to do with and becomes memorable for sure but all it does for me is serve to undermine her solo film which is coming next year as well as the other "Here's the Justice League" scene that really made me cringe even if one of them has Myles Dyson in it.

The third problem I have and this is really disappointing for me is the scenes with Jena Malone, now I LOVED her as Johanna Mason in the Hunger Games series she was awesome in those films and when it broke that she had been cast in this film many suspected she might be either Barbara Gordon or Carrie Kelly the female Robin instead it was just a really small role and it felt like a waste of her talent.

And so that was my thoughts on the extended version of Batman V Superman it's a big improvement but it does not sadly fix the fundamental problems the film has overall regarding its final act and shoving in characters for no real reason apart from "Here they are ready to go for next time" and so this cut gets a 2 and a half out of 5.