Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition) [4K Ultra HD]

Batman vs. Superman was in part a sequel to Man of Steel and in part, a setup for The Justice League movie, introducing the new DCEU versions of Batman (played by Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot), and via short cameos the new Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Mamoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher). It also brought back Amy Adams in her role as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, and brought in Jeremy Irons as Alfred, and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. I won't go into too much of the storyline so as not to spoil it for the few who may not have seen the movie, but it essentially dovetails off the end of Man of Steel in which Metropolis was destroyed in the climactic fight between Superman and Zod. We see that battle from the perspective of Bruce Wayne who is trying to get to Wayne Financial to get his employees out of the building. This sets up his distrust of Superman, and then there is an 18-month time jump and Batman is becoming more violent which gets him on Superman's radar, and with Lex orchestrating things in the background, the two end up in battle, until they have to team up. The movie gets ragged on a lot, undeservedly so, in my opinion. It is clearly setting up a larger story and has to be seen as a piece in a multi-movie arc. While I do think it would have been better for DC to follow the Marvel format of setting up the characters in individual movies before bringing them together, so there would not have been so many logic jumps as this movie took, the plot does make sense (especially after you see it a couple of times), and the darker tone that Snyder used for the movie (really all the movies in his "Snyderverse" worked well. And, of course, when Joss Whedon attempted to shoehorn his brand of humor that worked in the MCU into the DCEU, it totally fell flat and was universally rejected. For those who get the blu-ray set, there are two blu-ray discs. One with the theatrical cut of the movie and the bonus features, and one with the Ultimate Edition of the movie that adds about 30 additional minutes to the run time. Some of the scenes are kind of useless, but others really flesh out how much Lex had put the events of the movie into motion. The extras included several behind-the-scenes and making-of features, character profiles for Wonder Woman and Batman, and shorter ones on the characters of Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg. All, in all, there is about two hours' worth of extras, so those who like watching the bonus material will be satisfied. Also of note, there is a 4k version of the Ultimate Edition of the movie that does not include the theatrical version or any of the blu-ray extras, so even if you double-dip for that one, you probably want to hold on to this version unless you are only interested in the movie and just want the Ultimate Edition of the movie. The 4k version just has the movie itself and a commentary track that Snyder made just for the 4k restoration as the only extra. In his commentary, he does spoil his version of Justice League (identifying Martian Manhunter, for example) and generally discusses his vision for where the movies would have gone had he stayed on. The movie looks and sounds great (especially the restored IMAX scenes) in 4k UHD, and is, in my opinion, worth the double-dip. Overall, the movie is very good. Dark, but good, and it makes a lot of sense. I do think it could have used a better setup through a stand-alone Batman movie first to establish this version of Batman, and what turned him into the more jaded version of the character. I also think this movie would have benefitted from DC releasing the stand-alone Wonder Woman movie first to set her backstory. However, I do think that her extended cameo in this movie worked and was one of the reasons that the Wonder Woman movie did so well at the box office because viewers liked the taste of the character in this movie. But, despite the reputation it has as a bad movie, it is not. Affleck did a great job as an older, more jaded Batman, and I liked the idea of Batman trying to figure out how to stop an unstoppable alien. By now, however, the movie has been out long enough that people have their opinion of it. If you have not seen it, I would definitely give it a chance because it is not nearly as bad as some would have you believe.

When Man of Steel released 3 years ago I was looking forward to the new age of Superman movies, now made for a modern audience but without straying away from the source material too much. And while I enjoyed that movie greatly, I was happy to learn that this one will eventually lead to the current DC movie universe which will also give us the very first Justice League movie. BvS is only the 2nd movie in this universe. While the movie stands by itself for the most part, it really does follow up on the events of Man of Steel. The premise of the movie: The world is still debating themselves over if whether Superman is the hero they never asked for, or just a magnet for death and destruction. Batman, the self- proclaimed Gotham City vigilante, is building his own hatred towards Superman and the consequences of his actions, and starts planning a way to eliminate him which also includes seeking for other possible "meta- humans" around the world. Meanwhile young billionaire Lex Luthor finds himself plotting an overly complex plan for dominance which eventually involves pitting both 'heroes' to fight each other. Who will win? Before going to see the movie initially there were two things that I had in mind and these were really my only two prejudgments: 1) Neither of them should die because eventually they have to be in the Justice League, which leads me to 2) There will probably be some Spielberg- like excuse to have them not kill each other. With only that in mind, I saw the whole flick and I must say I was actually very entertained from start to finish. The movie does throws you off for the first half of it as it seems to throw random happenings at you, but then as you learn more about everyone's intentions to what they do everything starts clicking. The action scenes are very well made and it really makes Ben Affleck a great choice for Batman despite earlier mixed reactions. Henry Cavil remains a great Superman as well, and for the first time, we get to see Wonder Woman in all her live action film glory, which I must say Gal Gadot killed as well. I really like the political approach to the whole conflict, which is consistent with what Man of Steel built and it totally reflects how today's world would react to such events. I liked this version of Lex Luthor.. it was just so brilliantly portrayed. It was just an emotional joyride. As far as flaws I can say a few things: The theater version does cut out a lot of plot details that are very important specially right at the middle of the conflict, which we get to see in the Ultimate Edition. This is a rather unfortunate decision that has probably contributed to the divisive reception to the film. Also, there are parts of the plot that seemed a bit forced at times. Such as pitting the Gotham and Metropolis people, their meet up with Diana Prince, and the release of Doomsday. Again, the extended cut does help put better context to all of these, maybe if only a little bit more. Considering the intention of the movie and all the universes being mashed up together probably what people were expecting was a more "Marvel" approach of character build up. But we only really got one movie before this one and we will get those in the upcoming years. But, I will give DC the benefit of the doubt and see how they will put everything together. They still have time and they are entitled to do things at their own pace. Overall yes, BvS is a good flick and it makes justice to the DC Universe. It is not perfect, but it is certainly not deserving of the massive hate campaign it's been getting. The Ultimate edition in particular, is the version you need to watch so you get the full vision of the director.

This review will be focusing on the Ultimate Edition, and not the theatrical cut of the film. The first thing you need to understand about BvS is that it's a Batman film that guest stars other superheroes. Batman's character arc defines the whole film. I was hoping for more of a Superman film, instead of a Batman film where Superman is largely a plot device, but I'm trying to judge the film on its own merits. Ben Affleck plays an absolutely savage Batman (and an admittedly unimpressive Bruce Wayne). Henry Cavill is excellent, as is the rest of the cast. Of particular interest are Gal Gadot and Jesse Eisenberg; Gadot's Wonder Woman is the Amazon warrior DC fans have been waiting decades to see, and Eisenberg revitalizes the character of Lex Luthor. I know a lot of people feel Eisenberg was miscast, but I'm interested to see where they take him from here. And frankly, I'm just grateful to see a cinematic Lex Luthor whose schemes don't revolve around real estate. Other positives include great practical and CGI effects, except for a certain oversized beast that appears in the third act; then again, the Hulk looks fake as well, so I can't criticize too much. Also, the story, while flawed, at least has the virtue of ambition. Marvel's movies are better films in the sense that they fully achieve what they set out to achieve, which is to be fluffy little popcorn flicks that draw in new fans and don't alienate fans of the comics. BvS (and Man of Steel before it) set out to make myths, stories about living legends and gods among us (pun intended for video game players). The heroes have gravity, and the world can't help but be strongly affected by their presence. How does one live in a world where a man has the powers of a god? How does one live in a world where a vigilante uses any means necessary to achieve his own justice, and has virtually unlimited funds to achieve it? These films are meditations on the idea of superheroes, and an extrapolations of how such beings would affect the real world if they existed. In this sense, BvS is a wild success. As a consistent and coherent story, however, BvS stumbles a bit, albeit in service to the larger goals outlined above. The plot contrives wildly to bring Superman and Batman into conflict, when in all likelihood, their opposing natures alone would have set them against each other. And the business with the bullets. Protip: if you're planning on framing someone, and convicting them for all time in the court of public opinion, maybe you shouldn't use bullets which can be traced back to you and only you. Just saying. So, what to make of this film, and how to score it? Call it A+ for effort, B for execution. The film entertained me and made me want to see what comes next. It gave us a cinematic take on Batman which has previously gone unseen. It treats our modern myths as something, well, mythic. I know it's fashionable to hate on DC movies and love Marvel movies (I admit to loving Deadpool and Ant Man), DC's universe is the one I personally would like to explore more fully. Bring on Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad!

I don't think this movie was as bad as critics made it out to be. All in all it was a very entertaining movie. Maybe it's just me but I actually enjoyed Ben Affleck as Batman. Right before Batman Begins came out (and don't get me wrong, The Dark Knight is still one of my favorite movies to this day) the movie I saw right before that was American Psycho. So yeah when I saw Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, I was like OH MY GOD! THAT IS NOT BATMAN! GOTHAM RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! LOL. But anyway here are some things I didn't like about Batman VS. Superman. *POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT. READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY SEEN THE MOVIE* In the scene where Batman attempts to steal the kryptonite from Lex Luthors crew, he appears to actually kill people in the process. This defies the very rules that make Batman who he is and how he struggles between hero and vigilante. This seems to happen again when he rescues Klark Kents mother. He shoots the guys fire tank to his flamethrower and blows him up! Holy s*&#! Since when did Batman start murdering people whether they're bad or not?! Another thing that really bothered me was the scene where Bruce wakes up from a nightmare and takes some sort of pill wich we can assume is either medication for anxiety or nightmares or pills for recreational use because he downs it with the last sip of wine out of the bottle we assume he drank the night before. Maybe the director was trying to show a more human side of Batman but I've always known Batman to keep his head clear even when he's Bruce Wayne because he does research on his enemies and is making new gadgets to apprehend criminals or training to keep his strength up. I've been a Batman fan since I was 4 or 5. This also seems to go against Batman's philosophy. If you notice also in The Dark Knight at the Harvey Dent fundraiser party scene thrown by Bruce, Bruce grabs a cup of champagne but goes out on the balcony and dumps the whole cup out over the edge. Other than these flaws in Batman's personality, I thought the rest of the movie was pretty cool. But I wonder....are we really ready for a full fledged justice League movie? How would that sit with the audience today and the movie industry and technology we have today? It's not a bad idea but is this going to be something we look at 20 years from now and laugh at how cheesey it was? Kinda like if you were to watch Batman Forever nowadays or Batman The Movie starring Adam West. Besides for all of that, I thought the new Batmobile was pretty cool except for the fact that...you know......IT SEEMS TO FIRE MACHINE GUN ROUNDS! That would DEFINITELY kill somebody! But they stuck with the classic design both from the animated series and Batman Forever while adding modernized things to it. I also liked the scene where Batman breaks into Lex Luthors gangs hideout and kicks everyone's Ass! This is an awesome scene and I feel like so,easy of the inspiration for it might have been taken by the Arkham series of video games for playstation. At 1 point Batman stabs a guy with his own knife through the shoulder wich is pretty brutal but wouldn't necessarily kill the guy. We also learn in this scene that Batman has learned to make his helmet bullet proof as one guy attempts to shoot him point blank in the back of the head wich is a realistic approach to how criminals would try to kill him and how he has learned from it. I know they needed to have a reason for Superman to dislike Batman so they did this by having Batman brand criminals with the mark of a bat wich gets them shanked when they get to "big boy jail". They brand Batman as "Judge, Jury, and Executioner." This is totally unnecessary for Batman to do and it also gets criminals killed. They never make it clear whether Bruce knows it or not. What the he'll is the point of the "Bat Brand"? Batman would never do this. It makes him seem like he's dishing out cruel and unusual punishment. Pretty much most of the criminals have been taken down by the Batman. It's no secret. This aspect of the movie also really bothered me. The movie almost seems to be another Superman movie featuring Batman and Wonder Woman. 1 more thing I'd like to add is the reference to the joker. Bruce looks at an old suit that says HA HA HA THE JOKES ON YOU BATMAN! And Bruce says to Klark, we have a bad history of freaks dressed up like clowns. Is this a hint of the jokers return in a sequel? Can we really have another legitimate joker after the performance from Heath Ledger? It's unclear, but all in all if you can get past the fact that Batman sometimes kills if he feels necessary and drinks or takes medicine, I would check this movie out. See what you think about it. It's definitely worth seeing at least once.

This is a more preferable movie.DC has been bashed by the critics for too long now.Man of Steel sat well with the critics but this movie and Suicide Squad did not.I honestly love all 3 of the movies from the DCEU so far and I dont care about what the critics say.Now the thetrical cut I already loved so this extended edition gave me more of what I liked!But just like other fans out there in some parts (mostly the Knightmare scene) I felt a little bit confused.That was because there was 3 hours of this movie filmed and in theatres WB was too scared to release a 3 hour movie so they took off 30 minutes of it and made it 2 hours and 30 minutes.That isnt the appropriate amount of time to tell a story like this.So this extended edition helped me understand those scenes better.Another problem with both cuts are they tried to clash a lot into one movie.And the way they set up Aquaman was not good.Also keep in mind this plays as a Man of Steel 2 so it had to be a sequel,a set up,and introduction film.But the extended cut didnt fix Jessie Eisenburgs horrible performance as Lex Luthor II.Now that we got the negatives out of the way lets now focus on how good this cut of the movie really was.Now this gives us an even extended period of time with Clark Kent unlike in the theatrical cut we didnt get to see him too much.We also get to see who Jena Malone played and she played a forensic at the GCPD.In addition to that Stepphenwolf the villan of next years justice league film is here.The opening africa scene in the theatrical cut didnt make sense since they blamed superman for the events that happened there.When I was in the theatre I thought last time I checked Superman doesnt use machine guns or explosives.So in the extended cut what really happened is the terrorists burnded the bodies to make it look like Superman used his lazer vision. The Knightmare scene is extended and now explained.So that robot that knocked batman out was actually cyborgs alternate costume.And the symbol carved in the sand is the symbol of a famous justice league villan darkeside.This could mean in the later years of the DCEU we could get an Injustice movie.Of course not right now since they still need to realease the forthcoming Justice League Trilogy.One of the deleted scenes featured the guy who got branded by batman in the beggining comes back and gets killed in prison.A few guest appearences in the movie that got cut out is one from Jon Stewart and Neil Degrey Tyson.Now my favorite part about the extended cut is the extended warehouse fight scene.Now lets talk about the battle.Now it is extended by very little but its what you paid for isnt it?Now this extended cut is rated R for no reason to me.Sure in the africa scene they added two sprays of bloodsplatter may have been added but nothing you havent seen in a pg-13 movie.And only one f-bomb.PG-13 movies are aloud to have only one fbomb if they have 2 then it becomes rated r.A middle finger doesnt do anything either.And though batmans butt may have been shown remember Xmen days of future past when they showed wolverines butt.Its like the same thing.None of the violence equals to an r rating.Zack Snyder even admittied to rating this r personally because he wanted to just show off.Overall I give this a 10/10

I've waited to write this review until the movie goers have had their fill, because reviewing the story line of this great vid would be difficult to do without ruining some of the greatest parts. So, please forgive my vagaries as I try to summarize the story without revealing too much: Christian Bale is my favorite B-man. But I must admit, I don't know if Mr. Bale would have topped Ben Affleck in this particular, vid. Affleck is a big guy. He looks formidable, and is perfect for the role as The Batman in the new League of the Justice coming in the future, Mr. Affleck was perfect for the part as a Batman that is getting older; not so much physically aging, but mentally, from the terrible burden of being the dark night year after year has caught up to him. And the fact that Batman cannot prevent EVERY SINGLE crime leaves him feeling guilty, frustrated...But that point is one of the changes I mentioned. In the Marvel World, this group ( the as of yet unnamed "Justice League") Batman is getting Burned out. He's becoming cynical and not a small bit heavy handed. ***Superman*** A being from another world. Without a doubt, Superman is so powerful, that he could rip our planet to shreds...this realization troubles the Dark Knight so deeply that paranoia begins to consume him. Batman, has no clue as to the tragedies that Superman has endured; most of all, Batman is unaware of how this alien was raised as a normal child; loving parents that instilled the morals of a good person. In fact, Superman is probably the most "well adjusted" one of them all; both mentally healthy, deeply compassionate. Batman will find this out eventually, but in the beginning, The Bat, goes all out to make himself Supermans equal. The "tank suit" and several other never-seen-before weapons, are brought into play. Speaking of unseen weapons: Enter, Wonder Woman. Jeez! It's was worth watching this vid just to see this fantastic actress that plays the super heroine! It's the eyes. Something about that angry arc to her brows...Honestly, the actress is so convincing, that it was not difficult to believe that Wonder Woman could smash your face right through a brick wall! And when it comes to actually fighting along beside the other two Supers, WW can take some punishment and dish it right back!! Whomever cast this young lady, needs a bonus!! Some of you older people might remember the Saturday morning with the voluptuous Linda Carter playing the lady with the gold lasso. I had a terrible pre teen crush on Miss Carter and her...um...jiggly bits. But this new WW does not Jiggle... anywhere. I enjoyed watching the movie immensely! Give it a look.

Alright. The reviews for this movie are very accurate and there is a reason why the movie didn't do as good as expected in theaters and why the big name critics scored it lower than what people thought. The movie is good overall and lays down an interesting storyline that sets the pace for DC's Cinematic Universe. However, the one thing that most people complain about is also what I complain about and that is the "over-stuffing" of the storyline. I do feel like that they did indeed pack too much into the movie overall, although I can understand that they did it that way to avoid having to explain as much in the future movies. So let's get on with the review. The movie was highly anticipated for the past year and a half ever since the very first teaser trailer was released. I specifically was very excited for this movie, hence why I watched in theaters. The opening of the movie was excellent and it featured Jeffery Dean Morgan as Bruce's father and Lauren Cohan as his mother. It showed and demonstrated Bruce's fear of bats and so on. Then it switched to Bruce Wayne's perspective as he was there as the ending events of "Man of Steel" were occcuring. After seeing the destruction caused by Superman, Bruce from right then and there disliked Superman. However, then after the 1st 10 min. of the movie in then switches to very, very drawn out storyline that is boring and unexciting until the last 45 minutes of the film. Once it got towards the ending you could really see that boring storyline transform into that brilliant and amazing storyline that we expected, but they brought certain elements from the comics and introduced them way too quickly into the movie. Overall the movie was good, but it did not meet expectations that we all had hoped for and it was more of a drama movie than anything. I do, however, still recommend that you try this movie for yourselves and also it is still a must watch in case you are interested in watching future movies in DC's Universe. So, I give it 3 stars overall because 1, it didn't meet the standards we all hoped for and 2, it was very drawn out and boring for the 1st hour and a half of the movie. Still this is my sole opinion, and there are others that gave this film 5 stars because they do indeed truly love it. However, as a big Comic Movie fan, this movie wasn't as great as I had hoped for. I hope this helps and thanks for reading.

Excellent movie and amazin director.