4kUHD/Movie Review: Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition (Spoilers)

 

WARNING: This review will contain spoilers from the movie. For a spoiler-free review, please read my review for the original blu-ray set.

Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice is a 2016 action/superhero movie. It was the second movie in the Snyderverse, acting as a sequel to Man of Steel, and setting up the Justice League team up movie by introducing Ben Affleck's version of Batman and Gal Gadot's version of Wonder Woman (along with smaller appreances by Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher in their roles as Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg). The rest of the cast includes Henry Cavill, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Harry Lennix, and Amy Adams, all reprising their roles from Man of Steel. Jeremy Irons joins the cast as Alfred, Jesse Eisenberg plays Lex Luthor, and Holly Hunter plays a US Senator being manipulated by Lex. 

This is the remastered 4k disc of the Ultimate Edition of Batman v. Superman, which was made about the same time Zach Snyder was restoring his cut of Justice League. It should be noted that this just has the movie itself and a commentary track Snyder made just for this 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 ultimate edition of the movie adds about 30 additional minutes to the theatrical version, and aside from a couple of throwaway scenes that could have been omitted, really helped flesh out the fact that Lex Luthor, having figured out the secret identities of Batman and Superman, was really pulling the strings behind everything. And, added details like the fact that the guy who blew up the capital during the hearing had no idea the chair was a bomb. 

I think the movie gets an undeserved bad rap. While it could have been set up better with a stand-alone Batman movie first, to establish his distrust of Superman and show more of Lex pulling strings, you can get all that if you pay attention to the movie. I think Affleck did a great job as an older, more jaded Batman, and a stand-alone movie would have helped establish why he has no qualms against killing criminals as he did at times in this movie. 

Overall, the movie looks and sounds great (especially the restored IMAX scenes) in UHD and is worth the double-dip. The only thing is that it does not carry over any of the original blu-ray extras, so if you purchased that two-disc set, you will need to keep that one if you like watching the bonus material.