Pearls. Again. Bruce Wayne’s origin. Again. Joe Chill. I’m presuming. Again. I can still hear the echoes of fan boys rejoicing that “Batman v Superman” wouldn’t be another origin story, and yet director Zack Snyder allows us the thirtieth origin of Bruce Wayne, all for the purpose of squeezing in Bruce muttering “Martha.” Which is his mother. And so a thousand memes were born.
Director Zack Snyder doesn’t allow us the benefit of young Superman or Clark Kent with his mother, also curiously named Martha, because that would make sense. Plus, Snyder never worked with Diane Lane or Kevin Costner. It would be funny though to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan playing John and Martha Kent.
This is Batman’s dream sequence, after all. The first of so many that Zack Snyder uses as a means of relaying information that he can’t organically or naturally inject like a talented director could. This is the man behind “Sucker Punch,” after all. So Bruce Wayne is almost always sleeping, and his brain is always telegraphing crucial information and being visited by scarlet speedsters from the future. I have no idea why there are so many dream sequences.
Not even “A Nightmare on Elm Street” had this many dream sequences.
After their second failed attempt to jump start the DC movie universe, “Man of Steel” is linked in to “Batman v Superman” quite well, I have to admit. Snyder takes time to examine the events of “Man of Steel” from many angles, and while Bruce Wayne was, for some reason, in Metropolis at the time, we do know that Bruce Wayne was there. And he only saw the fight from one angle, and assumed Superman was either a menace, or doing more harm than good. Superman is sadly still an oaf, a moron, and quite smug.
Even in the Extended Cut. “Batman v Superman” is still wildly inconsistent, painfully stupid, and bloated to the gills. Superman can hear Bruce Wayne sneaking around Lex Corp in an effort to get information about the JL power point presentation, but he’s incapable of hearing his mom’s cries for help when she’s kidnapped, nor can he look for her with his x-ray vision. Batman considers Superman a deadly threat, and yet he’s branding criminals’ skin which (knowingly) allows them to be murdered by other criminals in prison, and is running over armed thugs while trying to claim a piece of stolen kryptonite.
The Extended Cut still serves a crucial purpose for fans of the original cut though. There are more scenes of Lois unpacking, we get to see a bit more of Jimmy Olsen before Snyder has him executed “for fun,” Scoot McNairy gets to ask Luthor “What the fuck do you want?” setting the stage for the bombing and indulging us in the obligatory F bomb, and we get to see Bruce Wayne’s bare ass while he’s showering. The movie is riddled with plot holes, but at least we know what Bruce’s bare bottom looks like therefore putting to rest many fan debates that have raged online for years.
Aside from the plot holes, “Batman v Superman” is still such an unpleasant, boring, film bereft of any joy, fun, or excitement. There’s so much death, from bloody shoot outs, to Batman running over people, suicide bombings, women being pushed in front of moving trains, and it’s disturbing and uncomfortable. I wouldn’t mind a movie that explores the themes about a man fighting a God, and a God learning to find a place among men, but Snyder rains down so much violence and gratuitous nonsense.
How could anyone take their kids to see this movie? Superman barely cracks a smile and comes off as terrifying at times, while Batman is never above murdering people, and feels more like “Dark Man,” rather than a Dark Knight. As a Superman fan I take such great issue with the depiction of Superman in both cuts. In the original cut he has no role, and feels so sanctimonious and bored. The extended cut does however show Superman saving some people during the big bombing rather than simply flying away, but the movie has very little of him being Superman that it feels tacked on.
As is the revelation that he can’t see through lead since “Man of Steel” never actually mentions or establishes such a concept. Sure, we Superman fans know it, but it’s never mentioned in the movies, so we’re never sure until this extended cut, if Snyder’s Superman can’t use X-Ray vision on lead. Or if he even has X-Ray vision, for that matter.
In the Extended Cut, Superman an alien burdened by powers, burdened by the obligation of saving people, and eventually burdened with the role of staying Superman. Once Lex begins winning the upper hand, Superman openly questions his suit and role, pinning the blame on his father. Rather than Superman using his powers and suit to honor his memory as we’ve seen in past incarnations, he instead moans to Lois “This is my dad’s fault! This was my dad’s dream! This wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t push this on me!”
So by the end when he battles Doomsday, he’s purposely sacrificing himself, because he’s taking on the role of Superman just to kill the idea of Superman once and for all. This will inevitably lead us in to the Justice League movie where Superman will be anything but the character we know and love, and be even more of a departure from the Last Son of Krypton. With rumors of Superman donning long hair, we can either expect another Superman facsimile that further dismisses the character’s importance and relevance, or Superman becoming a full fledged villain who will likely change his mind and become a hero in the finale of “Justice League.”
If the movie fails to spawn a sequel like “Green Lantern,” and “Man of Steel” has, we’re going to be given yet another DC movie where Superman’s role is irrelevant. This cut does beef up Superman’s role, but it still doesn’t hide the notion that this is a Batman movie through and through. Batman meets Wonder Woman, learns about the Justice League, and will establish the Justice League while Superman is Superman. He’s a character DC forced Snyder to include, thus he’s an obligation. With “Batman v Superman: Extended Cut,” it only serves to confirm that DC and Warner don’t get it, and the future of the DC movie universe isn’t too bright at the moment.
“Batman v Superman” didn’t need to be longer. Nor did it need to be more violent. It needed to be shorter. Two and a half hours is absurd. Three hours is absolutely ridiculous. “Batman v Superman” should have been reduced to two hours, with cutting out the crap and nonsense, and injecting the deleted and extended scenes as a means of giving the narrative some punch and excitement. I didn’t want to hate “Batman v Superman,” and I was hoping the Extended Cut would change my mind. And it didn’t.
I think somewhere deep, hidden beneath the violence, and darkness and awful writing there is a great movie screaming to get out. I hope it does, someday, with someone who understands both Batman and Superman, and what they bring to the table as heroes, and icons of pop culture. “Batman v Superman” in both iterations is still an awful, derivative, clumsy, badly written mess.
Except, you know, its much longer, this time.