The Batman V. Superman ultimate cut just came out recently which added 30 minutes of extra footage, making the film three hours long. I wasn't a big fan of the theatrical cut, I thought it had sloppy editing, bad writing, and poor pacing. The film just felt like a bunch of scenes thrown onto the screen, it never felt like a coherent film, and I thought Jesse Eisenberg was miscast as Lex Luthor. The ultimate cut for me is a huge improvement.

Let's start with the pacing because that was my main issue with the theatrical cut, the film had no flow and jarring jump cuts. Also the ultimate cut fleshes out the story and characters, superman is accused of murdering people in Africa when he saves Lois Lane, but this sequence in the theatrical cut makes little sense. The audience was left guessing on why people thought superman killed innocent people in Africa because of the bad editing, this story line was never fleshed out properly. In this cut however it gives context that Lex Luthor was behind the whole Africa disaster and tried to frame superman for the deaths. In the other cut Lex's plan to pit batman and superman against each other never made sense either. With the Ultimate cut we get to see Lex making superman look like a murder so batman will want to fight him.

I also want to discuss how this version fleshed out superman/Clark Kent. In the theatrical cut I felt he took a back seat, his character didn't change much from his previous film "Man of Steel" and just sat around the whole movie moping. But in the ultimate cut he actually has a story arc, we see more scenes of him in the daily planet investigating the batman to find out what exactly he is. There is also a scene where he goes to Gotham to talk to civilians about batman, not sure how that was cut out of the theatrical version. There are also more scenes of him feuding with his boss Perry White, which I really enjoyed. He gets more small character moments as well, like a phone call to his mom, and we see more of his struggle living in a world where a lot of people view him as a murderer. Lois Lane was given more to do as well, we get to see her do work as a journalist, and figure out Lex Luthor was behind everything.

The one thing I really liked even in the theatrical cut was how batman was handled. This batman is much older and rougher, and he kills people. I was initially skeptical about Ben Affleck being picked to play the dark knight, but he really proved me wrong and is still my favorite part about the film. I never thought much of him as an actor, his performances to me were always just serviceable at best, but now I look forward to seeing him direct a stand alone batman film. His portrayal of Bruce Wayne felt more real, he didn't put on a fake personality in public the way Christian Bale did. I still really enjoyed Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and by no means am I trying to put his take on the character down. Batman's action scenes are also great he clears out a warehouse full of thugs, that looks like a Batman Arkham challenge map from the video games.

The fight between batman and superman was also more enjoyable in this version for me. In the theatrical cut the third act just felt like it came out of nowhere, due to the films poor pacing. There was no substance behind there fight because superman's storyline was not fleshed out and Lex's plan was so convoluted. I still would of preferred superman wanting to fight batman because of philosophical differences, instead of Lex capturing his mom and making him fight batman. The writing still felt a little to sloppy in this part, if Clark's mom wasn't captured batman would of been waiting outside all night for him to come fight. The most polarizing part of this film is how the fight concluded, batman has superman dead to rights with a kryptonite spear and then hears superman say "Martha" which is his mom's name. Batman does not kill superman because there mommies have the same name basically. When batman hears the name, it flashes back to young Bruce's parents getting killed. My first viewing of the film, I really hated that this was how batman and superman ended up becoming friends, I thought it was bad writing. My second viewing however I felt differently, i'm not saying everyone will change their minds on this, I completely understand if people still think it's bad writing because I did initially. This time when I saw it my interpretation was batman felt like he was becoming just like the petty criminal who shot his parents, so he not to kill superman.

Due to a more coherent third act, I enjoyed the fight between doomsday, wonder woman, batman and superman more. When the trinity assembled to fight doomsday it felt more epic, in the theatrical cut it felt way too stale for seeing these three together for the first time. Wonder Woman's feature film debut was also fun to see, her role is small but effective with some great action scenes, I'm really looking forward to her stand alone film next summer. The fight with doomsday was really entertaining and when superman sacrifices himself to kill doomsday, I cared a lot more because this cut fleshed out his character. His funeral scene was also extended a bit with some characters from "Man of Steel" in attendance making his funeral have more impact.

Overall I really enjoyed this ultimate cut, not sure if everyone will the film is still far from flawless, but for me my biggest issue was the pacing which this version fixed. I still think Jesses Eisenberg was miscast, he's even cringe worthy at times during the film. His acting style just didn't work for Lex Luthor or the tone of this film. I also still have a huge issue with the justice league advertising that happened literally right before batman and superman fought. I just don't get why it wasn't an after credit scene or placed at a different time. It felt like a commercial played during the film to remind the audience that a justice league movie is coming out next year. There are still some script issues that I mentioned previously in the third act, and how the fight concluded between batman and superman will still remain polarizing.