Should You Really Get Your Hopes Up for ‘Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition?’

I haven’t run the numbers on this, but I suspect there are currently only two kinds of people in the world: the people who liked Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the rest of us, who wanted to like it but simply had to deal with the fact that we didn’t.

It is that second camp of people that Warner Bros. seems to be courting most passionately with the new trailer for the Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition, an R-rated cut of the film that runs 31 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. (That’s a whopping 182 minutes total.) Some of that additional material makes an appearance in the trailer, which premiered earlier today at Collider, and it’s leaving many of us scratching our heads, wondering if the movie really will be better or if somebody just cut a pretty good trailer that emphasizes different aspects of the film.

Also: Max Landis Helps Review ‘Batman v Superman’ (Exclusive Video)

The theatrical film was dour, portentous, and forced Batman and Superman to pontificate about each other without actually interacting for most of the film. It was full of plot holes and bizarre scenes involving jars of urine, not-so Jolly Ranchers and two heroes bonding over the fact that their mothers had the same first name. It digressed from the plot repeatedly in order to set up future films in the franchise, whether or not that detracted from the rest of the film we were currently watching. And yes, Batman was an unapologetic murderer, and yes, Zack Snyder shot Jimmy Olsen in the head.

It seems a bit unlikely that a longer cut of Batman v Superman with an even more “mature” rating will solve a lot of these problems, but history has taught us time and again that extended cuts can be vastly superior to the theatrical release. Sometimes that’s because the studio meddled in the production, ruining the film in advance (see: Blade RunnerLegend and Kingdom of Heaven, because Ridley Scott had to deal with this a whole lot), and sometimes it’s just because films need some space to breathe. Having some more time to process what you’re watching, instead of swiftly bounding to the next big thing, can make some films play better. Heck, sometimes they even feel shorter.

We won’t know if the Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition is a significant improvement on the theatrical experience until it comes out. It arrives on Digital HD on June 28, and on the other formats on July 19. But before you get too jazzed about this trailer, it may behoove you to remember that if Batman v Superman taught us one thing, it’s not to get our hopes up. If the film is better, that will be awesome. But if it has the same old problems, you probably shouldn’t be surprised.

 


William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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