Review Detail

Malthus always creates a professional quality edit. Other than a couple moments where audio from a cut scene bleeds over, you can hardly recognize that there was any cutting at all; especially with the 132min running time!

The story of BVS refocused as a "solo" Batman movie works surprisingly well! The first two acts are very strong. Opening on Bruce Wayne the way BVS does already sets him up as the lead character, but then cutting all Superman/Clark scenes and reframing the Congressional hearing as a response to Superman's fight with Zod instead of the attack in Nairomi really works to establish the main story as a response to the destruction caused in Man of Steel.

Superman ends up getting just a little bit more screentime than Wonder Woman, and, for comparison's sake, has about as much screentime in this edit as Dr. Strange does in Spider-Man: No Way Home. So in that sense it really does work as a Batman solo movie... until the 3rd act. The third act is just so cluttered in the original, it's hard to focus it on Batman. Though the removal of the Lois Lane bullet subplot helps trim the Superman elements quite effectively, the fact that Lex Luthor is still the primary antagonist makes the story still feel innately Superman's. I'm not sure much can be done to work around this, unfortunately.

Now, if I were to suggest one change, it would be to restructure the ending to have the final scene before the credits be Batman visiting Lex at Arkham (something I did in my own BVS edit). Book ending the film with Batman would help cement this as a Batman story first and foremost.

If you're a fan of Affleck's Batman, I would recommend checking out this edit! I don't feel it replaces Dawn of Justice in any future DCEU watches, but it's a cool alternate take on the story that really lets Affleck shine!