Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Part 2 - The Consequences Edit

It didn’t feel right jumping straight into this edit before having seen DoJ part 1, so now that I’ve done that, I can safely say that this edit is more of the same as the first, which is both good & bad.

It’s good in that there’s a lot of excellent streamlining of the film to be more digestible. At 2 hours & 10 minutes, the movie’s essentially two parts, before the fight, & the fight and aftermath. Lex’s mania is toned down, the intro with Bruce’s narration is much tighter, there’s genius use of Superman’s interview with the children from the JL Whedon Cut, Clark doesn’t threaten to “break” Luthor, and this edit hands down has the best solution to “Save Martha” moment ever.

Even cuts I wasn’t sold on at the time I watched the edit (removing Batman’s from the scene where we realized he branded that guy, removing the line about Pa Kent when Clark’s calling his mom) feel better in retrospect (highlighting Batman as a mysterious & more viscous vigilante, & putting more focus on Clark wishing that saving the world was simpler).

That said, much like DoJ Part 1, there are still cuts that rob the film of breathing room. These range from robbing the film of set up/payoff (you keep Superman saying he doesn't view Earth as “my world” as well as end the film on Lex’s painting, but you remove their corresponding scene/line from earlier/later in the film. Also, if you’re toning down the amount of people Batman kills, it might be better to put more attention on when he kills KGBeast, since he’s the exception to the rule) to the varying levels of confusing (Who’s the “she” that Clark was trying to interview? Bruce just has a stained glass window of a Superman-themed angel in his parent’s cemetery? Where did that random car from the batmobile chase come from?)

Also like DoJ Part 1 there were scenes left in that probably could’ve been cut out. Keeping the scene where Clark says he doesn’t view Earth as “his world” feels out of place with the boy scout image that’s been the goal of both this & the previous edit. Other scenes seem to kill the pacing the bit (Martha being kidnapped & the scene with the nukes, either because the cutting the first scene would make a more shocking reveal, & the second scene ultimately doesn’t affect Superman or Doomsday) or would do better with ending earlier or having alternate scenes in their place (ending Luthor’s first talk with Superman with “and now God bends to my will,” or replacing Martha getting kidnapped with Lois finding out Wallace didn’t kill himself).

As a final note, this isn’t really a fanediting problem, but more a question on viewing order. While I’ve not yet seen DoJ Pt.3, Wonder Woman, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to watch that movie second & then this edit as the third film. Theoretically, the audience would then have images of Superman & Wonder Woman built up in their minds, & then our two fleshed out characters come to round out our third character in Batman, which would then be used as buildup to Justice League.

In any case, this is a great edit of BvS, and more than worthy as Fanedit of the Month & the best of Wakeupkeo’s work that I’ve seen so far.

The bad stuff was cut, the good stuff was left in. What more do you want? I have a tendency to be long-winded so I figured I'd keep it short for a change.





....Just kidding. Backstory: I saw Batman V Superman in theatres and honestly I loved it, "mArThA" and all. I went to Walmart at midnight on my birthday the following summer and bought myself the Ultimate Cut on blu-ray and immediately watched it, and it's probably my favorite birthday memory (how sad is that? Lmao) As a result, there were actually some scenes in this edit that I wish had been left in (like the flashback to Pa Kent), but Wakeupkeo cut out the "mArThA" bit in a way that worked, so I don't really feel like I have a right to complain about anything.

This is not a critique, just a personal preference I'd love to see fulfilled: I've never seen any edit move the scene where Lawrence Fishbourne is like "Where's Kent? Where does he go? He clicks his heels and goes back to Kansas I suppose" to come right before the scene where Clark IS back in Kansas. I'm pretty surprised nobody has done it yet, and I'd love to see it!

Anyways, bravo good sir. This will be how I watch this movie from now on, and if you're reading this review, this edit is FAR superior to what Warner Bros. gave us.

Anyone reading this review should ABOSLUTELY check out this edit. It's stellar, I noticed no obvious cuts or trims, other than in the places I knew them to be, because of how well I know the original film.


Hot take before I go: this is the only good movie with Wonder Woman in it.

So first off, I have to say that this is technically super well-executed. If I hadn't seen BvS in both it's offical forms several times, there are some things I might not have missed, they were so well excised. The two cuts which I "felt" was during Lois and Lex's conversation on top of LexCorp Tower and when Batman shot KGBeast's flamethrower.

From the beginning, I knew I wasn't going to be rating this edit 10/10. Batman v Superman is actually my favorite comic book film of all time, so clearly, I wasn't going to be 100% on board with some of these cuts. However, I am always interested to see a new perspective on a favorite film, so I was glad to get into this. I went into this looking for simple continuity of character and plot. As with every film I watch, I intentionally tried to watch it without expectations; to take it on it's own merits and not force it to live up to something I've imagined beforehand.

Overall, I would say wakeupkeo has done a fantastic job cutting out the elements of the film that distracted many people from seeing the good, solid superhero movie that was always part of BvS. In general, most of the edits are fantastically chosen to give the story a laser focus on, as the title says, "Batman v Superman." We have pretty uncomplicated and clear reasons both Bruce and Clark disapprove of each other, and a straightforward plot that brings the two of them into conflict. Lex's most egregious odd behaviors and some of his manipulations are cut, providing less distraction from that core of Bruce and Clark's disagreement. Audio and visual edits recontextualize teasers for later films and remove time-travel continuity now fated never to come to pass.

By cutting out everything not related to Clark and Bruce, their development throughout the story is more clearly seen. As in the official cuts, Clark is struggling with not only whether or not he is accepted as a citizen of Earth, but uncomfortable with how he is deified. Clark's worried whether or not the unintended consequences of his interventions are worth it, and disapproves of Batman's violent methods. Bruce is simply enraged at those unintended consequences and equally terrified that Superman might end up turning on humanity. The infamous Martha moment is replaced with multiple flashbacks to the Thomas and Martha Wayne's deaths throughout the film, really driving home Bruce's PTSD and how it's affecting the way he's reacting to Superman's existence and actions. (The footage is from Batman Begins, presumably because the footage of the Waynes' murder from BvS had this movie's title credits in it.)

All of these choices are extremely effective in making Batman v Superman into a good solid superhero movie. I really enjoyed seeing this focus on the BvS plot and loved seeing Bruce and Clark's unfiltered and direct character development. It really reminded me how much I love these actors as these characters. Unfortunately, wakeupkeo's editing robs both Lex and Lois of their character depth and arcs, also reminding me how much I love those actors as those characters, but through their absence.

By removing Lex's character moments, especially in the benefit speech scene, a whole layer of Lex's motivations and manipulations are lost. Everything which made the character interesting or gave him motivation is gone - his history as a survivor of abuse; his frustration that all his intelligence, which gave him power in human society, is meaningless next to Superman's raw physicality; his hatred for God both as a concept and represented in the person of Superman. While Clark and Bruce retain their character-driven storylines in this cut, Lex completely loses his. He just hates Superman for some unknown reason and, like the Joker, he just "does things." Not "this happens because of that" but "that happens, then this happens."

Similarly, removing the Africa sequence and Lois's investigation relegates Lois to the status of a background character, a plot device with none of her own drive or purpose, only to be put in danger multiple times in order to manipulate Superman. That's consistent with many depictions of Lois over the years, but Snyder/Goyer/Terrio/Adams' version of Lois Lane is the best version of her we've ever had on the big screen - compotent, fierce, and a true journalist. This Lois Lane as seen both in MoS and the BvS: UC is unwilling to abandon the pursuit of truth even when it puts her in danger. This is different than other depictions of Lois where she blithely disregards her own safety, apparently because she's a moron. Losing that depth is a true loss to the film. Losing the vision of Jonathan Kent and the "hero cake" story is also a loss, as is the Knightmare fight sequence. Just as a pet peeve, it felt like the Batman Begins footage for the Wayne murder flashback was overused.

By making Batman v Superman into a good solid superhero movie, I feel wakeupkeo has cut away what made Batman v Superman transcend superhero movies and catapult it into true mythmaking, the things that made it into a great film. As originally produced (and in Ultimate form), BvS is a Shakespearean superhero revenge tragedy crossed with the best of DC's Elseworlds. Watching it in the theater was the closest I've ever felt to reading through classic Bronze and Steel Age DC stories like The Dark Knight Returns, the various Crises on various Earths, Red Son, Grant Morrison's runs on JLA and Batman, Knightfall, Cataclysm/No Man's Land, Death and Rebirth of Superman, etc. Like no other comic book movie, BvS in it's theatrical cut felt like finding a treasure trove of comics, discovering exciting characters anew. There were all these cool hooks into and out of other stories. Zack Snyder was promising all of these things would fit together eventually, and his filmmaking was so masterful and confident that I believed him 100%. It felt like a massive crossover collection missing some of the tie-in books, and having to fill in some of those blanks for myself, but wow was it going to be just about the greatest thing ever when all the books came out, or I found them all in the back issues of the comic book shop! And in addition to all of this, it seemed to reach for something greater and deeper than just being another superhero punch-em-up, going beyond even the deepest Marvel or prior DC movies to resonate themes and tones I had never seen in a superhero film before or since besides ZSJL.

wakeupkeo's cut is a very good, nearly great, superhero movie, and if I had seen this version in the theater, I would have given it a 7/10. 8.5/10 if it didn't cut Lois and Lex's most important moments. It probably would have done somewhat better financially than the theatrical version, as it fits many of the things people seemed to be expecting when they originally went to see BvS. Shooting this script would have been substantially less expensive for WB, too. It seems to be getting fellow comic geeks to re-evaluate my favorite comic book movie of all time, and see the good that was always there. For that, despite the fact that this will probably not be the cut I watch ever again, unless I'm showing it to a friend, I give it my absolute highest recommendation.

This entire fanedit trilogy is incredibly well made, it's miles above what WB actually put out.

This edit of the movie is fantastic!
I watched it through from start to finish without having the feeling that even a second was stalled. Everything makes sense in the cuts and the re-editing and it truly deserves the good rating this fanedit got.

I have to admit in the first third of the film everything moves so quick, making me feel that my blood pressure went up a bit, I don't know if this is due to the fast pace of the original theatric cut and just not a lot could be done here to slow it down a bit, or if some for this version "unnecessary" scenes were cut and the rest was put togehter in a way that speeds up the pace that much. So in a way this makes me understand why the original directors of these movies put in some bloated scenes to make the films less "stressful" to watch through all the many happenings that unfold in front of the audience's eyes. I also have to admit to now having to go through the change list after watching it.

This version to me is the superior one compared to the original cut and the go-to-version for this film and I recommend it to everyone who wants to enjoy Batman v Superman.

There were so incredibly many details changed and cuts made, but they all blend together amazingly so that I never felt like watching a fanedit, besides maybe the above mentioned super fast pace of the first third.

Really the only very small thing story-wise that I realized immediately was that there was a cut when Lex Luthor is in the spaceship, hence not showing him cutting his own hand in order to take control of the ship. Later on, on the roof of his building talking to Superman he lifts his hand and refers to blood, having his hand bandaged for apparently no reason. But I don't think that this will really perplex anyone, and much more important is that the scene of Lex in the spaceship was cut heavily, which I loved since I found these scenes and all it's details unnecessary in the theatric version.

What I liked the most from all the changes, was how the end of the fight between S and B was beautifully edited and the entire scene makes much more sense now for both characters.

I can honestly say only the most important scenes for the story to unfold how it should were left in this movie, all changes were done with a lot of passion, love for the movie and time, for which I personally want to thank the editor, which became one of my favorite faneditors of them all after watching this movie, mad respect!