Review Detail

So I was not a fan of Batman v Superman, both the original and the "Ultimate" edition. Both were bloated, excessively busy, and often incoherent. So I was pretty interested in watching this version. Overall, it's a definite improvement as a sequel to Man of Steel, and as a film about Batman and Superman.

First and foremost, all sequel-bait is gone. No visit from the Flash, no email about the other metahumans, and no warning from Lex Luthor about Darkseid or any of that. Even Wonder Woman completely gone (you'll only spot her in the background at Lex's party). Though that does make seeing her name in the opening credits a little strange.

Also, Lex Luthor is much less cartoony, mostly just by cutting out eighty percent of his stutters and verbal tics. He's much more tolerable when he can get through a sentence without going "Ah!" or "Oop!"

This version is less than two hours long, and most of that comes from removing the entire Doomsday fight and Superman's death, which itself lasted about half an hour. The final action scene is Batman saving Martha, and while that's a bit anticlimactic, it's a much better finale than Superman's death.

The main disadvantage is that this film isn't watchable as a DCEU film. While it's a good Man of Steel sequel, since it actually focuses on the Man of Steel, it's completely self-contained, and after Wonder Woman has come out, it definitely isn't canon to the DCEU. However, it succeeds where it counts, as I didn't even miss most of the scenes of the main characters sulking and monologuing their way through the story.

Overall, I would recommend as a completely stripped-down version of the film I was hoping to see. Only what's important to the title conflict remains, and I was satisfied enough with that.