Batman v Superman: No Justice

Right from the outset, I doubted Batman V Superman and upon seeing the movie, I was right to be doubtful. It tried to do way too much in two-and-a-half hours and didn't really succeed in what it set out to do. The Ultimate Edition helped it a little, but it still felt like it was the same movie, just with more violence and better editing. Removing the bloat (Wonder Woman, Justice League members, Doomsday, Darkseid, Steppenwolf, etc.) saved this movie. Reese did a fantastic job at distilling this movie down to what it should've been about: a story of god vs. man and the responsibilities of men with power. It transcends from being awful to actually being a great superhero flick. Nothing deep, but fun as hell. Now, sure, there's no getting rid of the Martha scene, but in this cut, it's less "Oh, your mom and my mom have the same names; let's be friends!" and more "He may be an alien, but he's also a person with people who love him and if I kill him, I'm no better than the kind of scum that killed my parents." Plus, Batman brutalizing people actually worked pretty well as a finale. Hell, this edit gets a perfect ten on the grounds that it removed that nonsensical Jolly Rancher scene.

SPOILERS...etc

Batman vs Superman: No Justice

Much much better. The film is now a cohesive narrative. Where it doesn't always make sense is where it is supposed to have misdirection in the narrative. The characters now have the capacity to pull some empathy and curiosity from the viewer. Even Lex Luther is passable - That cannot be overstated as I was convinced his miscasting and theatrical direction was unrecoverable. Don't get me wrong, Luther is never going to be the Luther this film needed, but he is now not the problem. Taking out the staggeringly unimaginative “end of level baddie” trope also took out a lot of Lex's worst offences too.

The omission of Wonder Woman was simply necessary to do anything with this film and although she was a reasonable casting, this film needed to focus on BVS. Simple as. I barely remembered she was missing until well beyond Lex's party. Kudos. Alongside the other much smaller character cameos, WW was a DC world building factor and with the lead weight story line her original inclusion contributed to taking the viewer out of the titular premise and it's previously overstocked palette of patchwork fan service that in turn many fans ultimately didn't digest anyway - the email attachment bullshit, flash backs and dreamscapes. As cool as some of those were in isolation, a good film needs to engage positively without chewing off sprocket teeth with ill fitting elements that are better suited as teasers or even whole other films.

The gushing of men-children aside, this film was originally a beautiful shipwreck at best under the simplest scrutiny. My only reservation (and it is a very minor nitpick considering the narrative and footage available to the editor) is the time frame between the Martha moment and the batwing, as Affleck changed wardrobe quicker than Axl Rose for the rescue at the end ;)

So here's the thing I was unsure would work as it didn't originally... Martha. For the first time I gave a genuine damn about this. It carried weight without the corn , thanks to the streamlined edits and cheeky inserts – and although I personally don't mind how dark or violently malicious Batman gets in principle, it is also thanks to the empathy now possible for an audience to grant Bruce Wayne when he isn't murderous or gaining immense immoral inertia – again thanks to further tightening edits. I'm ok with his sadism though ;) - righteous and kick ass is righteous and kick ass however it is sliced. The narrative arc isn't now overshadowed by the bulking low brow set pieces that are blissfully now lifted from the shoulders of the film.

The grading is still dark but not so muted. Superman doesn't appear as if he will start flicking peanuts into bar mirrors. Neither does it go for a sickly overly saturated kodacolour moment. Fairly dealt with. Grading is pretty subjective though, and we all have different screen settings and capabilities.

So yes ok, some tasty and dynamic shots are not present, but a good film appears from the pyroclastic cloud amongst the lone horses and confetti of discarded cinema tickets :) An outstanding film fix. Thank goodness they made it so long in the first place to let a heavy edit come in at a feature length still.

A movie I recommend to anyone who was disappointed by the original.
No Justice is far more coherent then the original movie. It removes the extra DCEU stuff and focuses on just a single narrative which I think helps tremendously. While the movie stills has some issues, like the martha scene, as a whole it is a far superior movie compared to the original.

**SPOILERS**
First I have to say that I am a fan of the original Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the entire DCEU as a whole. I can admit that these movies do have their flaws, but I can appreciate that they are trying to do something different than Marvel. I think Zack Snyder is a tremendous director and was very excited when he announced that this would be his follow-up to "Man of Steel". In terms of visual and artistic style in Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder delivered (despite the muted tones). In terms of story telling this movie showed where Snyder falters as a director. "No Justice" does its best to make this a much more focused cohesive story and succeeds. While their edits cannot fix every issue that arose in the film it does a tremendous job attempting so. This fan edit delivers a story focused on Batman's distrust of Superman after the events in Metropolis and manipulation created by Lex Luthor to create that distrust. Gone is the distracting subplot leading to formation of the Justice League. Gone is distracting side story of the mysterious Wonder Woman (even though she was on the highlights of the original film). And gone is the final confrontation with Doomsday that culminates with Superman's death (which deserved to be its own movie). Rather than having a film that attempts to be a Superman sequel, a Batman reboot, and a Justice League prequel, this fan edit delivers a film that focuses on first "big screen" meeting of the worlds most famous super heroes in pop-culture.

Obviously, there are still some issues that they couldn't completely erase, but they did their best to amend them. Jessie Eisenberg's Luthor is still strange and out of character, but the minimization of his role makes it far more tolerable. The "Martha" scene still remains, but is modified in a certain way to make it easier for the audience to connect with and relate to. Batman's kill count is all but eliminated and makes the character much more true to his comic book counter part.

Overall this a very well done fan edit that turned a movie that I enjoyed into a movie that I love. It's the first big screen meeting of Batman and Superman that we deserved to see. It takes the best parts of the original film (minus Wonder Woman) and puts them in much clearer focus while simultaneously minimizing/eliminating the worst parts of the film. I recommend this fan edit to people who fell on both sides on field. If you enjoyed the original I think you'll appreciate the much more focused version of the movie. And if you hated the original I think you'll enjoy seeing what could've been with a more compelling and cohesive story.

Turned a movie that was poorly paced and edited, with plots that were either difficult to follow or difficult to care into a really compelling and satisfying film. Thanks!