Man of Tomorrow: A Man of Steel and Batman V Superman FanEdit

This is the second fan edit I've watched from this editor in two days. I'm really impressed with his work.

The Good:
Once again the edits are seamless and most of the editing choices were spot on. Many of the weaknesses of the two films are covered up by this edit. The awful editing and repetitive action of MoS is gone and so is the extremely convoluted conspiracy plot from BvS. The Martha scene is handled much better here, and cuts down on the cheese factor a little. I also loved how Pa Kent's sacrifice to hide Clark's identity from humanity is intercut with Superman's sacrifice to save humanity. This edit is definitely an improvement on the originals.

The Bad:
The first flashback scene is completely out of place in this edit. If you're going to utilize flashbacks, they should serve the story or inform us about the character in a meaningful way as it relates to what's happening. In the original film, it exists solely to set up that Zod has trouble when he is first exposed to Earth's atmosphere. In this edit it sets nothing up. It's just there. The whole "focus on my voice" thing doesn't come into play at all either. I would have used the flashback of him saving the bus full of kids since it fits thematically with what just happened.

The love story is still a problem. I still didn't buy it, and I'm not sure it's fixable. Lois and Superman just simply don't have enough screen time together and the actors have zero chemistry together. The ring showing up at the end also seemed really random here. I would have left in a little of the bathtub scene after the hero montage to show that their relationship has progressed enough for him to want to propose to her. Lex Luthor only just being introduced in Act 2 is a slight problem, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. Also, the post credit scene with Lex ranting about someone coming, and then the painting shot didn't make a whole lot of sense without seeing the setup for this it earlier in the film. If someone had watched this edit alone, they'd have no idea where that painting scene was taking place. I would have left in his arrest to show him talking to the "mysterious figure," but I'm not sure how the editor could include any of the earlier scene at his home with the senator.

Overall, I'd recommend this edit. It's still head and shoulders above MoS and BvS by themselves despite the problems I had with it.

This has to be one of my favorite fanedits of all time, because it took two movies I really wanted to like, and in which I honestly struggled to find any redeeming features, and made it something I can love. The singular genius of this edit for me, was that it seemed to take the most popular criticisms aimed at Batman Vs Superman and fix them by using MOS. What an idea!

Take this one. One of the biggest issues with BVS was that its a Superman movie, with a main character that we don't feel for or care about. We don't see him being heroic, or charming or see anything to make us invest in his romance with Lois. All that was in MOS, and while Synder's character writing is a weaker point, it was much stronger in that first outing. What JobWillins has achieved here is a film with a singular arc about the rise and fall of Superman. He is portrayed as a true Jesus style figure, and when he meets his ultimate end, while I felt nothing but fatigue in BVS, here with Jor-El narrating over the scene, I was moved to tears.

The opening of the film is excellent. Synder seems to think a film's plot should begin around the 50 minute mark, but here, Lois and Clark have met, his origin has begun to unfold in full, I'm invested in the story, and there feels like there's actual momentum by the 20 minute mark... where its supposed to be. Clark and Lois's arcs work well, and the transition between the two films is solid.

While BVS force-fed us a series of bloated subplots to justify the world questioning Superman, "Man of Tomorrow" capitalizes on the fact that the Battle of Metropolis was reason enough, and we experience that through the eyes of Bruce (brilliantly cut in), who we now see fully involved in those events the first time, rather than sitting through a rehash of the sequence. When Clark joins the Daily Planet, it feels like a beginning, rather than an end, when he takes down the Satellite monitoring him, it feels like foreshadowing, and right next to this is Bruce, brooding over it all. A perfect transition. The Flashbacks are also used very well. Some are even saved for the second half. Jon's death is particularly clever.

Now, condensing two films can lead to events feeling abrupt or truncated. I'm pleased to say that IMO, Zod does not feel so. I never liked MOS's interpretation of Zod anyway, so using him as a preliminary villain worked for me. Much of the exposition around his plan, and certainly the street-fight with Faora was grossly unnecessary, and thankfully gone in this iteration. JobWillins also managed to do something about the "Superman shouldn't kill" issue by altering the death to seem less deliberate. When we get to Lex, his once convoluted motives and plan are presented in a clear and linear fashion which makes him seem less annoying, and more like the genius he's supposed to be. The entire BVS section of the film felt right to me. JobWillins kept the good and cut the bad. No more hockey franchise building for Justice League. No more weak subplots and bad padding. No more dream sequences or Batman using guns. What is left is the core story. Freed from that baggage, and underscored by the best of MOS, these events come to carry much more weight, and the themes stand clear in what I feel is a film worthy of recognition. This is without a doubt my new opening entry to DCEU.

JobWillin's pitch about a movie condensing both worlds is a really interesting thing, I am a huge Superman fan and would consider any way of watching him unfold. The beginning of the movie really grabbed me, the whole sequence of showing all of the Krypton destruction and Clark's parents sending him off as a brief montage really got me excited of how things were gonna progress in this fanedit, I congratulate this edit on the whole beginning sequence, it is a great way of showing the development, immediately the movie jumps in a development of clark in his new persona, cutting down a lot of material and toning down the violence in its way, I must say it was shown in a good way but felt too fast, I did not get a sense of who the character and the color difference of the jump to BvS really felt different for me. It was a good way to interpret all this footage.

I liked quite a lot Man of Steel but didn't like Batman V Superman.

I'm sorry to tell but this fanedit didn't do service to Man of Steel. It made (in my opinion) a very good movie only into a decent one. It seems there wasn't enough buildup for the invasion for example. It all happened so quickly. It's just as some poor citizen in the film asked "is it over?"... I felt the same way. It also suffered a bit from "all over the place" syndrom. Quite a few times I wondered "why did this scene appear just now?". I could still keep track on the movie, but it wasn't easy.

Zod was handled mediocore at best. He was so well done in the original movie but I didn't feel anything about him in this fanedit. He just appeared, fought and lost. I didn't care about him as a character. The same goes for Lois Lane, and her relationship with Superman. I don't think it was done well in the original movies but their relationship didn't make much sense in this fanedit either. There wasn't enough buildup in that area.

Obviously when editing two long movies into one, a lot of cutting is needed. I think the editor did fine job overall but once again I felt Man of Steel suffered a lot in the process. However it's worth mentioning that Batman V Superman was handled way better. Now that movie sucked originally and I feel the editor made it better. I only wished that he could have cut less Man of Steel and more Batman V Superman.

Very well done on audio editing. It sounded seemless between different cuts. Batman V Superman scenes might have had a tad higher volume but I might be wrong about that. I didn't go back to check it. And if it did, the difference wasn't that big.

The editor seems talented and all the scenes were technically cut very well.

There were always at least parts I liked from each of these movies. This fan edit brings the best out of both nicely. However, there is a little bit too much chopped out at times. We are just supposed to believe the relationship between Lois and Clark even though it's never seen developing in the first place. Both Zod's and Lex's build ups are essentially cut, making the threat escalate rapidly twice in the movie. I mean, that's probably to be expected in this instance. All in all, certainly a better experience than sitting through both Man of Steel and Batman V Superman.