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Originally Posted by Oliver_W
I still need to watched the extended BvS!! I was reading online that the studio wanted the runtime cut down, and due to things needing to be set up a lot of the stuff cut was plot related things, or something.
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They cut about 35 mins for the theatrical cut - the main issue is that they didn't cut full scenes/rework things to achieve that... they cut little bits here, little bits there, and the end result was a film that was choppy and seemed to jump from scene to scene like it had ADHD. The ultimate edition just has a much better "flow" to it and, as a result, weaves a far superior story. IIRC there were also a few Lex scenes cut from the theatrical version that made his motivations seem really unclear to the point of being random/chaotic which is obviously not the character at all, but when they're back in there you can see the ways that he's much more cold, intelligent and calculating. The most VITAL difference being that it becomes clear that Lex has had a major role in deliberately tweaking things here and there, and pulling little strings, that have contributed to Bruce's idea that Superman is dangerous and lead him down the path he's on in BvS. Which is sort of an essential plot point if you give a **** about the lore at all.
I still don't particularly rate Jesse Eisenberg's interpretation of the character, but it at least vastly improves my impression of how it was written.
I find it quite interesting really just from a "film-fan" perspective. No one cut that was made is huge on its own, yet the restored version is in my opinion a FAR superior film. Part of why I'm so hyped/fascinated to see the new JL cut where by all accounts the changes were much bigger.
Obligatory to add though: "Hey lol both of our mums are called Martha?" is still the dumbest and least plausible reason for the fighting to suddenly stop and Bats+Supes to become BFF's I can imagine. I know it's supposed to be indicative of a "light bulb" moment for Bruce realising that there's a man with a whole other life under the cape, and he's not just the god-like figure in the cape... but it doesn't land right. The writing there is so bad
. Wish they'd do a third cut where they replace that with some longer exposition
.
Oh a final point: Steppenwolf was briefly introduced (communicating with Luthor) and that was also cut... which had the knock-on effect of making his introduction in JL seem totally random. I have no idea why they'd cut foreshadowing like that from the theatrical release. Just lots of very odd choices. There are plenty of other scenes that could have been snipped or shortened to whittle away 30 mins... but they chose loads of story-critical stuff. I feel like whoever did the cutting decided that they were keeping all of the action intact, so all of the cuts had to come from the plot. Which was a mistake.
Funnily enough... these days I think they'd just have left the film at 3h in the cinema
. There was an idea at the time that audiences wouldn't tolerate a film longer than 2.5h. It's still sort of a thing I guess - they did consider chopping Infinity War/Endgame into a trilogy of shorter movies instead of a two-parter, too.