Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was a very divisive movie, but if there’s one thing that everyone can seemingly agree on, it’s that the editing was pretty choppy. The first hour or so of the film felt almost like a clip show as we jumped from one scene to the next, and the release of a bizarre deleted scene indicated that some huge plot points ended up being cut.
That’s something which has now been confirmed by editor David Brenner. During a recent interview, he revealed that the first cut of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was a massive four hours long. It was eventually cut down to three hours (which we’ll see with the upcoming R-Rated “Ultimate” version), with a two and a half hour movie eventually being released into cinemas.
“It was a lot to juggle. So the plot lines of a couple characters had to go. These people are currently in the movie but we don’t track them, and it’s okay. What’s kind of fun is that we went back and did an extended cut where we put a lot of this stuff back, and we refined it into the same rhythm as the theatrical release. So what was once a nearly four-hour cut with absolutely everything was ridiculous – ended up being about a three-hour cut, once all these added story lines were refined with the fat was cut out.”
While it’s not unusual for assembly cuts to be pretty lengthy, it seems obvious here that director Zack Snyder needed to be reigned in by Warner Bros. during shooting (it’s no wonder Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice cost so much to make), while Chris Terrio’s screenplay probably could have done with another pass to trim the fat rather than cutting it down during editing.
With all of this in mind, it’s going to be very interesting to see how much of an improvement that “Ultimate” cut of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice ends up being, don’t you think?
