Editor Reveals Original Cut of Batman v Superman Was Almost 4 Hours Long

"Batman v Superman was a unique challenge in that we had not one but two protagonists, each with an alter-ego," Brenner told Pro Video Coalition via FlickeringMyth . "So there was Clark Kent, Superman, Bruce Wayne and Batman. And then surrounding them are Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Wallace Keefe (the guy who loses his legs when Wayne Tower falls), Perry White, Martha Kent, Holly Hunter's character (Senator Finch), and still more characters orbiting them."

"It was a lot to juggle," he continues. "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 storylines were refined with the fat was cut out."

While many fans loved it, others found Batman v Superman to be a rather arduous trip to the movies. At over 2 hours and 30 minutes long, Batman v Superman certainly wasn't a casual viewer's paradise, but that's par for the course with these types of movies – both Captain America: Civil War and the Avengers: Age of Ultron are close to this mark. However, despite having all that time to play with, Batman v Superman felt rushed and disjointed to many fans and critics, resulting in an experience that felt a whole lot longer than it actually was. Now, in a new interview one of Batman v Superman's editors revealed that the original cut of the movie was close to 4 hours long.Just seeing all of these characters laid out reminds us of our biggest grievance with Zack Snyder's movie. There was simply not enough time to do any of them justice, and in attempting to do so, Zack Snyder spread the movie too thin, a fact that is evidenced later in Brenner's comments.What's a little worrying is the fact that the creative team were aware they were struggling to juggle so many characters and perspectives, yet they were still unable to fix the issue. Had this cut footage developed the stories and relationships of the core characters like Lex, Batman, and Superman, it's feasible that we could chalk the issues with the end product up to poor editing decisions. Instead, it seems like the 90 minutes or so of cut footage was actually layering in even more characters, leading us to believe there was never even a chance that we would get to see a deeper relationship and antagonism develop between the movie's titular heroes, somethiAs Brenner mentions, Zack Snyder's extended cut will add a little more context (and an R-rating) to the Batman v Superman story by bringing the run-time up to 3 hours. Hopefully this helps with the movie's flow, but it's hard to imagine it will wholly fix all of the issues. Personally, I'd be more curious to see the 4 hour cut than the one coming to Blu-Ray and Digital, but it's hard to imagine that ever being a reality.