Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

Zack Snyder crafted the first cinematic meeting — and subsequent fisticuffs — between Batman and Superman. Offscreen, though, the director was in for a battle of another sort.

Since March, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has rung up $330.4 million at the box office — more than $872 million worldwide — and ranks as the year's fifth-biggest movie to date. But the superhero film was also slammed with negativity, from scathing reviews to online vitriol from fans who thought Snyder was ruining the legacies of the Dark Knight (played by Ben Affleck) and Man of Steel (Henry Cavill).

The journey has been a “rocky road,” Snyder tells USA TODAY in an exclusive interview ahead of the movie's home-viewing release. Even he thought the heroes would lose luster in his eyes after the unpleasant experience, “but every day, I wake up and these characters still have tons to say to me about the world and about heroes. I feel renewed vigor to really get their voices heard.”

Will bad reviews take down 'Batman v Superman'?

The filmmaker says he continued to love BvS in the aftermath, when people drew up petitions asking Warner Bros. to boot him from the follow-up Justice League (in theaters Nov. 17, 2017) — even as Snyder was in pre-production. “That part was a little bit distracting,” he says, calling from London after a day of filming.

Hardest to deal with was the perception that he wasn’t being “true to canon” and didn’t adore these characters. “That was upsetting and made me evaluate myself and where I was with the movies and what I wanted to say with them."

Fans will see Snyder’s true BvS vision in a three-hour Ultimate Edition director’s cut that arrives June 28 on digital platforms and July 19 on Blu-ray/DVD. The new R-rated edition adds a half-hour back to the plot that finds Batman and Superman overcoming disagreements and teaming with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to stop Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) and the destructive Doomsday.

The extra content includes reporter Clark Kent investigating Batman’s vigilante antics, as well as the deleted role of a helpful scientist (Jena Malone). Also restored are small, fan-friendly details such as Batman wanting Lex locked up in Arkham Asylum rather than the supervillain prison Belle Reve that factors heavily into Suicide Squad (in theaters Aug. 5).

Plus, there’s bonus material considered “too violent” and “too sexy” for a PG-13 rating, Snyder says. (Batman dishes out more pain in fights, and Clark lingers longer in a bathtub with Amy Adams' Lois Lane.)

Prepping Justice League, Snyder monitored Internet chatter about Dawn of Justice for the good and especially the bad. “It’s been an interesting experience to analyze the negative stuff to find out what the point of view is," he says. "How do I move forward and use that constructively?"

He has taken a lot of the criticism to heart, particularly in terms of tone, though Justice League was always going to be more uplifting than BvS for its team-building aspect alone. He says the next movie will be a celebration of these heroes.

Dawn of Justice ended with Batman inspired by Superman’s sacrifice to be a good man and “to be awesome,” says Snyder. "That message, that humanity can do better and Batman wanting to nurture that, is the place I want to go.”