Sometimes Less Is More

The Extended Cut, The Directors Cut, The Ultimate Edition, call it what you will but all of these things basically mean the same thing - You've seen our movie in cinemas but now you have to own the blu-ray to see the film the way it was intended to be seen.

Now the phenomenon of adding something new to a film is nothing new as studios have been doing it for years and certain films seem to be re-released on an annual basis with the odd tweak or extra line of dialogue (George Lucas is a master of this) but just recently the practice of the extended cut has gotten a little out of hand.

Just this year there have been three big examples of this (there have been others but for the purposes of this post I shall concentrate on the three I'm about to mention) and they have had different degrees of success.

First up there was Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice which was a film that was eagerly anticipated by comic book fans and casual movie goers alike. The promise of a movie adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns was very exciting (although we had already had the excellent animated version anyway) as we all got worked up about the prospect of seeing the Caped Crusader battling the Man of Steel. The film that was delivered to cour cinema screens however was a huge let down on so many fronts.

Henry Cavill continues to be a terrible Superman

Jesse Eisenberg was abysmal as Luthor

Doomsday not only looked crap but felt tacked on purely for the purpose of getting us to the Death of Superman

The movie dragged and the actual fight lasted mere minutes of the near three hour run time

The plot had huge holes in it and seemed to jump around all over the place

Etc...

So we turned to the blu-ray cut of the film in hope that it would deliver the movie we had been promised and whilst in my opinion it didn't really do anything to improve the film as a whole what it did do was replace cut footage that made the plot make more sense and filled in many of the holes that had been evident in the theatrical release.

Next on the conveyor belt was Paul Feigs Ghostbusters reboot which frankly nobody asked for and well very few people liked. Now I have written about this in length on multiple occasions so will not do so again here but what I will say is that I watched the extended cut of the film to see if like BvS the reintroduction of footage somehow improved the viewing experience. Not surprisingly however the added scenes for the extended Ghostbusters did nothing but make me angrier than I already was with the film and left me vowing to never watch this heap of steaming manure again (just to save you the trouble let me just say that the added footage is mostly dance scenes that should never ever have seen the light of day).

All of which leads us to the third and final movie that I wanted to discuss here and that is Suicide Squad. Again this is a film that I have discussed in length before and the stories of the troubled production are public knowledge so if you don't know what was wrong with this film then may I suggest a quick Google search and all will become clear.

However disappointing the film was however there was talk that the extended cut would appease fans and make for a more pleasurable watch. In this case the majority of the reinstated footage would involve Jared Letos Joker which some people loved and others (myself included) absolutely loathed as many consider him to be the worst Joker ever committed to film (and that includes animation). Fans of Letos portrayal however complained that there had been an unspoken promise of sorts that Joker would be the big bad of the film but in actuality he was pretty much an after thought with the actor himself saying that the majority of his footage had been cut from the finished film.

So we come to the extended cut of the film which does indeed have more Joker (although there is still alot of Leto footage missing). Whilst I am sure that fans of the characterisation will be pleased to see the new footage in the film for me it doesn't really add anything to the story. He is still not a major player in regards to the plot and I find Leto so grating here that I actually hate the film more for having more of him in it, especially when his added parts don't really add anything to the movie as an experience.

So there we have it, three big examples of the extended cut from 2016 that for a variety of reasons fall flat on their face. When the extended cut is done right it can be brilliant as it can at times feel like you're watching a whole new film but when it is done poorly as it is in the three movies I have cited above it just feels pointless and comes across as a huge cash grab which I'm afraid to say appears to be a growing trend in the modern market (again it's not a new thing but it does seem to be happening with more regularity).

In closing I would offer a suggestion to Hollywood -

If footage that is being cut from a film helps to make the plot more cohesive then just leave it in as we are all rabid enough for your movies that we will sit through an extra half an hour if it makes the whole experience better.

If however the footage adds nothing and is only been reinserted to make us think we are getting something new or better when in fact its just the same old tosh then just leave it on the cutting room floor and leave us in blissful ignorance.