In honor of the fabled Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally being released, the SiftPop crew is counting down our favorite director’s cuts. Let us know @SiftPop what your ranking is!
The first time I saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I thought it was good. When I saw it again, I became disappointed because of the many plot holes which made me go, “What the…” But when the Ultimate Edition was released, I impulsively bought it and watched it. It’s the better version. I could endure BvS better than before. The extra 30 minutes bring the film full circle. It finally makes it what it should have been. It’s the only version to watch now and is worth wasting three hours of your life any day. (Chantal Ashford)
Once you realize what a joke everything is, being The Comedian is the only thing that makes sense. Okay, so we’re at the title that you either love or hate and honestly, I get it. I had a love/hate relationship with this movie for many years, but one thing is increasingly certain to me: the Directors Cut is the definitive version of Watchmen and I think will help enhance your experience too! After seeing all three versions, this is the best (the Ultimate Cut has the Tales of the Black Freighter spliced into it and doesn’t add much) and I’ve realized the only thing I don’t love about this movie is the relationship between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II. And for a movie that hits that 3 hour runtime, for that to be my only complaint is nothing short of incredible! (Aaron Schweitzer)
I still remember the news stories from six-plus years ago — as the old X-Men cast merged with the new, Anna Paquin’s Rogue was left on the cutting room floor. But never fear—The Rogue Cut would restore the footage and her character in the film. I must have been intrigued, because the Blu-ray ended up on my shelf. I didn’t remember much about the differences and, though the film has 17 extra minutes, I was cynically expecting slightly more than a glorified cameo. That’s not what the film does, however, as the character of Rogue actually plays a pivotal role in the future setting’s plot. Rogue’s debut scene in the film is also edited cleverly to poetically mirror the scene taking place in the 1970s. Other alternate scenes also add some character development and Sir Patrick Stewart takes the helm of another iconic ship. For those who enjoy the timeline-melding X-Men entry, this cut is worth giving a shot. (Jake Bourgeois)
What is your definitive Superman film? For me, Superman II has been the greatest of them all. The original Superman: The Movie sets up Christopher Reeves Superman in a magical and endearing way as he goes toe-to-toe with Earth’s most intelligent criminal, Lex Luthor. But Superman II gives him the greatest challenge of his life: battling three evil Kryptonians including the iconic General Zod. But years before Snyder got his cut, Donner got his. Is Superman II: The Donner Cut a drastically different film? Not quite. But what it does deliver is a true continuation of Donner’s vision from his first film. The film has a darker tinge to it and directly connects the events of Superman: The Movie to Superman II. Seek out this revised vision; it is worth the time! (Shane Conto)
Blade Runner might have been more than just a cult classic, if Blade Runner: Final Cut was the initial released version. This film was riddled with studio interference and the worst offense was having Harrison Ford do a clunky voiceover to annotate the plot to the audience. Not thinking the audience would be able to follow along, the execs demanded that there be added narration. In the Final Cut version of the film, that is entirely removed and it is amazing that small detail alone makes the film far more enjoyable. The darker ending for the film is more fitting, instead of the more uplifting one from the original release. When viewing this film, there is only one cut of the film that is a must and that is Blade Runner: Final Cut. (Joe Vargas)
Who doesn’t love a happy ending? Terry Gilliam might be one of those people. When it came to his satirical sci-fi film about the absurdity of bureaucracy, Brazil, he wanted to go all the way. Leaving his audience with a shattering sense of bleak hopelessness was his goal with this shocking and twisted finale. Yeah… studios don’t really like that. They pumped the brakes and released a neutered version of his cynical version (which has aided in Gilliam’s complete lack of trust in the studio system). But when it comes to this classic sci-fi film filmed with imagination and dream, there is only one way to experience it — by way of Gilliam’s true vision. (Shane Conto)
Exhausted Frank Here spending all day watching the four-hour cut of Justice League and man, does this thing make you feel every minute of it. Anyway speaking of Aliens, Aliens directed by indie filmmaker Jimmy Cameron was a smash hit in the 80s with a runtime of 137 minutes. Jimmy Boy released his 157 minute director’s cut which has since become everyone’s preferred version. You do not feel that runtime at all. The extended cut adds a lot of great new world building scenes, from Ridley finding out the fate of her daughter to its tone being one of overall dread. If you have not watched this movie you, are missing out. Also, I’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty. (Frank Kemp)
Who is the king of American gangster filmmaking? It is Martin Scorsese of course… right? Or Coppola? One director’s name is usually overlooked due to the butchering of his lone entry into the subgenre: Sergio Leone. Leone made a career of delivering some of the greatest westerns of all time, but his grand epic was meant to be this gangster opus in the form of Once Upon a Time in America. The studio forced his original film down to your standard two-hour time when this film meant to soar with gargantuan wings at four hours instead. Do you want to experience some cinematic magic? Check out the true version of Leone’s vision of a gangster story led by rising star Robert De Niro in a complex and weaving narrative. (Shane Conto)
Batten down the hatches and man your action stations, as I dive back into my list of shame for Das Boot, specifically the 1997 director’s cut of the 1981 West German film set aboard the wolf of the Atlantic, a Type VIIC U-Boat. In what could possibly be considered the gold standard of submarine movies, this Wolfgang Peterson film focuses on life aboard a German U-Boat during the Second World War from the perspective of a war correspondent. This film accents a portion of the war few people with only a casual interest in history know in detail, depicting the cramped and dirty conditions encountered by the crew, their ideological splits between those fiercely loyal to the regime and those whose only goal is to survive, and the long periods of boredom at sea punctuated by brief moments of action as the crew work to evade allied forces threatening to send their boat below crush depth, physically and psychologically. As their time at sea continues, you can feel the tension among the crew at every encounter with an enemy ship as they sit quietly beneath the waves, sonar pinging and the sound of propellers echoing through the sub as they wonder if their time is up. While some effects, namely those showing U-96 on the surface, show their age, and you cannot overlook the atrocities of the German regime of the time which cannot be forgotten, Das Boot remains the mark to which all other submarine films past and future are measured. (Joseph Davis)
If you were to ask me what the best Extended edition in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is, then I’d have to go with Return of the King. I’d even go as far as to say that this is the version that best caps off Peter Jackson’s iconic trilogy. There are some extended sequences here with our characters like Legolas and Gimli having fun while drinking, but there’s also more that gives new context to scenes and better fleshes them out. There’s a great moment where you get introduced to the mouth of Sauron which ends up making the “For Frodo” speech way more impactful than in the theatrical cut. Another addition here that’s missing from the theatrical that I think should’ve been left in is Christopher Lee appearing again as Saruman before dropping the Palantir. I could go on and on why this cut makes the grand finale more enjoyable but I’m pretty sure you know that by now already, given how high these extended cuts are regarded with fans of the series. (Alex Henderson)
Daredevil (Director’s Cut)
“Her name’s Elektra Natchios.” “Well, she sounds like a Mexican appetizer.” It says a lot that I chose that quote for this week’s entry in the BEC because it was really hard to choose a decent line from this movie. Unless it was Spider-Man or the X-Men, it was a rough time to be a superhero movie fan in the early 2000s, and this is a prime example, but I stand by to this day that Daredevil has the most improved Director’s Cut of all time. Running 20 minutes longer than the theatrical cut would be enough to make an argument, but also director Mark Steven Johnson makes some crazy changes to where it really is a whole different film! There’s an added subplot with Coolio (remember: 2003), added violent scenes that had to be removed for a soft PG-13 rating, more fluid storytelling and transitions, and it takes out the sex scenes (which is a sin in Frank’s book)! Sure, this film doesn’t stand as tall as the Netflix TV series, but there’s something really special here that just makes me ask, “What if…?” #RestoreTheMarkStevenJohnsonVerse (Aaron Schweitzer)
Also See: Kingdom of Heaven, Apocalypse Now, Doctor Sleep, Avatar, Alien, Almost Famous, The Abyss, The Exorcist