Since this is my alternative view of how BvS:DoJ could have gone, it’s goes without saying that there will be some spoilers in here!!! Ok… ACTION!!!

The movie opens the same way. Maintain the same images and narration depicting the birth of the Batman. I appreciate how this was done to tell a story everyone has seen a few times before.

At the point when Bruce rescues the little girl and looks up at Clark and Zod falling to their eventual spot in the subway, give the view one final time of Bruce’s scowl then back to the falling pair. Allow the view to quickly pan away from Clark and Zod to a lone standing tower still unaffected by the quakes. Show the iconic full windowed office of a bald Lex Luthor (note that this Luthor is played by someone older and more ‘held together’. I feel the Luthor this movie offered made a better Riddler character).

Luthor witnesses the destruction of ‘his’ city with anger and awe. As Clark and Zod disappear underground, Luthor calls out to Merci to ready his chopper. With the push of a button, his painting moves to reveal a series of monitors. He scans the rubble outside again, then types in an address. The monitors turn on to showcase Clark holding Zod and snapping his neck. Luthor watches as Lois runs to Superman and as she holds him the view switches to Luthor who simply utters, “Interesting.”

18 months later we see the Daily Planet readying to cover another Luthor event. He has been painted as the savior of Metropolis, with his wealth fueling the rebuild of the city. While the Planet mainly covers Superman, a start-up news blog has been creating an anti-Superman movement, daily highlighting all the ‘good’ Luthor has done. Dissension in the government around Superman is also evident. Clark has trouble adjusting to all the negativity surrounding Superman but Lois tries to reassure him. These conflicts should give us more Clark time, showing how Superman’s arrival affects him (similar to how we are seeing it affect Bruce and Lex). Since this movie is all about setup of the universe we can just touch on these themes to be fleshed out in later movies.

Lois receives a tip that calls her away to the Indian Ocean. Clark doesn’t want her to go but being Lois, she ‘has to’. Also, given the character, she doesn’t disclose to Clark why she is going. She spies the discovery of the Kryptonite but is apprehended by Luthor’s men. Days go by and Clark realizes that Lois is missing and he has no idea where she is. This can set up a partial view as to what losing Lois will do to Clark as the current movie alludes to.

Luthor acquires the battle armor pieces of Zod to create a suit to be used to fight Superman. A victim of the Zod fight volunteers and dons the suit. Meanwhile in Gotham, Bruce continues investigating a new criminal in his city who has been making noise near the docks. Have it so Luthor has employed one of Cobblepot’s lieutenants to bring in a shipping container with precious cargo. Batman secures the dock as the ship enters port and upon opening the marked container, he finds an unconscious Lois. The moment the container opens, Clark picks up on her heartbeat. Bruce takes Lois into the Batmobile and plans to question her back at the cave but is stopped on the way by Superman. Clark rips open the car, sees Lois and is angered. He takes her and threatens Bruce similar to their first encounter in the movie. Having lost his only lead, and bullied by Clark, Bruce’s paranoia/anger continues to grow.

Lois divulges what she knows of the Kryptonite and the supposed Luthor involvement. She receives an invitation to Luthor’s event and Clark insists on tagging along. Bruce in a similar way to the movie wants to gain info on Lex and he receives the same invite. The movie plays out a bit similar at this point, with Bruce meeting Diana at the party and trying to steal info.

However, the party is interrupted just as Luthor concludes his speech on the danger of allowing Superman to reign unchecked. An armored man bearing the S crest attacks the party, calling himself Metallo. Clark changes, and a fight ensues with Superman easily subduing the armoured man. He then reveals a small chunk kryptonite and it appears to stagger Superman, allowing Metallo a chance to hit Superman. Bruce witnesses this moment of weakness, and so does Lex. He leaves the party along with the other terrified guests, noting that Diana left with his device.

Superman permanently stops Metallo with his heat vision, shattering the small kryptonite shard but also causing an explosion of Metallo. An angered Lex holding an unconscious, bloodied Merci calls out to Superman before he can flee remarking “This is what you do best, alien.” Superman turns away and flies off.

Lex uses his connections to secure access to the alien ship and proceeds to “clone” Superman using the DNA of Zod and himself. The ship’s systems, calling itself the Brainic Index, warns him of the dangers of Kryptonian cloning but he overrides the controls and makes it proceed. It needs to be made clear that Luthor wants the world to see the dangers allowing aliens to live on Earth pose. Make it so he envisions himself playing the hero and destroying both the clone and Superman with his Metallo, Version 2.

The Bruce and Diana dynamic plays out the same, with Bruce acquiring the data the same way and learning of other meta’s. He sees the research on Kryptonite and decides that he needs to steal it from Luthor. Batman breaks into LexCorp and a multi-level fight sequence breaks out culminating in Batman acquiring the Kryptonite shard from the Indian Ocean. Lex returns after spending days in the alien vessel to find out that the shard was stolen. He reviews the footage of Batman in his building and orders Merci to get him Waller on the phone.

Throughout the movie we see Bruce having visions of a world in ruins similar to the movie. Through the bleed-effect of time travel, everytime future-Barry tries to connect with Bruce it causes him to see the world of the future. Bruce is unable to know that these aren’t dreams but actually glimpses into the future. When Barry finally breaks through, he warns Bruce that Lois is the key and that he has to stop him. Bruce wakes up to find some disturbing news on the screen.

Lois is kidnapped and left unconscious hanging from the bat-signal in Gotham. It makes the news as we see Superman untie her and smash the huge light. Bruce watches this on the screen and tells Alfred to get the suit ready. He knows Superman will be looking for him now and decides that he has to stop him, fueled unknowingly by his dreams/visions. Bruce flies the Batwing to Metropolis but is brought to the ground by Clark. The two fight in a similar fashion to the movie, except Bruce is driven to stop Clark vs a need to kill him. At the climax of the fight, instead of it being the name of Martha that stops him, an explosion in Metropolis grabs both of their attention. With the Kryptonite effect waving off, Clark hears a creature speaking a broken Kryptopian language. He flings Batman off of him before leaving to see what the situation is in Metropolis.

In Metroplois he finds a grey skinned clone of himself, dressed in Zod’s black Kryptonian garb. It screams “Me Am…. Me Am” before freezing Clark in place with his frost vision. The two fight, and Clark is still under the lingering effects of the Kryptonite. Diana shows up to assist, having learned of Luthor’s involvement. The two fight and Batman eventually joins in, wanting answers.

Throughout the fight it turns out the the clone becomes Doomsday, as the military nuke causes an unintended effect. Diana and Clark battle the beast while Batman attempts to fend off a new version of Metallo. Alfred is able to establish a link with Metallo and finds out that he is being ordered by Lex. Batman subdues Metallo and secures the last remaining shard of the Kryptonite. Superman discloses that he needs it to stop the clone and after a moment of realization that Clark is selfless, Batman/Diana watches as Superman stops the beast, killing them both.

I don’t think there should have been a death of Clark scenario. At least not public. I’ve never been fond of these moments in the comics.

So, what do you think? This version still hits all the same strides as the version that hit theaters but in a more acceptable way to me. I think this was a good first putting for the DC cinematic universe and I’m ready to see what’s next. But I do have one question….

Who was that guy that had Bruce running full steam ahead at the beginning?