I felt that Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor emerged as a much, much stronger characters in the ultimate edition.

In Man of Steel, Superman saves the human race and Earth's biosphere from annihilation. This qualifies him as a "superhero" in a traditional Hollywood sense - and we should know that a traditional Hollywood production would not comment on his actions in a sequel. But Batman v Superman's gripping/engaging/horrifying opening sequence shows us that the same battle looked a lot different from the ground. Superman's choices had real consequences - people were hurt and people died. There's this moment where Batman looks up at Superman after saving this girl who was orphaned by Zod's attack - we learn a lot about how Snyder and Affleck view Batman from this image. Batman isn't watching a man - he hasn't seen the movie. Batman is watching two Kryptonian Kaiju, destroying another world.

Over the course of the film, Superman's inability to save everyone drives him to despair. His relationship with his mother (Martha) and Lois are his only anchors to humanity. After Luthor throws Lois off Lexcorp's roof and threatens his mother, Superman actually loses this humanity ([his appearance here]((https://media.giphy.com/media/Ew7WY8rVNoGe4/giphy.gif)) is a great callback to Luthor's 'demon' speech). To me, this meant that his subsequent fight with Batman is his last gasp and made the save Martha scene more compelling for me. This is a moment where both men are recovering their humanity.