Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman, which might just be the highest-grossing “failure” of all time, leads this week’s home entertainment releases that also include Don Cheadle’s innovative screen portrait of Miles Davis, the slight, but amusing Elvis & Nixon, the first season of SyFy’s The Magicians, and the fourth season of the cloning saga Orphan Black, plus the debut of the Bleach anime on Blu-ray.

Theatrical Releases

This week’s biggest release is Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (Warner Bros., “R,” $28.98, BD/DVD Combo $35.98), which contains 30 minutes of footage that wasn’t included in the theatrical release.  After the success of the R-rated Deadpool, Warner Bros. announced that it would release Batman v. Superman on disc as an “R,” in spite of the fact that the movie was presented in theaters as “PG-13.”  Aside from the dubious morality of putting out a “restricted” version of a film on disc (where there are virtually no safeguards to prevent the underage from watching it) when it was released in a much tamer version in theaters, it is unlikely that just adding a half an hour of ultra-violent action scenes will endear the ponderous Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice to fans of the anarchic, irreverent, fourth wall-breaking Deadpool. 

It is counterintuitive to consider that a film, which set a March opening record with a massive $166 million debut, could be in any way a failure, but Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice just might be that very rare bird.  Consider the fact that the film earned over half of its domestic total during its first three days of release, and one might conclude that there was tremendous demand built up for a film that was very well marketed, but that mainstream audiences didn’t like the film and bad word-of-mouth quickly torpedoed its box office prospects.  Batman v Superman didn’t find favor with the critics (only 27% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes), and the film’s dark, super serious tone was a poor match for today’s zeitgeist, but comic book fans will find lots to like in this film that is intended to set the stage for the DC Cinematic Universe, and which manages to hold interest through its enormous theatrical running time (151 minute) in spite of all the “groundwork-laying” and “character-introducing” chores that it had to perform.  I for one don’t feel the urgent need for the 30 extra minutes in the extended edition that take the running time past three hours, but your mileage and opinion may vary, and the BD offers both the theatrical cut and the extended edition on separate discs.

Also with more than 2 hours of special bonus features fans are getting a “fully-loaded” version of the film now—if Batman v Superman had lived up to its hype, we would probably have to wait for a special second fourth quarter “holiday edition” of the film to get all the deleted scenes and bonus features---the dark clouds of failure do have an occasional silver lining.

More of a portrait of a man at two key stages in his life than any sort of conventional biopic, Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead (Sony, “R,” 100 min., $25.99, BD $30.99) takes an oblique approach at the monumental career of its subject, the enigmatic and masterful jazz trumpeter Miles Davis.  Flowing freely between the 1950s and the 1970s Miles Ahead is not like any conventional musical biopic, and is in fact just the sort of film that figure as protean as Miles deserves.  Don Cheadle, who also co-wrote and directed the film, gives one of the best performances of his career as Miles, and Davis’ recordings are used to great effect throughout in what is one of the best films a jazz artist in years (and which earned a solid 73% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

For fans of romantic comedy there is The Perfect Match (Lionsgate, “R,” 96 min., $19.98, BD $19.99), which covers well-trodden narrative ground with its saga of a jaded playboy (Terrence Jenkins) who gambles that he can stay with one woman for a month and not fall in love—a bet that, according to the conventions of the genre, he is bound to lose.

For connoisseurs of the absurd there is Elvis and Nixon (Sony, “R,” 86 min., $25.99, BD $26.99), a slight, but entertaining extrapolation of what happened at a legendary meeting between music legend Elvis Presley, who, in spite of a person penchant for prescription painkillers, offered his services to the then President Richard Nixon, as some sort of clandestine DEA agent.  Michael Shannon doesn’t look that much like Elvis, but he has the rock star’s swagger down, and Kevin Spacey nails the calculating and self-aware Nixon.

TV on DVD

This week’s releases include several geek favorite series including The Magicians: The Complete First Season (Universal, 550 min., $39.98, BD $44.98), which collects the 13-episode first season of the Syfy series based on Lev Grossman’s novel.  The protagonist of The Magicians is a graduate student who is accepted at Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York institution that functions as a sort of Hogwarts for 20-somethings in this series, which like the Potter books, posits a world where magic exists and is “integrated” at least somewhat with the straight world.

Also of great interest are the science fiction series Orphan Black: Season 4 (BBC, 460 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), which has inspired a comic book series from IDW, and which features the Emmy-nominated Tatiana Maslany in a powerful performance as a woman who discovers that she is just one of a number of identical clones: the final season of near-future information age thriller Person of Interest: The Complete 5th Season (Warner Bros. 572 min., $39.99, BD $44.98, the series is also available in a complete collection with all 103 episodes $129.99, BD $169.99); the CW post-apocalyptic series The 100: The Complete Third Season (Warner Bros., 673 min., $34.98, BD $39.98) about a group of teens who return to Earth 97 years after a nuclear holocaust had rendered the planet uninhabitable; and Bitten: Season 3 (Eone Entertainment, 440 min., $39.98), the Canadian fantasy series about a woman who becomes a werewolf when bitten by her boyfriend.

The only other contemporary series due on Tuesday is the medical drama/comedy Royal Pains: Season 8 (Universal, 339 min., $26.98), while vintage series include the 1990s drama Sisters: Season 5 (Shout Factory, 1080 min., $39.93), and the final season of the 1970s medical drama Medical Center: Season 7 (Warner Bros., 1206 min., DVD_R, $59.99).

Anime

This week’s anime releases include Yona of the Dawn, Part 2 (Funimation, 300 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98), which includes the final 12 episodes of the 24-episode 2014-2015 Studio Pierrot TV anime based on Mizuho Kasanagi’s fantasy/action shojo manga (published here by Viz Media starting this summer).  This “reverse harem” saga about a spoiled princess who has to grow up in a hurry when her father is killed and she is exiled is driven by strong plot full of fantasy and intrigue.

Also available this week is Softenni! The Animation: Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., Subtitles Only, $49.98, BD $59.98), which includes all 12 episodes of the 2011 Xebec sports anime based on the manga by Ryo Azuchi about tennis-mad middle school girl and her friends who are all part of the school’s Soft Tennis team (Soft Tennis is played with soft rubber balls).

Also this week, the popular Bleach anime based on Tite Kubo’s action-packed supernatural manga is finally coming out in Blu-ray starting with Bleach Set 1 (Viz Media, 675 min., BD $54.97), and serious fans of the series will definitely appreciate the upgrade.

Re-priced re-releases include {C} Control: The Money of Soul and Possibility, Complete Collection (Funimation, SAVE Ed., BD/DVD Combo $29.98), the Certain Magical Index II: Complete Collection (Funimation, BD/DVD Combo $49.98), which was previously released in two sets, the Fractale: Complete Collection (Funimation, SAVE Ed., BD/DVD Combo $29.98), the Kamisama: Season 1 Collection (Funimation, SAVE Ed., BD/DVD Combo $29.98), and Makoto Shinkai’s anime feature film Children Who Chase Lost Voices (Sentai Selects, BD/DVD Combo $19.98), which was originally released here in 2012.