Justice League (2017 vs 2021) | A Nail In the Coffin, a Seed in the Ground - Justice League's Implosion and Resurrection

Introduction

We're finally here. Justice League. The film that fans and WB had been trying to push into existence since the 80s. And it took until 2017, or 2021 depending on how you look at it, to really get it on-screen. Like Superman II, this is a tale of two different visions crafting two different films. But unlike Superman II, this wasn't people trying to get a decent movie a chance to be amazing. This was an attempt to rectify a movie that was wrong. It is fundamentally impossible to talk about this film without talking about the production, the movement, and the restoration. When the theatrical cut released in 2017, it was decried, rejected, hated. With the release of the Snyder Cut, it seems to have rectified the mistakes of that version. But the full story can't be overviewed in an introduction.

I feel I'm uniquely qualified to talk about this film. When I went into BvS, I was a person who hated Man of Steel and was going just because it was Batman and Superman. When I went in JL I was a person who loved Man of Steel and BvSUE. I was a person who was hyped beyond belief for the film. And I was a person who was heartbroken walking out of that theater. I know why it was changed. It was changed because of people like Pre-October 2016 me, people who hated Snyder and demanded his vision die. So not only was I heartbroken by JL, I felt guilty. Like I was part of the wave that caused that. Like I was part of the reason I might never truly get to see the man's vision form.

So when info of a Snyder Cut started to surface, I joined that movement. Not just to fight for the film, but to redeem myself. Supporting not just an artistic vision I had once hated, but also supporting causes above the film like the AFSP. I believed that just by fighting for that, I could make up for being such a crybaby before. I never thought we'd win. I never thought it'd happen. But it did, and we get to reap the benefits. As for my deep true feelings about both films? That's what this review is about.

It's time to cover the most important DCEU film(s) ever released, and one of the most important films in modern cinematic history. This is Joss Whedon's, and Zack Snyder's, Justice League(s).

Production

Before the DCEU:

In 1978 Superman: The Movie shook records and proved that comic films were a viable source of both aristry and profit. Yes, we're going back that far. And after that, WB began buying up all of DC's characters, hoping to make films about them. Maybe even a Justice League film?

That idea was floating around for years and years. They even had a test drive of sorts in 1997. But their boner for getting a Batman vs Superman film kept overshadowing that. Until the mid-2000s when a Justice League film was finally put in development under director George Miller (Of Mad Max fame). This version had a full script, a full cast, and an official title, Justice League Mortal. And it certainly sounds like the ambitious film. But WB decided a full on ensemble had no profitability in comparison to standalone character films, after The Dark Knight broke a billion dollars easily. Hence, JLM was cancelled and WB gave up hope of a Justice League film.

Original Plan:

That is until 2011. When Man of Steel was in production, WB began to once again put a new JL film into development. David S Goyer would write the script and Zack Snyder would direct. But after the plans began to develop into the five film arc I mentioned last time, Goyer left and Chris Terrio took his place. As I mentioned before, Zack Snyder, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, and Chris Terrio developed a roadmap for a Justice League trilogy in 2014 and 2015.

JL would follow right off of BvS, and JL2 and 3 (Or "2A") would follow from it. JL1 was going to be "crazy and scary" in this first draft. These original drafts, revealed recently, showcase a lot of, well, "first draft ideas". A Bruce Wayne x Lois Lane romance, a Smallville copy arc where Clark declared his human side dead, etc.. But aside from some of the more strange ideas, the framework was solid. A JL film to see them unite, a film combining their solo stories up to an apocalyptic ending, and a film about trying to reverse that ending. JL3's original ending of all the tribes of man uniting behind Superman is some epic stuff. When the scripts began being written, the weirder stuff was obviously cut out. These final draft refined scripts are things I'd like to see if we never get these films as films.

But after the reception of BvS, even these drafts were scrapped. JL2 and 3 changed completely (In fact their dynamic reversed. In the OG plan JL2 was the modern film and 3 was Knightmare, in the revised plan it was the opposite. Or maybe it was just JL2 and JL3 no longer existed at all? Idk), and JL1's script was revised to remove the "scarier" elements. The tone shifted. Snyder decided to go for a more "reconstructive" feel (As opposed to BvS' "deconstruction" feel), inspired by the epic scope of films like Excalibur and Lord of the Rings. No longer was Clark Kent confused upon coming back, now he was returning in his full glory. As much as I like BvS, I am ultimately glad for the change it caused to JL. I think I prefer this refined reconstruction, specifically BECAUSE it's a perfect contrast to BvS. I love the feeling of going from that film to this. BvS was the dark, before ZSJL's dawn. This refined script was drafted up fine, but WB was still shaken. So a new DC Films division was created to oversee the new films, beginning with Suicide Squad. And that's a story for another time. But considering Geoff Johns, the appointed head of this division, was one of the people who drafted the "scary" version, he'd totally let Zack Snyder fulfill his vision, right?

2016 Production:

AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh god no. Johns and his other half Jon Berg (I'm 80% sure Berg doesn't actually exist and is just Johns with some makeup on) were not there to guide Snyder, they were there to, in Snyder's words, "babysit" him. So Snyder and Terrio had already made the script more optimistic, but that wasn't good enough. So Johns forced some scenes to be made more overtly comedic, as well as making him shoot some different angled shots. I'd mention him forcing Snyder to shoot a scene he wrote for Suicide Squad as part of messing with that film, except I actually kinda like that scene. Regardless, Snyder ended up filming two versions of several scenes in the film.

There were a few other changes made early on. For one thing, the Steppenwolf design used in BvS was forced to change to be less scary. That's already bad enough, but the real issue was what happened with Superman. You see the intention was that he was gonna come back with the mullet, beard, and Black Suit just like in the comics. But that was nixed by Johns who wanted the red and blue imagery as he thought it was "less edgy". Because obviously it's the color of your suit that defines your character and not your actions, right? But here Snyder also had his own loophole. They designed a new suit for Superman. It was blue, but it had a metallic lining that would allow it to be changed to black in post-production. The beard and the mullet had to go for good, but whatever. The intention was they could eventually make a Black Suit cut on Blu Ray.

All this in mind, production still did go smoothly for the most part. In fact, in their attempt to ease the GA of the changes to the tone, they made what I honestly think was a good decision and straight up let the press visit the set and view the shooting of one scene. Hell, they eventually showed that scene off in full at SDCC 2016. Bruce Wayne meeting Barry Allen. And the news didn't lie, this was a more optimistic film. And that wasn't even a Johns change. Jumping the gun, that scene's still in ZSJL (Snyder cut out the Johns versions of scenes to ensure it was his vision fully). I like that decision because not only was it a good move after the reception of BvS, but it just shows a lot of good faith. I wish all of the production had that much good faith in it...

So by the end of 2016, Zack had a 5 hour Assembly Cut and a 214 minute Director's Cut. Early 2017, he wants to screen it for execs. They tell him "Make it two hours". Yep, they created a two-hour mandate in early 2017, after the film was shot. So Zack goes back to the editing room and painstakingly cuts down to a 140 minute cut. WB agrees to screen this version. Hey, what happens when you cut an hour out of a film? It becomes unwatchable. Hence why the execs called it unwatchable. And rather than get some fracking sense and say "You know we get it now. Maybe a 3 hour cut would be the best compromise?", the execs had Geoff Johns begin trying to find a writer to do extensive script rewrites.

And then, tragedy struck.

For Autumn:

This casual, energetic retrospective is not the place to really discuss suicide. All I can say is I can't imagine the pain that Zack and Deborah carry with them every day, and anyone who feels the need to minimize that, or make up conspiracy theories about it, or joke about it can go to hell.

After this, Zack tried to throw himself into his work. But he didn't have the energy to fight back against the studio any more. Johns had already found his "secret weapon", Joss Whedon, to do an extensive script rewrite on the entire film. Snyder wasn't in a place to fight. So he stepped down, and Joss' secret script weapon became a directing weapon. Reshoots nearing the length of an average principal photography were scheduled, and the actors had to make time for working on them in between their other projects. Jason had to dash from the Aquaman set, Ezra had to e-mail footage from Fantastic Beasts, Gal was never in the same room as any of them, and Henry Cavill, unable to shave his mustache due to Mission Impossible Fallout, was the subject of mustachegate. Horror stories of Joss abusing cast members and making fun of Zack, Johns having discriminatory discussions, and even Deborah Snyder needing to get involved on Gal's behalf leading to Kevin T mandating that Johns or Berg had to be in the room every time Joss spoke to a cast member have arisen from this production. At the end of the day, a majority of the film was reshoots.

It ended up fulfilling Kevin T's mandate, 119 minutes 59 seconds to the point. With 108 minutes of film without credits. From a 214 minute cut without credits. Jesus. Though given recent stories, even WB execs were unhappy with it. Anonymous execs called it "stupefying". Even the opening Batman sequence ended up being heavily cut down because it was originally a super "comedic" scene. On November 17th, 2017, we were exposed to the Joss Whedon cut of this film. And the DCEU was seemingly as good as dead.

This is Geoff Johns' Josstice League.

Joss Whedon's JL Review:

Less than one minute is how long it takes for things to go horribly wrong. Firstly, gone are the stylized logos that every film prior had, in are more generic "standard" logos. But as soon as the logos pass by, things immediately go to hell. We see a phone recording of Superman before he died talking to some kids. Not a bad idea honestly, especially given what people wanted to see more of from Cavill. But there are four immediate issues. One, the dialogue is Superman III level awful. Why is he talking to kids about car keys, kids don't have cars! Two, the color-grading makes the suit look especially ugly here. But then there's the big one. The mouth. Since he couldn't shave his mustache, they tried to CG it away. And it's awful. It's worse every time I see it. He looks like one of those digital Hugo Weavings from Matrix 3. And four, what does it add? I'm not against "filler" scenes as a concept, in fact dare I say good "filler" is an effective way to show more emotion. Harvey and Bruce at dinner in TDK is not an essential scene, but it adds to the weight of the film. Not only does this scene not do that, but this movie is forced to be 108 minutes without credits. Regardless of what good "filler" can do, when you have a sub-2-hour limit? You better only keep the essential stuff. This scene could be cut and you'd miss nothing AND have more time to flesh out the characters.

Then the film proper starts with a Batman scene, also shot by Joss Whedon. And... I don't mind this scene. It's not great but it has some cool shots. I'd say it reminds me a bit of the Paris Sequence in Lester Superman II. A "decent" intro. My only problem is the text flashing over the screen, "A Zack Snyder Film". No it's not. Firstly, films don't "need" to have possessive credits like that. Hell, Batman Forever despite being directed by Joel Schumacher is marked as "A Tim Burton Production". I think it would've been courteous to remove the possessive credit itself, or at the very least put it over a scene Zack actually shot. After that "okay" scene we get the opening credits set to "Everybody Knows". And yeah, I still like these credits. For one thing any film having opening credits gets points from me, but it's also just a good song. The only issue is the entire sequence almost serves as a summary of the entire film. Chopped up pieces of Zack Snyder footage that gets interrupted by pointless and laughable Joss Whedon footage. I mean, really, bald MAGA dude slow-mo kicking oranges? Was that a deliberate slight at Snyder's use of slow-mo by Joss? If so it didn't work. A Snyder slow-mo shot would've zoomed in on his face, shown beads of sweat drip down his face, shown a shell casing dropping (Even though there's no gun in the scene, Snyder would've found a way to show a shell casing dropping in slow-mo. It's like in every film he's ever made. Bring back the shell casing porn!), etc.. This is just a regular Whedon TV shot but done in slow-mo to convince people it's Snyder's. That said, I do kind of love the "I Tried" sign.

As the scene ends we enter Wonder Woman's intro scene. This is a really cool action sequence, only hurt by two things. One, the color grading Joss applied to the film is a bit much in terms of saturation. Everything looks weirdly neon, hell WW84 looks less shiny. Two, the score. Diana is the only character whose previous theme gets called back in any way. So why does it have to be in such a half-assed way? Gone is the epic electric cello, in are generic orchestral sounds. Still, it is a really cool sequence and still shows off the cool action Snyder is known for. It's one of the few scenes that isn't reshot at all. We then cut to Bruce in the arctic, searching for the Aquaman. A pretty good scene but one that has some wtf thrown in there. Firstly, what exactly is the time frame of all this? How long after Superman's death is this? In some scenes it feels like it's only been a month or two, and in some it feels like it's been a year. Secondly, the reshoots. Most of this scene is Snyder, but every few minutes or so we cut to Whedon footage. It doesn't mesh well. Ben's hair style and build completely change mid-scene in a way that's almost as bad as Anorexic Lois from the Lester Cut, green-screens change massively, and there are even parts that feel an excessive need to criticize the original script. Aquaman mentions a saying then Whedon-ized Ben goes "No, that's the opposite of the saying". It's just a jumbled mess and it's distracting. Thirdly, the boxes. In Whedon's attempt to cut the grander picture from the film, he just throws a random mural of the Mother Boxes and Aquaman onto the wall in the exact building they happen to be in. What a coincidence.

After that we see a full Whedon scene of Bruce and Alfred talking about how things used to be simpler. Again the time-frame feels weird because Alfred makes it sound like they waited a while before searching for these people. Also we have an exposition dumb on Barry's backstory (Because who needs to actually see the story?). Then we get a scene with OH GOD NO IT'S CLASSIC JIMMY OLSEN! WHERE'S KGBEAST WHEN YOU NEED HIM?! Ahem, sorry. Bit of PTSD there. No Mark here plays a prison guard, signing Barry Allen in. This Whedon scene is... there. Again though, with a 2 hour limit you kinda need to cut the pointless stuff and move on. Luckily it's followed by, what else, a really nice Snyder scene. Barry talks to his father behind bars, with his father wanting him to move on with his life and stop focusing on him. Then we get Silas Stone leaving Star Labs and coming home to his son, Victor Stone. Cyborg. Most of this scene is okay in concept, but every time Whedon's behind the camera Ray Fisher looks like someone has a gun to his head. You can hear the talent behind the performance, but it's like Whedon is always telling him to act as generic as possible. It's just "I'm a monster". That's his entire character. He thinks he's a monster and then at the end he arbitrarily decides he's not. We also see a janitor at Star Labs coming across Parademons.

Next we go to Themyscira. We see the Mother Box acting up. The Queen and her guards then witness the arrival of the brutal, the terrifying, the threatening... Liam Neeson in cheap medieval cosplay! Seriously, this design sucks. I get why people want a more humanoid design compared to Spikeywolf from the Snyder Cut. But you can't bash that for being a "grey blob" when this is even MORE of a grey blob. They give Steppenwolf a more comic accurate outfit, but make him even greyer than Snyder had him. At least Spikeywolf's armor is reflective, this is just stone grey. What doesn't help is they for some reason give him a bunch of super kind-eyed expressions. He's like always smiling super joyfully. He looks less like a terrifying villain than he does a kind old grandpa. So he takes out the Amazons (That sounds like a big grand thing. It's not. The CG is so bad and the battle is sped by too fast to even care. This should be a grand, terrifying villain intro. And it's kind of laughable), and he gets the Mother Box. He also tries to be like "You will love me!", which isn't at all addressed. It's again, such a WTF line. Like most of the ADR Whedon dubs. Yeah most of Steppenwolf's lines are ADR'd over by Whedon, and honestly the ADR redubbing is as bad as the reshoots themselves. So the Amazons send a flaming arrow to light the beacon of Gond- I mean send a flaming arrow to light a building on fire so that Diana will understand what's coming. She does in a scene that goes by so fast you don't understand why it wasn't cut. They cut Diana actually finding the arrow and what it means, why keep any acknowledgement at all?

But then we get THE scene. Yes, the Whedon scene to end all Whedon scenes. Lois and Martha in the coffee room at a way different-looking Daily Planet, watching a News Report where an old woman is talking about aliens anal probing her husband, telling a guy reporter about a woman he's interviewing which makes him get all creepy about it, and Martha telling Lois that Clark would say she was the "thirstiest" reporter he ever knew. Everyone's made their jokes about this scene, so I won't even bother. Also Cyborg finds out Bruce Wayne is Batman. I'd say that like it was a big deal, but it's really not shown as one. Apparently there are just pictures of him in the Batsuit on the internet. Good god. Can we go back to a good scene now? Oh, we actually can. Diana goes to Bruce at the Wayne Aerospace Han- I mean the Batcave as the zoom-in on the penthouse implies. Even though there's direct sunlight. And it looks nothing like the Batcave in BvS. Umm, okay then. She tells him the attack is already here and gives him the History Lesson.

So this scene was still cool here, but it also just feels really "generic". The color grading is neon orange (A preview of things to come...), the villain "lives only to conquer", we don't really get to see anyone's actual face so we don't even know who fought him, and it's intercut with really poor ADR exposition and a badly green-screened walk on the lakeside (Because apparently she said "The attack is here. But before I tell you, let's go somewhere else"?). Granted any scene with Affleck and Gadot is cool by nature, but they don't get to have much personal dialogue here. Even the scenes of them searching for the metas together, which was in the first trailer, are gone. Instead Bruce just gets a text message location for Barry Allen and leaves. This is what happens when you force a two hour limit on a movie of this size. And this isn't like the DCAMU's intro of Justice League: War where they're basically allowed to rely on you already knowing the comics. They have to actually introduce these characters. And I know someone's gonna say "That's why you need solos!". But you don't need solos, you can introduce more characters in one movie. But the movie needs to have both a size and focus to handle that. Hell, heist films have been standalone ensemble pieces for years. Had this film been made from the ground up to fit a smaller run-time it could've had an Ocean's Eleven vibe. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Snyder shot this under the assumption that it could be Kurosawa size, and then got blindsided in January 2017 with a two-hour mandate. And then Whedon had to jumble together his own rewrites and the Snyder stuff (While also abusing the cast to boot!). But enough on that rant.

Also Cyborg is watching the two because... he is. Then we cut to Barry, going to his home... lair... thing (Whatever it's kind of awesome so I don't care). This was the first scene people ever saw of the film. It was what was shown to press visits, it was what was in trailers, and it is the clearest indication of how much some things were changes. Firstly, there's K-Pop music now. I mean, okay. I'd call that stupid but I also know that if it was a genre I liked like Metal or Punk or Kingdom Hearts music I'd be nerdgasming over it so whatevere. For the most part the scene is kept intact though, it's a good scene that shows that even under Snyder they did want to make JL more upbeat. There's a weird aspect ratio thing but that's more relevant to ZSJL. I also just love Bruce throwing the batarang at him. He knows he's The Flash, but you can see the batarang is clearly just a bit off-center. If Bruce was wrong, it would've maybe clipped a hair at most. But then, everything goes to hell. In the middle of dialogue that was in the Snyder version, we suddenly cut to Whedon footage. Not only is the greenscreen horrible, not only are both Ezra and Ben's hairstyles completely different, not only does Ben look his most bloated during this scene (He straight up looks awful), but the dialogue is atrocious. Barry goes on this weird tangent about how he doesn't understand what "brunch" is. Yep, that's this movie's "shawarma" alright. Luckily the scene concludes with more Snyder footage including an actually good quip ("I'm rich"). Oh and in this movie with a two-hour limit that has to prioritize every scene? We get a closeup of the inside of the car because product placement. My god it's making the IHOP in MoS look dignified.

Then we see Diana looking at footage of Cyborg. Not the footage from BvS, a reshot version. Not only was this pointless and a waste of money, but... he doesn't even look like he needs the Mother Box there. He looks like he needs robotic legs and one arm is all. In BvS he was a torso and a head, that's it. Him being alive was almost frightening. Why was this changed? To emphasize that he has a... I'm not gonna go there. Anyways Cyborg hacks the computer with the most generic word processor font imaginable and questions Diana, so they arrange a meet. We immediately get a scene of her meeting Cyborg next, and he just kinda acts sad. The dialogue feels... off. Like individually their sides of the conversation are fine but they don't match up well. That's because Ray's side was entirely reshot while Gal's was kept the same. Why? I have no idea. Like he'll ask a question and she'll give a response that doesn't fit with it.

We then change perspective again to Aquaman saving a random guy adrift at sea. Some footage in this rescue is Snyder, some is Whedon. Whedon added the guy talking about Parademons coming from the sky and Aquaman noticing gooey green blood on his hands. We then get a shot of Aquaman going to the pier set to "Icky Thump". And like the "Everybody Knows" song choice, I like this. It was in the OG 2016 trailer after all. Plus... it's "Icky Thump". I'm contractually forbidden from disliking it. The Atlantean Mother Box awakens, and Steppy shows up to grab it, fighting the guards and Mera. Like the Amazonian scene, this is cool Snyder footage ruined by choppy editing and bad CG. That said, I still love when she just forms an air bubble around him just to knock him on his ass. Aquaman comes in to take on Steppenwolf, and again the action just feels... off because of the effects. Steppenwolf gets the box though, and he gets away without uttering a single word (Joss didn't have the time to rewrite that). The conversation with Mera is nice though. Although Amber Heard kind of feels trapped between American and British here. It's not something I noticed until after ZSJL (Where she's 100% British) and Aquaman (Where she's 100% Murican) again after that. Like "My parents fought in the wars" sounds American, but "You dare speak of Queen Atlanta" sounds almost British. It's weird. Also Whedon adds a few random shots that serve no purpose.

Speaking of no purpose, the Russian Family! Yep, in this two hour mandated film we have like 10 goddamn minutes devoted to this pointless family. Holy sh*t. It's not even like this is a family that's interesting or adds anything, they're just a random Russian family in a place where apparently a bunch of people live (But only this one family is focused on). Also more Steppenwolf wanting to bang the Mother Boxes. Here we get the only mention of Darkseid in this version and it's so out of nowhere that it barely registers unless you were actively wanting Darkseid in the film. Silas comes home to see the apartment ransacked and he gets taken by a Parademon. Although we only know that because later we see him taken for all we knew here he was murdered because the context is all off-screen. But then we get (insert hype music) J.K. SIMMONS!!!! Hell yeah! He's gonna declare the Parademons a menace! He wants them found! He wants them PROSECUTED! Oh also he's Gordan and that's such a good casting that I hate that he's one-and-done, but anyways they notice the Parademon drawings (Which Whedon also reshot for... some reason) look like Batman. So Gordon decides to arrange a meet. 

We then get Barry and Bruce landing and meeting up with Diana. A mostly Snyder scene that has one Joss shot interjected. An ass shot of Diana. I mean, it's possible it's an alternate Snyder take... but even then it's not in ZSJL so if it was it means Snyder clearly thought it wasn't a good shot. And he'd be right. So even if that shot is Snyder, that's still on Whedon for keeping it in. More and more I'm seeing Whedon's editor here as the anti-Michael Thau. Where Thau brought the best out of Lester Footage through editing, this guy is potentially bringing out the worst in Snyder footage. It doesn't help that this is really where the color grading starts to show it's flaws. Diana's jacket looks plastic and overly shiny. But it's all just saturation, it's not very contrast-heavy so the entire screen ends up having an aesthetic about as neon as Suicide Squad. Which didn't work there either but that movie has its own bucket of issues. The Bat-Signal is lit and the gang head off to it, meanwhile Cyborg discovers the apartment empty, his father missing. We get Gordon on the roof as he looks up at... tarp. Again, this editor only keeping the pointless stuff. In Snyder's cut, there's a moving shot where the tarp moves away revealing a super badass pose. If they wanted to cut for time, keep the badass pose and lose the tarp. But in probably the biggest insult, we don't get Ben's Batman theme. We get Michael Keaton's Batman theme.

Oh have I mentioned the score at all? No? That's because it's forgettable as hell. It's Elfman on repeat. Nothing new or interesting, and he rehashed nostalgic themes instead of using the fitting ones because of his massive ego. The 1989 Batman theme doesn't fit with Batfleck. And the Shirley Walker rendition of the Elfman composition was better anyways! Ugh, just irks me as a music guy to see the score here fall so flat compared to the scores for MoS, BvS, WW, even Suicide Squad (Which has a HUGELY underrated score from Steven Price. More on that next time wink wink nudge nudge). They all show up on the roof and realize the Parademons are taking the people to a place under... Braxton Island? But the only island between Gotham and Metropolis is Stryker's Island? Was that a change made by Sny- no in ZSJL it calls it Stryker's Island. So Whedon literally broke canon here for literally no reason. Great. They vanish and we get a funny scene from Flash. They go into the tunnels (Not giving us the "I'm real when it's useful" dialogue from the trailers). They cross and witness Steppenwolf interrogating and killing people. Flash mentions he's "never done battle" (Umm... Boomerang? Hello?). So Batman gives him a pep talk, "Save one person". Admittedly, it's a nice scene without the SS contradiction. Cyborg jumps in to save his father when Steppy gets to him.

Leading to the Tunnel Battle. This was the first fight scene that didn't feel choppy, although Flash saving people keeps interrupting it. That said, the CG is still not very good. Also Batman kicking ass was removed and he asks for the Knightcrawler tank immediately. And they replaced the badass "My turn" with "Sorry guys, I didn't bring a sword" and "Jesus he is tall". Thanks a lot Joss you made Batman look like a dumbass. Luckily we go back to some good stuff where Flash pushes Diana's sword back to her with AH! An actually memorable score theme! Yeah it's very CW Flash-esque, but it is a cool theme. But then he trips and falls and then has to push Diana away from debris and in doing so crashes into her boobs! Joss I hate you! Seriously, it's the same scene as the boob gag in Ultron. It's just bad. We return to some more cool shots though no Cyborg battle visor like in the trailers. Steppenwolf uses a missile Cyborg lobs at him to break the walls of the tunnel before teleporting away. Some more "comedic" reshoots pepper this scene until Aquaman gets there and stops the tide with his mother's trident (No explanation for how he got it of course!). Cyborg leaves then to go get the Change Engine (His Mother Box).

They climb out and we get a Johns-written and Snyder-shot scene that I kinda like with Gordon acknowledging Batman playing well with others (Though Joss cut out the "again" part). Cyborg then returns, Mother Box in tow. Then we get OH YAY MORE RUSSIAN FAMILY! YES! Why focus on charismatic heroes when he can have a little girl hopefully looking at a can of bug spray?! Then we go to the Batcave via horrible CGI elevator, and again the "Batcave" looks surprisingly like an Aerospace Hanger with light creeping in the windows. Also two horrible Joss things happen immediately. One, Cyborg simply exposits to us what was an actual scene in the Snyder Cut, and two, he claims the box was shelved entirely until Superman died and only then did they start researching it. Which totally contradicts with Cyborg's established backstory via BvS. It's like Joss is actively trying to rewrite the DCEU itself into his vision. Also Arthur steels from Bruce here. Yeah, Joss turned a king into a thief. Bruce, hearing of what the box can do, immediately jumps to bringing Superman back to life. Diana disagrees and says it's too dangerous. Hmm, a rich guy wants to do a risky sciency thing and the patriotic war hero thinks it's reckless, leading the rich guy into acting like a jackass and doing it anyways against the patriotic war hero's advice. Where have I heard that before? Yep, the same plot Joss did in BOTH Avengers films? He's doing here too. But there's another issue here.

Superman was the heart of MoS and BvS. Even if he didn't have the most screen-time in the latter, he was the focus of the plot. Here, Superman hasn't even been mentioned since the random "thirstiest reporter" scene. Bruce just randomly wants to bring him back and acts like a jackass about it and the others just sort of go along with that minus Diana. Again, hate to jump ahead, but in the original cut, Superman impacted every single one of them. They all agreed they should bring him back because in the original version of the film Superman was the driving force behind what made all of them want to be heroes. If MoS was about Clark Kent as a person, and BvS was about the world's view of "Kal-El" as an alien, JL was meant to be about how Superman as a symbol inspired the world and the JL. And Whedon ripped that away. People constantly tell me how Whedon did Superman right, or how he was a better choice for Superman and should've gotten to make a Superman film himself. But if he wanted to respect Superman, he would've stayed true to the original version where the characters revered Superman, as opposed to Bruce just going "lol let's bring him back". Also I swear the entire League completely disappears for most of the exchange, like literally nobody is in the background. I also really, really hate how Bruce practically mocks Diana. Again, it's a Tony Stark scene, not a Bruce Wayne scene. Finally, they imply Superman would be angry at Bruce specifically... why? Clark had no animosity towards Bruce at the very end of BvS... did Whedon even watch the fracking film?!

There better be a surprisingly good scene to wash that horribleness away. And so we get the only Whedon scene in the entire film that I really like. "He's more human than I am". It perfectly expresses why Superman is a great character. He's the most human of all of us. It's funny that the film that practically spends no time evaluating Superman's impact also gives on of the best lines about him. And then we get back to stupid sh*t. Barry and Victor digging up Clark while cracking jokes (Including a "racially charged" joke. Hooray). Also Bruce straight up just told these people that Superman was Clark Kent and we never get their reactions? Okay then. Then we get more scenes of passive-aggressive Diana and Bruce (Wait, here's a question. If Diana is so against this... why doesn't she stop it? She could if she wants to. This just makes her look super passive and weak for no reason). She also talks about being "here for him" like she knew Clark personally or something. And no explanation as to why Star Labs (Where the ship is) is empty of course. So Cyborg integrates with the Kryptonian ship and needs Barry to provide the charge to activate the box. Barry does so as they drop the box (Again kinda cool score with him). Clark is revived, causing a massive burst from the ship that sends the box flying and landing on some random car. This leads to easily the best part of the movie, Clark vs the League. Initially they marvel at his return until Cyborg's automatic defense systems activate and thus antagonize Superman. So he goes crazy. Aside from a really awkward "Kal-El No!" from Gal, this scene is awesome. He just makes mincemeat out of them, and the first one to get close is Barry which leads to a wonderful use of slow-mo showing that Superman really is a badass. Also there are some awkward Whedon shots and lines here, but they don't take away from the scene. What does take away from the scene is the score, which uses Williams motifs. For a crazy Superman. Go back to "How to use your John Williams score" school Elfman, you use Williams for hope not sinister moments!

Soon enough Batman shows up. Most of this is reshot or at least botched with new VFX and lines as Superman taunts Batman by saying "Do You Bleed?" (Yeah Whedon made Clark straight up vindictive. He even goes "But does the world need you?"). The CG lip sticks out in the reshoot parts pretty badly. But Bruce has Alfred get him the "big guns", which is Lois who comes to snap him out of his rage. They fly away, and since the idiots left the box completely unguarded, Steppy just grabs it off the top of that car. Wow. Also Batman gives more awkward Tony Stark quips. I hate this. Clark and Lois go to the Farm, where Lois (In a really awful ADR dub) tells him he smells good. With a super emotional music piece behind it of course. Back to Whedon where we get more team fighting each other bullsh*t and more awkward quips. Although I do strangely love just how bad Bruce's lines here about Aquaman talking to fish are. For a minute we dive into Batman & Robin style ironic greatness. We then get an okay scene where Diana (Wearing a weird cape... shawl... what the hell is that thing?) massages Bruce and drinks with him (Diana's attitude towards alcohol is weirdly schizoid in this universe. In WW, BvS, and ZSJL, she actively refuses alcohol. In this and WW84 she drinks). Ben and Gal have enough chemistry to save them from some really bad dialogue that tries to once again really harp on Diana being kind of a sad sack hung up on Steve Trevor (Then again, WW84 ended up giving us more of that too). Then more awkward CG lip Superman! The worst part isn't the awful dialogue about death being itchy, or the removal of them acknowledging their engagement, or the awful green screen, it's the fact that this did not need to be reshot. At all. The Snyder scene, even the bits and pieces we had before, were fine. It was pointless to reshoot it. Also we get the second worst CG lip moment in the entire film with the "Yes ma'am". Which is still better than the opening sadly. Actually I changed my mind, the worst part is that they cut his reunion with Ma Kent short for no reason (This close to getting tears movie, but you blew it!). You know what this needs now? More awkward Steppenwolf wanting to screw the mother boxes! We get him activating the unity and thus bringing about the most vile thing imaginable.

ORANGE! LOTS AND LOTS OF ORANGE!!! EVEN CYBORG'S HOLOGRAMS ARE ORANGE! SO! MUCH! ORANGE! This is where the color grading transitions from "kind of over-saturated" to "GOOD GOD WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?". The next scene is Aquaman on the lasso causing a humorous interaction. It's... okay. It's a fine concept, but it's so poorly shot that it doesn't matter. Nobody was actually in the same room so it's all awkwardly stitched together. It also has one wtf part where we just get exposition on Aquaman's character arc. Also MORE RUSSIAN FAMILY! WITH ORANGE! And yeah let's talk about that. This climax was originally shot with blueish grey skies in mind. But because Whedon wanted it to be more "colorful", he tried emulating the style of the DC Crisis events. A fine idea. Two problems. One, DC Crisis events are Red, not Orange. Two, the scene was shot for a darker sky, so all the shadows are dark. But now the background is all bright, so it just looks awful. This climax looks hideous. Anyways the JL shows up. Bruce knocks down the shields before being chased by all the Parademons. Also more Russian Family evacuating and... wait are those OTHER PEOPLE in the background?? Yeah, there's like dozens of more people in the background fleeing for their lives. Guess we don't get to know their daily routines. Anywho, we transition back to Snyder shots (Including Shell Casing Porn! Yes!), as Batman takes down the tower and then the gang comes in. Including a really awful ADR "oooh snap!" from Barry and weird smile from Diana. Luckily we get more Momoa lines. In fact, let's talk about that. Everyone is usually phoning it in during the reshoots (Especially Ben and Ray), but Jason and Henry are like actually trying. And unlike Henry who's given Superman IV dialogue, Aquaman is weirdly the one character that both Terrio and Whedon wrote pretty much the same way... minus that whole him being a thief weirdness from earlier. We get Aquaman taking down some Parademons in mid-air before being caught by Cyborg, leading to a meme of epic proportions. "Ride ain't over yet" "MAH MAN!". I don't know if this was Johns forced on Snyder or Whedon, and I honestly don't know if I legitimately like it or ironically like it, but it's iconic at this point.

What's not iconic is Wonder Woman landing to take on Steppenwolf in a scene where Arthur and Cyborg were originally with her, but were digitally edited out of the scene by Whedon. Also more awkward smirking from Diana in these reshoots. It's almost like Whedon is trying to convert her more and more into Black Widow in the last third of this film. Flash gets Cyborg to the boxes as Flash takes out more Parademons giving more bad lines (So wait, he was afraid to save people but is now totally fine killing monsters no issue?). The climax continues with some more cool Snyder scenes with bad CG and color grading and awkward Whedon inserts like the Russian Family. In fact, Bruce sends Barry to go take care of the civilians with really bad green screen. Eventually Steppenwolf interrupts Cyborg trying to break the unity and rips his leg off. And then Superman comes in. Wearing a really ugly-looking suit (Thanks Whedon color-grading), having the CGI lip, with no explanation (Even though they had those scenes fully finished. Whedon cut them for time. So he could have... the Russian family) behind him, with the John Williams theme, prompting an awful cringe face from Batfleck, and then just punches Steppy in the most awkward way. And again, the CG is just abysmal. Superman chats with Bruce (More awful lines) before going to help Flash save more civilians (Flash barely reacts to Superman being there). Flash saves the one family, Superman saves literally everyone else in a really goofy Superman IV ish scene. Except not nearly as wacky and fun as that film. Superman comes back to lay the smack-down on Steppy before going to help Cyborg tear the boxes apart.

More awkward lines after doing so (Thannnnkkkkssss Joss). Also Diana's apparently a motherly figure now. For no reason. Anyways they just beat the crap out of Steppy some more until he's so scared that the Parademons (Who smell fear. That was another stupid thing I forgot to mention) go after him and follow him into the Boom Tube. They then heroically look over the land-scape (Now sprouting flowers for some reason. Also the Russian family is there). Awkward lines from the main trinity ensue. Though I do kind of like the score track here. I forgot it so it's not the most memorable clearly, but it's nice enough. Then we get probably my favorite comedic exchange in the film, and wouldn't you know it, it's a Snyder scene. Bruce gets the house back for Martha. How? He bought the bank. I really love that scene and I don't know if I can ever truly explain why. Maybe it's just because I love Cavill and Affleck in these roles so much and so just a scene of them works well for me. Barry gets a job in a crime lab too. Also we get a really, REALLY phoned in monologue from Lois Lane over the closing scenes. Bruce decides to turn Wayne Manor into the Hall of Justice, Cyborg gets an even worse CG model, Aquaman... does things, Flash runs (Which he already did), Diana talks to some kids (Which she did in the Snyder Cut. Except we actually heard it there), Batman looks at a Bat-Wing, and the film ends on Clark ripping open his shirt. Well that's how it should've ended, instead we get a bad CG shot afterwards. And then after about 20 seconds of credits we get a horribly-shot scene of him racing The Flash, with the reward being, you guessed it, BRUNCH! They really wanted this to be their Shawarma. Again a nice concept just shot awfully. And then after the credits, we get a mishmash of Snyder shots of Deathstroke with Whedon dialogue. The scene was originally meant to lead into Ben's The Batman, but Whedon retrofitted it into a Legion of Doom tease (He really thought he was gonna get a sequel lol). Thus ending Justice League.

 

Joss Whedon's Justice League is... not good. But it's not even like it's a trainwreck I can laugh at like Superman IV. It's just dull and generic. It's less a turd than it is a dull rock that was built around a diamond, where almost all the holes you'd be able to see the diamond through are covered in pieces of turd. I feel pretty confident giving it a 4/10, maybe even a 3.5/10 given the Snyder Cut basically obsoletes it. But I know some people like this film, and I know there are good things in it, even good things from Whedon. So for this film, I'm gonna bring up something I usually don't. Fanedits.

I didn't feel the need to bring them up with Superman II because quite frankly I never found any of the fanedits to match the quality of either main official cut. But here, that's not the case. Here there's cuts that clean the turd off of the rock. It's still kind of a dull rock, but it's no longer bad to look at and you can see more of the diamond it's covering up. Now, most of these fanedits relied on people's "ideas" of Snyder's Cut (Usually ended up false e.g. Snyder's film opening with history lesson), and so they end up losing a lot of luster. The fanedit that has held up the best is the one that was made as basically a "what if Justice League was polished better" rather than a poor estimation of the Snyder Cut. It's still clearly Joss Whedon's Justice League, but it's a more refined version. That version is Justice League Reborn.

BONUS LOOK: Justice League Reborn

Justice League Reborn, cut by [], has a simple goal. I've seen a lot of people note that Joss' JL could be a "fun popcorn flick". I disagree with JL as is. But JLReborn kind of uncovers that film beneath the garbage. For one thing, the worst lines have all been removed. And in doing so certain scenes become better as a whole. Without the "thirsty" line the Lois and Martha scene suddenly feels more heartfelt, without "Brunch" the Flash scene works better, without any visual the opening phone dialogue is, well still stupid if you ask me, but not embarrassingly so. It clears away almost every line/moment that is "awful".

Another thing it helps? The color grading makes the entire film look better. It's more calmed in colors, not quite what ZSJL ended up being, but if anything it's fairly close to how the early trailers looked for the most part. The exception is the ending, which can't return to grey/blue without severe re-grading. So what does this cut do? Something more subtle. It keeps in that warmer range but goes for a much more pleasing color. Gone is Neon Orange, in is blood red. It actually looks kind of fire-and-brimstone-ish, like Snyder's Apokalips looked. Hell, even Steppenwolf looks better with the new color grading. And the mouth... well it distracts me less but maybe I've just gotten used to seeing it.

The score's better too. They struck a nice balance of the Elfman stuff and adding back in the themes for these characters. It's still Elfman's score, but it removes the blatant nostalgia-pandering. Even the re-added scenes are good. They implemented the Superman's return scene well in addition to some trailer shots. And, my nitpicks were answered, they made the logo black and white which already makes it feel less generic.

Justice League Reborn, to me, is an easy 5.5 to 6/10 film. With this edit I can totally see the "fun popcorn movie" appeal. It's about Age of Ultron level I'd say, if not a little higher. Even then though, that just makes Joss' JL so much more baffling. The fact that simple color grading and a few choice trims can already make me enjoy it that much more. With this cut I'd say the Superman II comparison is more valid. I would put this edit just below Lester Superman II on the totem pole. But again, that really just makes the entire situation worse.

Post-JL to ZSJL

Aftermath of JL

JL provided a failure that nearly decimated the DCEU. BvS may have dealt a blow to it, but JL was a bullet straight through it. To the point where the execs put in charge after BvS were thrown out, Ben Affleck's Batman movie was shelved quietly, Henry Cavill was put at an arm's length, the Wonder Woman sequel became an almost completely disconnected film, Shazam and Birds of Prey were kept disconnected, and Aquaman was basically the new beginning of the slate keeping the pre-Hamada DCEU in a state of questionable canonicity. Jon Berg was axed, Geoff Johns was demoted back to just being an occasional writer, and even WB's entire management was shaken up post-AT&T buyout.

No new Justice League films, not even ones following on the Josstice League tease, were slated. And it seemed like the DCEU might've been dead, with all four films post-JL seeming like they could be in entirely separate universes. Eventually, things began to change on that front, but the Hamadaverse and the new DCEU plans or lack thereof are a subject outside the scope of this review. The change I want to focus on, is in the fanbase.

The Rise of ReleaseTheSnyderCut

One thing that was kind of taken as a given in the pre-2018 days of the DCEU was that the DCEU didn't really seem to have much of a fanbase. People liked WW, were split on MoS, and hated the rest. At least that was the going narrative. What a lot of people including myself didn't realize was there was a fanbase that loved Snyder's films, it's just for a time they were relatively quiet and didn't have much space to gather. There was no spark uniting them. Until Justice League. The collective disappointment and disgust towards the film from Snyder fans not only uniting them, but empowered them. All the press that claimed Joss was finishing Zack's vision and that the final movie was still Zack's was revealed as very clearly false, and so people began asking for more Zack Snyder footage. When it started, it only seemed to mean an extended cut or some deleted scenes. Again, information was still heavily based on WB's lies from the time.

But across 2018, stories began to surface. Jay Oliva (Who storyboarded the film) revealed the existence of an entirely different version akin to Donner's Superman II, Jason Momoa started revealing details, and Zack himself began teasing set photos, screenshots, storyboards, etc of his cut. The ReleaseTheSnyderCut hashtag grew with each revelation, as if it was a beacon to other Snyder fans on the internet, practically having been closeted for 5 years due to the general hatred and negativity. And yes, that negativity did cause a segment of the Snyder fanbase to retaliate against that hate with their own brand of toxicity. I do want to remind people it's only a small minority. To put numbers into context, there were about 44 users who review-bombed Godzilla vs Kong out of a toxic urge to fight WB because of Snyder. There are hundreds of thousands of Snyder fans. Meaning that the toxic crowd generally stands at less than 1% of the whole fanbase. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

For the most part, this hashtag was fueled by positivity towards Zack Snyder, his work, and his family, a genuine respect for artistic integrity and allowing creative visions to flourish, and a disgust at how WB handled the situation with lies and rushing the film to keep their bonuses. WB tried to ignore it for a long time, straight up feeding the press talks of how no cut ever existed and how it would be impossible or the most spread rumor, that Snyder had a cut but it was so bad that it was "unwatchable". With every new nugget from them, they only made the hate crowd feel empowered, which of course only made Snyder fans angrier in retaliation. WB fed these lies even as Zack Snyder himself revealed he had a cut.

Eventually though, it became too big to ignore.

November 2019 and How the Snyder Cut Came to Be

On November 17th 2019, something wonderful for fans and terrifying for Warner Bros happened. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut trended to the top of the charts, basically taking over Twitter. But not only that, but a vast majority of the Justice League cast and crew joined in the calls. The message to fans was clear. WB had lied that the Snyder Cut didn't exist and could never come out. The cast and crew were on OUR side. Every claim made was legitimized and the movement became officially recognized as a real thing in the media. Websites previously hell-bent on making Snyder fans into jokes now had to acknowledge they had a legit point. And Warner had to as well.

With AT&T bosses now looking at the JL debacle, WB boss Toby Emmerich, the last vestige of the old regime of WB, contacted Zack Snyder. He wanted Snyder to take the 214 minute Black and White un-rendered VFX cut on his laptop, and throw it out into the world. The door of releasing the Snyder Cut was open. But Zack Snyder saw his play, and called him on it. If the un-finished Snyder Cut truly was "unwatchable" as dubious reports claimed? It would legitimize Warner. Snyder didn't want some table scraps thrown to people. He wanted to give the people what they deserved. His Justice League film, uncompromised, polished, and with the attention it deserved. What ensued were long conversations with both WB and higher ups at AT&T. In February of 2020, Snyder screened his cut for execs from both companies. AT&T execs viewed it positively while WB execs viewed it negatively. WB's negative view and Emmerich's stubbornness could've ended the film right then and there.

Luckily, AT&T was in need. HBO Max was set to launch early that year, with practically no exclusive content ready-to-go. They needed the Snyder Cut. So, the platform's film division, WarnerMax, an entirely separate division from WB Pictures, gave ZSJL the green-light. The arrival of the Corona Virus Pandemic also nearly killed the project, but it persevered as Snyder was able to not just polish up the footage he had, but go back to all the footage and un-do compromises he had to make in 2016. By giving up any pay he would receive, he was able to make ZSJL, for the most part (More on that near the end), uncompromised. He was even able to film a small amount of new material. Junkie XL even tossed out a 50% complete score for a brand new one he composed now. By the time WarnerMax dissolved and WB Pictures was back in charge, the most they could do to derail ZSJL was slack a bit on marketing and force Zack to replace one cameo with a different cameo. ZSJL released in March 2021 as planned, to a response better than the naysayers ever would've expected. This is the story of a film redeemed by un-doing the studio's compromises, and embracing pure artistic vision.

This is Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Zack Snyder's Justice League Review:

So we open with admittedly the same nitpick as before, the logos are just the generic ones. Which is a little more disappointing here because the stone WB and DC logos the trailers used were damn amazing. Also they use the MCU-esque DC intro that they've been on and off with for a while and... yeah why is it like every other movie uses it? Aquaman had it but Shazam didn't, but BoP did, and then WW84 didn't, and now this does? It's just a little odd, especially when Snyder's films had such stylish logos. Luckily, the opening credits don't disappoint. We the death of Superman again from Lois, Diana, and Bruce's perspectives, but now we also see the Mother Boxes activating, prompting a response from Cyborg in his home, Lex with Steppenwolf in the Ship, as well as the Amazons and Atlantians witnessing their boxes going crazy. Finally, we see Bruce on his way in the arctic to meet Aquaman. So the timeframe of this version is a bit clearer, this is only a month or two after the Death of Superman as confirmed by Zack, and it does fit although there are some odd things with that which we'll get into later. But either way, this opening sequence is awesome. The cinematography is grand and epic, the score perfectly fitting, and it's much longer than the Everybody Knows sequence. Admittedly I did like that song, but this just feels like a much grander intro, especially with Bruce riding a horse like he's on his way to Gondor or something.

PART 1: "Don't Count On It Batman"

The scene in the arctic with Aquaman is also quite a bit better. Now we see the full original dialogue including Bruce snarking in the Icelandic language at Arthur (Much better than Whedon's "can you at least point me to Atlantis"). Though we don't see "I hear you can talk to fish", meaning that was likely a Johns line. Their conversation also feels more focused, with more direct mention of Superman's impact on Bruce. The scene ends with, admittedly a really drawn out song sung by the town. It's an Extended Director's Cut so having some filler is fine (Especially since if every second of the 242 minute runtime was essential it'd end up proving WB's point about needed an extensive script rewrite), and the lyrics do end up relating back to Clark which works well as we move to seeing Martha at Clark's grave before departing with the moving truck. It's the same scene we saw in the TC, but it feels much better due to a better score. The score isn't quite BvS score good, but I'd rank it about on the same level of the MoS score. We also get a nice scene of Lois visiting Heroes Park with a wonderful song in the background, before changing to London. Again, inessential scenes, but in a 4 hour movie that's fine. If these kind of scenes were in a cut-down version it'd be a problem.

The London sequence is also quite a bit better. Aside from being a hell of a lot less bright yellow and green, this shows off more of Diana's badassery as well as paints the terrorists as a much bigger threat. Not that the sequence was bad in theatrical JL (It was one of the better action scenes in fact), but here it has more cool fighting, a better score, no Diana being hit with a gun, and admittedly a strange ending wherein Diana blows a guy to smithereens and causes rubble to fall on the police outside. I have no issue with her killing the guy (In comics Diana's code on killing is inconsistent at best), the way it's done is just a bit odd. But... looks cool. There's also a really nice moment of her telling a little girl (Who is totally Donna Troy and you can't take that away from me) she can be whatever she wants to be. Where was that in the "hope and heroics" Whedon cut?

Then we get the Themyscira Sequence, Once again the color grading looks a lot better, though I do still find myself preferring BvS' contrast levels. But this sequence is way better here. Not only do the Amazons themselves get to kick way more ass (And the black Amazon gets a speaking role here unlike in Joss' JL), not only is Steppenwolf's design way more menacing than Johnsenwolf, not only is he not saying "Mother" every two seconds, but he goes apesh*t on the Amazons here. This is the sequence that got this version the R-rating, with Steppy hacking people apart like it's 300. In fact, a lot of Old School Snyder hallmarks returned in this film. Including his most divisive. Slow-mo. I personally never minded Snyder's slow-mo and I think it's fitting he gets to climax his use of it after edging it off throughout MoS and BvSUE, but I can see why it bothers some. Still, it's ultimately less slow-mo than in 300 or Sucker Punch despite being longer than both of those put together. The sequence still ends with Steppy getting the box (Though with no "You will love me" remark and with an Amazon referencing the multiverse). That all said, this is where one problem with ZSJL starts to arise. The chanting. Every time anything related to Diana or the Amazons happens? You hear that damn chanting. And it gets old. FAST. But regardless, we have the villain finally arrive here at the end of the first eighth of the film. Pretty decent time all things considered. And at a perfect stop, the part ends.

Part 1 is a good start despite some filler scenes, and makes a much better first impression than Joss' film.

PART 2: "Age of Heroes"

We see Steppenwolf begin to set-up his base in an abandoned town in Russia (Thankfully with no pointless Russian family this time), and he then sends out his Parademons to find the other boxes. Meanwhile Bruce and Alfred on the plane talk about tracking down their next recruit, Barry Allen. Oddly enough this scene serves the same purpose as the plane scene in Josstice League, but was reshot for that film anyways for seemingly no reason. As well, this version of the scene feels much more connected to Superman, his death very clearly driving Bruce's motivation rather than him already facing an invasion (As the Parademons haven't started attacking normal people at all yet).

We then see Silas leaving STAR Labs and the janitor finding the Parademon in a wrecked lab. These scenes are mostly the same, but expand the wrecked lab and cut out the shoehorned "totally not exposition" line about Victor. As well, the Amazons send out the arrow to Diana. This is another scene that plays out really long in this cut and could be cut down plenty, but it is a nice scene nonetheless. My only issue is, again, the damn chanting. We see again a similar scene as in Josstice League of Diana finding out about the burning arrow. But we cut back to stuff not in Josstice League as we see Silas Stone and the most likable side character in any of these films Ryan Choi actually reacting to the kidnapping and wreck in the lab, with Silas clearly trying to hide that he has the object that the Parademon was frantically looking for. We also see the Scout Ship in clear view and a very different drawing of the Parademon from in Josstice League.

We also get our first major look at Victor, arguing they need to keep their Mother Box close to them. Then we see Diana actually go into a chamber beneath the monument the arrow landed in, finding murals depicting Darkseid's initial invasion, the Mother Boxes, and the Anti-Life Equation. At that point we cut to Aquaman saving the boat wreck. In this version there's no Parademon connection at all, as the Atlantean Mother Box has not been found yet. Instead this serves as an exploration of Arthur on his own, in his element. He goes to a monument of King Atlan (With a statue that really does resemble the actual dead king himself), showing that despite his words he does have an appreciation for his Atlantean side (As well as a glance at the stone trident foreshadowing when he would take on the real thing in Aquaman), and meets Vulko. Vulko informs him of the coming danger to the outpost housing the Mother Box and begs him to finally embrace his role as a protector of both worlds, to take up his mother's trident (Which he was training with in BvS so he does go back and forth on it for some reason). He declines, leaving the trident behind. This exchange doesn't add much beyond setting up his solo film by referencing Orm, but it's Willem Dafoe so it shouldn't have been cut no matter what.

Steppenwolf communicates with Desaed, and we really get a feel for how his motivation really is just to return to his family. His puppy dog eyes especially make him a lot more sympathetic here. But then we see the Wayne Aerospace Hangar, and yes it is the Hangar in this version they're not trying to convince us the Batcave has sun-light bathing the entire thing through windows. Diana comes to warn Bruce of the invasion. Leading to a heavily expanded History Lesson that is just ridiculously awesome. There's a much bigger focus on Zeus and Ares especially, showing Ares back when he fought among the gods and humans. In fact, it's made clear that it is Ares who gets the blow that drives Darkseid back. And yes, it is also Darkseid in this version and not Steppenwolf. We also see him discover the Anti-Life Equation, which... we'll get to that later. Also in this version Diana and Bruce aren't taking a walk on the lakeside but instead are discussing while Bruce fixes up the Flying Fox. I really love how much weight is given to the battle here, as we even get to see the Green Lantern do some real damage. We hear the main theme of the film for the first time as well, and its repeated use as well as Bruce noting that the "Age of Heroes" has to come again really does emphasize that the Justice League really are the gods among mankind now. They are the true successor of these ancient warriors. In fact, Zeus, Ares, and Artemis even have a cool Trinity Pose akin to Clark, Bruce, and Diana. We even see King Atlan kick some major ass and Zeus pulling some straight up 300 moves. In fact, this sequence as a whole is very 300. It is one of the best parts of the film.

And with Bruce's message of bringing about a new "Age of Heroes" the part ends at once again a pretty perfect spot. The stage is set, the film is a little over an hour in, and we can now begin moving the story forwards.

PART 3: "Beloved Mother, Beloved Son"

We open introducing Barry Allen, The Flash, as in the middle of a job interview he springs into action to save a woman from a lethal car crash. This scene is inessential but it's so gorgeous and set to a wonderful song. We then see Steppenwolf finding out the location of the Atlantean Mother Box from Atlantean soldiers, as well as Lois going through Clark's belongings mourning his death. You feel the recency of the death of Superman in these scenes. There's also a nice scene of Diana and Bruce discussing the recruits including a little flirty moment between them. Which leads us, to Cyborg.

We continue into a fairly lengthy segment showcasing Victor's backstory and abilities. We see him playing football in Gotham, changing grades for a friend who was struck by family tragedy, his mother's pride in him, his father's absence, the car accident that killed his mother, and his father's panicked grief over his family being taken away from him. Ray Fisher's acting is exceptional in this film as he carries the film's emotional weight. As he listens to a tape made by his father, we see him interacting with the physical and digital worlds. He learns to fly, learns to manipulate the economy itself, and ends up seeing the life of a struggling mother. He sees her as a waitress forced to pick up after everyone, her trying to afford food for her child, even her giving some money to a homeless man despite her own struggles. And he moves $100,000 directly to her. It is a beautiful, heartwarming sequence. With a bittersweet ending, as when his father's tape switches from speaking to him from a scientific perspective to attempting to speak as a father, Victor breaks the tape. Soon, Parademons come crawling around the apartment looking for the box.

Speaking of daddy issues, Barry Allen is then seen in prison speaking with his incarcerated father about his jobs. His father begs him to stop holding his life back because of him. It's the same scene we saw in Josstice League but expanded, and leading directly into his meeting with Bruce Wayne. Again, same scene but this time without the dumb Whedon additions like "Brunch" and the K-Pop. There's also a billboard for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention added in, a nice touch given the film's history. We return to Diana and Alfred. Some of this scene made it into the TC, but not nearly enough. I really love all the relationship dynamics in this film, as Diana immediately fits in with not only Bruce but Alfred as well. The levity in this film really is quite good. This is followed by Diana's meeting with Victor. Diana's side of the conversation was kept in Josstice League, while Cyborg's was not. His side here seems much more frantic, as he's even carrying the box with him in the scene. He then goes and buries the box in his own grave to avoid the Parademons getting a hold of it.

We get another scene with Silas Stone and Ryan Choi as well, it's pretty clear Zack was building up Choi to become a bigger character (He wanted an all-Asian cast Atom film). This leads to the scene from the TC of Silas being captured by a Parademon, but expanded with him noticing the box is gone. Then we see the Gordon scene. Much of this scene is different from the TC, but since Simmons didn't shoot anything with Whedon, it's likely this was a scene Johns rewrote and Snyder went with the original version for ZSJL. The sketch drawing also looks a lot more like Batman than it did in the TC, making it clear why Gordon wants to talk with him. We see Bruce and Barry meeting with Diana and noticing the Bat-cave, this time with less ass-shot.

We move to seeing Steppenwolf getting to the Atlantean Mother Box. Some things of note here include the Atlanteans using a weird Dolphin language (Though my head-canon is that Aquaman just uses the translation convention and has them speak English just for convenience), there are more soldiers, the action is MUCH better including Mera using some wicked blood-bending powers and a cooler entrance for Arthur, and oh yeah, Mera's British now. I don't know why but... yeah okay. Everything's better when it's more British anyways. Steppenwolf still gets the box and we get a similar conversation between Arthur and Mera. She mentions her parents are dead, but honestly I'm totally willing to just say Nereus is her adopted father considering Nereus isn't her father in comics anyways, so it's not like it'd break any iconic elements. I'm still ultimately willing to say ZSJL flows better to Aquaman than JWJL for a reason I'll get to MUCH later.

We finish Part 3 as Victor then finds his father missing, and we see Steppenwolf adding the second Mother Box to his base and communicating with Desaed once more. Part 3 is really good too. It's the lightest on action as there's really only one medium-sized action set-piece as opposed to Part 1 which had one small set-piece and one big one, and Part 2 which had the second biggest set-piece in the film. This part is right about when things could be seen as dragging a little, but that only makes Part 4's action focus work even better. But honestly, it might be my favorite part because it's so slow and character-focused. Where Parts 1 and 2 are almost exclusively Bruce and Diana, with shades of Arthur, Part 3 really digs into Barry and Victor, who are without a doubt the characters that needed it the most after how botched they were in Joss' version. It's a part that really plays to my tastes, though I can see people not as keen on slow-paced drama finding the part a little boring.

PART 4: "CHANGE MACHINE"

We open with Batman and the League meeting with Gordon on the rooftop. The scene is very close to the Josstice League version, except now with the island being "Stryker's Island" to be consistent with BvS and with some more Gordon dialogue and an actual dialogue hint to the Knightcrawler tank. They descend into the tunnel (Complete with epic rock guitar riffs), and we get a lot more talking on the way towards the nest. We even get the "Didn't think you were real" line. Steppenwolf's interrogation lines are also much better, depicting him as a lot less Loki-ish than Joss' quippy dialogue. Once the battle begins things get a little more familiar.

The action scene has a lot of the same parts, although some moments are placed differently, we hear the full rock Wonder Woman score, and the VFX are so much better. Cyborg and Flash also get much more to do, saving all the people in the tunnels and getting them to the surface. Batman also has the much better trailer line "My turn" instead of JWJL's "Sorry guys, I didn't bring a sword". It's just in general a better action sequence. As well, Cyborg gets a nice moment with his father and Aquaman's introduction is given a lot more grace (Especially since we now know where he got his trident. Vulko).

The League escape and we then see why Steppenwolf yeeted himself out of the scene. The boxes reveal to him that the planet he's on isn't just a normal "Grab the boxes conquer" operation. It is in fact the same planet that Darkseid was driven back from all those years ago. The planet with the Anti-Life Equation kept within its very soil. The League gets out (Though the "Glad to see you working well with others again" scene isn't there, meaning it was a Johns-written scene. :( ), and Steppenwolf contacts Desaed. Darkseid then takes the stage, speaking to Steppenwolf directly. Darkseid immediately makes a powerful impression here, with Steppenwolf kneeling before him in awe.

Back with the League, they all go to the Wayne Aerospace Hangar, Victor commenting on the plane that can't fly even. We see some tension in the League, but unlike in Josstice League, it gets resolved quickly. There's no drawn out heroes fighting each other ego fight like in Avengers or Ulton or Josstice League. Victor explains everything, and they reconcile quickly. Even when they bring up bringing Superman back to life, the whole League sees it as important. It's not "Batman wants to, Diana doesn't, and the League just sides with Bruce for vague reasons" anymore. It's every member of the League having some degree of connection to Superman. Bruce's guilt, Diana's respect, and Barry and Victor's admiration. Arthur is the only one who still has doubts, but even then he knows it's important to give it a shot. It's funny. Josstice League put a lot more emphasis on the world now missing Superman, but he was meaningless to every League member except for Bruce. Meanwhile, here the world isn't addressed as much (An issue I'll get back to later), but Superman's importance to our main characters is shown much better. It makes him feel a lot more integrated into the plot.

We get a scene between Martha and Lois about their grief. A nice scene tainted by the reveal that Martha is actually Martian Manhunter. I kinda get why (He needs Lois to be at Heroes Park when Superman is brought back to life), but it cuts down on the emotion of the scene. Martian Manhunter really does feel a little shoehorned into this film, almost as if he's replacing another cameo. Yeah more on that later too. The League ultimately decides to make an attempt to bring Superman back, with some cool lines driving that.

Part 4 nicely breaks up the slow-moving drama with an action focus. It's also the second shortest of the main parts after Part 1, making it one of the better ones to rewatch. And it does nicely segue-way into the second half of the film.

PART 5: "ALL THE KING'S HORSES"

We open seeing the gang digging up Superman's body. Unlike in Joss' cut, the entire League minus Batman is here. Thus we get not only moments for Barry and Victor, but a nice moment between Diana and Arthur as well. They actually explain in this version why Barry doesn't just superspeed dig Clark up, it's because he respects Superman so much. There's also a somewhat odd comedic moment where Barry compliments Diana. Meanwhile, Bruce and Alfred discuss back at the hangar the plan. Here it's Alfred who questions Bruce's logic, calling out how his guilt is driving him. Bruce fires back, showing in his expressions how truly desperate he is. Here, we SEE how guilt drives Bruce instead of it just being spelled out to us like in the other cut.

They get the body and head to Star Labs, though the facility is just getting back into operating mode thanks to Silas and Ryan Choi. Once the League's all there Cyborg activates an evacuation, though Silas initially tries to fight it before realizing it's them and letting them through. They go through the Kryptonian ship (Even getting a close zoom at the empty pod. Hmmmm...), and talk about bringing Supes back. Barry mentions being able to do it, but in something cut out, he also mentions that time gets weird the faster he goes. And that there's one rule he can't break. Cleverly hinting towards a later scene. They lay Clark in the Genesis Chamber, and begin to prepare. Here, the ship's systems are begging Cyborg not to use the box. And in the middle of that, Cyborg has a vision. The League dying, Superman holding a burnt corpse, and the world being taken by Darkseid. And this... I'll stick this into a "discuss later" folder for now. Victor initially says "No", but Barry hears "Go" and speeds off. What's really cool here is we see Barry doesn't initially get to the box in time, but the box reverses out of the water. Visually showing Barry's time travel abilities before they get used to a bigger effect.

It works and Clark shoots out of the ship and into the sky. The box lands on a car but this time Silas grabs it before Steppy can get there (Smart!). And from there, things play out similarly to how they always did. Cyborg's systems going crazy makes more sense with his vision, there's no awkward jokes (There is still the awkward "Kal-El No!" line. Although, a different take? Still pretty awkward but in a different way? Idk, maybe my ears are playing tricks on me), and the cool stuff is extended, but for the most part it's the same group of cool scenes of Superman in his primal state fighting off the League. Just with more cool shots and without the over-saturation, and with a cool new score track mixing elements of the Kryptonian battle themes from MoS and BvS. Where things get different is how it wraps up. Not only does Superman blow up some military trucks (Though we see that every soldier did survive since they all manage to jump out of the vehicles before they explode). Superman no longer taunts Batman, nor did Batman bring Lois. Lois just happened to be in Heroes Park that morning. You could say Manhunter planned this, but I'm fine just saying "It's a comic book film!" and that explaining everything. What I do like more about this is that it is a nice way to tie into Lois' grief, as this was the last day she was going to go by Heroes Park. Fitting that the last day of her grief should be, well, the last day of her grief. Plus, it's the only thing Lois really gets to do in this film. Yeah that is an issue, Lois' role got reduced compared to MoS and BvSUE. Not as reduced as the media and military though, but I'll stick that in my "discuss later" folder too.

But that's where the similarities end. After a pretty funny moment between Barry and Arthur, Steppy comes for the box, but has to chase down Silas. Silas seemingly tries to sacrifice himself to destroy the box using a plot device Ryan Choi introduced earlier, but Steppy gets it and flees. But Victor realizes that his father wasn't trying to destroy the box, he was marking it. He was sacrificing himself to give them their chance to strike Steppenwolf at his stronghold. And, that's where the part ends.

This part is really cool, but it is also the most similar to Josstice League. This segment is fairly intact minus the ending. Sure JL cut out a lot of cool parts, but it left a lot in too. But it really is that ending to this part that really hammers in the biggest difference. There is a lot more emotion in this film than in Joss'. The character arcs in JWJL were told to us. By cringy humor that was masking clumsy exposition, and just clumsy exposition at times. Here, it's shown. Even in BvS, dialogue was still pushing a lot of the story, just with more subtext and less spelled out exposition compared to TDK Trilogy or MoS. Here, Snyder and Terrio are the most comfortable they've ever been with letting the visuals speak for themselves. A picture is worth a thousand words. That is the philosophy of this film's storytelling. In a way, it brings me back to when I first fell in love with Snyder's filmmaking in 300 and Watchmen. MoS and BvSUE still delivered a lot of that, but there's a reason Zack Snyder's name is in big bold letters in front of this one. Because this is the most Zack Snyder film that Zack Snyder ever made. And it's why the emotion in the storytelling works so well.

PART 6: "Something Darker"

We first see Lois and Clark arriving back to the Farm. Here we get the line "You spoke" instead of "You smell good". I really don't understand why Joss changed that. I get that Superman speaking was changed too, but he could've just trimmed that shot and line out entirely. However, here we see them actually enter the house and even get a nice smile from Clark as he remembers how much he loved growing up there. And this brings up something. I've seen a lot of people say they still prefer Superman in Josstice League because "he's just unemotional and mopey in the Snyder Cut and not optimistic like Joss made him". Umm, did we watch the same films? Here we get like 100 scenes of Clark lovingly looking over the farm, talking about loving Earth, talking about how he has a second chance now, etc.. I mean, maybe it's not as optimistic as talking about how "itchy" his death was, but c'mon people. I swear you're just looking for things to complain about with this film.

We finally get to the Batcave as Alfred meets the whole League (Including a hilarious line from Affleck and a cool line from Momoa). The running tea joke also continues. They track the box and find where Steppy's base is. Victor decides to integrate with the Unity, destroy it from within, having nothing left to lose. We also get the epic "Not Us United" scene from the trailers with Momoa even looking at him like "Yeah that was badass". Meanwhile back at the farm we get an infinitely better scene with Lois and Clark in the fields. We get the "Second Chance" line in addition to them discussing their engagement and overall it's just a wonderful scene. Cavill's natural charm is given much more room here than ever before, as he finally finds a nice spot in between somber and upbeat. Or to quote X-Men First Class, he finds it in between "rage and serenity". I know that line doesn't really fit but I love that line enough to quote it anywhere. He also has a much longer reunion with Martha (The first time he's seen her since she was kidnapped). For Joss talking all about "heart and heroics", he sure ripped out a lot of heartfelt scenes from the film.

At the Cave, Cyborg fixes the Flying Fox. Meanwhile we get a really nice character moment for Arthur. I'm gonna call back to what I said about Arthur earlier, that his arc flows better from here to Aquaman. At the beginning of ZSJL he totally rejects both the Oceans and Land. Throughout ZSJL he grows, showing his empathy for mankind underneath everything, and with Mera's story of being raised by his Mother inspiring him to go see his father and hopefully start making amends. In Joss' JL, I never really got the feeling that Arthur was reconsidering his prejudices, only that he just randomly decided he didn't have prejudices and was always regretful of not embracing the Oceans or the Land. But even that's a contradiction since at the beginning of Aquaman, he's only started to embrace Earth. It's only over the course of that film that he learns to embrace Atlantis as well, making that line in JWJL feel meaningless. And yes I know Aquaman does have more "contradictions" to ZSJL than to JWJL. But honestly most of them are easily explainable. Translation convention means Atlanteans seemingly speaking English in Aquaman could still be using the language from ZSJL, accents change all the time in CBMs so Mera's accent changing doesn't mean anything, different styles of armor could simply be an older more noble (Thus, more "high-born", solving another issue) sect of the army instead of Orm's more high-tech "close to the people" army segments devoid of noble blood, and the one line everyone says breaks canon, Mera's father being dead? Mera does say in Aquaman that she and Orm were raised together by Queen Atlanna. Nereus being an adoptive parent is something not only possible but logical in Aquaman's story. Plus... Arthur's shown to be a klepto in JWJL and not in ZSJL or Aquaman.

We also get direct mention of Bruce's Knightmare vision from BvS, with an ominous warning of future events. Meanwhile, Alfred shows them the now operational Flying Fox, fixed by Cyborg, leading to two really nice Affleck lines, one showing pride in Victor, and one expressing faith that Superman will appear to Alfred. I really love the latter especially as it just really shows how much Bruce has grown, as well as just really selling how much more invested Affleck was in this JL compared to Joss'. At the same time, Steppenwolf begins to merge the unity and asks for the way to be made ready for Darkseid. This leads to phenomena witnessed by the Amazons and Atlanteans, even Alfred notices it. The whole world notices it and yet... okay still keeping that in the Discuss Later folder. The League maps out their plan to attack the base, including an homage/crack at CW's Flash ("Power of love").

We then get a sequence we have seen much of. The Return of Superman. But where we had previously seen most of the visuals, we not only get more cool stuff including seeing more suits (All of which connect to past films and struggles), but we hear echos of both Clark's fathers over the scene, recalling how both Jor-El and Pa Kent were ghosts to him in the previous films. Clark dons the black suit, which there's not really an explanation for but I don't care because it's the black suit and if Superman comes back to life it's in the goddamn black suit. I really like that it's Jor-El's voice that ends when he chooses the suit, representing his Kryptonian side. And then he steps out into the cold, just like in MoS. And for this scene, it's Johnathan's final line "Fly son, it's time" that shoots him into the air, representing his choice of humanity above all else. I like that he chooses a symbol of Kryptonian heritage (Jor-El's line playing over choosing the Black Suit) to ultimately serve Humanity (Pa Kent's line over him flying). As well, we get a brilliant but WAY too short reprise of "Flight/WAYGTDWYNSTW". It is an amazing scene though, containing a great visual of Clark soaking up the sun.

We then get some epic rock riffing as the team prepares for battle and lands. Bruce even has a prideful look at the team he brought together and a smooth quip when his first strike on the dome fails. One interesting thing is that this ending is shrouded in grey skies and blood red highlights. Not only extremely different from the bright neon orange of the theatrical cut, but also very different from the dark blue skies we saw in the Snyder-era trailers. The Flying Fox crashes, and Bruce takes the Batmobile kept inside to lead the Parademons away, ordering the League to get to the unity. A cool action chase ensues with a cool score and a classic Snyder "slow mo shell casings" shot. This sequence had a lot of parts left in the TC, but here it feels better paced and just looks better (Even though I do kinda prefer the dark blue skies from the trailers). Parademons eventually catch up to Batman  and rip open the car, with Wonder Woman coming in to save him. What follows is an epic shot of all five heroes launching into the fray. As well I swear some of the score uses parts of the Junkie/Gary Clark version of "Come Together" when Aquaman fights some Parademons in the air (Accompanied by an admittedly less cool Cyborg save line). Every member of the League has a moment in this sequence. Barry goes off to start building charge by running through the abandoned city, Arthur and Cyborg head for the unity, and Bruce and Diana continue taking out Parademons.

This final action part is great... but it's also missing something. Time to dig into my discuss later folder. In MoS and BvS, we saw a lot of how the world itself treated these events. It was dare I say one of the biggest draws of them to their fans, the way we saw a world almost identical to how our own works and reacts, reacting to these extraordinary situations. But the use of military, media, and civilians was sadly the basis for a lot of criticisms. MoS's focus on civilian interaction in the finale got rage for having too much collateral damage, both films use of the military led to accusations of "U.S. Military Propaganda", and BvS' focus on the media angered some who felt the movie shouldn't have been so grounded in real life politics and society. So since JL was rewritten before shooting to address criticisms, we don't have any civilian, media, or military reaction to... anything. The media is ridiculously absent, the militaries show up for like 30 seconds during the Superman fight, and there's no civilians who reacted to any of this. I hate how JWJL treated its civilian reactions, but the idea itself wasn't bad. But the biggest problem, is the lack of reaction to Superman. Both MoS and BvS spend time examining Superman through the eyes of the common people. MoS shows this new, alien being through the eyes of idealistic journalists and civilians looking for hope against a coming threat. BvS shows him through the eyes of divided media and politicians and people arguing his humanity. ZSJL should have a moment of people finally seeing Superman as the hero he is, a moment of unity among the human race. But it doesn't happen, because that would require there to be regular ordinary people in danger in the course of this film. It was easier and safer to just let Superman's impact show through the League members. And yeah, that's enough. But it does make ZSJL stick out compared to MoS and BvS as not having quite the same sense of realism or impact.

Back to the film, Superman approaches Alfred and learns of the plan, once again showing Cavill looking more comfortable than he ever was before. Meanwhile, Arthur and Victor get inside the main tower and challenge Steppenwolf, leading to an epic three-person fight when Diana enters. As Arthur and Diana occupy Steppy, Victor gets to the boxes and starts to interact with it. Steppy stops him though, leading to the bridge shattering, with the ensuing skirmish causing Diana and Arthur to be stuck down below while Steppy approaches Victor, ready to kill him. But as he brings his axe down, Superman shows up and blocks it, pulling out some serious "Care to step outside, general?" attitude when he states he's unimpressed by him. This leads to Superman just kinda beating the sh*t out of Steppenwolf for a bit. It's a nice contrast to when Zod used him as a punching bag in MoS. Now Clark is the strongest one. There's also a new awesome theme playing combining the main JL theme with the classic Kryptonian battle themes. Superman completes the League, allowing him, Diana, and Arthur to collectively decimate him. Victor finally gets ready to enter the unity, but just then one Parademon (dubbed "Gary" by the fans) manages to shoot Barry down.

The unity synchronizes as a portal to Apokalips opens behind them, Darkseid and his army looking upon their work. The boxes fuse, and the world is destroyed as even Superman fades to dust. But Barry phases through it. Calling back to what he said about his one rule earlier, he now decides to break it by going far beyond the speed of light. This leads to what is probably the best scene in the whole film. Barry using the power of the Speed Force to reverse time and save everyone. Not only is the scene shot and composed beautifully with the best CG in the film, not only is Barry's monologue to his father touching, but the score is AMAZING. It is the best theme in the film, and it's not even a distinct character theme. It's the main JL theme given a Flash motif, and it's incredible. The League reforms in front of Barry's eyes and he gets Cyborg into the Unity. Leading to... the second best scene in the film.

Cyborg stands in an Hellish cityscape, and sees his family including himself as a human. They offer him a chance to be whole, to be unbroken, to not be alone again. And in a scene that I am unashamed to say made me cry, Victor declared that he isn't broken, that he isn't alone. The themes of mental health pour out of this scene. He begins ripping apart the Unity from within, with Superman coming to help, tossing the seemingly now-useless boxes to the sides. Bruce drops down and the entire League stares down the weak, armorless Steppenwolf. Aquaman stabs him with the trident, Superman punches him off of it, and Diana decapitates him, his head rolling to Darkseid's feet, as he crushes it under him. The League and Darkseid stare each other down as the portal closes, and Darkseid exclaims that he will return, to "ready the armada". Sounds like a badass sequel, that we won't see most likely.

Back on Earth, the League climbs out of the tower. Looking over the world as the Flying Fox approaches. Something to note is Flash and Victor still fist bump here, but without the cringe joke building it up. It's an epic shot with a bronze lighting right out of a Greek epic. Thus ending Part 6. An epic final part to an epic film. I don't even really need to sum the part up, I think it's pretty clear that I think it's mostly awesome with the one problem being the lack of world reactions.

EPILOGUE: "A Father Twice Over"

Unlike the TC's tacked on Lois monologue, we finally get to hear the rest of Silas' recording, played over scenes of the heroes moving on. Arthur returns the trident to Vulko for a time (Implying that's where he got it to begin with), and embarks to see his father (Again, a more fitting natural flow into Aquaman as the next film). Ryan Choi takes over Nanotechnology (Man I want a Ryan Choi Atom film with this guy. Screw JL2 and 3, give me that follow-up!). The same scene of Wayne Manor being turned into the Hall of Justice plays but with a more epic color grading emphasizing the light peering through the windows. Barry gets his crime lab job and an excellent performance from Billy Cruddup just really makes me sad he's recast in The Flash. I get he couldn't make it but man I love Billy Cruddup.

We also (THANK GOD!) STILL GET THE "I Bought The Bank" scene! WOO! Sorry, but that was the scene I was really worried might be gone. Victor takes flight, Bruce stands atop the tank from TDKReturns with some tied up goons as Gordon reactivates the Bat-signal, Diana takes the arrow and seems determined to return to Themyscira, Barry whimsically runs through the city and showcases his powers, and the film ends as Clark walks through an alley, ripping his shirt open to reveal the classic Red and Blue suit, fading into credits as we get to hear WAYGTDWYNSTW one last time as the conclusion of the trilogy building Clark into the hero promised at the end of MoS.

... Or at least, that's how it should end. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Firstly, Clark's still wearing the black suit. For a shirt rip scene, it should be the classic suit. Plus, while Clark was meant to keep the black suit until JL3 in the 2014 storyboards, that was changed. It made sense there because Clark was unsure if he could really call himself human after being dead, he was more of a downer. Here, he's more optimistic than ever. It makes no sense to me other than just to be there. But it doesn't end at the shirt rip. We then get the Luthor scene, except this time teasing Ben's Batman movie instead of the Legion of Doom. It's a cool scene and deserves to be in the film, but not where it's placed. Maybe it would've worked better placing it between the Epilogue Title Card and the main portion. Or just being a post-credits scene. But it doesn't even end there. We get a Knightmare scene much like BvS, showing Batman and the Joker discussing Dick Grayson and Harley Quinn's deaths. It's a cool interaction, but my god it doesn't belong in this film. It's an interaction meant for JL2 that was pasted here because we won't get that JL2.

But even that isn't the end. We get a scene of Batman interacting with Martian Manhunter. It was originally going to be Green Lantern, and unlike the Knightmare scene which was completely thought of in 2020, the Bruce meets John Stewart scene was going to be filmed as a pickup in 2017. So I absolutely get it. It would make a great Post-Credits scene. But since WB wouldn't let him use Stewart, it's now MM and it feels a bit more tacked on because of that, because now it's not even what Zack planned in 2016. Like the Knightmare scene it now feels out-of-place. And by redoing the scene with MM, Zack's basically locked us out of seeing the GL scene. He filmed this scene with his own money, and had he simply decided to leave the scene itself out when WB said no to it, he could've released it as his own fan-made footage. But now that half of the scene (Ben's half) is in the actual film and thus officially belongs to WB now, he can't release the entire GL version of the scene because it contains that half. And again, it shouldn't have been after the shirt rip. The Luthor scene should've started the epilogue, the GL version of this scene could've been Post-Credits, the Knightmare scene was unneeded, and the shirt rip should've had the classic suit.

Then again, if my biggest issue with a film is the last 15 minutes, that should say enough.

Conclusion

Zack Snyder's Justice League is by no means a perfect film. Nor even the best of his trilogy in my opinion. That still goes to Man of Steel for it's focus and themes. But it is an absolute epic. Until the last 15 minutes, it is consistently entertaining and emotional. Despite, like the Joss cut, having a generic surface premise ("Group gets together to face invasion" is hardly original), it manages to find its uniqueness and value in the execution, in the subtleties, in the layers underneath. Like the other Snyder films, it gets better with more analysis. Would it have worked as a theatrical release? God no. Much like how BvSUE could've been cut to 150 minutes with a good editing team, a good editing team could've gotten ZSJL down to anywhere from 170-190 minutes. Not short enough to meet WB's demands, but short enough to be an easier watch experience for the casual audience. But even with its gigantic length, it almost never feels dull. And it's because in this version, I care.

It's the characters and caring about their struggles and arcs that sucks me into this version. The returning heroes are still great, and the new ones are even better IMO. Cyborg in particular has the most fulfilling arc in the film. You're gonna tell me it was right to cut all that in favor of "brunch"? I may not like Lester Superman II more than Donner's, but I understand those who do. I couldn't understand anyone preferring JWJL to ZSJL other than just if they just hate Zack Snyder's guts. Even if you don't like either film, it seems to go without saying that the latter is the better one. But weirdly enough, not many people don't like ZSJL. That's what was ultimately surprising. Among most people, the casual fans, ZSJL did the impossible. It was liked by people who loved and hated BvS. I see posts and videos like it every few days. "I hated MoS and BvS, but I loved ZSJL!". It's almost the opposite of what Josstice League did. Where that film united Snyder fans and haters in despising it, ZSJL seemed to unite most people other than the ardent haters into liking it. And it wasn't liked by Snyder fans because "dark", "edgy", insert other buzzwords. ZSJL makes it clear that Snyder was never interested in being edgy or grimdark. Hell, we've learned in recent interviews that it was actually WB pushing a lot of darkness on BvS. Because ultimately, ZSJL isn't dark, or somber, or humorless, or any other arguable buzzword thrown at Snyder films before. It was funny, and vibrant, and relentlessly optimistic. This is a movie where Batman, the friggin "Dark Knight", talks about bringing people together and how much "Faith, Alfred, Faith!" he has in Superman.

The story was great, the characters engrossing, the cinematography epic, the score kickass, the VFX while not MoS good still pretty good, and every facet just felt like an epic. Don't get me wrong, I'd love if we got Snyder's JL2 and 3. Live action, comic, animated, actually I might like it better animated considering Snyder's action is already so anime-esque. But if this is the last of his films, I can accept that. It's good enough at finishing its arcs for Batman, Clark, and having a self-contained arc for Cyborg too. If anything, the biggest insult isn't that we won't get Snyder's JL2 specifically, it's that we likely won't get any films with these actors again after The Flash, especially not all together. Even though this film arguably has the best base to take off a new Superman film from (Snyder or otherwise), it won't happen because WB would rather do a race bent reboot (Which could be good. I've warmed to the idea of race-bending Superman over the past few months, I think my lingering anger over not getting another Cavill film was clouding my judgement. But it still doesn't feel like the time to reboot IMO). And this film isn't even what's being considered canon (Although with the exception of literally one line, that I already explained could be easily amended, there's nothing preventing this from taking JWJL's place in-canon) by WB anyways. Then again, Batman 89 and Superman 78 are getting comic follow-ups, and Batman '66 got two animated movies, so maybe it's not impossible that Snyder gets some form of continuation. Either way, ZSJL is more than enough to have me at least satisfied for now in regards to Snyder films (Though that hasn't shut down my campaigning for the Ayer and Schumacher Cuts).

For its emotional impact, epic scale, and breathtaking action, I give Zack Snyder's Justice League a 9.5/10.

The Future For My Reviews

I have really enjoyed making these reviews. But I am, frankly, exhausted from CBMs. I have been for quite some time, but I've been forcing myself to keep discussing them until I finished this monolith of a review. But now that it's done, I'm taking a break. That means I won't be seen for a while on r/DC_Cinematic or r/Superman or any CBM subreddit, other than responding to existing comments and if I can eventually get my Suicide Squad fanedit up without WB immediately taking it down. I'll return to talk about the new films when they come out, but until I start the next DC Retrospective (Which will be Batman, covering all the films from the 43 serial to The Batman), I won't be a regular on these subs. I need to get away from this. I need to return to my comfort zone, my roots, my true bread-and-butter in film.

So for my next retrospective, I'll be taking a look at a franchise containing not one, not two, but three of my favorite films of all time. A series filled with terror, action, emotions, comedy, drama, great films, terrible films, everything in between. A series of films from various visionaries. A series of films that defined Science Fiction forever.

Next time, we take a look at my all-time favorite movie. The greatest film I have ever seen and one I find near flawless. A sci-fi horror classic like none other. A movie that sent us all where nobody can hear you scream. Next Friday, we tackle Alien.

I have been DarkLordRyan. And if you take anything from these reviews, let it be this:

Superman is a friend. He is always there. He's the person you can turn to for guidance, the person you can trust to stop injustice, the hero we all need. He will never give you up, he will never let you down. He will never just run around and desert you. He's never gonna make you cry nor will he say goodbye. And he won't tell any lies, or hurt you.

Be more like Superman.