Blaine: I’ve written about “Justice League” before, but that was a different version.
Plot (Spoiler Alert)
Superman is dead, and Batman wants to put together a team of people with special abilities to defend the world. It couldn’t have come at a better time because there’s an army of parademons invading the planet, led by Steppenwolf.
Blaine: Zack Snyder had just completed “Batman vs Superman”, and the next phase was “Justice League”. Zack had big plans for “Justice League”, but because “Batman vs Superman” wasn’t a complete success things had to change. Warner Bros. was thinking about firing Zack Snyder from the “Justice League” project. Zack wasn’t fired, but he did leave the project during post-production due to a personal issue, and Warner Bros. hired Joss Whedon, the man who wrote, and directed the first two “Avengers” movies, to take Zack’s place.
Joss Whedon did reshoots for new scenes he wrote for the movie, and cut out scenes they already shot when Zack was in charge, like Victor Stone’s football game, Aquaman’s backstory, and Flash saving Iris West. “Justice League” is a great movie, but it did feel like it was missing parts to it.
Henry Cavill, and Ben Affleck, who play Superman, and Batman, said Joss Whedon saved “Justice League”, and it was better compared to what it was going to be. Now there’s the question if they really meant that? A couple of years after “Justice League” was released, one of the actors of the film, Ray Fisher, was speaking against Joss Whedon, and saying he wasn’t a pleasant person to work with. Gal Gadot said her experience on the reshoots wasn’t pleasant either.
Patty Jenkins, the director of the “Wonder Woman” movies, said she didn’t like Joss Whedon’s version of “Justice League” because she felt it didn’t connect with her first "Wonder Woman” movie. Patty, and the other DC directors think of Zack as a leader when it comes to the DC Universe. He understands comic books because he’s a big comic book lover.
Now to me, Zack Snyder is not one of the best directors, even though he has directed movies like “300”. He’s the first director to put Superman, and Batman in the same movie, which inspired Warner Bros. to put more of the DC characters on the big screen, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg, Shazam, and Harley Quinn. But Zack also can take things too far. Like “Man of Steel”, and “Batman vs Superman”, had scenes that were 9/11ish. Superman would crash through tall buildings while fighting the bad guy, and the building would collapse killing a lot of people inside. Other adaptions of Superman do show cities getting damaged some times when Superman is fighting someone powerful, but he would make sure civilians would be safe.
With Batman, Zack was having that character use guns, and killing bad guys. Batman despises guns because it was a gun that killed both his parents. Ben Affleck, and Henry Cavill, promised fans they would see a traditional Batman, and Superman, in “Justice League”.
Ben Affleck’s Batman had gotten soft in “Justice League” compared to how hard he was in “Batman vs Superman”. Zack Snyder described his version of Batman as someone who has seen, and lost too much. Joker killed Batman’s second Robin, Jason Todd. Then Superman crashed through the Wayne Enterprise building while battling General Zod. The building collapsed, and a lot of Wayne’s employees were killed. Batman was very pissed at Superman because of that.
Superman should have been more careful. Batman was trying to find a way to get rid of Superman, but then he realized he was taking things too far. His hate was turning him into a monster. Both Batman, and Superman put their differences aside, and went after the real bad guy, which was Lex Luther. A lot of people weren’t so sure about Superman because of how powerful he was, and the damages he caused. Batman didn’t trust him. But then Superman sacrificed himself to defeat the monster Luther had created, and that opened Batman’s eyes. Everyone realized that Superman wanted to do good after giving his own life to save them.
Fans tweeted they wanted to see Zack Snyder’s finished version of “Justice League” because the first version didn’t feel complete, and Zack was touched by that. Zack thought it would be nice to go back to “Justice League” because it was one of his passion projects. Zack has a way of getting studios to say yes to the movies he wants to make, and HBO Max was nice enough to help Zack out by financing the project.
Zack Snyder has way too many ideas that he tries to squeeze into one movie when there’s already enough in it. Jeremy Irons, who plays Bruce Wayne’s trusted butler, Alfred, said he didn’t like “Batman vs Superman” because it had way too much stuff going on in it. Zack Snyder felt two hours wasn’t long enough for a movie with six main characters. He felt the running time needed to expand, and so it became a four hour movie. Joss Whedon had cut down a lot of scenes for his version, and Zack Snyder has extended them for his. Zack also gave the movie the scenes that he shot that were left out of the first version. I bet Jason Momoa was very happy about that because he was pissed that Joss Whedon left out Aquaman’s backstory.
Willem Dafoe was supposed to make an appearance as Arthur's mentor in “Justice League” before “Aquaman”, but his scenes got cut out of the first version of the movie. And Kiersey Clemons had a small appearance playing Flash’s love interest Iris West, but she got cut out of the movie too. Thanks to Zack, the time they spent making those scenes hasn’t been for nothing because he added their scenes to his version of “Justice League".
Zack Snyder sure is big on slow motion. His version of “Justice League” has a lot of scenes with slow motion. His other films, “300”, “Watchmen”, “Sucker Punch”, they all had slow motion scenes.
Zack never watched the version of “Justice League” Joss Whedon had completed for him, but he said he would have that version wiped from existence. I have nothing against that version. I love it. I was concerned about it at first, thinking it wouldn’t be that good because “Batman vs Superman” was a let down. But I thought “Justice League" was a very fun movie to watch, and it was one of the best times I had seeing a movie.
Patty Jenkins thought Joss Whedon’s “Justice League” didn’t connect with her “Wonder Woman” movie, but to me it was showing the same Wonder Woman who made sure no harm came to an innocent life, and her love interest, the late Steve Trevor, was mentioned.
Zack Snyder was making Superman, and Batman look bad by having them cause destruction, and making the innocent fear them. Their clumsiness, and hate was getting people hurt, and killed. Patty Jenkins was setting a better example for Wonder Woman by making her a hero. Fans have seen Wonder Woman defeat a group of terrorists, and saving hostages in “Justice League”, and you see it again in this version, only the scene is longer now. Like I said, Zack has extended a lot of scenes in his version.
Wonder Woman makes sure no one gets hurt. She really cares for people. The leader of the terrorist group tries to kill the hostages, and Wonder Woman takes every bullet for them. Wonder Woman destroys the terrorist in an extreme way. There’s an explosion when Wonder Woman destroys the terrorist, but it’s not as bad as the Capital Building being blown up in “Batman vs Superman”. Wonder Woman doesn’t care about taking the life of someone who is evil. In the first “Wonder Woman” movie, she wanted to save the innocent, and evil to die. She couldn’t wait to put her sword through Erich Ludendorff.
In the original version of “Justice League”, it felt like Batman was treating Flash as if he was his brother. I didn’t feel that in Snyder’s version. Batman told Flash to save the hostages from Steppenwolf, even though Flash wasn’t so sure about it. This wasn’t a robbery, this was going up against alien life. But after Flash got one hostage out, he wanted to save the rest, and he was feeling good about it. Batman encouraged Flash to be a hero. That’s what it felt like to me. In Snyder’s version, Flash, and Cyborg are leading the hostages out to safety, and Flash wants everyone to keep up with him. I liked it better in the other version.
Another thing about Joss Whedon’s version is Victor Stone/Cyborg’s father stayed alive. By the end of that version, Cyborg, and his father were growing closer, and they were happy. Cyborg was even giving his looks an upgrade. Zack Snyder has the father die in his version, and that sucks. Zack’s version does focus a lot on the relationship between Cyborg, and his father. Cyborg is upset about a lot of things. His father wasn’t around for his football game, then his mom died in a car crash. Victor was in the car when that happened. It caused a lot of damage to his body, and he was almost a goner, until the Mother Box gave him new life. Now he’s half man, half machine. You get to know every single detail about Cyborg in Zack’s version.
Bummer that Cyborg’s father had to die. I liked seeing them happy together at the end of Joss Whedon’s version. Aquaman feels Cyborg's pain of losing a loved one. Each member of the League has lost someone close to them. For Superman, it was his adoptive father, Jonathan Kent. Wonder Woman lost Steve Trevor. Batman’s parents were both gunned down when he was a kid. Flash’s mom was murdered. Aquaman thought he lost his mom, but spoilers if you haven’t seen “Aquaman”, she’s alive! He’s doesn't know that until later on when he has his own movie.
Fans of the comic books didn’t think Steppenwolf was the right villain for the Justice League to go up against. They say he’s not that popular. Joss Whedon didn’t think he was worthy enough either. When Joss took over, there was no time to replace the bad guy because they had to stay on schedule, and had spent enough of Warner Bros’ money. Zack improved Steppenwolf for this new version, by giving him a new look, and making him more mean. Steppenwolf looks more monstrous, and he feels worthy enough to be the bad guy compared to the other version.
The villain “Justice League” should have had was Darkseid. There are a lot of popular villains in the DC Universe, but Darkseid is a villain who is very hard to defeat, and he is very, very cruel. In the Marvel Universe, The Avengers have Thanos, and Darkseid is the Thanos of the DC Universe. Darkseid’s goals are different from Thanos, but what they have in common is they won’t go down easily, and they never know when to quit. Darkseid wants to rule, and bring hell to Earth. I would also say he is stubborn after seeing what he is like in the DC animated features. What he desires most in life is something called Anti-Life Equation. I don’t know what it is, but it sounds like Ultimate Power.
Steppenwolf works for Darkseid, and is collecting the three Mother Boxes, so Darkseid can arrive to Earth. If you think about it, this is almost like “Avengers” in a way. In the first “Avengers” movie, Loki was the villain the Avengers were fighting, but he wasn’t the one who was in charge. Thanos was the one who gave Loki orders. And that’s what Steppenwolf is. He’s a leader, but he’s not the boss.
In the first version of “Justice League”, it did feel like Darkseid was meant to be in it. Zack Snyder must have wanted Darkseid to show himself at the perfect time. The Avengers had a lot to deal with in separate situations at times, and other times they would work on it together as a team. Thanos was meant to be the most challenging opponent to go up against, but Marvel Studios knew they needed to wait for the right moment. Both Darkseid, and Thanos, represent the final level.
Another thing is before you see the hero ensemble going up against the ultimate bad guy, you should get to know them first. This was the first movie where you see the Justice League come together, and seeing how they work as a team. We’ve seen a lot of Batman, and Superman movies in the past, and then Wonder Woman got her first film debut in “Batman vs Superman”. “Justice League” was showing us the other team members who at the time we had not yet seen on the big screen, Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg.
It’s really cool that Zack added in Darkseid for his version of “Justice League”. He doesn’t fight the League just yet, but he does have a big appearance in the movie.
The Justice League wants to bring Superman back from the dead. No surprise there, we've already seen how Superman returned in the other version. Batman was the only one who wanted to bring Superman back in Joss’ version. The rest of the League wasn’t so sure about it, and Flash was using Stephen King’s “Pet Cemetery” as a reference for bringing Superman back. In Snyder’s version they all agree bringing Superman back is a good idea.
Zack Snyder wanted Superman to change the colors on his outfit to black, and silver in “Justice League”. It’s in the comics. Warner Bros. refused to see a black suited Superman. They wanted to see him in his regular colors. Joss Whedon couldn’t understand why anyone would want to change Superman’s colors. With the help of the visual effects department, Zack Snyder was able to give Superman the black suit he had wanted to see him in. The visual effect department would take the footage of Henry Cavill in the red, and blue suit he wore when they shot “Justice League” back in 2016, and change the colors on it using digital technology.
I prefer the red, blue, and yellow look, but hey, now Superman, and Batman have something in common, black suits. Superman’s suit wasn’t the only outfit Zack had turned black. At the end of the first version of “Justice League”, it showed Bruce, Diana/Wonder Woman, and Alfred looking at Wayne Mansion, and thinking about turning it into a headquarters for the Justice League. Diana was wearing red. The Snyder version has that same clip, only Diana’s outfit is black now.
When they did the reshoots for the first version of “Justice League”, Henry Cavill had a mustache, and he couldn’t shave it off because he was using it for a “Mission Impossible” movie. So the visual effects department had to shave it off by using digital effects. It looked silly. You could tell Superman’s lips looked fake. A lot of people would make fun of that through funny videos. “Deadpool 2” used it as a reference in one of it’s trailers. Superman doesn’t have the fake lips in this new version.
There’s the question on why this new version of “Justice League” has a square frame look, instead of a wide frame? The square look is fine for movies like “Ida”, and “Cold War”, but with “Justice League” that’s different. It’s what Zack Snyder wanted. Another thing is the original version had more hue and saturation to it, where as the Snyder version has lost some color. When the League shows up in Russia to go up against Steppenwolf the look is dark. Russia was red in the other version.
There’s a shot of Cyborg in the Snyder Version that I don’t like. It’s during the scene when the League is down in the tunnels, and Cyborg takes control of Batman’s crawler. He says “Relax Alfred. I’ll take it from here.” What I don’t like is you can hardly see him with the broken glass in the way. You could see him easier in Whedon’s version. Although he was upside down, but that’s because the crawler had fallen on it’s back.
This version of “Justice League” also added Martian Manhunter, but only as a cameo. For those of you who don’t know who Martian Manhunter is, he is another member of the Justice League. He should have been a main character in “Justice League”, not just in Snyder’s version, but the other version as well. It would have been cool to see him on the team, fighting along side them to stop Steppenwolf. Zack didn’t think about adding in Martian Manhunter until after he left the project back in 2017.
In the Snyder Cut of “Justice League”, Martian Manhunter only has two scenes. If a “Justice League” sequel ever gets made Martian Manhunter will be joining the team I know that.
Martian Manhunter was played by Harry Lennix, the same actor who played General Calvin Swanwick in “Man of Steel”, and “Batman vs Superman”. Swanwick worked with Superman in defeating the evil Kryptonian invaders in “Man of Steel”. Swanwick never told Superman he too is an alien. I didn’t think much of General Swanwick, but now I’m looking at him in a new way because he is really Martian Manhunter.
I would have introduced Martian Manhunter early on like at the end of “Batman vs Superman”. The way I see it, General Swanwick would meet up with Bruce Wayne, and Diana Prince after Superman’s funeral, and reveal his true identity to them. Bruce Wayne is planning to put a team together, and Martian Manhunter would say “I want in.” That’s how I would want it to go.
The League brings Superman inside the crashed Kryptonian ship in order to revive him, and the ship is guarded by security. If Martian Manhunter was on the team, Flash wouldn’t have to pose as a soldier in order to get Superman’s body into the ship. Martian Manhunter would just use his General Swanwick identity to get them in.
The Snyder cut of “Justice League” feels more serious, and the DC Universe is known to be dark. Still, everyone enjoys a good laugh now, and then. Joss Whedon gave his version humor. One of my favorite scenes in Joss’ version of “Justice League” is when Aquaman is sitting on Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth, and spilling out how he feels about her. I love that scene.
Joss also had the Justice League have fun while saving the world, like The Avengers. The Avengers take saving the world seriously, but they also tease each other to lighten the mood, and have fun while kicking the bad guy’s butt. Flash, and Superman would be competing with each other on who can run the fastest while saving the lives of people.
In the first version when Superman showed up to help the League stop Steppenwolf, he said “I believe in truth. I’m also a big fan of Justice.” I liked Superman’s entrance in that version more than the one he makes in "The Snyder Cut”, and I like that line.
The enemy was defeated in the original “Justice League”, but he wasn’t killed like in “The Snyder Cut”. Steppenwolf was transported back to Apokolips, and judging by it he was in big trouble for failing.
There’s a shot of Wonder Woman holding her sword up high, and she has her war face on. The first version she was destroying Steppenwolf’s weapon. The Snyder version, she is cutting his head off. They used the same shot of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, but everything around her has been altered. Here’s a visual example of it.
In the opening credits of Snyder’s “Justice League”, the title is short, and doesn’t look that interesting. Joss Whedon made sure that the title for his “Justice League" was big enough for the audience to see. This was the Justice League’s first movie, they deserve a big title.
Ben Affleck was planning to give his Batman his own stand alone movie, and Joe Manganiello was cast as the villain Deathstroke. Unfortunately that project got canceled, but Joe Manganiello did get to play Deathstroke. Zack thought it would be nice for Deathstroke to make an appearance in “Justice League”. There was a post-credit, and after-credit scene in the first version of “Justice League”. The post-credit scene showed Superman, and Flash about to have a race. And the after-credit scene showed Deathstroke meeting with Lex Luther. There’s no after-credit scene in “The Snyder Cut”, but the scene with Deathstroke, and Lex Luther is in the movie.
There was a few things in “Batman vs Superman” that were hard to follow, and one of them was Flash showing up in the Batcave to warn Bruce Wayne. This Flash is from the future, and he has traveled back in time to give Bruce an important message about Superman. He didn’t give Bruce all the details, he just said “It’s Lois Lane." This version of “Justice League” explains that scene. The Flash you saw appearing in front of Bruce Wayne in “Batman vs Superman", came from the same future Bruce had a nightmare about. In the nightmare Bruce had, it showed a post-apocalyptic future where Superman was evil. It wasn’t just a nightmare it was showing a vision of the future. When Flash went back in time to warn Bruce Wayne, it didn’t matter what time was the best place. All that mattered was Bruce got the message.
The nightmare continues in The Snyder Cut of “Justice League”. Darkseid will arrive at some point, and the post-apocalyptic nightmare shows what he will do. Batman is a survivor, and he’s put a new team together. A team of survivors. Batman, Flash, and Cyborg, are the last living survivors of the Justice League. Wonder Woman, and Aquaman were killed. Aquaman’s love interest, Mera is possibly the last Atlantean alive. Superman has changed sides after losing the woman he loved. You can make enemies in a post-apocalyptic world, but enemies you had before become your friends. In “Flashpoint Paradox”, Deathstroke said “That’s a lot of death. Even for me.” That’s what he must feel about the post-apocalyptic future he is living in now. Deathstroke was Batman’s enemy in the past, in the future they work together as a team.
Jared Leto returns as the Joker after playing the character in “Suicide Squad”. I’m a little surprised Jared’s name wasn’t on the opening credits because he makes a rare appearance in the film. The idea of putting the Joker in Batman’s nightmare just popped up into Zack’s head when he decided to return to “Justice League”. He wasn’t completely sure if it was a good idea or not. He talked to Jared Leto about it, and Jared was more than happy to reprise as the character. Zack then felt positive about adding Joker into “Justice League”.
Jared Leto thought it would be nice to reprise as the Joker, and show more to his version of the character. Joker is living in the same post-apocalyptic future as Batman, and he looks more like a mental health patient. He had a gangster look in “Suicide Squad”. Jared Leto’s Joker is also face to face with Ben Affleck’s Batman. They did have a scene together in “Suicide Squad”, only Batman was on top of Joker’s pimp ride. They communicate with each other in Zack Snyder’s “Justice League”, and Joker is getting under Batman’s skin. Ben Affleck, and Jared Leto didn’t actually shoot that scene together. They shot their takes separately. Zack said the reason was because they had different schedules from each other. Another reason would be keeping a distance because of COVID.
Joker says “We live in a society” in “Justice League”, and that was Jared Leto’s idea. It became very popular when people saw it in the trailer, but for some reason Zack left it out of the movie. Zack did love the line, and gave Jared Leto a lot of credit for thinking of it, but why leave it out of the movie? That line may not have been added into the movie, but Jared certainly has put it to good use. He uses it to promote his band.
A music score helps give a movie feeling. Not every movie needs music playing in the background. “Roma”, “Blue is the Warmest Color”, and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” did fine without a music score. Movies with superheroes definitely need a music score. When Joss Whedon took over “Justice League”, he hired Danny Elfman, who he worked with on “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, to do the music score. Danny Elfman’s music for “Justice League” sounded like saving the day. He also added in the theme he wrote for the “Batman” movie from 1989, and John Williams “Superman” theme.
Sadly, Danny Elfman’s music wasn’t Zack’s type. Junkie XL, who also goes by the name Thomas Holkenborg, was the co-composer on “Batman vs Superman”, and Zack had him do the score for his finished version of “Justice League”. His music for “Justice League” is not as good as Danny’s. I enjoy Danny’s more.
When it was announced that fans would finally see a “Justice League” movie the plan was to make it a two parter. Things changed. After seeing the first version of “Justice League”, I was interested in seeing a sequel as long as Zack Snyder wasn’t in charge of directing it. But now I feel I can trust him. Zack Snyder has spilled out details of how he wants the sequel to go, and it sounds like the DC animated feature I recently watched, “Justice League Dark: Apokolips War”.
If a sequel does happen they'll definitely add more hero characters to the team, Martian Manhunter, Shazam. Another character who was supposed to show in Snyder’s “Justice League” was John Stewart’s Green Lantern. There’s a concept drawing of Green Lantern online.
I asked myself if Zack Snyder would ruin “Justice League” for me when it was announced that he was going to return to the project because I’ve already explained that I don’t like that he takes things too far. I’m impressed that Zack Snyder did a good job. I don’t like Zack’s version of “Justice League” better than the first version. That version had a lot of things I liked that this version didn’t have, and I’ve already explained all that. Both versions of the “Justice League” movie are acceptable to me. You can learn more about the other version of “Justice League” through my blog.
