Justice League (2017/2021)

[HalfGlass]

It's not about being "better", it's for people who hitched onto Snyder's vision/tone. Which is ok.

Yes...I’m glad WB bent over backwards thanks to the incredible reception from critics and fans alike of Snyder’s previous entry.

I know I’m being sassy - but most people didn’t like how dark they made Superman and sucked the fun out of one of the most popular comic showdowns of all time. Not to mention the hamfisted dialogue and nonsensical plotting.

Personally - I don’t hate any of the DCEU films (I tend to find something to enjoy in most superhero movies), but I think it’s absolutely ridiculous they gave into a small rabid fan base given the pedigree of what we’ve seen from Snyder. If this cut was released pre-pandemic in theaters - it wouldn’t even make a dent at the box office. Since it’s on HBO Max though, WB will make sure it appears as a success.

 

[Nick]

I’ll give this a shot, but BvS is almost unwatchable for me due to the style in which Snyder made the movie and the widely talked about directors cut of the movie only makes a bad movie marginally better.

That’s all I’m expecting out of the Snyder cut. Making a bad movie marginally better. It’ll also probably be overly dark, sucking all of the fun out of the room with it.

 

[Scott W.]

I’ll give this a shot, but BvS is almost unwatchable for me due to the style in which Snyder made the movie and the widely talked about directors cut of the movie only makes a bad movie marginally better.

That’s all I’m expecting out of the Snyder cut. Making a bad movie marginally better. It’ll also probably be overly dark, sucking all of the fun out of the room with it.

Looking into this a bit more, there's an interesting comment on Reddit:


Some frequent questions I've seen coming up is what's different with this version to the 2017 version of Justice League.

Zack Snyder shot 5 hours of assembly footage during principle photography in 2016. From that, he edited it to 214 mins(3.5 hours) and was happy to call it his director's cut. From this, he was happy to edit it down to 3 hours for the theatrical cut, and release the 3.5 hour directors cut in Blu-ray.

But WB wanted Zack Snyder to cut it to 2 hours for the theatrical cut. Which is unbelievable, since cutting 1.5 hours from a 3.5 hour movie would make it extremely unwatchable and make absolutely no sense. Snyder tried his best to negotiate with WB to release a longer cut, even made a 2.5 hour cut, which was extremely compromised and makes no sense, but WB wasn't happy. This was when Snyder suffered a family tragedy and lost the will to fight with WB for the longer cut.

He stepped down and WB(Geoff Johns) used this opportunity to hire Joss Whedon, and use the 2 months of reshoots to reshoot almost the entire film. He wrote 88 pages of reshoots, which translates to almost 90 mins of the final movie.

The original cinematographer, Fabian Wagner, and later Snyder confirmed that only 30 mins of the theatrical cut of Justice League had shots by Zack Snyder, and even those were heavily edited. The rest were shot by Joss Whedon.

So Zack Snyder's Justice League releasing next month, which is 4 hours, will contain at minimum 3.5 hours of footage we never saw.

The only new idea is the 4 mins of new footage he shot recently with Jared Leto and Joe Mangeniello, which he added since he wanted this universe's Batman and Joker meet at least once. Other than that, it's all shot in 2016.

 

[Nick]

Looking into this a bit more, there's an interesting comment on Reddit:


Some frequent questions I've seen coming up is what's different with this version to the 2017 version of Justice League.

Zack Snyder shot 5 hours of assembly footage during principle photography in 2016. From that, he edited it to 214 mins(3.5 hours) and was happy to call it his director's cut. From this, he was happy to edit it down to 3 hours for the theatrical cut, and release the 3.5 hour directors cut in Blu-ray.

But WB wanted Zack Snyder to cut it to 2 hours for the theatrical cut. Which is unbelievable, since cutting 1.5 hours from a 3.5 hour movie would make it extremely unwatchable and make absolutely no sense. Snyder tried his best to negotiate with WB to release a longer cut, even made a 2.5 hour cut, which was extremely compromised and makes no sense, but WB wasn't happy. This was when Snyder suffered a family tragedy and lost the will to fight with WB for the longer cut.

He stepped down and WB(Geoff Johns) used this opportunity to hire Joss Whedon, and use the 2 months of reshoots to reshoot almost the entire film. He wrote 88 pages of reshoots, which translates to almost 90 mins of the final movie.

The original cinematographer, Fabian Wagner, and later Snyder confirmed that only 30 mins of the theatrical cut of Justice League had shots by Zack Snyder, and even those were heavily edited. The rest were shot by Joss Whedon.

So Zack Snyder's Justice League releasing next month, which is 4 hours, will contain at minimum 3.5 hours of footage we never saw.

The only new idea is the 4 mins of new footage he shot recently with Jared Leto and Joe Mangeniello, which he added since he wanted this universe's Batman and Joker meet at least once. Other than that, it's all shot in 2016.

Great that most will be new footage, but why the hell did he make a 3.5 hour movie to begin with? Does he not understand that unless it’s an Endgame level movie, people only like to sit in a theater for around 2 hours maximum? It’s as if he doesn’t know how to make a movie without drawing it out way longer than any movie needs to be, which is why we’re getting dumped a freakin 4+ hour Snyder Cut.

Tbh, that just seems like a daunting task to finish and I can already guarantee you unless it starts off strong and impresses me, I’ll probably just turn it off.

 

[darkridelover]

Looking into this a bit more, there's an interesting comment on Reddit:


Some frequent questions I've seen coming up is what's different with this version to the 2017 version of Justice League.

Zack Snyder shot 5 hours of assembly footage during principle photography in 2016. From that, he edited it to 214 mins(3.5 hours) and was happy to call it his director's cut. From this, he was happy to edit it down to 3 hours for the theatrical cut, and release the 3.5 hour directors cut in Blu-ray.

But WB wanted Zack Snyder to cut it to 2 hours for the theatrical cut. Which is unbelievable, since cutting 1.5 hours from a 3.5 hour movie would make it extremely unwatchable and make absolutely no sense. Snyder tried his best to negotiate with WB to release a longer cut, even made a 2.5 hour cut, which was extremely compromised and makes no sense, but WB wasn't happy. This was when Snyder suffered a family tragedy and lost the will to fight with WB for the longer cut.

He stepped down and WB(Geoff Johns) used this opportunity to hire Joss Whedon, and use the 2 months of reshoots to reshoot almost the entire film. He wrote 88 pages of reshoots, which translates to almost 90 mins of the final movie.

The original cinematographer, Fabian Wagner, and later Snyder confirmed that only 30 mins of the theatrical cut of Justice League had shots by Zack Snyder, and even those were heavily edited. The rest were shot by Joss Whedon.

So Zack Snyder's Justice League releasing next month, which is 4 hours, will contain at minimum 3.5 hours of footage we never saw.

The only new idea is the 4 mins of new footage he shot recently with Jared Leto and Joe Mangeniello, which he added since he wanted this universe's Batman and Joker meet at least once. Other than that, it's all shot in 2016.

I think those are over generous assumptions and estimates.

 

[Scott W.]

Great that most will be new footage, but why the hell did he make a 3.5 hour movie to begin with? Does he not understand that unless it’s an Endgame level movie, people only like to sit in a theater for around 2 hours maximum? It’s as if he doesn’t know how to make a movie without drawing it out way longer than any movie needs to be, which is why we’re getting dumped a freakin 4+ hour Snyder Cut.

Tbh, that just seems like a daunting task to finish and I can already guarantee you unless it starts off strong and impresses me, I’ll probably just turn it off.

That’s a good point. There is no way that WB signed off on the script before shooting.

I’ll probably watch it but if we weren’t in covid times, I wouldn’t waste my time on it unless I hear glowing reviews.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Also, any reason for the 4x3 ratio?

I think it stems to a marketing reason.

EDIT: I recall Snyder saying the film will be released in a proper resolution. Could be wrong, but I highly doubt they'd leave it like this resolution.

 

[Tobias]

Well, that was a trailer.

Recently, Shawn Rosell said it best for me. "Snyder has a eye for the superhero aesthetic but not an appreciation for the superheroes themselves." Sure, he can make things look pretty when they're not super dark or sepia tone everywhere, but he just misses the mark on everything else.

There's a lot of fun to be had with many of the DC properties and storylines, and he just chooses to go with the "No FUN Allowed" route. It's gotta' be this greek tragedy which has to be taken seriously, it's for Adults. Meanwhile in this 4 hour, R-Rated Justice League film, there's characters like Granny Goodness. You have to have an air of self-awareness/fun with that, and there's nothing wrong with doing that in a serious film. If they take it completely seriously, then they're just asking the audience not to, amongst many other factors of this.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

I was going to edit this, but I think I found out what exactly is the deal with the resolution:

They're using a direct IMAX resolution. Meaning, it's gonna be closer to what IMAX's resolution is than that of a standard 1280x720. That doesn't mean there won't be a standard, but for all accounts so-far; they're using what was shot with primarily in the marketing.

 

[joelbryant11]

The thing is, when he actually attempts to make a deeply personal story it usually works. Man of Steel has way more good than bad because of those quiet moments with Clark, Lois, and the Kents. But then it kinda turns into a Transformers movie at the end without much soul. The first 2/3 of that movie is magic though.

I have some hope that the four hour runtime of this means more character building and less of the weird floaty CGI.

 

[darkridelover]

The thing is, when he actually attempts to make a deeply personal story it usually works. Man of Steel has way more good than bad because of those quiet moments with Clark, Lois, and the Kents. But then it kinda turns into a Transformers movie at the end without much soul. The first 2/3 of that movie is magic though.

I have some hope that the four hour runtime of this means more character building and less of the weird floaty CGI.

Maybe, but that should have been done in stand alone movies leading up to this. The reason why Wonder Woman 1984 didn''t work for me is they tried to cram two movies into one.

 

[Nick]

The thing is, when he actually attempts to make a deeply personal story it usually works. Man of Steel has way more good than bad because of those quiet moments with Clark, Lois, and the Kents. But then it kinda turns into a Transformers movie at the end without much soul. The first 2/3 of that movie is magic though.

I have some hope that the four hour runtime of this means more character building and less of the weird floaty CGI.

Maybe, but that should have been done in stand alone movies leading up to this. The reason why Wonder Woman 1984 didn''t work for me is they tried to cram two movies into one.

For me, it’s just hard to get excited about a film that DC has already stated is not canon to the DCEU and as @darkridelover said, the proper leg work in terms of character development hasn’t been done to possibly make this overly well done.

As fun of an idea as this may be for those that were calling for it, I feel like it’d be a much better use of everyone’s time if this was a 4-6 hour series that helped expand the DCEU and actually helped develop characters beyond surface level.

 

[joelbryant11]

The square image is really starting to bother me lol. It doesn’t change the movie itself really, but it also doesn’t have a clear, beneficial purpose

 

[HHNManics]

 

[Parkscope Joe]

‘Justice League’: The Shocking, Exhilarating, Heartbreaking True Story of #TheSnyderCut

A demoralizing battle with Warner Bros. A devastating personal tragedy. A fan base he couldn’t control. Zack Snyder tells V.F. why he quit ‘Justice League,’ and why he’s returned to complete a cut that’s reached near-mythical status.

www.vanityfair.com

 

[AlexanderMBush]

The level of top-notch reporting from that of Breznican is nothing short of stellar.

I'm..admittedly dissapointed about the ratio being exactly what is being shown in the marketing. I mean--I can get it, as it validates Snyder's desire to have it go on big screens eventually. But at the same time..it kind of limits the audience somewhat for this.

 

[Yabbadabba Doh]

Great article. I’ll be very interested to see the final product.

 

[Tobias]

‘Justice League’: The Shocking, Exhilarating, Heartbreaking True Story of #TheSnyderCut

A demoralizing battle with Warner Bros. A devastating personal tragedy. A fan base he couldn’t control. Zack Snyder tells V.F. why he quit ‘Justice League,’ and why he’s returned to complete a cut that’s reached near-mythical status.

www.vanityfair.com

That's a really good article. An credit where credit is due, while I may disagree with how Snyder has handled the DC Heroes etc, ultimately I'm happy he's been able to get some sort of closure here. An by all accounts he's a good guy to work with, I don't think the cast and crew would've been fighting for this cut to happen if he wasn't.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

If all else fails--I am really estatic to hear Tom Holkenborg's (Junkie XL) score for Justice League.

 

[TheGentTrent]

Fair warning, HBO Max accidentally leaked this due to an error from people trying to watch Tom & Jerry. So I'd expect spoilers to pop up over the next couple of days.