Having recently finished watching the Snyder Cut of Justice League, I mentioned it and a friend of mine shared some compelling thoughts on the movie. When I asked him where he was planning on sharing them, he didn't want to put his name behind these comments and allow drama around him to ensue. So, I volunteered my site.
I cannot take any credit for the following - this is a much better articulation than anything I would have written. However, I really like what he wrote about developing characters and bringing them to the screen, as opposed to what Marvel did. I thought the village girl smelling Aquaman's sweater was super unnecessary. I also found the introduction of Martian Manhunter to be a strange introduction. And that post-apocalyptic was so bizarrely unnecessary and ruined the pacing of the film.
I will still say that it was an impressive movie and a massive improvement over Whedon's theatrical release, but these criticisms still stand.
Here are my friend's words:
I feel like everyone praising the Snyder Cut is like the Emperor's New Clothes. I don't know where DC's mistakes end and Snyder’s begin, but, for one thing, they rushed to make a Justice League movie way too soon. Marvel took their time and had a few hits before bringing all the (already established in previous movies) characters together in Avengers.
I believe that one of Snyder’s justifications for the length was that he had to introduce several characters. Well, then he shouldn't have done that. (Or maybe had to do that, if that was DC's fault.) Cyborg, Aquaman, and Flash should have had their standalone movies BEFORE Justice League. One of the few things I liked better about the Snyder Cut was that it gave us more of a Cyborg origin story. But that shouldn't have been shoved into the Justice League movie. The movie should have been a team origin story. Cyborg should have had his own movie first.
Giving Snyder the benefit of the doubt that DC forced him to rush things along and make Justice League sooner, I still don't think the length was justified. Off the top of my head, moments like that village singing to Aquaman as he leaves was useless, especially since he came back to the village a few scenes later. (As well as that woman randomly smelling his shirt, which was weird.)
And Wonder Woman in that cavern that recounts the history of Darkseid's previous invasion was useless. She ends up sharing all of that with Bruce Wayne. In Whedon's version, where they just show her recounting the story to Bruce Wayne, I simply assumed it was part of the history she was taught while growing up. (“Hey mom. What’s that random building on the far side of the island I’m growing up on all about?” “Oh, that’s where we keep the motherbox. It’s actually an important part of our history so I should probably tell you about that.”) So that whole cavern scene in the Snyder Cut just made a way-too long movie longer than it should have been.
Plus, all the slow motion, including Flash reversing time. Too much extra stuff. Those are just some examples of scenes I felt made an already too long movie unnecessarily longer.
In a way, Snyder also had a perfect storm that Joss Whedon didn't. Snyder had an extra few years to brainstorm, no set (theatrical) release date, and didn't have to worry about people sitting through a 4+ hour movie in one sitting in the theaters. So I'm very skeptical this was 100% his original vision for the theatrical release.
Snyder also completely destroyed what an epic villain Darkseid is. He's the Thanos of the DC universe. But he put Darkseid in the flashback battle, instead of Steppenwolf like Whedon did. So our intro to Darkseid is him getting his butt kicked within a few minutes of his introduction, and fleeing Earth in shame. I can't take him as seriously as Thanos after a brief scene like that. Marvel spent years slowly building up Thanos. The first time we see Thanos is at the end of the first Avengers, and all we get is a sinister smile in the post-credits scene. And by the time he's fully introduced and fleshed out, he totally stole the show in Infinity War. He was the real star of that movie. We've already gotten Darkseid's intro and humiliating defeat. So Whedon did right by replacing Steppenwolf in that flashback scene. Which also made more sense of Steppenwolf’s exile.
Another thing that made the Snyder Cut too long was that post-apocalyptic future scene towards the end. Furthermore, the placement of that was horrible; it ruined the pacing. Immediately before that, we had a proper, "And they lived happily ever after (for the time being)" moment, and then Snyder shoves in that really long, dark scene. If anything, it should have been earlier in the movie.
He also introduces Martian Manhunter. And, apparently, he might have had plans to include the modern Green Lantern as well (not the one that dies in the flashback). Yet, he supposedly complained that he had too many characters to introduce in one film. If it was so important to introduce Martian Manhunter, then the character could have tagged along in another pre- or post-Justice League movie, like the introductions of Black Widow (Iron Man 2), Hawkeye (Thor) and Falcon (Captain America Winter Soldier).
There was also too much of Lois Lane mourning Clark's death. I liked how it was sort of a twist in the Whedon version when she showed up for the first time as Batman's secret weapon to help Clark get his senses back.
People are now saying "Bring back the Snyderverse." And I'm wondering - do they not remember how he only did an okay job with Man of Steel, and Batman vs. Superman was really panned? (People endlessly mocked the ridiculousness of the whole, "Save Martha!" line after that latter movie came out.) Batman spent most of that movie trying to kill Superman and, in Justice League, it's like Snyder completely ignored that fact and made it like Batman really missed and wanted to bring his BFF back to life.
At the end of the day, I had fun watching it. And, like I said above, there were some things I thought were an improvement, such as fleshing out Cyborg more and how they brought Superman back to life was explained better and, therefore, made more sense. I am also happy for Snyder that he got his shot at this, especially given the circumstances under which he had to leave the last version. But everything else I wrote above makes me feel like it doesn’t deserve all the praise and hype it’s getting.
