Welcome to For Snyder Cut Web Site. Your site for Snyder film appreciation and bringing to light the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Anyone with an open heart and mind is welcome，because sharing art appreciation always gives and never takes.
Art comes out of vision and Zack Snyder’s has given so much to us. We hope to share and help illuminate some of that vision. From luscious visuals, distinct irony, symbolic abstraction, technical execution, storytelling, and subtext- every director must have a vision but Zack Snyder’s fans have come to appreciate his distinction as a visionary.
Especially as it has been tied to comic books, graphic novels, superheroes, and sequential art.
Since 2004, Zack has been immersed in the language of comics. No other director has been so invested in comics on such a grand scale, bringing to cinematic life works deemed unfilmable, confronting rich philosophical, existential, and cultural questions, and treating the material with gravity, seriousness, intensity, and passion, yet being an absolute joy to work with by all accounts. 300, Watchmen,Man of Steel, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice all prepared him for Justice League. BvS was cast and produced with Justice League in mind.
Zack completed principal photography on Chris Terrio’s screenplay and screened “a rough cut of Justice League for fellow filmmakers and friends” but stepped back from the film after a family tragedy. During a London junket, Debbie Snyder shared,
“For us this whole thing is so bittersweet because we have been working on this franchise for the past eight years, when we started developing the script for Man of Steel, and then we moved on to BVS, and also Zack developed the story for Wonder Woman, which was leading up to the point of Justice League, where these characters were finally going to come together. Not being able to complete his vision was extremely difficult. So that makes it hard.”
Joss Whedon agreed to complete the film: from writing rewrites to directing reshoots, to overseeing post-production and the final edit. Zack, by his own account, was hands-off thereafter. To Wired, he said it would “unfair in a lot of ways” to get involved again after being off the movie for so long. “I’ve kind of just let them do their thing.” After the film’s release, “I will be honest, I have not seen the film since I stepped away. You know I love these characters. I only wish I could have finished it for you and the others who love MOS and BvS.”
In his absence, Justice League departed from Zack Snyder’s vision.
ForSnyderCut Web site’s mission is to share what we love about the vision we’ve seen and bring to light the vision on Justice League that we didn’t see.
The Snyder Cut would be driven by the consistency and integrity of principal photography under the same director, cinematographer, editor, and actors working from the same pre-approved script at the peak of their preparation.
Our goal is to see the time, care, deliberation, preparation, artistry, and intentions that went into principal photography, principal performances, polished production, and the prior screenplay composed out of a place of passion, joy, excitement, and cooperation; compared to the hurried and desperate efforts rushed out under duress.
However well-intentioned the latter, we believe the talent and artistry of the filmmakers, actors, visual effects artists, etc. will be better represented in the first case.
Please join our newsletter to help us bring their best work into the light and help the filmmakers take pride in their contributions to Justice League.
Here is a media gallery of exerts that illuminate Zack Snyder’s vision
As a lifelong comic book fan and professed Superman fanboy, Zack Snyder has a profound understanding of Superman
Zack Snyder’s films explore these iconic superheroes in fresh, creative and exciting ways
SNYDER’S CASTING AND PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN, LGBTQ AND ETHNIC MINORITIES ARE INDICATIVE OF ONE OF THE MOST CONSCIENTIOUS DIRECTORS IN VALUING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN STORYTELLING.
Zack Snyder’s DCEU saga took audiences on an epic hero’s journey that would culminate in Justice League.
Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are without a doubt two of my favorite movies of all time. They speak to me on a philosophical and personal level that’s rare with comic book movies. That’s why the incredible letdown of Justice League stings as much as it does. Zack Snyder and team were building to something truly special; but Warner Bros. greed forever tarnished a trilogy that would have rivaled Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight itself.
Fans were introduced to a nuanced Clark Kent who learned what it really meant to be human, to struggle, and feel real pain—but still overcome it. Man of Steel revealed Superman to the world, while BVS successfully questioned, “Must there be a Superman?”. Justice League was meant to answer that question, but it never really came. The buildup to a phenomenal experience was botched at the hands of a replacement director who had no business working on this movie. As it stands right now, Snyder’s version of Justice League may never be seen, and that would be a tragedy.
I personally would love to see what Snyder’s original vision was for Justice League if not for proper closure of Superman’s story. All the men and women who put in countless hours of hard work and creativity deserve to see the fruits of their labour enjoyed by fans. The number of scenes that were cut and reshot to change the narrative to a more “hopeful and optimistic” outlook spectacularly backfired.
All it really did was sow discord and animosity amongst fans while disregarding what made Justice League’s two predecessors truly great.
We need Victor Stone’s story. We need to see Lois and Clark reunited. We need to see a tone appropriate Batman atoning for his actions. We need Atlantean backstory. We need the Green Lanterns. We need the real story of Steppenwolf. We need Darkseid. We need that connective tissue in the narrative that originally smoothed the plot. We need the scenes Zack originally shot and was proud of.
What we didn’t need were female icons reduced to sexual jokes and innuendos just because a replacement director had no restraint. What we didn’t need was a Superman with half his face drawn by a computer. What we didn’t need was a composer callously tossing away the themes of a great franchise only to stroke his own ego. What we didn’t need is for greedy executives to screw over a grieving father and continuously lie to loyal fans.
Warner Bros. should release Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League. Superman deserves his real moment in the sun with the Justice League. This is what Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had been building towards. If not to properly close off this Superman trilogy, then maybe just be the studio trying to do the right thing this time around.
JD Miller
In the last few months the internet has witnessed a big movement of people that came together for a cause: the release of the original cut of Justice League, unfiltered, without reshoots directed by Joss Whedon and without the score wrote by Danny Elfman.
To the casual audience this can sound weird, as both Whedon and Elfman left such iconic byline in the Superhero genre, but the reason is rooted in many deep problems, both technical and personal, that their work have brought to the movie.
First of all I’d like to make some clarifications: I am a Zack Snyder fan.
Zack Snyder, to me, is a personal inspiration and his Art gave me and to many others like me the strength to express ourselves, dig deeper into ourselves and the world around us and explore/study narrative techniques that nowadays are fewly represented: the visual narration.
Another clarification to make is that the release of the Snyder Cut should happen also to clear out the names of both Whedon and Elfman with Snyder’s, as the final product we got was not what any of the concerned parts wanted.
So: why the Snyder Cut? There are many reasons.
One is that without it the rest of the DC movies already out would lose both narrative and quality value. The Snyder DC trilogy (and Universe) was supposed to be a saga revolving around Superman and how his figure, both metaphorically and narratively, was the start of the DC Universe: we see him rise in Man of Steel, then we see him fall in Batman V Superman, in Suicide Squad he’s the reason for the birth of Task Force X and his sacrifice is the sole reason of Diana’s “rebirth” that lead her to narrate her story in Wonder Woman. Specifically with Man of Steel and Batman V Superman, we have Superman as the main character and his mythology as a central fulcrum around which revolves the DC story: the destruction of Krypton literally leads to the birth of the Justice League.
We can see how his arrival on Earth and his discovery of his heritage are the spark of the arrival of Zod and of the Kryptonian technology, biology and geology : this leads the world in a state of fear of him, fear that finds his two wielders in the characters of Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor. Those characters, utilizing the discoveries that Krypton (and, by extension, the arrival of Superman) fight Kal-El to a fight that ultimately leads to his death, a death that will inspire the greatest heroes of the DC universe to join forces and defend an undefended Earth.
The problem, here, stands on how the story here is stopped, shifted and is rewritten, filling itself of plot-holes as many themes, characters and scenes teased in the two movies (and in the trailers of Justice League) are completely eliminated for the sake of jokes and a 2-hours length.
To speak of some: we have the Codex (introduced by Jor-El in Man of Steel) that is rooted in Clark’s DNA, containing all of Krypton’s genetic datas, that was going to be used as the reason why Superman could be resurrected (or wasn’t even dead to start with) with the Motherbox; then we have the total elimination of characters such as Darkseid, the main threat of the DC Universe, deleted to spare Steppenwolf of an on-screen death.
But, most of all, Warner Bros decided to erase from the movie all links to the Knightmare scene shown in Batman V Superman: a scene that was supposed to show how Superman, tempted by Darkseid, could have decided to be a God to mankind but instead choosing to be their protector.
We have lost, with the Theatrical Cut of Justice League, the characters of Martha Kent and Lois Lane, reduced to damsel in distress that spit “thirsty” jokes to each other; we have lost all the backstory about Cyborg’s mother, the most important character in his mythology.
We also lost the comicbook accurate Batman that we got in Batman V Superman: before he was a man capable of killing Doomsday, after he becomes a man that in some scenes is inspiring Flash, in others he quips jokes or funny faces just for the sake of comedy.
We also have a depowered and less important Wonder Woman, with a longer screen time but less important moments than in Batman v Superman.
Flash lost many scenes and his Iris West, Aquaman lost many scenes and Vulko; the Green Lanterns we were supposed to see were cut, Steppenwolf lost most of his backstory and character development, Superman lost his seriousness for the sake of some jokes.
Now, this is the argument I make from a personal point of view: the problem is that there is another part of the problem, a technical one, that needs to be discussed: the movie is technically ruined by Whedon’s work, and Elfman’s score also does more harm than good.
Snyder chose to shoot Justice League in a peculiar way: on film, with the aspect ratio of 1.85:1, with a particular palette (chosen with Fabian Wagner, Director of Photography) and with a distinct kind of music that was meant to continue the scores of Man of Steel and Batman V Superman (with Junkie XL).
With the principal photography completed, Junkie XL already had started to score the movie, effects had already been done and overall the movie was going to be completed without hurry, but with the tragedy that hit Snyder’s daughter, Autumn, and the pressure imposed by Warner Bros. to “lighten up” the movie, the only choice left for Snyder was to leave the Director’s chair for the reshoots wanted by WB to Joss Whedon, that had already spoken to WB.
Whedon was hired to complete the movie reshooting a large portion of it, lightening it up, shortening it down and making it more “family friendly”, and did so while bringing Danny Elfman for the score (effectively firing Junkie XL): Elfman chose to scrap all the work already done from Junkie XL with the old Superman and Batman themes and instead decided to use the classical themes of both heroes from “Superman: The Movie” and 1989’s “Batman”; not only he cut off all the ties with the previous scores (aside from the Wonder Woman theme and a 10 second use of a Zimmer theme) but he also had to score Justice League without actually having seen the movie that, because of the long reshoots, wasn’t finished and se he was only given storyboards to work with.
Whedon, on the other hand, had to face the issues of lightening up the movie with both reshoots and actual color correction, making night scenes day scenes (like the League V Superman scene): these reshoots were done in a really bad way, with actors having schedule issues, Whedon himself choosing not to shoot on film but on digital (and with the ratio of 2.39:1 that afterwards needed to be adapted to 1.85:1), using body-doubles for some scenes, green screen instead of actual sets and worse of all having to CGI out Henry Cavill’s moustache.
During the movie is very easy to discern which shots are Snyder’s and which are Whedon’s mainly for those reasons: it’s also noticeable that many scenes, shown in the trailers, were completely reshot with actors in a different body shape (mostly Affleck), with different clothes and with a complete different personality.
What is the most noticeable, though, is Cavill’s face. During most of his scenes you can see how his upper lip looks weird, moves without logic, has no deepness and most of all is rendered with a different texture than Cavill’s real skin.
The whole scene when the League asks themselves if they should revive Superman was reshot, many Leaguers scenes were reshot or simply deleted, most of the Kent farm scenes were reshot, nearly all of Amy Adam’s and Diane Lane’s scenes were reshot and the big majority of Superman’s scenes were reshot: this makes the movie feel like the monster of Frankenstein because, as I previously said, there are some scenes shot on film with a peculiar aspect ratio, others with a totally different aspect and in digital, others with Henry Cavill and his CGI’d out moustache, others with some blatant green screen, others with a serious tone and others with a 180° turn from that tone.
So, why the Snyder Cut?
To me, we need the Snyder Cut because the movie we got is an insult to what Cinema is: Cinema is Art, and the product we got only feels like a work not even amateurs would like to produce.
We have some shots looking in a way and telling a story and then we have some other shots completely different and narrating another story, we have a mandate for a shorter film to earn more money with more screenings, we have a tonal correction to appeal to critics (that still trashed this movie).
The Justice League Zack Snyder shot should see the light of day because the one we got is an insult to movies, to the respect Directors deserve and to their abilities.
And, personally, I want the Snyder Cut because, after two of the best comicbook movies ever made, I felt destroyed by seeing my favorite director being tied to a product that isn’t his in such a sad way that the movie doesn’t even acknowledge the memory of his daughter Autumn.
The Snyder Cut should be a signal, to all studios, that fans are the one that make a movie live or die: not a group of people with accounts on websites like Rotten Tomatoes.
We want to see how the Last Son of Krypton, the Man of Steel, saved the world with the Justice League.
Not how WB chopped his story to pieces for fear of hate.
Zack Snyder deserves this.
Massimiliano Orione
When approached to speak on Justice League & Zack Snyder, I considered what would be the best thing to say. I could easily speak on how Justice League would have been a better film if they didn’t cut out huge chunks of Zack’s film. I could also speak in length about why the additions that Joss Whedon made to the film were jarring and sometimes disturbing. Instead, I think I will take a step back and speak on film as a whole.
Film is an artistic expression. Like any kind of art, it is based on the vision of the artist. This applies to film, television, music, art or technology. While it would be naive to say a film is 100% the creation of one person when there are writers, storytellers, producers & studio heads all trying to have a piece of the pie, it is still important to have a strong singular vision. When it comes to blockbuster films, having a singular vision is especially hard. We all know that Hollywood is a business and the bottom line sometimes supersedes the overall goal of the film. In the case of Justice League, the quest for the bottom line hurt the film profoundly. When looking back at Zack Snyder’s work, it is clear he is at his best when he is uninterrupted in his thought process. A man that hand draws many of his shots before shooting them, Snyder is very meticulous in his approach to film. Thus, when you see his films, often times it is his director cuts that are superior to his theatrical releases. This is true in the case of both Watchmen and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Both films were greatly improved in the eyes of audiences when Zack’s full vision was allowed to be seen.
For Justice League, not only was that original vision subdued before filming began, it was cut down once more after his departure from the project. A combination of weak additions and focus-group driven studio ideas, the final product of Justice League was messy and leaves many wondering what the alternative could have been if Zack’s Cut was finished on his terms. It is for this reason why I feel there should be an effort by WB to release the Snyder Cut of Justice League. A disappointing box office return should come as a sign for studio heads that films, whether they be small project or tentpole blockbusters, should not be made with the intent of capturing the largest market share or ticking the boxes of critic wishes. Instead, they should be made with the filmmaker in mind. If WB felt strongly about going with a different vision, they should not have given Snyder the project in the first place. Once it was given, abandoning that vision late in the production process with jarring reshoots is not the answer.
Going back to my original thought frame, film is an artistic expression. What good is an artistic expression if the artist is not allowed to express it fully. In this case, if that vision is not finished. As a fan of all films, across many genres and many filmmakers, the best films have always been those that are made with a strong leader and a stronger vision. It is for this reason that I feel finishing and releasing the Snyder Cut of Justice League would automatically make for a better film because it is the product of a filmmaker and not a studio.
Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith first. The trust part comes later.”
After the release of Batman v Superman something incredible happened across social media, a new family was given birth. On a medium often criticised for pulling people down and bringing out the worst in each other, it has been enlightening to spend so much time with so many people I would never have ever been able to know. This is a global family made up of all ages, genders, races, and social conditions. I know this because I’m part of the family. I live in Australia. I’m a young adult, Anglo-Saxon male, and I’m part of a family that loves Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. It binds us together and expands our own world view through the foundation laid by Zack Snyder and his team.
It’s said that we identify with people who remind us of ourselves. I’m not pennyless, nor an orphan, nor an immigrant, nor do I have world altering gifts. But I see myself in Zack Snyder’s Superman. Through Clark’s journey over 2 films I found myself completely drawn in to his life, tearing up at his birth in the hands of Jor-El, when he was outmatched in Smallville, or pulled into Jon Kent’s embrace and given the gift of love “you are my son”. His death at the end of Batman v Superman broke my heart, but broke it in a way that was uplifting. When the dirt rose off his coffin, soon after seeing Bruce and Diana commit to being better people, a tear ran down my eye. This was inspiring. This is the great gift that Zack has given to many. Zack has reminded us that faith in each other is the greatest gift of all, that is Jor-Els best of both worlds, faith and hope. That faith in each other brings hope to create “a better world than ours”.
And that’s where we’re at now. The global family that Zack created, us, have faith in each other, and that brings the hope. We believe that Clark’s story doesn’t finish in the grave, that the world needs Superman. That the world needs to see Clark celebrated by everyone. Superman, who took the weight of the world on his shoulders as only he could, can now be celebrated by those that love him.
To Warner Brothers, we have been your greatest supporters over the last 4 years, we have been your voice even when we didn’t hear yours. Zack Snyder has heard and regularly engages with us, even as simply as posting a set photo. We have supported all your movies, whether by going to the cinema where we may otherwise not have, or by helping persuade others to see your films. We feel as though Zack’s vision has not been delivered, that much you will agree. We can not even imagine how Zack must feel himself to have poured 7 years of his life into this story only to have it altered twice (BvS theatrically) and then to be completely removed (this is the reality) halfway through the film making process of Justice League.
Warner Brothers, don’t lose us, make this right and you will be rewarded ten times over.
#ReleaseTheSnyderCut
My first experience with Superheroes, in special with DC Superheroes, wasn’t with comics. I was between 2 and 3 years old, barely learning to read, when ‘Batman Returns’ arrive on theaters (and later on Home Video, when I watched every weekend with TMNT 2), and I was mesmerized. I was probably one of the few kids at the time what wasn’t shocked by the dark atmosphere, the monsters around the town and a Penguin what spits pitch-black saliva while talking. Was a awesome, thrilling, brave new world to me.
I was living at the time in a violent neighborhood (and I was living there until my 10 years old, until I moved for a better place), and Batman show me a hero, in a violent city, what show he can make a difference to make there a better place. This, of course, is a explanation what I developed when I was a adult, because my-2/3-year-old-self maybe just thought Batman was plain and simple, a very cool hero. But is one of these ideas what, doesn’t matter the age or the time, get stuck in your head. I knew other heroes at the time, but Batman, for me, was a example of somebody I could relate, because in some way, you could be like him.
What was just a kid loving one his first childhood heroes become true obsession when he finally pick up a comic book to read, and my world changed forever. It was literally the last editions of the ‘Knightsaga’ (the ‘KnightsEnd’ part) and everything was different. We have more than one Robin, and the first one become his own hero, Nightwing! And Dick Grayson, the Nightwing dude, was using the Batman mantle because (of my shock at the time) Bruce Wayne was hurt so bad he have to drop the Batman mantle! Commissioner Gordon was running for mayor! Alfred was in London, acting in a theater! And is there what I gone from a fan to a lover of these character, this world, and the experience what connects this comics and this movies is part of me forever.
Comics are (sadly) a niche media. Not everybody jump in at first, besides they are made to embrace everyone. These characters, these heroes, are older than us and will outlive us, and many of the reasons some become so popular is their ability to change and adapt in different medias, and reach a bigger number of people doing that way. The sad part is many of the audience don’t feel the need to return to the original source, like a book adaptation, for example, does.
Of course, not every adaptation is great, but the ones what worked make their brand in the character and the pop culture forever, in special making a print in the collective vision of the main audience about this characters. For years Batman was seen as a camp character, and Superman as what Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve, with brilliance, had establish at their time. These characters change, evolve and need have something to say for keep their relevance, to keep their cultural impact, and stand as symbols what many, include myself as a child, look after to give us inspiration, hope and the will to act. As it did to me, as still does to many others, in different phases of life.
And everything I said here, leads to the point on what Zack Snyder actually did with the DC Universe. Because he took all this ideas, and as the visionary he actually his (without the jokes and the sarcasm what he title this days can bring), he pushed forward showing respect and gratitude for the mythology as it is, but still doing questions of why we need these figures among us.
In Man of Steel he bring Superman back to his science fiction roots, but still injecting a humanity and fragility never seen before on the character. Is a man struggling with himself about who he is, if where he came from defined him, what he will do for the rest of his life and what is the best decision do to under pressure, while staying true to his freewill. The humanity we see of Clark Kent is really inspiring, because he still have doubts, he still fears and sometimes even, yes, fails. Too much weight on his shoulders, like sometimes we felt we have in our lives too.
But what he choose to do is aways be the best version of himself. The most caring, the most helpful, the most altruistic version of himself. Pushing himself to be a inspiration of hope, and by doing that, making other see and act like the best version of themselves. Superman takes us out of the confort of our theater seats and call us to action, showing the first steps to show we can change the world is taking the responsability in our own hands. Zack makes me wonder and fall in love with Superman again, for making this version the most human and inspiring of all, even if that version push away some what wanted to see the perfect, immutable, unshakable boyscout on the big screen.
And on ‘Batman v Superman’ (which every frame earns to be called and recognize as the masterpiece what it is), we see the themes what Snyder used as his foundations be questioned, and by doing that, and proving the whys of telling the history on that way, solidifies even more how serious and respectful with this characters his approach is. It’s not just a political thriller, and a sci-fi critique, is a reverence and admiration for the almost a century of mythology what DC Comics have craft. Is not a happy-shine-people kind of movie. He not delivered easy questions, but these questions is necessary to be done to recognize and think about the problems of our world, in a genre what many search exactly to be a escape valve for that.
I see many saying it “sucks”, it’s not hopeful, or this or that, but everyone what I’ve seen saying that lacks to understand what the movie is really about. It’s to the fact of even you trying to do good, the world still doubts for the reasons, because lacks of empathy, empathy that what Superman have in plenty. And in the moments of despair, when everthing looks like will end, in his last breath he begs to, even if Batman kills him, to save his mother. THAT what show to Batman for the first time he is a human, in the sense he feel and cares the same way he does. That when the farce about been this “emotionless, cold alien what can wipe us out” is gone.
The “Martha” line show a (brillhant) reflection and recognition of Bruce Wayne almost becoming 100% what he hates. Both parts complete each other, making this moment one of the most emotional and heartfelt connections in all pop culture, even in the history of cinema. Not just Batman found empathy on Clark, and with that, he found empathy on humanity, and he will fight to prove men, and women, are still good, and for that potential of good in everybody is worthy fighting for.
My expectations (and everybody what loved DC Films so far) was to ‘Justice League’ not just be the adaptation what many is expecting for all their lives, but to be a triumphant finish and celebration of the Superman trilogy, with Batman, inspired by Superman’s actions and sacrifice, recruiting heroes around the world to face a intergalactic invasion, while also these same heroes faces each one different problems and doubts, finding his inner heroism and inspiration to face their personal problems based on what Superman also had dealed before.
And besides, as a fan, the premiere of the movie been one of the greatest experiences what I have in the fan community, the movie itself was losing his shine with every view, with every discussion, with every new scene discover to be deleted (or even leaked). When the truth becoming more evident, I pass through all the phases of grief, until the sad acceptance what Whedon, Tsujihara and others did with Snyder’s movie just plain suck. The movie is bad, and the anticipation of a lifetime fades away.
Worse than that, I see a studio what you’ve deposit your trust just use a personal tragedy as a opportunity to screw things up because they thought that would be more “audience-friendly”. We understand this is business, but this just show how morality low this act is. And makes me even sad, been a fan of Zack Snyder beyond his DC Films, to see someone what is one of the best working directors these days, been treated as such. Just because he dare done different from the mold what other are doing in the genre, or in movies in general these days. He sees the greatness what these characters have, the importance what they never lost, and go forward to it. He celebrates this characters at the same time he pushes, and question them, to keep them bigger of what they are and moving them forward to the future, a word what scares the extremely nostalgic pop culture of today.
I want the Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League released because I need this movie to make something what the theatrical cut didn’t, but MOS and BvS succeed a lot: I want to care about them, the world, these characters, what they are meaning by telling this history. If the superhero boom of 2000’s happen because the world sees horrors only show in history books, and become a more dangerous and darker place in the process, what DC (and Christopher Nolan) did with TDK Trilogy is the question “why we need heroes”? And Snyder moved forward asking “what kind of heroism we need as society today? And how heroes are defined by this heroism?”
And I was glad he choose the DC heroes, these truly modern myths, to tell that history, and to try to answer that question. I want Superman returning in a way that make the world change, and cries of pure joy. I want see Steppenwolf be the scary villain, full of New God Mythology, like was teased at the end of BvS. And I want the movie fully explore his characters, motivations, fears and in special, how their team work helps everybody raise up and join Kal-El in the sun.
I wanna see a movie what shows why they choose to follow Superman’s steps, and why take action and be our own everyday hero matters. That line of thought is inspiring for children, adults, elders, everyone. That’s why the Snyder’s work is so powerful, that’s why his work matters and upsets so many people, because he shows our own humanity, with the good and the bad side of it, and set up with the main superhero of all the fact the heroism, the true kind, lives in everyone of us.
That’s why I fight for #ReleaseTheSnyderCut with petitions, tweets, posts on other social media, and editorials like this. Because when Snyder made me renew my vows with DC Comics and what be a DC Fan means, he teach me I have to take a stand for what is fair and right, to believe the change we are doing have to be a positive one to make the world a better place. And we have not just to fight for a artist finish his trilogy, but a true fan deliver his love letter to these characters. Because we are a community, we are a team, and that what team does: fight together, against all odds, for what we believe. And we believe in heroes, whatever is the ones of DC Comics or Zack Snyder. And they are worth fighting for.
“This is what we know: The world has grown dark and while we have reason to fear we have the strength not to. There are heroes among us, to remind us that only from fear comes courage. That only from the darkness can we truly feel the light.”
– Lois Lane (monologue not in the final Justice league film).
I support the Snyder cut of Justice League.
DCEU cinematic universe was a promise. A promise superhero films could be more than just ephemeral escapism. A promise filmmakers could tell with creative freedom modern mythology through superheroes. A promise for ideas, visuals & emotions. A promise for films with gravitas.
I felt a mixture of opposite feelings while watching Justice League the first time (and even later): I enjoyed the grand scale of epic fights, the clash of these titanic characters coming together for a noble purpose & seeing the best one among them returning from the death to save the day; but in the other hand I felt overwhelmed by the amount of subpar filmmaking techniques, uneven tone, lack of character development, lack of continuity, inadequate musical score, dumbed down dialogue/characters & rushed visual effects.
Upon further viewings of JL it has been difficult to accept faults of the film when the good aspects aren’t enough to compensate such failure at crafting a film. All this would be disappointing enough letting no option but just to move on and hope for a better future, except for a couple things:
a) WB management of JL‘s post-production & what it means for the future of DC films.
b) The Justice League film we saw isn’t the original cut by the director in the credits. The fact is the final film was a result of WB studios intervention over the original version of JL that the studio thought incapable of appealing to a wider audience than previous installments of the “Dawn of Justice” story (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Justice League), which was narrating the beginnings of Superman as Earth’s champion & the formation of the team of the greatest heroes of the world.
The future.
The first to worry about is the way WB treated the story and characters of JL through changes in the film during post-production; it raises the question if future films will follow the same tendency, which has a considerable part of the DCEU fan base feeling less interested about further films or at the very least having expectations at bay, which cannot be good for the success of the franchise.
WB’s meddling.
The studio interfered with the JL film turning it in a different version of what the director had nearly finished (details in a following paragraph). Maybe not that big of a surprise after the Suicide Squad movie was re-edited at request of the studio after some test screenings; though in that case the director of that film was the one still supervising any changes. Justice League suffered so much more because of director Zack Snyder being out of the post-production (due to a family tragedy); changes for the film demanded by the studio went out of control without the main creative mind behind the film (and the trilogy), leading to a less than adequate film (like a demanded 2 hours length for the film, just as an example).
Art is important.
There is always a struggle between business and art with films; art lost the battle in JL. The original film creative efforts were sullied in favor of fun, action & nostalgia. It was supposed to make JL more appealing, to help the film be a financial success at a level the previous installments of the saga could not achieve; though in that aspect it failed big too, in addition to alienating a portion of DCEU fans that had been loyal until before JL.
The Snyder JL cut.
There‘s a different version of Justice League, the actual film that director Zack Snyder had almost ready to show as it was going advanced stages of post-production before studio decided to alter the film. Evident in several pieces of publicity (as well as leaked footage), we can see a fraction of that JL film (shots hinting several moments with an expanded & alternate tone for the story). The idea of the film being altered by the studio was present since departure of the director but most fans trusted WB claims of JL remaining as Snyder film. The trust for WB by the (until then) enthusiastic defenders of DCEU faded thin as the JL film shown resulted to be far from what can be expected from its director Zack Snyder in aspects that go from cinematography and music to VFXs & everything in between. Though enjoyable to an extent, it‘s evident the film was changed to a point it’s barely recognizable as a true Snyder film, not to mention the lack of uniformity by the inadequate work by the director who replaced Snyder; the additions & changes while watching the film are just too obvious to ignore.
Snyder cut of Justice League being almost finished in March 2017 gives me hope of seeing that version of the film released if only the remaining work could be completed. The notion of how close Snyder’s JL was from completion comes from going back to Snyder own publications about post-production work itself, by comparing those to the filmmaking process known to be common in Hollywood. The JL film had passed a “locked” stage, a point relatively close to the film being ready. Although several inner collaborators within the production have also mentioned the existence of a Snyder cut of the film, if there was any doubt.
There are still some unknown factors for the release of the Snyder cut though. Even if a version was locked in March-May when Snyder was in charge (when he had months available to polish his film) some questions comes to mind: Would Snyder be proud of the JL film as he had it locked? or he would rather do further work like the film could have had in the time available before release?; did some of the new scenes included in the current theatrical cut of JL were actually meant by Snyder for his cut (as reported)? or in reality did those come after his departure without his approval?; would Snyder consider adding scenes from the current TC of JL to his own cut even if those came as late additions (ordered by the studio) if he sees in them value for the JL film?; is there a chance for more than one “director’s cut” for JL as with the film Batman v Superman (which has a theatrical cut & an extended cut) or other author films like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner?, maybe “Justice League director’s cut” would the locked JL film in March-May 2017 & an “JL ultimate cut” would have more footage (including or not some of the scenes made for the JL released in theaters).
What fans want to see.
One way or the other, it becomes evident something very important is needed: Zack Snyder approving any “director’s cut”, in that way ensuring the Justice League film released under that label to be of his creative approval & audience getting the best film Snyder & WB studios can give to them. Additionally it would be a good message about collaboration between WB and the filmmakers in this and future films; a message for the audience, artistic collaborators & filmmakers; that, even if late, WB is able to deliver the vision intended by the artists, not by a committee.
So, let’s be clear & to the point: a Zack Snyder cut of Justice League is the main goal desired by fans. Being able to watch the film as envisioned by the director: the unaltered plot, extended characters’ backstories, fitting musical score, proper dialogue and epic visuals as were planned for the final chapter to a trilogy with a story which takes Superman into becoming the champion of the world, a beacon of hope & the inspiration for the greatest heroes on Earth to unite as a team. Justice League as intended by writer Chris Terrio & director Zack Snyder.
There will be time for other stories, different takes on characters & new ideas; but, if WB wants the audience to trust them, it will be beneficial for the studio to show that in the end they will support and respect their filmmakers thus respecting the audience that follows passionately their work. The audience in return will support back the the studio’s further films. WB coming clear, stepping upfront and really meeting its audience will bring a brighter future for the franchise; financially and artistically.
There must be mutual support. It’s important, for WB and us, to remember that even if at times we get trapped in darkness, we are capable of feeling the light.
Thank you for your time.
Why the Snyder’s cut? Well, this is an issue with many answers, but for us passionate fans only one, We deserve it! Since Justice League has hit theaters around the world a wave of demonstrations clamoring for Zack Snyder’s film has formed. For us, it does not seem correct what the studio did by altering the original vision of the director and that is why we insistently request that the version of Zack be released. We want to show that Warner have nothing to lose releasing this . We understand that business is business, but we also understand that fans should have their wishes fulfilled, after all, it is us who move this billion dollar industry. We do not want to denigrate or offend anyone who has participated in these change decisions in the film, those who do, do not represent us as a group and we do not accept them. We aim to expose our support to Zack Snyder’s work and to show that we are not only a few sad people but thousands of fans waiting for a movie that will live up to the greatest heroes of the world’s imagination. With the arrival of Steel Man to theaters, Zack Snyder presented a powerful and passionate story that has captured the hearts of millions of fans, a story that followed with the sensational and enthralling Batman V Superman. After these films a great expectation about the next steps was formed, however when Justice League debuted this wish has not been fulfilled. Not only the soundtrack was unlike what had been masterfully done by Hans Zimmer and Junkie Xl in previous productions, but Zack Snyder’s meticulous and passionate direction had been misrepresented and lost his essence. Vision is what made many of us connect to the DCEU. Snyder is an unrivaled director, James Cameron said that Zack is one of the directors who inspire him and that he creates his own cinematic language, as well as many other actors and technical professionals who have worked with him and not get tired of weaving praise for Director, these and various other things show just how unique and special Zack’s vision is, which is why we insistently ask for his version of the movie and hope that Warner will hear the voice of the thousands of fans who have been supporting this shared universe since start and release the director’s version with the soundtrack composed by Junkie xl as a gift to the fans.
January 2018. A New Year.
Two months passed since “Justice League”, Warner Bros’ superhero team-up was released in theatres. The hectic production of the movie resulted in depriving Zack Snyder, (the director of the film) from major artistic freedom as the studio executives curbed his vision by hiring Joss Whedon (“The Avengers”) to add his own flavour to the project. This decision was took prior to the private tragedy that lead Snyder to leave the production of his own film. These unfortunate circumstances were used by WB and the executives in charge of DC films to publicly announce Whedon’s involvement. It was decided that in addition to the principal photography completed by Snyder, Whedon would reshoot some of the existing scenes and add his own material by writing new scenes. In additions to those new elements, composer Junkie XL (who worked with Hans Zimmer on “Batman v Superman”), initially attached to scoring “Justice League” got replaced by Danny Elfman on Whedon’s demand. In the light of those informations, many fans expressed their worries on social media. WB responded by reassuring the fans that Whedon’s involment would not drastically change the tone of the film and that he would respect Zack Snyder’s vision while he was in charge of completing the film in post production.
By doing so, the studio had hopes that “Justice League” would attract a broader audience and be a family friendly experience. The aim was to recede from the more complex, serious and adult elements set previously by Snyder with “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
November 2017.
Shortly after “Justice League”s release, some fans started a petition, demanding a Zack Snyder cut and voiced their disappointment on various social media platforms. Not because they disliked the film, but rather to express their disappointment as the theatrical product heavily reflected Whedon’s involvement. Indeed, the 2-hour long film is an uneven, unbalanced mixture of Snyder’s residual footage and Whedon’s contribution. The petition quickly met success and was shared by fans, moviegoers and even professionals from the film industry.
The curious case of Justice League is a valuable lesson. Why are people asking for a Snyder Cut? Today, the superhero genre holds a considerable place in the film industry. Variety, uniqueness and artistic freedom are essential to film, as a form of art. Directors should be able to express their vision and have an adequate amount of artistic freedom. One genre should be composed of different voices, styles and aim to tell the different story, convey different emotions and multiple goals. By attempting to produce generic, formulaic films that aim to please the largest audience possible, studios stray away from what art is: the pursuit of creating worlds and characters, expressing and provoking emotions, sharing a personal vision, inspiring people and engaging a discussion.
With 2013’s Man Of Steel and 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, The DCEU has accumulated a huge fan base. The fans loved Zack Snyder’s visually compelling way of storytelling, intense action scenes, and heartfelt character moments. Since it was announced in 2014 that Zack Snyder would also direct Justice League, fans were even more excited to see where Batman V Superman would take these characters and this world. When Zack had to step down in the middle of production of Justice League in 2016, fans were worried about the future of the film. Most fans stayed optimistic while Joss Whedon and Warner Brothers were actually making a disaster of a film. When the film opened on November 17th, 2017, most of the fans of the franchise were terrified of what they saw. Joss Whedon’s sexist and misogynistic jokes that turned strong characters into boob gags and being called “thirsty” and Warner Brother’s ridiculous requirement of the film being cut down to just 2hrs and 1 minute, destroyed this movie. Its a Frankenstein of the film because you can see some of Zack Snyder’s original film beneath it all. The Cast and Crew, while they aren’t allowed to say much, are clearly displeased with this cut of the movie. The trailers that were released for Justice League in 2016 and 2017 show tons of footage and shots that aren’t included in the movie. There are character arcs, storylines, and huge characters that were cut from the film. Fans have been anticipating this film for years only for it to be a mixed bag of a good movie and a very bad movie. The main character of this universe, Clark Kent/ Superman, gets all of his previous themes and his character arc destroyed in Justice League. When WB announced the reshoots they also fired the composer for the film, Junkie XL. Junkie XL had worked with Zack on Batman V Superman and fans of the film were huge fans of his work. Danny Elfman scored the reshoots for Justice League and its disconnected from whats happening in the scenes. When terrorists are about to shoot civilians, there is a carnival-like music playing in the background despite the high stakes. Batman’s, Superman’s, Wonder Woman’s, and even Lex Luthor’s theme songs are not in the film in any form or fashion. There is no theme song for the Justice League themselves. I believe there is a Zack Snyder cut of Justice League. There is at least all of the deleted footage from the movie. WB needs to release it for the fans that waited years and paid hundreds on merchandise from these films.
We all need Zack Snyder’s cut.
Whether you Loved BvS or hated it, you know there’s nothing quite like it. It has the depths of the Mariana Trench, visuals that resemble fine art gallery, dialog that will take hold of your brain, and the two most recognized fictional characters of our modern times.
Disagree?
Well, I’d say you missed it all.
Not a day goes by when I don’t stumble upon a post/blog/article which analyze or points out something meaningful no one has noticed before. If I’m lucky enough, it’s me finding that out.
I’ve read a great analysis piece, proving BvS has a different narrative structure, a Revenge Tragedy structure. Yeah, three act structure is for plebs.
Who bloody knew wtf that was?
Who knew about Joseph Campbell?
I didn’t, and I’m not dumb or anything. I’m an Electrical Engineer. I design power and distribution grids. I KNOW SHIT.
But, I’m also a victim of the 21st century culture, where it’s all about High-tech, Blockbusters and shared universes.
Zack showed me I know nothing. He let me peak through the keyhole. He is Morpheus, holding out his red pill of a BvS, and I am clueless Neo, diving into a world of awe and inspiration. A week after BvS premiered I couldn’t think about anything else, for months.
Let me be clear. When I talk about Zack, I mean Zack & company. By company, I mean his close colleagues. You know who these people are. You’ve heard them praise him time and time again.
While Hollywood is in flames over Sexual harassment scandals, I dare you to find even one person, ONE, that knows Zack personally and would say ANYTHING remotely bad about him.
You won’t.
Not only that, but Zack told us all about that, back in 2011, when he made Sucker Punch, when Wokeness wasn’t a thing yet. Showing us what it’s like being a woman in that environment (spoiler alert: NOT FUN) – comparing it to a brothel.
Yet people chose to ignore all of its meaning, clinging to the surface, accusing him of being sexist and other ridiculous allegations.
So why should we have the Snyder cut?
Why tf SHOULDN’T we?!
It’s time the world shows Zack the appreciation he deserves.
@MrJONA
Disillusion:
Disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.
11/17/17. A terrible date for Superman, for the Justice League, for the DCEU but most of all, a terrible date for fans who waited months for their possible new favorite movie, but got “stabbed” in the back instead. When Batman V Superman was announced back in 2013, we all knew it would just be the beginning, that this was a step to something bigger. And in 2014, when Justice League was announced, fans were closer than ever from their dream, to finally see a live action movie based on one of the greatest Superhero team. But the path was not as clear as planned, after Batman V Superman, lots of people were already disappointed and wanted to bury the universe. After Suicide Squad, we witnessed the first butchered DCEU movie, and the common sense suggested that Warner Bros would not make the same mistake twice. After hiring strong director with visions, they would let them make their movies, not interfere and possibly ruin them. And when Wonder Woman came out, we all thought the problems were behind, that the next movies would be at least as good as Wonder Woman. Yet, lots of us were disappointed while watching Justice League. Why? Because it was not the movie we were waiting, for a lot of reasons that I will tell you later. And that’s why we decided to do something, to show that we care and that we don’t want this to happen again, and to also show our respect for someone who always tried his best to give us something more.
Justice League, a Project
But before I tell you what’s wrong about the movie, let’s bring some context. The Justice League movie was announced in October 2014. For the DC extended/cinematic Universe, this movie is two things, first, it’s the third installment of the Superman trilogy, Superman’s first arc in this universe, and second, it’s THE movie of this universe, it’s the movie that will launch the entire franchise, after it, movies in this universe will duplicate, every members will have his solo movie, the League appear in sequels, other members will join etc… And for the fans, it’s something even more important, because after nearly 60 years, it’s the first ever Justice League live action movie, and it’s an obvious reason to ask for a decent movie. Justice League was directed by Zack Snyder, director of Man of Steel and Batman V Superman, his movies started the universe but at the same time, the audience has always been divided, when some thinks his approach is the best, some thinks he didn’t get the character and made terrible movies about them. Batman v Superman divided, that’s a fact, but it was a real success with approximately 870 million dollars at the Box-Office. However, the movie was a flop for some people, and Warner Bros executives decided to bring some “changes” to the next movies, which lead to series of important reshoot for Suicide Squad that disfigured the movie from what it should have been, by adding jokes, colors and removing the dark tone of the movie. By doing so, WB wants the DCEU movies to please more people, but the problem is that they made the movie simple and bland when it could have been something special for the genre. Wonder Woman found the perfect balance between the mature/ serious approach and a more “family friendly” approach, those who want to have a good time watching a superhero movie will have what they want, those who want depth and seriousness will also have what they want. And even if I don’t like everything about Wonder Woman, it works perfectly, and it should have been the same for Justice League, a lighter tone, with seriousness. But at some point, something went wrong, this moment probably started after Zack Snyder’s departure from the production after a family tragedy, and that Warner Bros hired Joss Whedon (director of Avengers) to direct the reshoots. From this point, the reshoots announced as minor changed the movie in many ways and butchered it.
What about the movie?
The movie itself is not bad, I watched it twice, and i like it yet there is something missing. If you look at it as a movie, just as Justice League, it’s an okay movie, it shows us what most of the people wants superhero movies to be. In Justice League we get a group of superheroes, with different motives, that must work together to stop a big bad guy, they first lose because they are not ready, there is something missing but in the end, they find this thing, they are ready to work together, and they win in a great final battle. And that’s it, I summed up Justice League in just a few words, and you know what? You could sum up Avengers like this too. So yeah, as a movie, it’s okay, for those who wanted to watch a movie, they got it, 2 hours of entertainment with actions and jokes. For the fans, there is fan service, cameos/ private jokes and hint for possible future movies (I’m not even talking about the post credits scene). Justice League is an okay superhero movie, but it’s one super hero movie among others, when it should have been a greater movie, a movie that would have pleased the disappointed and the fans.
Justice League is dead, long live the Snyder Cut
So, what is the problem with the movie? As is said it, the movie is okay, so why do lots of people, including me, want another cut? Well first, the movie is terrible in a few ways, everything feels rushed, we can feel by watching it that something is missing, that scenes are too fast, and that means we can’t appreciate them as we should, and I’m just going to take one example, Superman’s return, which was supposed to be the most important scene of the movie, is just a parody, it’s forgettable, it’s too fast, the evil Superman is just ridiculous. The scene is too short to make us feel anything about his return, and in the end of the movie, we are watching Superman as one character among others, not as the resurrected phoenix he should be. And that’s the same problem for most of the members, when we think about Victor Stone/ Cyborg, he was supposed to be important, before the release, he was considered as the heart of the movie, and in the movie we saw, most of his scenes were cut, some rumors even suggests he was supposed to die at the end. Another problem is the humor, forced, sometimes useless, most of the time terrible, and even sometime unacceptable. Where is the sophistication? Why are there so many forced jokes instead of real humor, like in Batman V Superman, where most of the humor is really subtle but still works?
What do I want to see in this cut?
Some of the scenes in the trailers that were not in the movie
As a fan, and I’m not the only one, I’ve spent hours watching the trailers, to just find out that half of the images we saw in the different trailers, even those that came out less than a month before the release, were missing, sometimes it’s just a shot, sometimes it’s an entire sentence, and sometimes an entire scene, and that’s a huge problem, because in some countries, it’s basically a crime, by showing us these images and not leaving them in the movie, they lied to the audience, and considering they already did the same thing for Suicide Squad (2016), it’s becoming a bit annoying. If you watch the movie, and then watch the different trailers, you see that it’s different in lots of way, colors, theme, tone… And that’s what we want, as people who waited for this movie for months, we want to see the movie we were supposed to see, not the thing they gave us. One things we also want to see in this Cut is an improved version of the whole movie, not just the missing part. The actual movie is a deformed version of what Justice League was supposed to be, among the thing that were changed, the music, instead of the themes composed by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL, we got music from Danny Elfman. Some were created for the movie, when other themes were brought back from the first Superman/Batman movies, which makes no sense at all, because these are two completely different universes, and putting these music bond them when there shouldn’t be any link. The Snyder Cut would bring the theme from Batman V Superman back and probably bring the themes for all the other members and some original ones, not 40 years old themes.
To conclude
If you just watched this movie like this, to just have a good time and you were not interested in it before, you might think this cut won’t change a lot, maybe you like the actual version, but for the same price, you could have something very different, a longer movie, with lots of improvement in many ways, from music to CGI. And don’t forget that if the Snyder Cut is released, you won’t be forced to watch it, if you bought the DVD for Batman V Superman, you can watch the theatrical cut and the Ultimate, the same will thing will probably be possible with Justice League, so even if you don’t like the Snyder Cut, you’ll be able to watch the version you like.
If you waited this movie for years, and you were disappointed, the Snyder Cut might be a solution, a longer movie, to develop the story, the characters, a better villain, iconic scenes like we got in Man of Steel and Batman V Superman. A real sequel to the previous movies and the hope for an original DCEU, not a Marvelised DCEU.
Maybe you still don’t see the point, maybe you’re just thinking we might never get this cut, and that all this project is useless, but I’ll ask you this, what do you have to lose? When Batman V Superman came out, lots of people were disappointed, yet, when the ultimate cut came out, lots of people were surprised, it brought what was “missing” in the first cut, they were finally able to enjoy it, and like it, so who knows, why don’t you give it a try? Maybe you won’t like it, but you might love it. For us, the supporters, we decided to hope, and we also want to show our support and respect for someone who lost a lot, but still managed to make all this possible: Zack Snyder. So, for this reason and for all the other i told you about, i think it’s a good think to ask for the #SnyderCut and to show that we want comic book movies to be more than just bland movies.
For me, the wait for Justice League after the amazing “Batman v Superman” had been a long and difficult one. From seeing the early Comic-Con “Sizzle Reel” to the final trailers I had been hyped up beyond any other movie I had been previously. Along with many of my Twitter mutuals, this was the event film for DC and Snyder fans to rival what Marvel had with “The Avengers”, except with all the flair and technique we have grown to love from Snyder and the excellent writing from Chris Terrio.
When November the 17th finally came and I got to see the movie for myself one thing was obviously apparent. This was NOT the Snyder film I had been waiting for…..Hell, it wasn’t even a real Snyder film.
While I was impressed at the scenes of Zacks that had been left it was apparent that much of this movie had been changed from his vision so that in the end, I’m not sure if this is even remotely close to the movie he wanted to make any more.
This is why I want WB to release the cut that Snyder put together. I want to see the fruition of what he started to build in “Batman v Superman”. I want to see the deeper themes that I’m sure Terrio had written and the eye for detail in both the characters and world building that Zack brings to every single one of his movies.
I feel the current theatrical cut sacrifices the work that had been built up in the previous movies to make these characters real people with real emotions and the struggles they faced in adversity, in order to service some quite lacklustre jokes which are completely out of character in order to please an audience that already have that with another movie universe. Not only that I feel the VFX added post-Snyders departure are an embarrassment to a movie with the credit “a Zack Snyder film”.
It’s for these reasons I wish to see the Snyder Cut of the movie, with WB going back to finish the CGI that Zack couldn’t oversee before his departure and with as much of Junkie XL’s finished score as possible or even re-used Zimmer themes so that I can finally see the epic, emotional and mythological story Zack had been building to for the last 4 years since Man Of Steel and we can finally get the real Zack Snyder Superman trilogy we had all been waiting for.
Ultimately I want Zack to be able to look back at Justice League and say “yep, that’s my movie”.
Please Warner Brothers, give the fans who have been with this Cinematic Universe venture from the start the movie you had been selling us right up until release. Bring back the core fans you have angered after you denied us Zack Snyders final vision.
The reason I would have loved to see Zack’s actual vision realized all the way through to the end is that I loved Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. After the tragedy that happened, I would have preferred if WB pushed the movie back and give Snyder time. As a comic book reader, never before have I seen a director who not only knew the basics about Superman- but had knowledge going back since 1938. Nuances like knowing at first Superman could only leap and not fly, and dozens of other examples made me realize Snyder knew the character inside and out. Nearly 50% of what’s in the trailer is not in the movie. With multiple actresses, actors, and stunt performers hitting social media letting us know just how much stuff was left on The Cutting Room floor- it makes me really frustrated with Warner Brothers. In the end, the gamble Warner Brothers took backfired. Will we ever see a Snyder cut in the future? I’m not sure but I would love to.
When Zack Snyder was asked to direct Man of Steel, he was hesitant. He knew how big of an icon Superman is and that it wouldn’t be easy to do him justice, but he eventually signed on. Snyder, with a script from David Goyer gave us a beautiful, complex and comic-book accurate take on Superman. Man of Steel is now acclaimed as one of the best comic-book movies of all time, with a fresh yet faithful take on Superman, who struggles and questions himself, and is tested to his limits by the film’s villain – General Zod.
The plan was to do another Superman movie after 2013’s Man of Steel, but Warner Bros. wanted to establish a DC Cinematic Universe, which led to 2016’s Batman v Superman instead.
When Snyder decided to do a movie with Batman and Superman, bringing the world’s most iconic superheroes together on-screen for the first time, he wanted to make an epic saga so that the introduction of these iconic DC characters would feel more fleshed out. He centered his trilogy around Superman (Man of Steel – Batman v Superman – Justice League), revolving around the birth, death and rebirth of the Last Son of Krypton.
As BvS neared it’s release, WB executives felt that a 3 hour film would turn off the audience and would decrease the number of daily screenings, resulting in a smaller box-office profit, and 30 minutes from the film were cut. The scenes were essential to the story as they showed Clark Kent’s life as a reporter, finding his place in the world, understanding that every action he takes as Superman will have consequences, trying to prove that the pen is mightier than the sword, investigating the “Bat-vigilante” of Gotham. These scenes helped in understanding the conflict between the film’s titular characters and were essential to the plot. The film opened to negative critical response, although a major portion of the fanbase loved it, and has been defending the film since it’s release. An Ultimate Cut was announced, which included the scenes initially cut from the film. The UC had a better reception, as many critics said they now loved the film and some even apologised to Snyder. The film is still occasionally ridiculed online, but is slowly becoming a cult-classic, much like Snyder’s 2009 film Watchmen.
What fans loved about BvS was how the characters were relatable, that the characters were beaten down but eventually rose to the occasion, and how the universe revolved around Superman. The filmed showed a Bruce Wayne/Batman who had lost his ways, feeling powerless amidst Gods and monsters. To paraphrase Alfred’s quote, the feeling of powerlessness had turned him cruel. Superman’s sacrifice made Bruce see the world in a new light, and Justice League was supposed to be the character’s redemption.
Unfortunately, during the production of JL, Zack Snyder went through a family tragedy. He tried to bury himself in work to ease the pain but eventually decided to leave the film to spend some time with his family. By this time, principal photography for JL was over, and the film was in post-production. WB handed the film over to Joss Whedon, director of Marvel’s The Avengers. Fans were ensured that Joss would strictly follow Zack’s vision for the film, and that the reshoots were minimal. In reality, WB saw this as an opportunity to copy Marvel’s success with their Cinematic Universe. In March 2016, Chris Terrio, the writer of BvS stated that JL would be lighter in tone than BvS, as implied by the film’s sub-title “Dawn of Justice”. But in an attempt to completely rip-off Marvel’s formula, the film was over-injected with forced humour by reshoots, which were ridiculously easy to point out. Apparently the entire third act of the film was changed during reshoots, and Superman was just present there to punch the bad guy, say a couple of cheesy lines and smile. Lois Lane, who had heavy involvement in both Man of Steel and BvS, was reduced to a mere contingency against a rogue Superman and Wonder Woman went through a scene in which The Flash falls face-first on her breasts, similar to what Joss Whedon did in Avengers : Age of Ultron with Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff, and faced backflash for it. Batman, one of DC’s most serious characters was turned into a joke machine, throwing quips left and right. Instead of addressing his killings in BvS, Batman was sorry for not “bringing a sword”. Batman, a man dressed as a bat, with no superpowers, found the time to say “Jesus, he is tall” when Steppenwolf, a New God from the hellish planet Apokolips landed on top of his Knight-crawler. WB tried appealing to fans’ nostalgia when they fired the film’s composer Tom Holkenborg a.k.a. Junkie XL, and hired Danny Elfman, the man responsible for the legendary Batman theme from Batman (1989) and the animated Batman series. Elfman decided to reuse his Batman theme from 1989 and John WIlliams’ theme from the Richard Donner Superman films, instead of using the Superman theme composed by Hans ZImmer for Man of Steel. In an interview, Elfman said he had very little time to work on the film’s score and often had to use storyboards to compose as the film was going through reshoots. This resulted in a mediocre and forgettable score.
Furthermore, the film was reduced to a 2 hour runtime to meet the demands of WB President Kevin Tsujihara, who wanted to squeeze in more screenings to turn a higher profit. Superman’s character arc was significantly reduced, which was one of the main purposes of this film, and something Snyder was very passionate and excited for. Lois and Clark’s engagement was supposed to be addressed, as seen in the film’s final trailer, but that dialogue was changed to Clark feeling “itchy”. Barry Allen/ The Flash and Arthur Curry/Aquaman also suffered as their development scenes were also cut. Apparently we were supposed to get a glimpse of Darkseid, but even that ended up getting cut from the film. According to Snyder, Cyborg was supposed to be the heart of the film, depicting the struggle of being half-man half-machine and never really fitting in. Both Snyder and Ray FIsher were very excited about this. Many of Cyborg’s character developing scenes were cut and were later leaked online.
Zack Snyder was robbed of a beautiful and memorable end to his trilogy, just to pander to critics. One thing you can take away whenever you watch a Zack Snyder interview is how passionate he is about his films and these characters. He and the fans were excited to see Superman’s journey, which began with Man of Steel, come to fruition. Drastically changing his film behind his back is both professionally and personally disrespectful. We can only hope that WB listens to the fans and does the right thing. After all, the whole point of Zack’s trilogy is to keep hope alive.
– Ramit
Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
Right now the fans are divided into these three categories, everybody knows what i am about to talk about, who i am about to talk about, and why i am about to talk about. If you don’t, let me catch you to speed.
Man of Steel, 2013, the day Zack Snyder introduced Superman to our world. Yes, our world. Superman not only made an impact in the fictional world but also in the real world. Zack asks us a very simple question “How will we react, How will the world react, How will the Government react and will there be an cause and effect on every action he takes” Unfortunately minority of people weren’t ready for version of Superman as they wanted a fun and all smiling boy scout Superman. Warner Bros and Geoff Johns were against this version. Fortunately Christopher Nolan kept the exec of Zack Snyder’s back. But then came Batman v Superman, the original plan was to release two part films which was about to explain the feud and the union of the league. But since WB wanted to catch up to Marvel universe, they wanted the entire plot to happen in a single movie. There were delays, numerous reshoots and the movie getting pushed back, the 3 hour film got cut to 2.30 hour and again it was negatively received (by critics). Again the problem was critics wanted a joy and fun film. Warner Bros panicked. They repeated the same mistake in Suicide Squad. Again it was negatively received. Somehow among this chaos Wonder Woman survived the wrath of Warner Bros. But the peace didn’t last long, Soon after Wonder Woman’s success Warner Bros tried to change the tone to match Wonder Woman. Warner Bros got their opportunity when Zack Snyder left due to family tragedy. As soon as he left they removed most of the scenes and reshoot to add Jokes and one liner to please the critics. They even added sex jokes in the movie for laughs, god help us all. The entire things Wonder Woman movie achieved was lost in the Justice League in a particular moment thanks to a replacement director.
Zack Snyder had an Idea, an idea of Gods among Humans. The representation of Superhero’s was fresh and never seen before, the social message that he tries to tell us though the movie, through the characters, where there can be a hope among the darkness. It started with Man of Steel and continued with Batman v Superman but the chain was broken in the final piece. The final piece here is Justice League. The Justice League is a good movie but it targets to a younger generation rather than adults who loved previous movies which had maturity in it. General Audience loves the movie, but it is divisive among fans. More than 90 % of the fans don’t like what WB have done to the movie, what it has done to Zack Snyder’s vision. Warner Bros retained only a 60% of the Zack Snyder cuts. Warner Bros reshot only 40% of the movie. But the problem is, that 40% removed cut belonged to a story arc of superman and other characters. It was reshot to add humor instead of heart. Cyborg’s was the heart of the movie, Superman had a better arc, Wonder Woman was supposed to learn that she can’t save everyone. Flash was caught in between in proving his father’s innocence and finding his mother killer. Aquaman was alcoholic; Batman was suicidal from the start of the movie. At the end of the movie they were supposed to find hope and peace through the union of the team. Justice League was supposed to be an epic masterpiece. But what we got was the product where Batman has silly one liner, Louis being called thirsty, flash falling off on steps and Diana. Superman’s CGI face, Aquaman who is less badass.
The reason this monstrosity happened is a combination of years of hard work by Critics and Bloggers putting out hundreds of rumors and hatred towards the franchise and the director, bunch of WB exec gunning for early bonus and the Studio stabbing their loyal fans in their back who stood by their previous films. Justice League was advertised as pure Zack Snyder vision and when you actually see the film you will soon realize it not even close to his vision but a retaining a couple of his shots to misdirect the fans. The CGI on Superman alone tells a different story. Fans have been called by different names just for loving MOS and BvS and they had to go through this is just not fair. They studio showed no respect for fans. We as fans just want to see the true sequel to BvS, the completion of a beautiful trilogy. People call us crazy expressing what we fell and what we wish, they say we should be happy with what we got, they are just ignorant or they don’t care anymore. Yes, many dedicated fans have lost faith in franchise. And the Flashpoint movie is not to help either.
#ReleaseTheSnyderCut is the result of Warner Bros meddling with the film and making a mess of it. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut is to show the studio that these things should not happen in the future. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut is a wish from the fans that they want what they deserve. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut is to show the world that fans do have a say and they do can bring a change. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut is justice for Zack Snyder and to all the dedicated fans.
I watched Justice League last night and I think this film is about celebrating these amazing charters. While it is disappointing to see parts of the film changed from director Zack Snyder’s original vision, it’s core and DNA will always be his. I felt Justice League was a love song to Superman, to DC Comics, and everything Zack Snyder brought to this universe.
I truly enjoyed the film, but, as an active member of this great and diverse fan community, I have something to say to Warner Bros. openly.
If you have NOT seen the film, you should stop reading this letter right here. I don’t want to affect the mood of those who haven’t seen it yet. Justice League is Zack Snyder’s film in the general but Joss Whedon ruined so much of it due to his reshoots. This extends to Danny Elfman’s score. While I feel both of these factors have failed this movie to some degree, Zack Snyder has not. Zack’s part of Justice League was phenomenal and his original vision had a much bigger potential that what the film ended up being. Zack’s work in Justice League deserves our appreciation and praise. To many, it is easy to tell the difference between Zack’s careful and thought out work and Whedon’s disappointing additional reshoots.
I was very disappointed by Whedon’s disrespectful nature to women in this film. Some of his worst reshot scenes included lame sex jokes on behalf of DCEU’s most important female characters, like Lois Lane. To add to this, the offensive “Body fall” between the Flash and Wonder Woman goes against anything Zack Snyder has done for women in his films. The contrast of Snyder and Whedon’s filming standard and ability is obvious and jarring. Simply put, Whedon’s poor writing dialogue didn’t fit the epic nature that Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio intended.
Nevertheless, I want Justice League to do well at box office. These characters, Zack Snyder and the DC fandom deserve the film to be celebrated. But not you, Warner Bros. You don’t deserve this movie to benefit you.
Your meddling with the film’s intended tone, scope and vision to prevent another critical panning was useless because the film was panned anyways. Every film has imperfections and Justice League is no different but maybe a poor critical reception and less than stellar box office return is the price you pay to learn how to let DCEU films a product of the director and not the studio. Because I am a fan of the film and Zack, I will keep promoting this film so the work of the cast doesn’t go to waste. In the same breath, I will always know your studio made a huge mistake to lower your filmmaking standards to pander to critics which led to no improvement anyways.
I can’t stop imaging how great Justice League could have been if you didn’t let Whedon’s writing and the firing of Junkie XL be used to move away from Snyder’s original vision.
Lastly, we as fans request a Director’s cut or an Extended version of Justice League. Please get rid off the offensive Whdeon jokes and behaviors. Bring back the vision of the true director by putting the original footage back in. This would be a decent gesture and repay to this huge fan community who defended and supported Zack Snyder’s vision and franchise for years.
Thank You
Fiona Zheng
In summer 2013, we witnessed something magical. One year after the end of the amazing Dark Knight trilogy, we were brought to the reimagination of Superman by director Zack Snyder. I was younger then, and thought nothing of it. “I would rather watch Iron-Man 3” I probably said back then. Then one day I was bored, so I started looking for films to watch, and my eyes glanced over at Man of Steel. I put it up for download and impatiently waited. After the download was complete, I sat there and spent probably the best 2 hours and 23 minutes of my life.
I never loved Superman. I watched Superman III as a child and thought it was an ok film. I never watched Superman: The Movie or Superman II. I even didn’t watch many Batman movies. The first time I watched The Dark Knight was about 2012. I was grown up with Marvel surrounding me, I grew up watching films such as the original Sam Rami Spider-Man, and watched cartoons like Spider-Man: The Animated Series. I did watch some DC cartoons though like Batman the Animated Series and Batman Beyond. But when I first watched Man of Steel, something clicked in me. I suddenly LOVED Superman. The original score by Hans Zimmer, the cinematography by Amir Mokri, the writing from David S. Goyer, the producing from Christopher Nolan, and most importantly the direction from Zack Snyder is what enticed me.
I stuck with Man of Steel as my favorite comic book film to this day. It is so relatable on a deep level to me. I always thought “Superman is OP and unrelatable” when I first saw Henry Cavill’s Kal-El I loved him because of his flaws, and imperfections. I loved him because I saw how he isn’t always this perfect person… like me. I always stood waiting for the day I would get an announcement for Man of Steel 2. I luckily didn’t have to wait much longer. A couple months later at SDCC Zack Snyder unveiled the sequel to Man of Steel, a Batman/Superman film. I still remember my reaction to this day watching that footage online, with no description except “SDCC 2013 MAN OF STEEL”
The upcoming years were the best. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was slowly confirmed as the title for this project, and Ben Affleck was cast as Batman. As skeptical as I was, I never saw how much of a good actor this man was. He was the best Batman portrayal I have ever seen. I remember the day Mr. Snyder posted the official trailer release date on his twitter, I was yelling up and down the house! The day that the trailer came I was in awe. I knew this would be a totally different movie, and from that day on I never doubted Ben Affleck as Batman.
When Batman v Superman finally was released I was beyond excited. 3 years of waiting to this. I was in line to get popcorn, and stood there shaking. I entered the theater and enjoyed every single second I spent there. Batman v Superman was one of the best films I had ever watched. So many aspects were beautifully executed by Zack Snyder. I left hyped for the next film JUSTICE LEAGUE!
I supported Justice League heavily. I was incredibly excited for this film. I was again hyped by the SDCC 2016 first look. I had to wait until March 2017 to get another couple minutes of footage to feast my eyes upon. May 22 2017. I was entering my dentist office and had time to spare, so in the parking lot I opened my Instagram. To my shock I saw one of the most sad stories I had heard of that year. My friend Aqeel Hawaj posted a story of Autumn Snyder’s suicide. I almost broke down. I kept scrolling thinking nothing bad possibly could have ensued further. I scroll and see another post of Zack Snyder stepping down from Justice League and Joss Whedon to take his place. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about the state of the film. But I reassured myself that Snyder needed this time and hoped for the best onto this situation.
June came along and another piece of bad news hit the internet that Junkie XL was replaced from Justice League and that Danny Elfman would take control. Again, I became worried but hoped for the best. These next months were the hardest. Media was going crazy about Justice League and how “it was a mess”. I refused to listen. November 17 rolled around and my twitter was filled with sadness. People were saying a lot of things about Justice League being “ruined and butchered”. These were coming from my good friends so immediately I was on panic mode. November 18, 2017 I watched Justice League in IMAX. I was disappointed in the final product. 100% I will not blame Mr. Snyder for any of these issues, due to this project being taken away from him in late May. I was saddened by the amount of cut and reshot scenes. The score of the film was off putting and CGI felt rushed, especially a very special someones lip. I could pinpoint what was Snyder and what was Whedon/WBs. I advice you WB, release the Snyder Cut. This film is something your core fanbase wants. Love it or not we were here, and we supported you for 4 years through negative press and negative critical rating. We want you not only do this for us, but do this for Zack Snyder.
In summer 2013 Zack Snyder brought us Man of Steel and it was supposed to completing this Superman’s arc in fall 2017. We were never given the completion of this character and story arc. So I plead to you Warner Brothers! Release the Snyder Cut! Not just for us, but for the man that gave your company over one billion dollars by releasing two masterpieces of film and us, the fans that might just be the best fans of all time.
Ishaan Sangha
January 16 2018
Since November 17th, 2017, I’ve said/tweeted a lot about my disappointment in the butchered justice league film so I’ll be brief. Especially after recent events/reshoots, it’s safe to say that WB doesn’t even care about DC characters/DCEU which they own. If they did, they would’ve never even allowed Joss Whedon & Danny Elfman near the DCEU camp. Maybe if Geoff Johns & the other idiots at WB had read more DCEU/Snyder fans articles & tributes, instead of paying attention to the Disney loving bloggers/critics, they would’ve seen how appreciative we were of Zack’s work, efforts & how much the DCEU’s films mean to us, even dawn of justice & suicide squad. By sabotaging justice league in the pursuit of some wannabe Feige/MCU dream, WB has embarrassed themselves & spat in the faces of Snyder, Deb, the justice league cast/crew, Zimmer, Nolan & the day 1 fans who’ve been supporting & defending Snyder & the DCEU for 5 years now. A great damage was done & the only thing that will do some repair & restore some hope in the broken hearts of us fans is to release the justice league Snyder’s cut/directors cut/the film zack shot minus Joss Whedon’s waste of time reshoots, however, u want to call it. The people (fake fans) who claimed that they wanted the lighter tone & reeve’s superman version was given that in justice league & they all turned their back on the film resulting with a poor box office total, that couldn’t even pass the man of steel or suicide squad figures. Warner Bros, you got played.
Yours Truly,
Daami Edwards.
THE TIMELINE OF EVENTS PROVING THE SNYDER CUT EXISTS
