Believe it or not, it's now been a couple of years since Zack Snyder's Justice League arrived on HBO Max, giving fans plenty of time to decide whether they love, hate, or simply don't care about the "Snyder Cut."
One thing we can all agree on is that the film is vastly different to what Warner Bros. and Joss Whedon released in theaters four years ago, and there are countless scenes which are either unrecognizable or play out completely differently than they did in the theatrical cut. Why Whedon decided to change many of them is a mystery, but the filmmaker clearly wanted to put his stamp on these characters.
After multiple viewings of the Snyder Cut, we got to thinking about the worst changes Whedon made to Justice League, from the altered scenes to brand new sequences he decided to throw into the mix in order to make this movie "better." Then, there are those which could be seen as an improvement!
We have a lot to delve into here, so take a look through this breakdown by hitting the "Next" button below.
DIDN'T WORK: The Flash's Faceplant
We didn't know this at the time, but this throwaway gag in Justice League was one of the most controversial additions to the film back in 2017. Gal Gadot refused to shoot the scene, as did her stunt double, and that led to Whedon allegedly locking the latter in her dressing room and threatening her career.
As you might expect, neither woman wanted to be part of a sequence that ended with the Flash's face planted in Diana Prince's chest, but for Whedon, this was an essential addition.
Even without knowing the backstory, everything about this scene sucked.
It's creepy, weird, and a moment Whedon actually rehashed after having Bruce Banner faceplant into Black Widow's chest in the exact same way in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron.
DIDN'T WORK: Taunting Diana Prince
Wonder Woman talking to Bruce Wayne after their battle with Superman was a strange addition to the film and seemed to be there only to tease a possible romance between the two heroes.
Snyder did the same thing when they were researching the League together, albeit in a much more subtle fashion (which is surprising considering who we're talking about). Regardless, Whedon's version wasn't overly offensive or awful, and both heroes looked pretty cool in the scene.
A bigger issue in the 2017 cut of Justice League was the way Batman taunted Diana over the death of Steve Trevor decades earlier. This just seemed unnecessary in a film that had a two-hour runtime and felt like a throwback to that movie for the sake of it.
We just didn't need to see Bruce take that shot or for Diana to emasculate him; honestly, it feels like this was Whedon's way of criticising how Wonder Woman had been portrayed in previous DC films.
WORKED (Kinda): Injustice League
Jesse Eisenberg once denied being involved in Justice League's reshoots, but the Snyder Cut confirmed those theories that he had, in fact, reshot his half of Lex Luthor's conversation with Deathstroke.
Whereas that scene was once meant to set the stage for The Batman, Warner Bros. - on the outs with Ben Affleck at this stage - clearly realised they should probably change it to something else. As a result, Whedon came up with an idea that was meant to tee up a Justice League sequel (talk about optimism).
It's unclear how much thought Whedon and studio execs gave to that follow-up, but rather than focusing on Darkseid, it was clearly meant to pit the Justice League against Luthor's Injustice League.
Lex creating a "League of our own" is a little dumb, but we sort of want to see what it might have looked like. Luthor and Deathstroke alone wouldn't have been much of a match for the League, so we're intrigued which heavy-hitters were meant to join 'em!
DIDN'T WORK: Steppenwolf's Defeat
By now, you don't need us to tell you that Whedon decided to completely change Steppenwolf's appearance in his cut of Justice League, likely because that design was considerably cheaper to animate than the intricate version Snyder dreamed up.
Ultimately, the biggest change was how the villain was beaten by the League.
In the Snyder Cut, the team came together to overpower Steppenwolf and didn't hesitate to kill him (Aquaman skewered him with his trident, and Wonder Woman proceeded to chop his head off). Perhaps that was too dark for a studio looking for a Marvel Studios-style take on the League, but the way Whedon's defeat was handled...to call it dumb would be an understatement.
Overcome with fear after facing the team, he's carried back to Apokolips and that's the end of that. It was lame and clearly meant as a way to move on from the idea of using Darkseid as a villain down the line.
DIDN'T WORK: Danny Elfman's Score
We love Danny Elfman's work, particularly in the world of superheroes. Unfortunately, the composer didn't have much time to come up with a unique spin on these characters, and his score very much faded into the background.
There was nothing particularly impressive about it, and the decision to reuse Batman and Superman's classic scores felt clunky and wholly inappropriate when those pieces of music were designed for very different iterations of these characters.
Junkie XL's Justice League score was nearly finished when Whedon took over, so why the director didn't use that musician's work is impossible to say.
It's possible Warner Bros. thought that Elfman would bring the lighter tone to proceedings that they so desperately wanted but it feels like this was another way for Whedon to make this movie his own (he worked with Elfman on Avengers: Age of Ultron).
DIDN'T WORK: Superman's Hideous Face
In some respects, this was out of Whedon's control, particularly as Paramount Pictures was unwilling to allow Henry Cavill to shave off his facial hair for Justice League's reshoots.
How the director or Warner Bros. could be on board with those finished effects is anyone's guess, but even more confusing is why Whedon found it necessary to reshoot so many of Superman's scenes. Almost nothing that Snyder filmed with Superman made it into the 2017 film, a crazy decision when Whedon chose to add lines about how Clark smells and glossed over a huge amount of character development.
Nearly everything we saw from Superman in the final battle was superfluous, and simple ADR could have lightened up the Man of Steel for the theatrical cut.
Whedon, and Geoff Johns, likely felt a need to reinvent the character in their own image, which just so happened to involve some horrendous visual effects. And yes, you can count that weird cell phone footage in this entry.
WORKED (Kinda): A Hopeful Superman
One thing we will say in defence of Superman's portrayal in Justice League is that we did get a portrayal of this character which felt more in like with his comic book counterpart.
After coming to his senses, the Man of Tomorrow's donning that red and blue suit to help his fellow heroes save the day just felt right. Yes, there was a fair bit of cheese during that final battle, but it felt like Henry Cavill was actually having a lot of fun shooting these scenes.
There was a lot to love about what we saw in the "Snyder Cut' as well, of course, but without the weird VFX and some questionable dialogue, this is a Superman we could have got on board with seeing more of.
Then, you have moments like this which leave us scratching our heads...
DIDN'T WORK: "Tell Me, Do You Bleed?"
Whedon brought a lot of humour into the MCU with his Avengers films, but that was completely absent in his cut of Justice League. Perhaps this team doesn't suit jokes as well as Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but the director sure did deliver a lot of clangers in the 2017 film.
Superman dropped a bunch of crappy one-liners in the final act, while a bruised and bloodied Batman limping away from that fight with the Man of Steel was maximum cringe.
The worst offender, however, was Superman asking the Dark Knight, "Tell me, do you bleed?" Well, he's a regular human man being throttled by an alien powerhouse who has just been resurrected, so something tells us he probably does bleed.
To be fair, this was a throwback to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but we'd happily place money on Whedon including it as a meta-joke at Snyder's expense.
DID WORK (Kinda): The Russian Family
For some reason, a bunch of people still live near the abandoned town Steppenwolf sets up shop in, and Superman and the Flash end up spending most of the final act rescuing them.
The Man of Steel belittles the Scarlet Speedster's effort by carrying an entire building to safety (which was goofy), but this was blatantly included as a heavy-handed way of showing that the Justice League is, in fact, a team of superheroes.
Because, you know, saving the world just isn't enough.
In fairness, it was nice to see superheroes save lives, particularly as Snyder never seemed overly bothered about collateral damage in his DC movies. There's probably a version of these scenes which would work considerably better, but it all felt a bit shoehorned in for the most part.
DIDN'T WORK: Superman's Race With The Flash
As post-credits scenes go, this isn't terrible.
Superman racing the Flash is one of those iconic moments from the comics...that's now been done to death. It's bordering on being more lame than anything else at this stage, and as fan-service, it felt tacked on in Whedon's cut of Justice League. After all, we didn't even get to see who won, so what was the point?
Clark Kent has returned from the dead, and his first priority is to race Barry Allen? There was nothing that laid the groundwork for this moment, and it instead felt like another way for Whedon to take a shot of the Flash, a character neither he nor Snyder seem to fully understand.
We're sure some fans were excited to see this on screen, but any redeeming qualities are ruined by that damn CG mouth again...