Justice League vs. The Snyder Cut - Filmmaking Comparison

4,614,857
0
Published 2021-03-25
Thanks to MUBI for their support! Get your 30 day free trial of MUBI here: mubi.com/thomasflight

Comparing Zach Snyder's Justice League and the original Theatrical Cut finished by Joss Whedon provides a unique opportunity to look at exactly how filmmaking decisions- how a film is shot, colored, edited, written, and directed dramatically impacts how we perceive the plot it contains.

// WATCH MORE THOMAS FLIGHT
-Ad-Free Videos and Exclusive Content on Nebula: go.nebula.tv/thomasflight

-My Podcast Cinema of Meaning:
Ad-free and early on Nebula: Nebula: nebula.tv/cinemaofmeaning
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4n6zZZQjiKsLNfyldNAi8b
iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cinema-of-meaning/id…

-Rent or Buy My Experimental Documentary:
labyrinthion.com/

-Read My Newsletter:
thomasflight.substack.com/

// SUPPORT MY WORK
-Support my Channel directly on Patreon: www.patreon.com/thomasflight
Patrons get access to a discord community, monthly podcast reviews of everything I watch, and more!

-Sign up for Nebula using my Link: go.nebula.tv/thomasflight
Signing Up for Nebula using my link supports my channel financially.

// FOLLOW ME
-Twitter: twitter.com/thomasflight
-Website: www.thomasflight.com/
-Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/thomasflight/
-TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@thomas.flight

// CONTACT ME
-sponsorship and Business inquiries: [email protected]
-Questions, feedback, other stuff: [email protected]
(check out my FAQ as well: www.thomasflight.com/faq)

#ThomasFlight #VideoEssay

Chapters:
00:00 Dark vs Light
01:07 Part 1 - Introduction and Context
02:55 Part 2 - The Tale of Two Tones
08:20 Part 3 - Pacing and Running Time
13:10 Part 3.5 - A Brief Aside About Editing
14:14 Part 4 - Story, Characters, and Stakes
22:01 Epilogue - Bad Re-Shoots and Additions

All Comments (21)
  • @laksha2234
    The very fact that there are 2 versions of the same movie allows for so much case study into film making. Its a great opportunity.
  • @George-vn7co
    I know BVS has a bad rep, but the opening scene with Bruce racing to Wayne towers amid Superman & Zod's destruction of Metropolis, was a great example of using pedestrian/ human perspective to make things more relatable or immediate.
  • What’s interesting is the various different runtimes this film went through: - 3h 40m was the version the WB execs saw - 3h 20m from a photo Zach shared of JL film reels (likely his would be Ultimate Edition) - Studio mandated it to be shortened (implying around 2h 30m) - Zach leaves due to unfortunate circumstances and they get Whedon to make it 2hs. - HBO Max get involved years later and say “not the 3h 40m version you trimmed, give us all 4hs”. Crazy what this movie (and Zach & Deborah) went through, but it’s nice we all finally got this in the end
  • 3:21 in the Snyder Cut the theme actually fits Arthur's personality trying to compensate his emotional weakness whereas in the Whedon Cut he just looks like Lobo
  • @davidjames579
    Snyder's looks like a movie, whereas Whedon's looks like a CW Show.
  • Original was so forgettable to me that watching Snyder cut actually felt like a new movie.
  • Actually I love the "cyborg discovering his power" scene, that little smile in the end of that scene is a lot emotional
  • @George_Glass
    This is interesting, because I was blown away by how the Snyder cut was literally like watching a different film. I couldn't understand how it was so much better with what I assume to be nuanced edits. A very comfortable and entertaining watch for a 4 hour film.
  • The colour grade on Whedon's version looks like a Gillette ad. Look at the shot of bruce on the plane, its straight out of an ad
  • @kthxbi
    I'm almost glad the whole original vs snyder cut thing happened, because it has provided us with one of the best case studies of just how different two different tellings of the same story can be, how much a different directorial vision and edit can radically change even the most innocuous of scenes
  • DC's selling point compared to marvel is how dark and gritty it is. It's what the universe what written on, and it's a theme it pulls off very well. Not everything needs to be family friendly.
  • @SamueITan
    I just love that despite the failure of the Josstice League, the cast and team never lost faith in Zack and even turning up voluntarily during the pandemic period, to help shoot scenes and complete his vision and give his Cut the Justice it deserves (pun intended) despite disagreements with the studio and not being paid big bucks. Everybody that worked on the movie knows what a masterpiece it was and defended Zack's original cut till the end and this movie being released for everyone was a true Symbol of Unity between the Zack Snyder, his team, the Justice League and the Fans.
  • @_moondream
    The Joker scene wasn't part of Snyder's original plan, he wanted to add it now due to the fact that he knows he won't be doing any more of these DC films. It's basically just there to give us a taste of what could have been in future installments. I think most of the "Epilogue" part of the film is there for that purpose. Jared Leto wasn't even paid for this role, he did it out of respect for Snyder and to help show the world what Snyder had planned. Sadly, we'll now never see these films.
  • 8:20 - I really liked how the opening shots in the Snyder Cut were longer and able to breathe, and it's already telling us exactly what is happening rather than just leaving us to guess the context of the scene as it jumps right into the action sequences. I also liked how different WW felt like as a character in that instance. The scene actually looks like it's setting up a character instead of just showing off cool effects or something like that.
  • @scotchwars3425
    I love the scene where Cyborg fills the struggling mother's bank account with a few hundred thousand dollars
  • @liggerstuxin1
    The opening death of Superman with his scream heard around the world was powerful to me.
  • The saturation is definitely part of the reason the original version looks fake. 3d artists know about the effect it can have, especially on bad renders.
  • @entropy616
    Snyder be all about visual, literally creating comic book pages on screen.
  • Its been a very long time since I had seen such a brilliant video. Straight from the accurate analysis to the appropriate analogies through the editing. Superb effort man! True creator.