THEATRICAL CUT - 60 minutes in.
For all the claims about Whedon reshooting 80% of the movie, the grand majority of this is Zack's footage, albeit reworked, and most of the added scenes are not in fact just humor. I really like the new Cyborg sequence of him struggling to turn off all the voices and feeds racing through his head, until he suddenly hears mention of his name, coming across Bruce's investigation and who Bruce really is. They're not only adding emotion to Cyborg's portrayal but putting him ahead of the rest of the heroes as he now just needs to figure out why they're after him.
The Age of Heroes scene truly is watered down. I don't mind the walk-and-talk reshoot for the last half which they intercut with the backstory (with Cyborg eavesdropping), but the grandiosity of that mythic sequence is something I'd much rather let Zack revel in. And god damn is this Steppenwolf design now completely overshadowed by everything he's surrounded by. They've pulled out so much that all we get now are fleeting glimpses, moments. Zack's was an entire epic in just a few minutes. While I understand much of this edit trying to condense everything for a more conventionally cinematic pace, these are the moments that really do suffer the most from it. What I do appreciate is the insert of a person being zombified into a parademon, to illustrate that loss of person, that they are just a husk of a monster now. Still doesn't make it perfect that our heroes mow them down like grass, but at least the point is made.
Recruiting Victor is largely the same. Dianna's appeal to Cyborg is partially reshot to incorporate this different personification of Cyborg, which I'm still fine with, especially the lack of the gratuitous "Fuck the world". I also like their added conversation through the computer. It's a little touch, but preferred over the cryptic message.
I'm glad Aquaman saving the sailor and walking into the waves is still here, but it's an odd place to insert the sailor having been randomly attacked by parademons. More successful is "Icky Thump" rocking his stride into the crashing water. Again, talk about moments worth reveling in.
I'm not sure why they changed the drawing in the Commissioner Gordon scenes, as the more bat-like image was such a fun callback, but I'm glad these are largely untouched. Danny Elfman bringing in his classic Batman theme feels so right. We'll get it again in the coming battle.
I still hate the design, but continue to enjoy this more wickedly bemused Steppenwolf. Still far from a great villain, but at least I enjoy hearing Ciaran Hinds purr out this lines more than I did his somber growling in the original take. I'm also intrigued by him referring to the boxes as Mother, with this genuinely maternal reverence.
With the invasion of the Russian nuclear town, we have the introduction of our household under siege. I'm curious to revisit how this plays out over the rest of the film, but I've never hated the Russian family the way others do. I actually like that this town in inhabited, that people are under siege. It's a microcosm of the looming invasion to come if forces aren't stopped.
Our heroes hit the island, and much of it is the same, albeit tighter with inserts. I really like the addition of Flash freaking out, having never been in a fight before, and Batman challenging him to save just one hostage. Him plucking one, then another, then another is a great little hero beat as you see him getting more into it, and definitely has a stronger narrative flow than him and Victor just running people upstairs and telling them to go faster. Victor also gets a couple extra little beats with his dad, and for all the criticisms, I like the little Batman quips of "He is tall" and "I didn't bring a sword", the latter of which is some needed levity to slightly soften him opening up on enemies with his trademark Snyder machine guns. The reason I don't mind the humor is because, for all the work Bruce did to pull this team together, once they hit the field, he has become the odd man out. He's smart, he has tools and experience, but he still can't give or take a punch on the same level as this new team of heavy hitters, which means something when you're up against a foe who can punch really damn hard.
The one sour note to this sequence is, of course, the anime boob plant. I don't know why Joss felt he had to shove Flash's face into the cleavage of Diana's stunt double unless it was to quietly live out the moment vicariously through his cinema puppets. Which sounds very Joss.
THEATRICAL CUT - 90 minutes in.
They've removed the bit of Cyborg burying the Mother Box in his mother's grave. Or his mother's... box... if you will. Which I'm ok with. That was a bit overly morbid in Zack's, and we're about to get our fill of grave desecration.
The entire batcave sequence is new. It's flatly shot against bluescreen, but I like a lot of what it adds, even beyond Flash zipping around like an excited toddler and Aquaman stealing things. I like how they put together as a team that the power of the Mother Box could resurrect Superman, which also causes a rift as Diana challenges the ethics and consequences of going down that road. I haven't talked much about the nice Bruce/Diana dynamic in both cuts. While he's been the overall strategist putting the team together, she usually steps in and takes charge in the field since she and the rest of the team are far more unbreakable than he is and are able to hit a lot harder. He's the human who knows his limits, she's the demigod warrior with literally thousands of years of experience. They have a very natural partnership in Zack's cut and most of this one, which they fall into early and maintain. And yet I like this added thread that pushes them apart with her raising very genuine concerns and pushing Bruce over his guilt for Superman's death. And Bruce... I think people misfocus this cut for making Bruce more humorous, when I think what can be offputting is that it reminds us he's a dick. He's nudged about acting on guilt, and he suddenly flies into a defensive tear down of Diana, her loss of Steve, how she's remained hidden all these years instead of being out there in the open, inspiring and leading like the symbol that Clark was. This is authentic to the character that Zack established, especially his "fraction of a chance" line which is a direct throwback to his arguments in BvS, but it reminds me why I've never been partial to this growly and petulant Frank Miller reach around, especially since much of this story has been about his maturing beyond such an attitude.
The scene with Alfred is warm, but doesn't do much beyond continue to hammer at the guilt thread and seed their "big gun" reveal. They've also ditched the whole subplot about Batman's gauntlets having the Kryptonian energy-absorbing tech, and are instead fitted to emit the annoying sounds that distract parademons. Much better is the new scene of Barry and Victor digging up Superman's grave, with the lusting after Diana having been replaced by the reflective bonding of them both being the "accidents" of the team. That's a great dynamic to add context to.
Almost the entire thread of breaking in to STAR labs has been removed, which honestly felt gratuitous in Zack's cut, given all the strings Batman and Cyborg are capable of pulling, so there's no more Silas sidequest, no more gaggle of evacuated scientists roaming around outside. After Flash's driver impression, we go directly to the Krytponian ship. The resurrection is mostly abridged Zack footage, with Cyborg's Knightmare replaced by the caution of Aquaman saying "this is a bad idea" and a still angry Diana being there for Clark, not Bruce. I'm honestly fine with less Knightmare, which continues to be more distracting than intriguing for me.
The fight with Clark is still almost entirely Zack's, with a few inserts and ADR lines added, though it does have a bit more weight in the new context of Diana's fears as she was just about ready to hope she was wrong, only to being hit hard with how she may have been right. The new confrontation with Batman reaches the darkness of an angry Superman in just a couple lines that Zack spent three films desperately grasping at, with the bitterness of "You won't let me live. You won't let me die," and the twisting of Bruce's own "Do you bleed?" on him before casually tossing Batman away like a wet blanket. And Bruce's "Yeah, something is definitely bleeding" punchline is my favorite laugh of film for just how tired and human his delivery is. I'm more than happy to get that in exchange for losing the laser absorbing gauntlets.
The real shortcoming of the sequence is Steppenwolf getting the third Mother Box, which is now entirely off screen as everyone just left it sitting there out in the open. While I still don't like the Silas sacrifice, at least there was some drama to that important beat. Given that the last few minutes of the Superman fight boil down to just Diana, then Bruce, what if Cyborg, Aquaman, and Flash were torn in their desire to help vs racing to protect and recover the Mother Box and lose another fight with Steppenwolf because they're trying to be in both places at once? Maybe that would have been too complicated and expensive to add in the reshoots, but it doesn't make their offscreen choice feel any less underwhelming.
Much has been said about the added reveal of Lois being Bruce's "big gun" to use against Clark. I still feel she was undeserved in the Zack cut, getting a few snippets of mope before wandering into this event. Though I still wish they added more to her thread, I like that this at least spins the context of her being involved, of her being a part of the plan.
The new scenes on the farm start off awkward, with the odd snark of Clark smelling good and death being "itchy", and Lois's fears about how she wasn't strong and how he'd be disappointed in her feel like an off note for the character which again really makes me wish she'd had more time and more of a thread leading up to this. The CGI lip mostly holds up as long as you don't stare at it too much, which I eventually stopped doing. I do love how they play the moments of Lois knowing she needs to send Bruce back into danger, and him hearing his mom coming before she arrive. Those were great, warm additions.
The new aftermath in the Batcave is good, though even I'm starting to feel like Barry is too much of a punchline figure with him now needing food. I do like how Aquaman's growly roughhouser quality has a more humorous edge, as Joss typically does with his machismo parodies, and the scene between he and Bruce about talking to fish is well played, especially Bruce's embarrassment after.
They really do cement the Bruce/Diana arc well, with him realizing he's put himself in the light to lead while she's lurked alone in the shadows, and it's time for them to swap to their more natural roles. This has been an important thread to add to deepen their dynamic while also exploring their individual themes. I also like how the scene is played, with her immaculate and draped in her cape, still young and strong and ready for anything, while his superhero suit is revealed to just be fabric and padding, as he lurches around like an aging man in sweats who just pushed himself way too hard at the gym, and her popping his shoulder back into place is a nice way to re-establish their friendship after the strain.
Way back, I mentioned tracking down the Mother Box by searching for the giant pink dome, so I like that they held back the dome until this point where Steppenwolf has brought the three boxes together in Unity. I would really be curious to see his reverence for the "Mother of horrors" play out with Zack's character design.
It's so refreshing for Cyborg to not have that bizarrely staged death of Silas hanging over everything, as it was so unnecessary for their search for the Mother Boxes. Dianna is absolutely right that he can tap into the energy within himself (called it!), and he's absolutely right to be afraid of doing that because he could lose control of himself, and these flickers we get of his body reacting without him really help seed that thread. And I'm so glad they scrapped the thread of the carrier not working, with him now just having a throwaway line about making it go faster.
I like the discussion of the Russian town, about "who would live there?", and acknowledging these places in the world populated by people who literally have nowhere else to go. Again, I feel this is important, showing an invasion of the downtrodden as a microcosmic preview of the invasion of us all, and heroes willing to save those downtrodden instead of falling into "goods of the many" rhetoric. This is why I like the Russian family. It's a bit overly focused, and doesn't need bits like the daughter with the bug spray, but it adds stakes of real people and real lives being caught up in all this stuff, which Zack has always been notorious about overlooking.
People drag on the scene of Arthur and the Lasso of Truth, but I love it, because it opens up his character, his humor, his fears, his hopes, better seeding this as someone I'd like to follow to a spinoff franchise. I also dig the parody of it starting off like a big damn hero speech before it gets weird, and everyone else realizing what's going on before he does.
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