Justice League took the pieces of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice where Man of Steel died in the end and Batman along with Wonder Woman have begun to put together an elite team of super-powered people to fight against a larger threat i.e Steppenwolf (military general of Darkseid ) who has the sole objective of collecting all the Apokoliptian motherboxes and restore the rule of Darkseid.
Justice League was intended to be this groundbreaking, massive hit that continues the success of Wonder Woman and keep the DC Universe going. It did well but still continued to be yet another movie in the DCEU that impressed the audiences but failed to impress the critics. Wonder Woman broke this streak but Justice League brought it down to where it began.
Justice League was not even as big of a box office success as WB would have liked. It did not even make as much as Man of Steel and became the lowest grossing movie of all time. Still it had a better rotten tomatoes score, which means that critics hated it less than Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad, so it was certainly a step in the right direction.
The movie got all its characters right and we loved all the character interactions and the action sequences that were well shot in the movie. Fans found it really refreshing as JL departed from DC template of having dark storylines and construct a brooding world where nobody is allowed to joke around, instead the movie took a page from Marvel’s playbook and there were amazing moments of comedic brilliance.
Here’s what Screenrant’s Rob Keyes had to say about the movie which was the most balanced verdict:
“The good: #JusticeLeague is my favorite DCEU movie. It will make you love its heroes and want to see them team-up again. The bad: #JusticeLeague rushes through a lot and its main story/lore and villain are rather stripped down and forgettable. The future: #JusticeLeague feels like a new start to the age of heroes and succeeds as a launch platform in that, even though some of its newer characters very much would have benefited from origin stories beforehand.”
WB kept it mandatory for Joss Whedon to make the movie under or exactly at 2 hours. Well, the reason behind that was this would allow the theatres to run an extra screening of the movie throughout the day, which would mean they could cash in more money. Well, even after all this, JL wasn’t a very profitable success. So, something might have been wrong for sure, and we know what it was.
Zack Snyder’s cut was originally intended to be about 2 hours and 45 minutes. That meant an extra 45 minutes of the movie. That could have included so many plots changing and plot defining elements which the movie was actually lacking. Whedon tried to give us a great movie with what he got. Still, the movie was missing a lot that was originally intended. For instance, a lot of VFX team had done for Batman, Flash and Cyborg never made it to the final cut.
We all saw that there were so many scenes in the movie that popped up in the trailers but were missing from the final product. Through deduction, we also found out that some of those scenes were altered in the reshoots. Well, the parts that were not altered still managed to hit the editing bin as they were not fitting in the movie Whedon finished or just seemed to be unnecessary for the intended 2-hour cut.
Znyder’s Cut was rumored to have so much. Superman’s resurrection was different as he would have been brought to life by Steppenwolf. Darkseid also came into play as they would have mind-controlled Superman who would have then fought the rest of the League, and Batman stopped him with the help of Lois just like it happened in the movie.
So, Darkseid was intended to be there in the original cut of the movie and this would have set him up as a future villain in either Justice League 2, or even 3 if they were looking at the Injustice League to happen in part 2. Now, a new storyboard for the film gives further credence to that theory.
The Storyboard reveals Darkseid on the big screen, and it seems to fit with earlier reports that it would have been as part of a vision that Snyder had. This Storyboard hit the net from an anonymous source which claims that it was indeed drawn by Zack Snyder himself. It displays Darkseid sitting on his throne, which is presumably on Apokolips, even though it played out a little differently in the previous reports.
In this particular sequence as shown, Cyborg plus into the Genesis Chamber on the Kryptonian ship in the movie, and it is there he sees a vision of Darkseid. This vision shows a dark future just like the one in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and he also sees a half-buried Hall of Justice sign in the rubble, and a burning city around that, with Darkseid’s insignia on the ground.
This sequence is a little different from the early screenings of the movie as ‘Kevin Smith’ would have loved to see that sequence in person.
“Changed. Superman joins the fight and teams up with the League to defeat Steppenwolf, however at one point Steppenwolf tries to tempt Superman into joining his army, ready for this? This made me so f****** angry, and we see Darkseid for the first time in Superman’s vision and we see flashes of the nightmare footage that Batman had in Batman v Superman, however, Superman snaps back out of it and delivers the final blow to defeat Steppenwolf”
Well, there would be plenty of abandoned scenes since the movie went through a directorial change and massive re-shoots to bring it down from 2 Hours 45 Minutes to 2 hours. WB has literally wasted a big opportunity by keeping Darkseid to the back burner in Justice League.
Moreover, for the Justice League sequel, the post-credit clearly suggested that JL will be up against “Injustice League” led by Lex Luthor. The scene featured Deathstroke meeting Luthor who freed him from Arkham prison and said “We have to level the playing field. To put it plainly, shouldn’t we have a league?”
Ezra Miller aka Flash said that everyone is excited about Injustice League and concurred on its possibility. Here is what he said:
“The Injustice League. I think I can speak for everyone in the League when I say that we’re extremely excited by the prospect of continuing this journey. We don’t really know for sure, and we’re usually the last people to find out, but … each of the heroes in this movie has specific nemeses, and I think seeing some incarnation of the Injustice League (which includes Lex Luthor, Joker, Deathstroke and more) would be something that DC fans would be pretty stoked about.”
DC Entertainment released two official synopsis, one from the point of view of Batman as he was the one assembling a team of elite superheroes to save the Earth, the second one is keeping Wonder Woman at the center as she is the most powerful JL member (without Superman). Read it below:
“In Justice League, fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of meta-humans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions”.
“Once again, Wonder Woman must demonstrate her ability as a fierce warrior. Facing a great enemy, she and Batman join forces to recruit a group of meta-humans to stand against this newly awakened threat. Having formed an unprecedented League of heroes, they set out to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.”
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