The Snyder Cut: What Went... Right?

[Music] what's up wisecrack michael here to tell you that dreams really do come true after nearly four years of fans yelling at studio execs over twitter warner brothers finally released the much-hyped snyder cut of justice league and spoiler it's big no like really big the film clocks in at just over four hours aided of course by a heavy dose of slo-mo now a few years back we put out a video analyzing what the original film got wrong which you can watch here in it we talk about how the main conflict of the film was diluted by character motivations that felt artificial so instead of getting a movie about a team of super powered misfits overcoming their differences to stop the big bad we got well this well i believe in truth but i'm also a big fan of justice so how does the snyder cut hold up in comparison honestly pretty well sure it's certainly not perfect and didn't earn universal acclaim but there seems to be a pretty widespread consensus that this once mythical film righted many of the originals wrongs how did it do it let's find out in this wisecrack edition on zack snyder's justice league what went right and the spoilers ahead but before we get into it i wanted to take a second to tell you about wisecrack's movie podcast show me the meaning it's where we nerd out about some of our favorite films from the newest releases to timeless classics to the occasional deep cut you may not have heard of it's hosted by austin ryan and raymond three guys who would likely have healthier relationships if they didn't spend as much time re-watching john carpenter films to figure out what they're really saying but hey their loss is your gain episodes drop every other friday and you can also catch a live stream of every episode on this very channel so if for some reason you're not already subscribed with your notifications turned on maybe do that and definitely subscribe to show me the meaning on apple podcast spotify stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcast and tell them michael sent you for a 10 discount oh it's it's free well still tell them i sent you so they know i care about them now back to the show first a quick recap now that the man of steel has finally kicked the kryptonian bucket these pesky little machines called the mother boxes think it's finally safe to reactivate and call home to steppenwolf once our shark headed villain collects all three he'll be able to turn earth into a primordial hellscape and add it to his master darkseid's collection of planets to stop steppenwolf bruce wayne and diana prince must assemble a plucky band of heroes it's got all your favorites including a brooding aquaman and also brooding cyborg a socially awkward flash this is a person who looks exactly like me but who is definitely not and even a brief cameo by this brand new floating green dude and some they've called me the martian manhunter of course nothing comes easy for our ragtag heroes and when confronted with a literal destroyer of worlds the group is left with no choice but to resurrect superman which doesn't go off without a few hiccups he's confused he doesn't know who he is but now that the justice league has their mvp back they decide to take the fight to steppenwolf with a little help from some backwards time travel our group manages to deactivate the mother boxes and close the portal off the dark side oh yeah and wonder woman also cuts a guy's head off so to see what went right with the snyder cut let's compare it apples to apples with what went wrong in the theatrical cut and what went real wrong was something playwright david edgar calls dramatic action it works like this any scene can be boiled down to two basic components a project and a contradiction a project is essentially a character's goal in that scene and a contradiction is whatever gets in their way pretty simple right for example in the snyder cup we see barry allen applying for a job at a pet store only for the best lit hamburger in cinematic history to get in his way the project here can be summed up as barry wants the job the contradiction is but a car crash threatens to ruin the interview importantly having a contradiction ensures that a scene never ends on the same note as it starts and that's what makes dramatic action well dramatic barry for example must use his powers to save a woman from what can only be described as a literal sausage fest afterwards he flashes back to the interview with hot dogs in his pocket to comfort the scared puppies seemingly securing his new job so how does dramatic action explain why the original cut of the justice league was so trash and how does the snyder cut go about fixing this well if you parse through most of the original film you'll notice a lot of the projects and contradictions in the key scenes felt down right forced oftentimes a character's project or goal in a scene doesn't really jive with what we know of them for example in the original cut there's a scene where bruce proposes reviving superman much to everyone's displeasure bruce no you have no idea what kind of power you're dealing with bruce's goal i.e the project of the scene is to convince everyone to bring his new bestie clark back to life but this project doesn't really square with the batman we know so far after all he just spent an entire movie trying to kill the man of steel but it's not just batman who suffers from lazily constructed projects and contradictions look at aquaman who spends half the film not wanting to get involved in a looming fight only to completely change his mind over the course of two minutes want to know a lazy contradiction having mera show up for a single scene to drop some random backstory and conveniently change his mind in both these instances it's almost like the original cut is trying to cram an entire character arc into a single scene in the process the film seemingly botches either the character's goals or the problems that get in their way which probably goes a long way in explaining why the film was full of lines like this well i wouldn't count on the tribes of men we tend to act like the doomsday clock has a snooze button but i'm happy to report that the snyder cut is a different beast entirely unlike the original this film takes its time to develop its characters which helps explain why it's twice as long as its predecessor as a result projects and contradictions don't feel as contrived in this version let's revisit that aquaman scene again you might not be shocked to learn that there was a decent amount of backstory omitted in the theatrical version included in that backstory is a scene with volkow a chief advisor in atlantis in the scene volcko tells aquaman that his people are under attack from steppenwolf but instead of rallying against a common foe aquaman's brother the king has been rallying the troops against insurgents leaving the motherbox unguarded so yeah it's a pretty big context go to the stronghold of atlantis protect the box the time has come take up your mother's trident when you take this impassioned plea into consideration mera's words this time around seem a little less contrived it would have been her responsibility to follow that monster to the surface and stop him now it's yours but aquaman is only the tip of the iceberg snyder goes to extra links to make sure most characters have properly fleshed out arcs and he does so without twisting the projects or contradictions of a scene to see what i mean let's look at two characters who feature much more prominently in the snyder cut flash and cyborg now as we noted in our previous justice league video in the original flash was given a pretty lame emotional arc that was brought up and resolved in a single scene it's really cool you guys seem ready to do battle and stuff but full transparency i've never done battle so project flash is scared to enter his first fight and contradiction batman convinces him it was pretty underwhelming especially since this performance anxiety manifests nowhere else in the film but things are different with the snyder cut firstly the film scraps this dialogue altogether instead opting to show us how this fear plays out in every battle i mean seriously every time barry gets so much as a scrape he jumps out of the speed force and gets all teary-eyed but secondly and most importantly the snyder cut takes this combat inexperience and uses it to craft a proper emotional arc that spans the entire film one that doesn't need to twist barry's goals and the obstacles he encounters in order to make sense for example look at the film's amazingly cinematic conclusion in which barry gets injured at a key moment as a result the unity is achieved and life as we know it ends it's too late pretty cool right but barry understandably wants to stop this so he'll have to run faster than he's ever run before to literally turn back the clock just gotta go faster than the speed of light far beyond the speed of light gotta break the rule barry and you gotta do it now so the project of this scene can be summed up as barry needs to stop the apocalypse and the contradiction would be but he'll need to overcome his injury and his own physical limits to do so importantly both the project and the contradiction here feel organic they also speak to his development as a character from scared nerd to real superhero at this point we've seen barry struggle with getting hurt as well as his reservations about approaching the speed of light i don't like to break this rule but when i approach the speed of light i look crazy things happen to time but if i do it i create massive electrical power adding the fact that while barry is attempting to break the very laws of physics he thinks about how he's making his father proud and you've got a genuinely rewarding scene your kid was one of them dad [Music] one of the best of the best but snyder's four-hour cgi bonanza isn't content to only give the flash an arc it also gives some much-needed screen time to an over-literal cyborg or victor stone now without getting into the nitty-gritty about how joss whedon apparently treated cyborg actor ray fisher like garbage it's fair to say that the original cut didn't have much love for the character but the opposite can be said about zack snyder's version as with the flash we see the film develop cyborg without having to twist the projects and contradictions of each scene throughout the film we watch viktor struggle to forgive his father the man he unjustly blames for his mother's death and more justly blames for turning him into a half-man half-robot he starts off the film completely unwilling to listen to any paternal advice let me speak to you from my heart not as a scientist as a father at the same time he also hates what he's become but whatever happened to you you have gifts now gives what part of this looks like a gift to you but after his dad sacrifices himself to super heat the mother box essentially turning it into a thermal tracking device for the justice league victor must come to terms with the truth he loves his father and he must embrace the hero he's become in the film's conclusion we see both of these journeys come to a head as flash supercharges victor he must confront the mother boxes and his own personal demons you don't have to be alone anymore we'll be together again the project of the scene is victor wants to stop the unity while the contradiction is but the mother boxes offer him both his family and his body back of course victor doesn't give in to this temptation a decision which ultimately saves the day i'm not broken and i'm not alone now you might notice how with both the flash and cyborg their emotional journey stem from and directly influence the plot if barry didn't overcome his weakness and if victor didn't learn to accept himself then darkseid would have added earth to his collection of planets and perhaps more than anything else this interplay between plot and character was sorely missing in the original cut case in point remember the mother box of men the one held by victor and his father in the original cut this mother box was stolen off screen by steppenwolf while the rest of the team was getting a superman themed beatdown he has the last one and honestly it was pretty frustrating it felt like the heroes completely forgot what they were doing but in the snyder cut our heroes don't forget about the motherbox after jump starting superman the box lands near victor's dead then works to protect it with some help from the team and just when all hope seems lost victor's dad valiantly sacrifices himself so the team can track steppenwolf to his lair moments like these where character and plot move in tandem are what all cinema strives for and it's a much welcomed inclusion of course we're not saying that zack snyder's justice league is a perfect film because it's not in fact it calls to mind one of the best pieces of advice for writers and filmmakers alike kill your darlings that is no matter how much you personally love a 20-minute epilogue where the joker makes a reach-around joke to batman you won't kill me i'm your best friend besides who's gonna give you a reach around you gotta kill it for the sake of a clear concise story and it seems like snyder was wholly unable to trim the fed or even just cut a sequence of our team walking up the stairs do we really need to see that but the point is the theatrical cut of the movie tried to do too much while also cutting crucial character development and ended up doing everything poorly snyder left in more than any other mainstream filmmaker would dare and made a seriously interesting albeit flawed movie [Music] and to be honest we think it turned out cooler than most movies out there anyway but what do you guys think is zack snyder's justice league a shining piece of visionary genius or is this a master class on why all good creatives need a time limit and what do you make of the future of the dc eu drop us a line and let us know in the comments huge thanks to our patrons for all your support smash that subscribe button like you're trying to resurrect a dead superhero and don't forget to ring that bell and as always thanks for watching later [Applause] the best what best lit best lit hamburger in cinema history yeah okay we'll do it

Channel: Wisecrack

Views: 249,142

Rating: 4.9053135 out of 5

Keywords: zack snyder, justice league, wonder woman, snyder cut, green lantern, warner bros., justice league snyder cut, snyder cut joker, snyder cut review, snyder cut differences, snyder cut darkseid, snyder cut steppenwolf, steppenwolf, cyborg, flash, ray fisher, ben affleck, henry cavill, joss whedon, what went wrong, wisecrack, show me the meaning, deep or dumb, philosophy, film analysis, screenwriting, justice league trailer, martian manhunter snyder cut, video essay, gal gadot

Id: jQg98up1tYE

Length: 14min 4sec (844 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021