Despite The Master himself saying his personal cut would be even longer, this could have been three hours easily, he left in seemingly damn near every shot and held them all as well.
Didn't feel like four hours though once it starts to pick up, much like BvS seems quicker than three hours in the Ultimate Cut while the original cut seems longer despite being shorter. (Not that this isn't fucking long I should say.) Aside from some overly and hilarious long slow motion shots (it's Snyder after all) along with some scenes involving the Amazons that needed trimming even for a Masters Cut four hour version, I never really wanted it to hurry up and get to anything despite already knowing the basics of the movie, just getting there was there enough this time especially as that's the bulk of the added content.
PART 1: I HEAR YOU CAN TALK TO FISH
Much better job of establishing Steppenwolf as a threat, he's not just lame-o crybaby Stephen Wolf here, he gets his hands dirty. (That's not saying much considering Steppenwolf has always been one of the lamest of the Apokolips clan. Even Earth 2 couldn't help him much.) The entire setup of having Darkseid makes everything better though. I've seen some complaining about Steppenwolf now being TOO POWERFUL because they can barely hurt him throughout the film, but I'm fine with that, he's a God after all.
I know he didn't use any of Whedon's footage and this version is supposed to be darker but I did miss a few of the jokes from Bruce when dealing with Arthur.
PART 2: THE GREAT DARKNESS BEGINS
It's way more fun to have JunkieXL's soundtrack in this, especially Diana's theme.
The first hour could have been totally cut in half or more probably, and without losing any scenes at that, just trimming around the edges, dropping redundancies, slicing down scenes where people walk down halls and point to things. Any scene where someone out loud describes something they're doing or what is happening I would have put on the chopping block in some way. A lot of Silas Stone's footage could be trimmed down especially, guy gets like 20 minutes for his day job. (The Knightmares I would drop entirely as sad as that is.)
The lantern getting killed and his ring pausing as if "searching..." before Darkseid before flying off into space.
It truly taking Gods to stop him.
PART 3: MORE MORE OR MORE LESS?
Bruce and Diana having their fun! Was some of my favorite stuff from the original teasers under Snyder and was sad to see them gone in the theatrical cut. Glad to have them back. The subtler humor was arguably better in simple scenes like these than the quips and more traditional joke styles that Whedon apparently added after the fact. It also helps to give Bruce and Diana an actual relationship to unify them beyond that time they got Superman killed thanks to Bruce's bumbling.
lol at most of Vic's background being five minutes of slow-motion football and five minutes of creepily watching some waitress while his dad narrates
More scenes with Alfred, wish they were all in
PART 4: FUCK
BATMAN THE WORLD
That Diana theme is still so hot.
lol at "GET EVERYONE OUT" and then a simple trot off screen (even by the Flash!)
The Anti-Life Equation
"I have turned one hundred thousand worlds to dust looking for Anti-Life"
PART 5: UNITE THE WELL... SIX
The resurrection still sucks, was hoping that had been more Whedon adds. Vic accidentally firing on Clark is preeettty lame still.
lmao at the Bat Gauntlets, maybe the outright dumbest thing in the movie now
Second dumbest thing, the "Unity" is pretty stupid too, should have just called it The MacGuffin!
But what's happening to the cute Russian family that lives in the radiation evacuated zone?!? We'll never know in this version!!!
Barry's theme
Granny Goodness! And Desaad is pretty perfect at the end too, he got redeemed!
Bruce is pretty bumbling in this I have to admit, what happened to the dude that wrecked that warehouse in BvS?
PART 6: RED SKIES MEANS CRISIS DAMMIT
Ultimately, as a big fat DC fan boy, I really liked it. The fan service was totally there, I really felt like I was watching the Justice League in a film starring these actors. As someone with increasing interest in Snyderverse The Trilogy™ and DCEU as this whole thing occured, I quite like it. I don't know how it'd translate into a two hour version. Three hours, like I said, I can totally see. It works in four hours, but I think three would have been ideal. Maybe a two and a half theatrical cut with a three hour plus Ultimate Cut would have been the best way to have done this, though I know Warners hated every version of it. In the end, I think the new gang at
Warner AT&T had the right idea thematically to let Snyder take another shot at this because it's way better than the garbage that was the theatrical cut. I'm actually shocked at some of what Whedon completely reshot or added instead of simply edited from this version. Let's just pretend that the original never happened and when Flashpoint wipes this whole part of the DCEU out we get to doubly pretend it didn't happen.
Three stars. (Further I'll call it the best of the DCEU films to date. Maybe it's just because it's fresh in my mind, which is true, but I really did like it more than
Wonder Woman. This part is not part of any bit I swear!)
EPILOGUE: WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY
Leto
spoiler (click to show/hide)
THE SEVEN ARE UNITED
