Right now, it seems like almost everyone is talking about Zack Snyder's Justice League.
The director's cut of the 2017 film is making waves for its many changes to the original,
including a four-hour runtime, a restored 4:3 aspect ratio, and newly added DC characters
like Darkseid, Martian Manhunter, and the Joker, to name a few.
And the movie is doing well with critics and audiences alike, earning a 73 percent critics
score on Rotten Tomatoes and currently holding a 96 percent rating from audiences. Superman
actor Henry Cavill has taken to Instagram to praise Snyder's work, writing:
"Here's to you Zack. Congratulations! I know this has been an arduous journey for you,
you kept fighting, though. I couldn't be happier to see your vision for Justice League realised.
And what a movie it is!"
But perhaps the one part of the film that has grabbed the most attention is the scene
involving the Joker and Batman.
At the end of the film, Batman is joined by Cyborg, Mera, Flash, Deathstroke, and the
Joker. The team is fighting a Darkseid-controlled, evil Superman in a post-apocalyptic wasteland
known as Knightmare. We've previously seen this world in Snyder's 2016 film, Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice, in a scene in which a gun-toting Batman fights an evil Superman.
Batman is captured, unmasked, and right as he's about to be killed by Superman, Bruce
Wayne wakes up, realizing it was all just a vision.
"It's Lois! Lois Lane! She's the key!"
In Zack Snyder's Justice League, viewers return to the Knightmare timeline, in which Aquaman,
Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, and Harley Quinn have all been killed. It's an incredibly tense
and exciting scene, in which Mera swears revenge for Aquaman's death, Cyborg and Flash look
moody, and — most notably of all — the Joker taunts Batman over the friends and family
he's lost. And it's towards the end of the scene, when Batman promises to kill Joker
slowly, that something happens for the first time in Hollywood history: Batman drops an
f-bomb.
Now, this moment is significant for many reasons. It helps demonstrate to the audience how Batman
is truly beyond any moral reckoning at this point; essentially showing a side to the character
that the movies have never really tackled up to this point. It also conveys just how
dire the Knightmare scenario could be, considering Batman is still willing to work with the Joker
to set things right.
The whole scene is also something of a breath of fresh air for DC fans. A proper Batman-Joker
scene hasn't really happened for a while — at least not since Heath Ledger and Christian
Bale took each other on in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.
"I think you and I are destined to do this forever."
And for years, Snyder had wanted to reunite the characters for a scene together. As Snyder's
wife and producing partner, Deborah, told Inverse:
"Zack really wanted to do a scene with Batman and the Joker. This was our last hurrah. He
was like, 'This is my last chance. I'm going to get to do this scene.' And trying to work
backward and think like, 'Okay, how do I fit that in?'"
Meanwhile, Snyder told IGN that he thought a scene between the two was a necessary part
of his movie, saying:
"I think without a scene where they get to air their dirty laundry about each other,
I felt like we were getting short changed as fans of the DC Universe. That was the hope,
that we would get to see them come together but also, in particular, reflecting on each
other and their struggle with each other [...] so that was really fun for me."
Funnily enough, this dream sequence happened to be the only scene in the film that was
made specially for the Snyder Cut. The whole scene took just three days to shoot — not
counting the many years it took for Snyder to convince Jared Leto to return as the Joker,
of course. Luckily, it seems like Snyder's effort has paid off — and DC fans finally
have another great Joker scene to add to the history books.
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