so after watching zack snyder's justice league twice i thought it would be a good idea to
explain all of the new arcs and the ending of the movie of course this film is a completely
different experience with the director's cut and as i explained in my review video i was thoroughly
impressed with what zack snyder's original film was to put it more simply though i'm
going to be explaining the new elements and ending for zack snyder's justice league
in the aim to help you guys gather a greater sense over what happened and
to get us thinking about some of the things that the snyder cup put forward this analysis will
also contain spoilers so if you do happen to be someone who hasn't seen the film
then i would recommend watching this video after you've seen it if you want to see more on the
film including video essays in the coming weeks then don't forget to subscribe to the channel
and turn on your notifications also if you enjoy this video remember to give it a like
rating but without further ado let's dive into zack snyder's justice league explained
so the long road to zack snyder's justice league has finally reached its destination with the two
extra hours of running time snyder has the space and grace to play with concepts and characters
previously left on the cutting room floor the story unfolds across seven parts six
dedicated chapters and an epilogue and feels like the director's big move on the dceu
he goes all out incorporating dark side elements like the anti-life equation and a few
show-stopping set-pieces for those who watched the film already what follows is a breakdown of
the most important changes snyder made to his version of justice league starting off the film
opens with a big change right from the get-go and that is superman's deathcry historically speaking
snyder has a pretty excellent track record when it comes to starting films like his opening watchman
credits and he's pulled off a similar magic trick here as the credits roll we see a slowed
down version of superman's death at the hands of doomsday the echoes of his death cry ring out
and reverberate through the universe activating the mother boxes and letting the villain stephen
wolf no earth is ready for an invasion it works as a friendly reminder of superman's role as the
protector of the planet and sets the seeds for the importance of his revival later in the movie it's
a quieter more somber introduction that sets the film's stakes without a cover set montage
of cringe-worthy newspaper headlines that we saw in the 2017 version soon after we learn
that stethomorph is bigger more threatening and has a backstory stefan wolff's motivation as
an antagonist in the original justice league is exceptionally thin we hardly know anything about
him outside the fact that he's just the film's bad guy he's smug and powerful but that's about
it snyder's version however paints the character in a radically different light
cast out of apocalypse the evil hellscape where dc's darkest villains dwell stefan wolfe has been
forced to destroy worlds to get back into the good graces of darkseid snyder positioned stefan wolfe
as almost a mid-level enforcer who is desperate to please his angry boss the added running time
also allows snyder to introduce darkseid who takes on a more prominent role in two regards
first he's swapped in as a primary attacker in the film's ancient flashback instead of
stefanomorph secondly after it's discovered that the anti-life equation a power that lets darkseid
dominate the human race lingers on earth he preps to invade only to witness the league taking on
and defeating stephenwolf in the movie's finale this is all the stuff that dc fans will love to
finally see come to life while also providing more context on why stethomorph is so desperate to take
over earth created by the legendary jack kirby in 1971 the anti-life equation proves mathematically
that freedom is a lie hope doesn't exist and life itself is pointless and if darkseid gets
a hold of this in a potential future film as we see in the nightmare sequences later on
he can bend superman to his will alongside this we start to see the different journeys of our
main heroes being extended and given room to breathe the overall arcs of bruce wayne aka
batman and diana prince aka wonder woman remain essentially unchanged but are given greater depth
in both versions diana is introduced as she thwarts a terrorist attack in london but is
given a chance to interact with a small girl in the snyder version additionally diana learns
about the motherbox's function after seeing the fire in the amazon temple in the wedom version
her knowledge about the boxes come out of nowhere whereas here we see her learning about them before
she details it all to bruce and speaking of batman we see a bit more of bruce prepping his various
gadgets alongside alfred which allows his british wit to provide some moments of levity to the film
affleck's batman continues to be great and the actor does an excellent job of making
you understand why he feels compelled to bring everyone together after spending so much time
trying to divide in the previous film but one of justice league's many problems is that the movie
suffers from doing the most it's challenging to introduce a handful of new characters and
provide proper motivation for a nemesis on some level arthur curry aka aquaman and barry allen
aka the flash are easy to understand one can run fast while the other is a god who can talk to fish
however snyder restores two key sequences one in which the flash saves iris west from a car crash
and another at the very end during the film's big third act fight the latter is frankly a visual
stunner that's arguably one of the best dceu set pieces it involves barry running through
time to help save the day it really is a thing of beauty to watch this sequence come together
and it also makes flash's role in the film seem so much more justified clemen's inclusion doesn't
amount to much more than a cameo however but i'm glad we'll have more time with her in the upcoming
flash movie snyder's barry is also less annoying more sure of himself and overall has more lines
that hit in the movie one of my favorite parts was the emotion brought in the jail cell sequence
with his father at the end of the film because it brought him down to earth and really grounded the
character in his experience also most of aquaman scenes are focused on setting up the tension we'd
see explored to a deeper extent in the james one directed aquaman movie willem defoe's volco
lays out for arthur what's at stake for both the surface and the ocean if aquaman doesn't step in
and help to fight against stephenwolf additionally arthur spends a bit more time speaking with mehra
about his mother and the role she would have played the one movie ended up covering similar
beats but snyder wanted to set up those moments for further exploration whenever the eventual
solo film ended up coming out what many of us loved about the film however is the change to
cyborg's character ray fisher has a lot to be upset about in addition to having an extremely
toxic experience working with joss whedon on the 2017 version of justice league the cyborg actor is
essentially the snyder cuts beating heart here we are treated to the entire origin of victor stone
in which he was a star college quarterback who was killed in a car accident along with his mother
on the way back from a game brought back to life with the mother box by his estranged father
vic feels isolated and alone as a modern day version of frankenstein's monster
cyborg's connection with his father helps to further facilitate cyborg as the center
of the film as the paternal relationship is something snyder can clearly relate to in the
wake of his own familial tragedy alongside this the whole trilogy of snyder dceu films is about
parents and family man of steel is essentially a movie about fathers batman v superman is a movie
about mothers and to me justice league is a movie about family coming together
and accepting yourself once there has been loss much of cyborg's arc is about coming to terms
with who he is as the man of two worlds reflecting part of aquaman and superman's arcs too vick is of
earth and of apocalypse the latter of which makes him the key to defeating stefanomorph if he can
find a way to accept himself before it's too late it's one of the most essential additions to the
overall justice league story and its submission feels especially glaring when you compare the two
cuts furthermore fischer's portrayal is one of the movie's most captivating performances
making cyborg a profoundly sympathetic character but then we arrive at the central character in the
dc eu who is back in black and ready to bring the hope that uplifted him in man of steel
superman is free of his awful face cgi in this cut with all of the original footage restored
and henry cavill's man of steel doesn't look weird or awkward as he arrives to save the day
at the movies climax additionally clark kent has some more quiet moments of reflection alongside
lois lane as he slowly comes back to life after being revived by the group the most notable
addition for supes is a nod to his all-black recovery suit in the comics the suit helps
boost superman's solar charging abilities getting him back into the action quicker that information
isn't addressed in the snyder cut instead the suit appears to be a purely cosmetic choice the moment
in which clark selects the suit features a dual voice-over conversation between joe l and jonathan
kent from man of steel as they remind superman of his importance to not only earth but the galaxy
as well and serves as a touchstone to the previous films which started the entire dc eu after all the
battle and success in defeating stethomorph though we come to the dreams and nightmares of the film
this acts as a go for broke epilogue that teases snyder's grand vision for future films
one of the most striking moments in batman v superman is that nightmare sequence experienced as
a dream bruce has while waiting for the download of luther's files to decrypt the nightmare is a
post-apocalyptic mad max type reality in which earth has turned to dust under superman's reign
of terror in the snyder cuts we get more of an understanding of the sequence's importance
it turns out that this nightmare is an alternate reality where darkseid discovers the anti-life
equation on earth upon possessing it he kills lois and brings superman to hill the two then plunge
earth into a living hellscape killing wonder woman and aquaman in the process in one of the
confirmed new additions to the cut audiences are treated to another nightmare sequence that
shows batman leading a ragtag team of heroes and villains which includes mehra the flash cyborg and
deathstroke to try and save the world the majority of the scene involves batman interacting with and
ultimately recruiting gerard leto's version of the joker to aid the cause before superman appears
the conversation between the two confirmed some of the lingering plot points from batman v
superman including the fact that joker killed robin and burned down wayne manor in the process
joker appears with an excellently creepy laugh that sounds like a creaky door there's a ball
of tension between him and the dark knight as he taunts batman about the loved ones he's lost
his parents and his adopted son when batman warns joker to be careful the clown adds a little more
drama he says you need me to help you undo this world you created by letting her die
poor lois how she suffered so joker also wonders about the number of alternate timelines in
which batman has let the world be destroyed because he lacks the cajones to die himself
the clown gives batman a joker playing card that signifies a truce between them if batman wants to
renew their beef he just needs to tear up the card batman counters by revealing that harley quinn
died in his arms but begged batman to give the joker a slow death when he kills him their plans
threats and profanity in this scene all seem to be rendered moot by the arrival of superman
back in his red and blue costume whose eyes glow a sinister red as he prepares to shoot lasers
at them at the very end of the film however we come to the re-arrival of martian manhunter upon
awaking from the nightmare dream bruce interacts with martian manhunter who issues a warning that
darkseid is on the way in pursuit of the anti-life equation despite steppenwolf's defeat manhunter
was revealed earlier in the film after pretending to be martha kent to have been general swanwick in
disguise but the potential arrival of darkseid forces him out of hiding and off the sidelines
this sets up a cliffhanger that would have been explored in a second justice league film which
would have further fleshed out the nightmare world involved time travel and would have seen more of
the joker and batman interacting considering we ended up getting the snyder cut after all
of this time to be honest i think we may see this happening but i guess we'll just have to
see how justice league performs and of course how the petitioning for that second film goes ahead
but that was my brief video explaining the new elements and ending in the snyder cuts
of justice league having watched the film twice i must say that it's getting even better on rewatch
and these new scenes within the film definitely add to the experience this movie is completely
different to the one we got in theaters four years ago and it's just great to see characters
developed well and an actual story being formed in the process but i hope this did help some of
you guys re-gather the events a bit better and i'm looking forward to hearing what else you
picked out so don't forget to let me know down below in the comment section for more videos
analyzing the justice league snyder cuts over the next few weeks then don't forget to subscribe to
the channel and turn on your notifications also if you enjoyed this video remember to leave a
like rating but anyway i hope you guys enjoyed it i've been cortex and as always make some noise