There are movies with little to no special effects, movies with a moderate amount,
movies with a lot of them — and then there's Zack Snyder's Justice League.
If you want to know what Justice League looked like before
all those effects were added, here's a peek behind the scenes.
The first Mother Box Steppenwolf comes after is in possession of the Amazons in Themyscira
in a heavily guarded temple. It's the first time we see the horned villain in the film,
and when he lands via a portal, he has no qualms about slinging these women left and right as they
battle him without fear. Queen Hippolyta realizes she has to take the Mother Box
out and seal the temple, despite knowing several of her fellow Amazons will die in the process.
As she escapes through a tunnel, awaiting Amazon warriors stand by with large hammers, ready to
knock out massive stone pillars which will release several walls and trap all inside — hopefully
killing Steppenwolf in the process. In reality, we know that these Amazons are just hitting
large foam pillars wrapped in green cloth, as this HBO Max behind the scenes clip reveals.
In Part 2 of the film, Diana Prince gives Bruce Wayne a five-minute lesson
on the Golden Age of Heroes and their battle against Darkseid, while the audience is treated
to a visual montage of the whole shabang. We see Atlanteans, the Old Gods, a Green Lantern,
Amazons, and men battle against Darkseid and his armada in an all-out war.
Bodies are flying all over the place in this scene, as almost everyone — except men — can
launch themselves into the air with ease. There is one shot of an unknown Amazon who climbs on top of
her horse before jumping into the air to wreak havoc on some parademons. In a behind-the-scenes
clip, we can see that her horse is not real at all, and neither is the world around her.
When Steppenwolf comes for the second Mother Box, he has to look for it in the ocean,
as it's being guarded underwater by Atlanteans. Mera is one of the first Atlanteans to challenge
Steppenwolf and fights him off as he tries to steal the box. Steppenwolf gets the upper hand
and almost wipes her out entirely, before Aquaman shows up to save the day yet again.
"Whooo hooo! F--- yeah!"
An underwater fight sequence isn't easy, as this behind-the-scenes clip proves.
Three crew members had to help sling Jason Momoa around in the air as he hung from wires,
to make his movement look effortless as if he was truly under water.
Just before the team revives Superman, they have to break into S.T.A.R. Labs,
so they have the entire place evacuated with a false alarm put in place by Cyborg.
Victor struts down one of the walkways carrying a Mother Box when he passes his father,
Dr. Silas Stone. Silas is trying to alert the evacuated staff that the alarm was actually
false when he sees his son is up to something and ends up going along with the plan.
In a behind-the-scenes clip, it looks like the scene was filmed without green screens,
as Ray Fisher dons his motion-capture suit,
fitted with two red glowing lights, and walks down the corridor with his father just behind him.
Doomsday decapitated Superman's head from his monument in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,
and it was never reconstructed. The revived Superman ends up using this head as a weapon
against the Justice League, but it's not as effective as he might have hoped.
As he picks up the head with ease, Superman launches it directly at Wonder Woman,
who slices it in half with her sword like she's cutting a piece of cake.
It's interesting to see in this behind-the-scenes photo, which Henry Cavill posted to his Instagram,
that the green prop version still resembled a head.
Later in the big showdown, after he blocks Wonder Woman's attack, Superman pulls her arms apart
and headbutts her. She fires one right back at him, which takes him a second to recover from.
After he's had enough, Superman delivers the headbutt of all headbutts when he
lifts himself in the air and comes down on Wonder Woman like a ton of bricks.
In order to get this scene perfect, a green screen-covered crew member
had to aid Henry Cavill by bending his legs in a way which brought more fluidity to his body,
while he was held up with wires. It would have been impossible for Cavill to bend his body this
way while up on the wires, so the silly-looking crew member was essential to get it just right.
It turns out that one of the movie's key outdoor scenes was… actually filmed outside,
if you can believe it. After Clark Kent sees Lois Lane and is reminded of who he is, the duo flies
off to his family's foreclosed farm and spend some time in the field getting reacquainted. While the
white farmhouse was real, the massive tree and surrounding buildings we see in the movie aren't.
Large green screens were used so additional buildings could be added in, as well as a few
oversized leafless trees. We had seen these extra buildings before in Man of Steel, where Clark's
father Jonathan Kent hid his crashed Kryptonian ship after the boy first landed on Earth.
Throughout Zack Snyder's Justice League, we see Bruce Wayne,
Cyborg, and Alfred work on the Flying Fox — the jet Bruce constructed as a troop
carrier. The team has some issues getting it to fly, but eventually,
the jet is in working order and carries the team across the world to take on Steppenwolf.
Bruce mans the Flying Fox alone after dropping the team off on land,
and takes down Steppenwolf's force field, allowing everyone to enter and start smashing skulls.
While it looks like Affleck really is in some type of aircraft in the movie,
he's actually sitting in a wooden approximation of the ship's cockpit that remains stationary, and
he has to thrust himself around to make it look like he's actually in motion. Ah, movie magic!
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