The Best Scenes That Weren't In Zack Snyder's Justice League
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For years, fans wondered exactly how much of Joss Whedon's Justice League was original to his vision, and how much he took from Zack Snyder. Now that the Snyder Cut of the film is available on HBO Max, we have a much better idea of exactly how much came from each director — and the difference between the two is exceptionally striking.
In addition to numerous changes in the narrative structure and character development in Zack Snyder's Justice League, the tone and feel of the two films is much different overall. You can see each director's signature style, and it seems pretty clear that in this case, most fans and critics agree Zack Snyder's was a better fit to tell this story.
Although Zack Snyder's Justice League has pleased many more viewers than the original Joss Whedon cut, there were some scenes in 2017's Justice League that were entertaining, and honestly kind of missed in the unrelentingly bleak Zack Snyder version. Let's run down those moments. Minor spoilers ahead.
Barry Allen's very timely Stephen King reference
While Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) remains the primary source of comedy relief in Zack Snyder's Justice League, fans definitely noticed that many of his most memorable moments from Whedon's version were left on the cutting room floor. In some cases, that was very much a good thing — no one missed the cringey moment when The Flash face-planted into Wonder Woman's chest (via CBR).
However, some of his throwaway lines did add a bit of fun to Justice League — like when he first saw the resurrected (and murderous) Superman (Henry Cavill) and remarked, "Pet Sematary." The reference to Stephen King's classic novel didn't need much more than a name drop, because anyone who's read it (or seen the movie adaptations) knows it makes it very clear that when you bring things back from the dead, sometimes they come back wrong. It's safe to say Barry's literary allusion, while not exactly helpful in the moment, was both apt and amusing.
A confession in the tunnels
There are so many stark differences between Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder's versions of Justice League that it's hard to keep track of them — but the ones that significantly change the personality of one of the characters are pretty hard to ignore. One of these personality lifts was on display when the superheroes headed into the tunnels.
In the Snyder Cut, The Flash leaves a lot of his dorkiness behind and shows himself to be a more confident fighter. In Whedon's Justice League, he has a panicky moment when he confesses to Batman that he's not ready to fight Steppenwolf. His nervous rambling when he admits he's afraid of "bugs and guns and obnoxiously tall people," was endearing in this moment. It's funny, sure, but it's also one of the few times that his role as a tension-breaker was used to reveal a bit more about his vulnerabilities. We don't get to see a whole lot of metahumans acting vulnerable in Snyder's take. Another downside to the change in Barry's trajectory here is that we missed out on Bruce advising him to focus on saving one person, which marked a poignant moment of mentorship between the two.
Batman admitting he came unprepared
In many ways, the Batman (Ben Affleck) we meet in the Snyder Cut is different from the one we saw in the original theatrical version of Justice League. From beginning to end, his story takes different turns — both subtle and not-so-subtle — and the end result is a character who is even more stoic than he was in the original Justice League.
That means many of Batman's jokes from the Whedon Cut were not present in Zack Snyder's Justice League. Zack Snyder's Batman doesn't do comedy. In some cases, that's for the better — but his sense of humor was missed in the scene where he takes the Knightcrawler out to dispatch some Parademons. "My turn" isn't a bad line per say, but "Sorry, guys, I didn't bring a sword" was one of the more (positively) memorable parts of the first iteration of Justice League, and its absence was certainly felt.
Aquaman unintentionally oversharing
Of all the members of the Justice League, Aquaman (Jason Momoa) definitely casts the most intimidating shadow. That's why the moment in the Whedon Cut when he's holding Wonder Woman's (Gal Gadot) infamous Lasso of Truth, and begins to confess that he's afraid of dying was especially funny. It gives us an all-too-brief glimpse at Arthur Curry's vulnerable side. Who knew he felt like he was missing out on a chance to explore both the land and sea? Momoa pulled the moment off with gusto, too, switching quickly from soft and mushy to grumpy and threatening after he handed the lasso back to Diana.
So, it's a bit regrettable that this moment didn't make it into Zack Snyder's Justice League, though that's likely because the director stuck to a hard rule about removing all traces of the Whedonesque (via Vulture). Luckily, we got to see plenty of Aquaman in the Snyder Cut, so it more than made up for this missing moment.
The Flash and Superman's not-so-macho competition
If anything highlights the difference between the two directors' styles perfectly, it's the difference between those two epilogue scenes. Arguably one of the more lighthearted highlights from Joss Whedon's Justice League was the post-credits scene that saw Barry Allen and Clark Kent preparing for a friendly race to the Pacific Coast. Does it add anything to the overall story? No, not really — but it does give us a chance to see the two characters banter. Barry insists that their race is a competition, but "not like a macho measuring thing," while Clark sets the stakes for the loser pretty high — the losing speedster will have to take everyone to brunch.
It's easy to see why Zack Snyder wouldn't have left this moment in his version of Justice League. When Snyder was first working on Justice League, he did plan a post-credits scene of his own, but the extended version of the film didn't end up taking that route. Still, the ominous ending moments of the Snyder Cut would not have gelled well with this humorous exchange between the two heroes. Maybe the only downside is that because the scene ended in a freeze frame, we may never know who actually won the race. If they were racing toward the sepia-toned hellscape of Zack Snyder's ending, however, maybe that's for the best.