In 2017 Joss Wheadon’s Justice League movie was released and for the most part, reviews weren’t great. The movie seemed like a bad mishmash of conflicting ideas and tones, which lead it to be panned critically and it was also a financial disappointment. After years of campaigning, Zack Snyder’s original vision is here and it feels like a different movie.
A recent video from Thomas Flight takes a deep dive into the differences between the originally released Justice League movie and the Snyder Cut. After re-watching both movies, it’s clear that there are many distinct differences between both versions and it’s not just the previously unseen footage.
As much as the “new” scenes in the Snyder Cut impact the tone and depth of the movie, it’s the subtleties that seem to add a great deal to the overall feel. Color, for example, is one of the key ways to control the mood and feel of any given scene. The simple act of using a slightly different color palette makes a huge difference and it’s felt quite clearly between both of these movies. The choice of music that is used between both movies dramatically changes how each scene is felt too.
The video above goes into a great deal of detail, breaking down many of the editing choices. Exploring these changes and their impact on the overall feel could be a great help to those still developing our skills. This could be one of the few occasions where a big blockbuster movie can be directly compared to itself. Seeing how each director implanted their vision into the movie could be a great way to learn and improve our filmmaking skills.