Foreword by Editor In Chief- Sheraz Farooqi
At ComicBook Debate, we want to respect and amplify the opinions of the fans, but also directors. Justice League, regardless of how fans feel about it, was manufactured to be different than the film Zack Snyder originally intended.
I can confirm that Justice League had indeed been tampered, adjusted, reshot, and repackaged to move away from the tone and story of Batman v Superman to appease critics and cast the widest audience net. The irony in all of this is that the film has been panned by critics anyways. It leaves many to ask “What was the point?” If WB wanted to go in a different direction after Justice League, it would have been right for them to respect Snyder’s lead and complete the first film in his vision rather than make puzzling, and jarring changes. Our writer, Fiona Zheng, wanted to address WB with her thoughts in an open letter about Justice League below.
-Sheraz Farooqi
Open Letter to WB- By Fiona Zheng
I watched Justice League last night and I think this film is about celebrating these amazing charters. While it is disappointing to see parts of the film changed from director Zack Snyder’s original vision, it’s core and DNA will always be his. I felt Justice League was a love song to Superman, to DC Comics, and everything Zack Snyder brought to this universe.
I truly enjoyed the film, but, as an active member of this great and diverse fan community, I have something to say to Warner Bros. openly.
If you have NOT seen the film, you should stop reading this letter right here. I don’t want to affect the mood of those who haven’t seen it yet. Justice League is Zack Snyder’s film in the general but Joss Whedon ruined so much of it due to his reshoots. This extends to Danny Elfman’s score. While I feel both of these factors have failed this movie to some degree, Zack Snyder has not. Zack’s part of Justice League was phenomenal and his original vision had a much bigger potential that what the film ended up being. Zack’s work in Justice League deserves our appreciation and praise. To many, it is easy to tell the difference between Zack’s careful and thought out work and Whedon’s disappointing additional reshoots.
I was very disappointed by Whedon’s disrespectful nature to women in this film. Some of his worst reshot scenes included lame sex jokes on behalf of DCEU’s most important female characters, like Lois Lane. To add to this, the offensive “Body fall” between the Flash and Wonder Woman goes against anything Zack Snyder has done for women in his films. The contrast of Snyder and Whedon’s filming standard and ability is obvious and jarring. Simply put, Whedon’s poor writing dialogue didn’t fit the epic nature that Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio intended.
Nevertheless, I want Justice League to do well at box office. These characters, Zack Snyder and the DC fandom deserve the film to be celebrated. But not you, Warner Bros. You don’t deserve this movie to benefit you.
Your meddling with the film’s intended tone, scope and vision to prevent another critical panning was useless because the film was panned anyways. Every film has imperfections and Justice League is no different but maybe a poor critical reception and less than stellar box office return is the price you pay to learn how to let DCEU films a product of the director and not the studio. Because I am a fan of the film and Zack, I will keep promoting this film so the work of the cast doesn’t go to waste. In the same breath, I will always know your studio made a huge mistake to lower your filmmaking standards to pander to critics which led to no improvement anyways.
I can’t stop imaging how great Justice League could have been if you didn’t let Whedon’s writing and the firing of Junkie XL be used to move away from Snyder’s original vision.
Lastly, we as fans request a Director’s cut or an Extended version of Justice League. Please get rid off the offensive Whdeon jokes and behaviors. Bring back the vision of the true director by putting the original footage back in. This would be a decent gesture and repay to this huge fan community who defended and supported Zack Snyder’s vision and franchise for years.
Thank You
Fiona Zheng
Very well written Fiona! I loved the movie as well but it won’t get a perfect rating from me for some of the reasons you pointed out. I hope WB sees this!
Very well written open letter. It was very respectful and you brought up so many great points. Thank you for expressing what I couldn’t articulate.
Well said, though I’ll take a much harsher view of the final Justice League product, it’s sub-standard in every area clearly due to tampering from the original script by Terrio then obviously Johns, Whedon and Elfman’s amateurish garbage.
It’s clear WB have a very misguided understanding of the DCEU to date. If they had either asked Zack for BvS originally to be 2.30 prior to Principal Photography, or allowed the 3 hour version none of this would be an issue, and we’d have a critically accepted BvS and Suicide Squad and Justice League, equal or higher Box Office returns and decent word of mouth in the general community.
Justice League will significantly underperform at the Box Office and it should, it’s poor and the evidence of why is obvious re: Josh Tranks Fantastic Four.
WB, you were the last good major studio where you handed the keys to the director, but now you’re another studio. I sincerely hope Henry Cavill moves on from his role as Superman so that my memory of MoS and BvS doesn’t get tarnished.