Okay I know I'm beating a dead horse. Bear with me.

I'm working nights and trying to stay awake on my nights off, so I made it through Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and watched Zack Snyders Justice League. I went down a rabbit hole and compared scenes from the theatrical release vs the rerelease that came out on Max.

I mean, how did we get here? Batman v Superman was not a good movie. It's a pain in the arse. They wasted Doomsday, the conflict between Bruce and Clark was not great or compelling, and it was way too fricking long.

So you compare Justice League with the Snyder cut. I mean, it's 4 hrs long. That's a lot. But honestly, I find the Snyder cut infinitely more interesting to watch. It never seems like 4 hrs. Did they even use 50% of that cut in the theatrical release? It's a completely different movie. Flash is a goober and comic relief. He serves no purpose aside from one liners and being one upped. Cyborg is just there. They explain nothing. Batman and WW stories are largely unchanged. And the most egregious part is Steppenwolf is a shitty villain that becomes irrelevant as soon as Superman shows up. End of movie. The rest of the team could've headed over to Wayne Manor for a BBQ and waited for Clark to get back.

Compare to the Snyder cut, where the team is important. Everyone has a role to play. Cyborg is a completely fleshed out character. Barry is key to the whole thing and they expand on the mythos of the speed force and just how powerful he is. Superman is a key, not the key. And Steppenwolf is a much more compelling enemy, with Darkseid actually existing and looming over everything.

Who looked at this movie and said "Naw, we need to make this light and family friendly"? Who watched the finished product and thought "Oh this is much better. Everyone will love it"?

We could've had a fully fleshed out universe here. I like Affleck as Batman. I'd watch an Affleck movie. We could've had a Lantern Corps movie, and bringing Martian Manhunter into it. I thought Aquaman was decent, and I liked the first Wonder Woman. The new Flash movie was wonderful until the last 20 mins, again I suspect a consequence of the same things that screwed up this universe.

Why can't DC get this right? Pre MCU, you could make a legit argument that DC had the bigger and better known IP. Plenty of good Batman stories on screen. Superman is an icon. This isn't a case where people got burned out on content, or they started pushing Woke or Politically motivated messages. They just had no balls to push forward and follow thru.

Yeah I know this has all been discussed ad nauseam. But I just can't for the life of me understand how someone can look at the two movies and think the choices they made were anything but a complete disaster.