00:00Following the commercial success of Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder,
00:03Warner Bros entrusted him with the task of building a coherent cinematic universe for DC.
00:08As early as 2014, Justice League Part 1 was planned for 2017, followed by Part 2 in 2019.
00:14Snyder is confirmed as director with Chris Theriot writing the screenplay.
00:17Theriot, who won an Oscar for Argo, a film directed by Ben Affleck,
00:20is supposed to give a more serious and ambitious dimension to the whole thing.
00:23Zack Snyder stated that both films would be inspired by Jack Kirby's New Gods comic book series.
00:28Everything started off on the right track, but when Batman v Superman was released in theaters in 2016,
00:33It is heavily criticized, particularly because of its serious tone, in addition to the fact that it is confusing in its cinematic version.
00:38Warner is starting to worry about the direction the DC universe is taking.
00:41Pressure is being put on Snyder to make Justice League lighter, more accessible, and more fun.
00:46The production company will therefore hire a number of screenwriters, including Joss Whedon, director of the first two Avengers films.
00:52and the filming of Justice League will be disrupted by numerous changes in the script.
00:56But Snyder still manages to make a film that suits him.
00:58It enters post-production and a first version of 2 hours and 45 minutes is shown to Warner executives.
01:03They are not convinced at all.
01:05They found the film too long and too pessimistic.
01:07Warner's Big Boss demands a film that does not exceed two hours and is more colourful, funnier, more marvelous.
01:14Snyder therefore needs to get back to work.
01:16But in March 2017, tragedy struck his family.
01:19His adopted daughter, Auton, aged 19, is staying with him.
01:23Zack Snyder and his wife Deborah, co-producer of the film, are leaving a production that, in the first place, didn't really want them anymore.
01:29Josh Whedon regains full control and decides to resume filming in order to replace Snyder's scenes with something lighter.
01:36With its reshoots, the film's budget is close to $300 million.
01:39Moreover, the reshoots are taking place at the same time as the filming of Mission Impossible Fallout, where Henry Cavill plays the antagonists, sporting a mustache.
01:46Her contract does not allow her to shave it, and Warner has no other choice but to digitally cut it, which is very noticeable.
01:52Like, a lot.
01:54Like the twists and turns of a flov, it swirls around.
01:58During additional filming, the cast was not very happy with the direction the film was taking.
02:02And Whedon, for his part, doesn't really want to be there.
02:04That's not his plan and he's not interested in it.
02:06Tensions will therefore arise between Whedon and the cast.
02:09He is being disrespectful towards the team.
02:11In July 2020, Ray Fisher stated that Whedon's treatment of the actors and crew on set was, and I quote,
02:18"rude, abusive, unprofessional and totally unacceptable."
02:22He was insulting towards some members of the cast, particularly Gal Gadot, who had a very difficult experience.
02:28Well, of course he wasn't going to insult Jason Momoa, that big coward!
02:31It was in this positive atmosphere that the film was presented at the studio.
02:33And let's be honest, everyone can see that it's crap.
02:36The film is lazy because the VFX teams didn't have enough time with a release date imposed in November 2017.
02:41A date that was maintained despite all these post-production problems, and for rather obscure reasons.
02:46Indeed, at that time, AT&T was preparing to merge with Warner Bros for $85 billion.
02:53Warner executives are therefore afraid of losing their jobs as a result of this merger.
02:56and decide to release the film regardless of what happens on that date, in order to collect their bonus for the year 2017.
03:01Because if the film had been postponed, the bonus features would have been too.
03:04And from there, the film will be sacrificed so that the bigwigs at Warner can get their big bucks before getting fired.
03:10The film was released in theaters in November 2017, and the disappointment was total.
03:14Snyder retained his director's credit, but this film is clearly not his.
03:18The director of 300 would later confirm that only 10% of the footage he shot was used in the film.
03:24Screenwriter Chris Theriot calls Josh Whedon's 80-page rewrite an act of vandalism.
03:29to such an extent that he will try, in vain, to have his name removed from the credits.
03:32As for Christopher Nolan, when he saw the film, he advised Zack Snyder not to watch it, because it might break his heart.
03:39Because yes, after the introduction with Everybody Knows in the background, which is pretty cool, the rest of the film turns out to be a real disaster.
03:45This Mother Box story becomes laughable, because the entire plot is completely cut during editing.
03:49The chemistry between the characters is non-existent, because the dialogues are hollow and try in vain to make people laugh.
03:54In addition to that, their powers are exploited without any idea or ambition for staging.
03:57The antagonist is ridiculous, the climax is absolutely ugly.
04:00In short, you get the feeling that the film is desperately trying to be what it's not supposed to be, which is fun, colorful, and funny.
04:06The Tim Burton vibe is at times in absolutely bad taste.
04:09The film has so little identity that it reuses old musical themes from Batman and Superman.
04:13And Barry as a sidekick is absolutely tiresome.
04:15Forget about heroes portrayed with seriousness, depicted as gods who must face their responsibilities.
04:20Here, the paradox is that our heroes save no one.
04:22apart from a Russian family added at the last minute to play jokes.
04:26Dostoyevsky!
04:27In short, Justice League only grossed $660 million worldwide.
04:31for a break-even point set at a minimum of 750 million.
04:34Warner therefore loses $60 million and their credibility in the process.
04:37But just when we thought Justice League would remain just another failed project,
04:41the people were going to rise up as one to rehabilitate the vision of a man
04:44whose version did indeed exist and which the world was about to discover.
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