compendium ➦
Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash unite to save the world from an approaching threat.
In this fan-mix fan-edit of Zack Snyder's 4hr Justice League, I cut the film to the studio's desired two-hour runtime, and I re-organized the scenes to remove cross-cutting.
Studio Runtime
The studio infamously wanted the Justice League movie to be two hours or less, and in this edit that's what I did. Clocking in at 1h57m, this JL edit is THE shortest of all the JL edits, and it accomplishes the studio's desired runtime using only Zack Snyder's footage.
The cuts range from the very big to the very small. Here's a sampling of what's been cut for time. I cut all Knightmare dreams, flashes, and visions, and I cut the epilogue. I cut Flash's dad, Wonder Woman's bank scene and googling, and Cyborg's football scenes, his trouble at school for hacking, and his VR session. I merged multiple Steppenwolf and Desaad conversations into one event, and I merged Lois's multiple trips to the memorial into one event. And I cut talking about Batman's troop carrier.
I cut Martha being Manhunter, which doesn't save much runtime but this way real Martha has a real bonding moment with Lois. I cut lines of dialog that were either generic, cliche, or technobabble, and during the action scenes I cut the comedic quips. Without the quips, the action scenes feel more serious and move at a faster pace. I cut lines during Clark's recovery, mostly to change the feel of the scene and make it a more dialog-free experience. I trimmed individual shots from action scenes to increase the pace and tension. And I cut Cyborg's dad furiously typing on the keyword—he does that more than you'd think.
The original film's runtime is: 4h 2m
This edit's runtime is: 1h 57m (Time cut: 2h 5m)
No Cross-cutting
The original film has several storylines that all happen in parallel, and it crosscuts between them. In the original film, we're with the Amazons for a bit, then we cut away to other storylines following Wayne, Aquaman, Lois, and Wonder Woman, then back to the Amazons for a bit, then we cut away to other storylines following Steppenwolf, Wayne, and Cyborg, then back to the Amazons for a bit, then we cut away to Cyborg again. After more than an hour of runtime, the Amazon storyline finally concludes when Wonder Woman deciphers the warning fire and retells the story to Batman.
But in this edit, I un-interleaved those stories and I arranged them sequentially rather than in parallel. I open the film with the Golden Age sequence that introduces the boxes, followed by the Amazon box waking and Steppenwolf's attack, followed by the Amazon warning fire. In this edit, after only 20 minutes of runtime, the boxes are introduced and the Amazon storyline is concluded.
The rest of this edit follows that same pattern of sequential rather than parallel storytelling, and this approach allows each act of the film to work as its own short story that we stick with and don't cut away from. Such as Lois's scenes, for another example, which the original film crosscuts to-and-from for nearly 3 hours and in parallel with the movie's other events. But in this edit I un-interleaved Lois's scenes and I arranged them into their own sequence with no cutaways to create a short story interlude.
Editor's Highlights Before-and-After Action Scenes (10m)
In this highlights video you'll see clips from three action scenes. On the left of the screen you'll see a 3m unaltered clip from the original Justice League, then on the right of the screen you'll see my edited version, which generally clocks in at half the original runtime.
The first action scene, for example, is Batman in the batmobile at Steppenwolf's lair. In the original film there is a deluge of laser blast fire, but Batman keeps driving straight for several camera shots and seems impervious to all of it. This excessive amount of plot armor lessens the sense of danger in the scene. In my edited version I re-arranged the shots so that the very first of the laser blasts cuts to an alarmed expression on Batman's face, which then cuts immediately to Batman punching the gas pedal to evade then return fire.
Justice League (1h57m)
Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash unite to save the world from an approaching threat.
Sources: Zack Snyder's Justice League
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