There are new cameos from Vulko (Willem Dafoe), Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix) and Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), among others. Some of the less convincing visual effects shots of the Whedon version have been redesigned or refined, and the aspect ratio in which the film is presented has been changed from a traditional widescreen to a more boxy, eye-catching “academy” ratio, Snyder said in an interview last week , he always wanted it “right from the start”.
Snyder is known for directing scenes to popular music, and his cut is littered with new needle drops. A moment in which Aquaman chugs a bottle of whiskey and struts from a dock into the rushing sea takes a lost note with a Nick Cave song that used to feature the trailer-friendly rock jam “Icky Thump”. Another moment is a plaintive cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren”.
The four-hour running time of the Snyder Cut extends a plot that felt fleeting and rushed in the theatrical version. Much more context is provided to explain the origins of the mother boxes (almighty devices with distinctly Freudian overtones, theft of which puts the world at risk and sets this story in motion) as well as clarifying the motivations of Darkseid and his horned servant Steppenwolf. their efforts now have an added dimension to centuries-old vengeance. There is also an in-depth flashback that reveals previous battles between the forces of good and evil, and two expanded dream sequences that show the fate that could happen to the world if the bad guys prevail.
The film now also has time to delve into backstories that the Whedon editing only had to faintly sketch, if at all. The biggest beneficiaries are Cyborg and the Flash: neither of them have made a big impression yet, but together they are at the heart of the Snyder Cut. Fischer’s performance as a broken young man trying to capture a glimmer of hope is empathetic and surprisingly nuanced, and Cyborg in particular is convincing now that the character has room to breathe.
In the Whedon version, Victor is a teenager who more or less spontaneously transforms into a human-robot hybrid. We don’t learn much about him and his powers are never well defined and don’t make a lot of sense. In the Snyder Cut we see him in flashbacks as he loses his mother in a fatal traffic accident. He is estranged from his father (Joe Morton), a top scientist specializing in alien technology who, after the crash, uses one of the mother boxes to turn Victor into a cyborg.
Even his father has been concretized and now feels completely three-dimensional – a change that pays off at the end of Act II when he sacrifices himself to help his son. “The mothers played a big role in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and we had the idea that this film would be about dads,” Snyder said in an interview. “The father’s sacrifice is what we wanted to get through.”
