Justice League: The Spence Edit

Nice work, Spence. I really enjoyed your cut. And I liked a lot that you used the "IMAX-Format " on and off throughout your version. I enjoyed the Snyder Cut too, but you removed/ changed exactly the right things to make the movie a brilliant and much fuller experience. Thanks a lot, I guess this could be my favorite version.

My only complaint is that you didn't cut out Amber Heard......just kidding.....mostly.

In all seriousness, great work here Spence. I saw Justice League in theaters, and watched the Snyder Cut the day it came out, I have not watched this film any more than those 2 times until now. The only difference I noticed between your version and the other two is that I actually enjoyed this one. There were a few lines of awful dialogue that remain (The amazons yelling WE HAVE NO FEAR in response to King Leonidas saying SPARTANS, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?....no wait) but that's not a HUGE deal for me. I enjoyed watching the film this time around, and after some reflecting and reading your cutlist, I remember the terrible bits that you removed or modified, and I say again that you did a great job. The crowning achievement of an editor is to fool the audience into believing it was original, and for me, you did that. All of the scenes that were cut were not even remembered, which is exactly the idea. Well done, sir.

(I gave a 9 for enjoyment because of those lines that made me roll my eyes, I'm sorry!)

This is a great way to watch the ZSJL cut. Spence has streamlined the film in a way that keeps you invested . Overly used slow motion action that Snyder prefers is trimmed way down.
The pacing is excellent and I never felt like I needed a scene to just get moving.
I will not address what is missing and what should have been added because this edit works. Too many of today's movies are bloated with unnecessary information. Which in my opinion is why fan edits have grown so much in popularity.

Thank you Spence for bringing out the potential for this Justice League as it appears we won't be seeing this group together again.

Well done

In my opinion this is the best version of Justice League so far. I don´t like so much both versions (The Snyder cut is way better though) but If I was a Warner executive the theatrical cut that I would approve should be something like the Spence edit. I´ve seen many JL fanedits and I always wanted them to cut the Wonder Woman vs Terrorists sequence and Spence did that! Both versions have good and bad things in it, but in my opinion The Spence Edit is a way better version of the both cuts. The finished edit is still not a good movie (As a comic book reader/fan I think these movies have a lot of stupid thing in it like the Superman Vs JL sequence that I think should not exist) but that is not Spence´s fault. He managed to make an edit that is the best of both worlds. If I was the editor I would cut more stuff but as the way it is is a great edit and better than the two official cuts.

This is probably the most functional edit Justice League that I've seen, and that's including Zack Snyder's Justice League and the Theatrical Cut. You've done an excellent job of cutting out all the dead end sequel set ups, while maintaining the tone Snyder intended. However, I think you over-corrected a bit in your attempt to get the film under three hours.

The biggest problems with the story editing here are that characters like Wonder Woman and Desaad have had their introductions cut, while characters like Aquaman and Steppenwolf no longer have understandable motivations. I understand why you cut the Aquaman/Vulko scene and the initial Steppenwolf/Desaad scene, but the movie doesn't work without them. As it stands, Aquaman disappears from the movie after his initial appearance, and Desaad just shows up with no explanation of who he is or what his role is.

As I said, I understand that you were trying to streamline the film, but I honestly don't think a functional version of this movie could be less than three hours long (to be fair, that is a problem inherent in the script).

Those issues aside, however, your editing is very smooth and seamless. You were able to trim down overlong sequences and skip past unnecessary scenes in a way that felt very natural. The best example of this is how you used Batman's "doesn't mean I'm wrong" to skip past the awkward song for Aquaman. The way you cut Darkseid's final conversation with Desaad was also masterful; it felt like that was how it should have been edited the begin with.

Also, by reintegrating the "Everybody Knows" title sequence (the best part of Whedon's version), you were able to give the beginning of the film a lot of much-needed energy, as it now feels like there is a cleaner transition from "Superman is dead and everyone is sad" to "alien invaders are coming and we need to prepare." That was a wonderful addition.

I have more notes and comments, but this review is already too long as it is. This was an enjoyable watch, and I think with another edit that doesn't shy away from letting the film be three hours, this could be the ideal version of JL.