I ask because most reviews of the Synder Cut are praising its improvement over the theatrical release, not how well it did as its own performance
There is no way to know. Snyder would have had to cut about 2 hours for the theatrical version. Who knows what would have ended up on the cutting room floor.
And in all fairness, The Snyder Cut isnt a good “movie”. Its a fun spectacle, and has some amazing shots, but there was tons of scenes that served no real purpose, and way to much use of slow-mo.
Honestly, no amount of editing would save Justice League from its real problem. DC did not take the time to properly introduce its characters. Its why Avengers worked and Justice League never would have. In JL we had, what? A dozen major characters introduced?
For Flash we had Barry Allen, His Dad, Iris West,
For Auquaman we had Arthur, Mera, Vulko,
For Cyborg we had His mom, dad, and himself.
Martian Manhunter and I think Commission Gordon? Cant remember if he was in BvS.
Then we have Stepphenwolf, Desaad and Darkside.
All introduced in this movie. Thats insane. They should have been introduced and setup in their heros own movies, with a much bigger focus on Steppenwolf in Justice League. I cared about Thanos because he got his own movie. And while Steppenwolf in Snyders cut is much better than the OG one, i still really didnt give 2 craps about him.
I honestly thought that the Snyder cut was better than the theatrical version, mainly due to the fact that my favorite character, the Flash was a lot more impactful and important. Whedon completely ruined the Flash in his version.
Although, the movie being 4 hours long was a bit much. If they would’ve delayed the Justice League movie until after making a stand alone Flash and Cyborg movie and have Batman approach each of them at the end of their movies like Nick Fury did to assemble the Avengers; I think that formula would’ve been better and then made the Justice League movie.
If Justice League had gone that route, Stepphenwolf could’ve just been a minor Lackey that he is of Darkseid and have Darkseid actually fight the heroes and been the main villain; Darkseid possibly finding the anti-life equation and left Justice League on a cliff hanger for Justice League 2. Although that would sound extremely similar to how Avengers Infinity war and Endgame was like; but at least it would’ve turned out better imo, after-all DC and marvel does like to copy each other with their heroes.
This is just my thoughts and opinions about the movie on how it could’ve been better and not be 4 hours long, even though I liked the Snyder cut more than Whedons version. Both versions had their own set of issues.
They screw up the DCU already, if im honest, they should just restart it.