(This article contains spoilers for “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”)
While almost the entire “Zack Snyder Justice League” is made up of footage he shot for the film when Zack Snyder was working on it for the first time, there are two exceptions: things involving the Mars Hunter, and a new apocalyptic view of Knightmare of the future that features none other than Jared Leto’s Joker.
In the trailer for “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”, Leto’s Joker made a noise when pronouncing a phrase – “we live in a society” – that originated with memes about the Joker. The fact that the trailer ended at that part meant that it quickly became the main topic of conversation about Snyder’s cut that day.
“We live in a society,” said the Joker, with a long pause before finishing the sentence, “where honor is a distant memory”.
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Snyder discussed this scene at length before the film’s release – he said he wanted to give Ben Affleck’s Batman a chance to share a scene with Leto’s Joker. A real scene, instead of Batman’s brief encounter with Joker and Harley Quinn in “Suicide Squad”. But that may not have been the best way to do this.
After all the confusion about the speech in the trailer, I was quite shocked to arrive at that scene, right at the end of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”, and not hear those words come out of the Joker’s mouth. At first, I thought I missed some of it – that scene, and the Joker monologue in particular, may be the worst scene in the movie.
But then I watched it again. And again. And again. And the Joker never said that we live in society.
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In a way, it makes sense to leave it out. This scene, being part of Bruce Wayne’s vision of the future, takes place during an apocalypse scenario in which the resurrected Superman teamed up with the great evil cosmic Darkseid to take over the world and turn it into a desert. So, in fact, there is no longer a society for the Joker, or anyone else, to live.
But the absence of the line highlights how unpleasant this scene itself is. Even without a completely unnecessary meme reference, this scene is very, very bad. Both of the new parts that Snyder did specifically for this version of “Justice League” are the worst parts of the film. And that really says something, because the four-hour run time of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” means that we have more than a few pieces that maybe should have been left on the floor in the editing room.
And maybe that’s where that scene should have gone, too. The Joker’s cameo is brutally terrible and doesn’t even make sense. We just had Leto deliver a lifeless monologue on Batman’s volatile emotional state for what seems like an hour. Then Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke asks Batman if they really need him – and Batman swears he does.
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But then the evil Superman appears. Everyone – Flash, Cyborg and Mera are also there – take their combat positions while Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” cuts to each of their determined faces. And then we see the Joker, standing beside him laughing at himself, because he has no apparent use in a situation that involves gods punching each other very hard.
One possible explanation is that it is only logic of dreams. The Joker is one of Batman’s demons, so it would make some sense for him to appear in Bruce Wayne’s nightmares. But I don’t think it’s just a dream. Or at least I don’t think “Justice League by Zack Snyder” was defining it as one.
Batffleck had two similar moments in “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice”. The most obvious was the Knightmare sequel, in which the post-apocalyptic Batman battles the forces of the evil Superman. If it weren’t for his other vision in that film, one more that Cyborg had in Zack Snyder’s “Justice League”, I might have been able to accept them just as Bruce’s fears.
Batman’s other vision in “Batman V Superman” featured the Flash, which Bruce didn’t know yet, coming from the future to warn him that Lois Lane is “the key” – implying that Lois’s death will trigger the turnaround Superman’s gloomy. Although this also apparently occurred while Bruce was sleeping, it certainly seems more like a topic that Snyder was planning to explore later in his story of Superman’s evil. Especially since we see Flash travel a bit in time in the “Justice League of Zack Snyder”.
It is also worth pointing out that Flash had the same facial hair both in the “BvS” time travel view and in Knightmare at the end of Corte Snyder.
But what tells me that it’s not just Batman eager is a part that Snyder originally threw into “Justice League” the day it was restored in HBO’s Max cut. When Cyborg is counting down to when the Flash must light the Mother Box to bring Superman back, the Kryptonian spacecraft’s computer keeps trying to warn him that this whole plan is a very, very bad idea.
When Cyborg is finishing his countdown, the ship’s AI makes one last attempt to reach him, showing him a vision of Superman going bad, taking over the world and killing Wonder Woman and Aquaman. It is a clear extension of Knightmare’s “Batman v Superman” – and Snyder continued this discussion with this new scene from The Joker in “Justice League by Zack Snyder”, causing Mera to express his anger at Superman for killing Aquaman.
So my guess, based on all of this, is that these views have always been that Kryptonian computer contacting Batman to warn him about this possible future. This doesn’t mean that the ship’s computer can really Watch the future as it is bound to happen, but that it simulated the possible results of this story and calculated that things could turn out very bad.
In this context, the inclusion of the Joker in Batman’s small resistance squad is completely inexplicable, since the Joker is not useful in this type of situation. He has no powers and usually makes other people fight for him.
The only possible explanation is that Batman has some kind of plan to take advantage of the Joker’s tendency to chaos in some way. But then again, there is no society here. The Joker’s business is to bring down normal standards of morality. His rivalry with Batman is to try to make him break his own rules and turn bad. He’s a corruptor.
So while the Joker is certainly a master cheater, all of his standard operating procedures go out the window in a direct fight against a thug who is ready and able to punch everyone to death. Maybe he has some great strategies for Batman and company. use, but nothing like that is presented.
And so we ended up with this masturbatory scene in which it looks like the Joker is just there because Snyder wanted Leto in “Justice League by Zack Snyder”, and not because there was any reason in the universe for him to be there.
Read the original story ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’: We need to talk about that horrible Joker scene on TheWrap