WB is getting what it deserved, but fans are not

I'm disgusted with WB. It's becoming increasingly apparent they used the excuse of Snyder's personal family issues to throw the man off his own movie because they feared his finished work wouldn't deliver a big profit. And I honestly wonder how much "choice" WB gave Joss Whedon when they placed Snyder's unfinished film on his plate. Snyder's and Whedon's behavior since JL's debut suggests both were ill-treated with regard to this film.

I don't mean to disrespect Whedon because I admire much of his work, but I think he was a tough fit for a project begun by Snyder. I also suspect Joss knew it was logically impossible to give WB what they seemingly wanted--a light, fun, masses-pleasing escapade--when it had to be applied to the bones of a Snyder product in a matter of months. Joss is smart. I bet he warned them. And I bet they still forced him to do this ugly thing on pain of losing Batgirl. And I bet he's getting really sick of being jerked around by movie studios right about now...

Yes, I know Whedon has been a successful script doctor, but his touch is not healing for every project. At its heart, the Snyderverse is testosterone melodrama. Joss Whedon excels in casually clever. Zack plus Joss equals hate-sex destined to end in a quippy gore-fest double-homicide. The only way WB could have coaxed a crowd-pleasing Whedon movie out of this situation would have been to delay JL's release and let the man *make a movie* not perform cosmetic surgery on someone else's. (I know a delay was realistically impossible, ergo: don't do this stupid, stupid, *stupid* thing. Just let the Snyder chips fall into the Snyder dip and hope for the best.)

I honestly don't think you can demand the excision of GrimDark from a Snyder film and the subsequent application of chuckle-inducing dialogue then *not* end up with a lurching creature like JL. I'm not criticizing Whedon's skills because I don't think *any* director and script doctor could have better fulfilled WB's demands. I don't doubt the guy did his best. This version of JL *is* the best one could hope for when you give someone half a year to make a Zack Snyder film into a Not-Zack-Snyder film.

I hate what happened to JL. Though I was never part of its intended audience, I can still respect that many people poured ernest work into it. It shouldn't have ended up in its present state as a shuffling Snyderverse zombie re-animated by Joss Whedon's cringing CPR.

If WB were so concerned about Snyder's profit potential, they should have quietly smuggled in a new writer and director to work on the film from the start. For the purpose of not undermining BvS while it was still in theaters, WB could simply have kept up a facade of Snyder being in charge. Smoke-and-mirrors is *what these people do for a living* so surely they could have pulled that off. But once Snyder had most of the thing filmed, it was too late to ask for a pleasing, coherent re-imagining of Justice League inside a tidy 2 hour box. It was wrong for them to do this. And I think fans have a right to be furious.

I'm *not* a fan and I'm furious at what happened to this film. As it is, it serves no one. I'm curious to know people's thoughts on the viability of drastically changing the fundamental tone of a movie mid-production, but I personally wish WB had just let Zack Snyder finish the job. There is no way I would have gone to see it, but I know the loyal fans of BvS would have been repeat viewers. And sure, a Snyder-only version might not have made a profit, but the mutant Whedyder baby we have in theaters now looks like it's going to lose WB around $60 million. Could Snyder's completed version really have done worse? And more importantly from a humanist view, wouldn't a Snyder-only version at least have made *some* people genuinely happy?

Sorry, this whole thing is just sad. I'm sad for Snyder and for Whedon and for Snyder's DC fans and for anyone who appreciates storytelling. This should not have happened.

Shame on you, Warner Brothers.