So I've seen Justice League twice now, and I keep coming back to the same conclusion: That WB's interference, for all it's moustachioed silliness (which to be fair was not their fault), actually improved the movie. I keep hearing about people wanting "the Snyder cut", but I feel like the movie would only be made worse by taking out all the things Whedon shot/reshot for it.
There are two scenes in particular that I feel help the movie tremendously, and that without them, the movie would be even more of a mess than it already is: The scene where Bruce talks to Alfred about raising Superman, and the scene where Bruce talks to Diana about how neither of them can lead the Justice League properly. You can chastise Whedon all you like for his fascination with feet (though that would be kind of dickish) or showing more than one shot of Wonder Woman's ass for no particular reason, but the man has something that nobody else on that movie seemed to have: The ability to write dialogue with a bit of ****ing warmth to it. And in all honesty, I wonder how much of the final action sequence didn't have dialogue to it that Whedon made them add in post.
As far as the rest of the stuff, I feel like for all it's issues with tone and editing, there are scenes that, standing alone, can be seen as positives. Or at least an indication (at least for some of the scenes) of what WB was trying to do once they took the reins away from Snyder.
The opening scene with Superman on the cellphone is... It's not quite what it should be. Superman would stop to chat with kids, but he'd be less standoff-ish about it. Maybe this is just something they're going to bring in now that they don't have to worry about Snyder wanting to make him superjesus anymore, but we'll see.
The scene in Gotham is actually good, and Gotham has looked it's most Gothamest since Burton was making the movies. It actually reminded me of the Arkham games some. Batman using a crook as bait for the parademon, though? That's a bit much. And the crook talking about Superman was pushing it a bit too.
The scene on Themyscira is excellent, imo. It's one of the things about the movie that reminded me that when Snyder just focuses on action, he's a hell of a visual director.
The Steppenwolf flashback... Honestly, it should have been the start of the movie. Go full Fellowship of the Ring with it. Maybe show Steppenwolf conquering other planets to give us an idea of what he's capable of. Give us the parts with the dialogue that was cut. I liked what we got, but it's one of those moments where I felt like there should have been more.
The Atlantis scene isn't bad. We see Mera use her powers; we see that when Arthur finds the dead Atlantean(s), that he knows something's up. Seeing Mera actually use her powers was great. The fight, short as it was, wasn't bad. Even the swimming wasn't terrible. But WHY IN THE **** is Mera creating an air bubble for them to speak in? They can both breathe underwater just fine, as shown in the movie. Nobody is holding their breath. So why not just have them ****ing talk to each other like they can in the comics. They can't do some sound editing to distort the voices a little to make it seem like they're underwater while still making it audible? Or, I don't know, have Aquaman telepathically talk to her? Either option would far more sense than aquatic people making oxygen bubbles to talk in. Like, how does she talk to other Atlanteans? Does she make an oxygen bubble every ****ing time? Or do they just text?
Then we get a weird transition that makes me think this is where we would have seen more of Atlantis, but it was cut to two hours.
Cyborg by this point is already by far the most sympathetic character. He's a bit of a dick, but his resentment towards his father makes sense. He's the rookiest of the rookies, and it shows, and as someone who really doesn't know as much about Cyborg in the comics as others would, I liked what we got. His CGI was shit though, so thank **** they showed us the end where he starts to look less-transformery.
Meeting the Flash... Eesh. I get that this is an alternate version, but he just comes on way too damn strong. He's awkward, sure, but he won't shut up long enough for me to actually feel like they would want him around for anything other than his powers.
Then, though, they have a great little scene between him and Batman, which is one of the best moments in the entire movie imo. When Batman tells him to save just one. It's a really small moment, but it's really well done.
The action scene in the tunnel itself is really well done for the most part imo. They get across how powerful Steppenwolf is compared to the League, and we see large hints of the theme that runs throughout the movie of Batman getting too old to continue being Batman. Aquaman shows up, and I can excuse the wave stopping thing as being the trident, not his "talking to the water" bullshit.
After that, they talk about resurrecting Superman. I know some people don't like how mean Batman is to Diana, but to me? I honestly thought it fit. He's not trying to hurt Diana; he's trying to wake her up so that she'll be the hero they need her to be. The actual way they ressurect Superman? Meh. Motherboxes can do shit like that, but I honestly would have seen something more in line with Return of Superman.
Then there's the fight scene with Superman against the League. And again, I feel like people are exagerrating about the way the fight went (much like the Thor V Hulk fight in Ragnarok). Superman wins, sure, but it's against a rookie League that tries to physically overpower him. No speed-stealing, no telepathy, just pure brawn, and that's never going to go well against Superman unless you're someone like Doomsday or Darkseid. Also, as weird as the CGI looks at times in the scene, I give props to whoever decided to change that scene so it took place at day rather than night.
The scene on the farm with Superman... Again, I can see what they're trying to do, and to an extent they did succeed in distancing him from the character he was in the previous two movies. This is a man that's more comfortable with being who he is, and the job he has to do. Even his "I was the idiot for leaving" line is VERY Superman.
The final action scene... For the most part, I really like it. I think it's yet another point in which Aquaman kind of fades in to the background, but he gets the least screentime anyway so I'm not surprised.
Then we get my favourite moment of the movie: Superman shows up, says his line about truth and justice, the John Williams music plays (even for a moment), and he punches Steppenwolf in his ugly ****ing face. It's a wonderful bit of catharsis after sitting through Man of Steel and BvS, with Man of Steel only having maybe one truly "Superman" moment.
After that, we get the final showdown and the League beats up Steppenwolf and stops the motherboxes from doing their thing. I wasn't a huge fan of Superman's line to Cyborg about not wanting to die. It only works because he's just come back from the dead, but any other time you'd expect Superman to reassure Cyborg that everything will be fine.
TL/DR:
It's two movies sliced in to one. The editing and pacing is a mess. Scenes don't run well in to each other. The CGI ranges from really good to really bad. And yet, for all its faults, I can't help but feel like Snyder's Justice League would have been worse. There's a bunch of scenes they cut from his version of the movie that I do want to see put back in, but not at the expense of what WB/Whedon did. This is a transitional movie. It's that giant U-TURN away from Snyderville.
No more Superjesus. No more "I can't stop sucking Frank Miller's dick" version of Batman. Aquaman needs to have aquatic telepathy in his own movie or they'll be missing out on so much they can do. Flash... I don't ****ing know. Grant Gustin looks like ****ing RDJ in comparison. WW was good, and she continues to be the best thing about the DCEU (i know that's not the name, i just don't know the real one) even with the weird crab walking bit.
Before JL came out, I was more worried about the DC movies than I am now. And for me, that's saying something.