JLU Scene-by-Scene: Zack Snyder's Justice League Prologue Ep 1

This episode of the Justice League Universe podcast focuses on the opening sequence (death of Superman) in the prologue of Zack Snyder's Justice League.

• Company Logos
• Lightning and connections to BvS
• Character's emotional reactions
• Super vocals
• The start of Victor Stone's character arc
• Lex's communion and continuity questions
• The death scream in Atlantis with Mera
• The death scream in Themyscira with Philippus
• Tom Holkenborg's music

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https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Sound_Manipulation

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/features/ray-fisher-opens-up-about-justice-league-joss-whedon-and-warners-i-dont-believe-some-of-these-people-are-fit-for-leadership

<Transcript below>

Welcome fans of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. This is the Justice League Universe podcast where we analyze DC Films scene-by-scene. I’m Sam and in this episode, written with Alessandro, Rebecca, and Carol, we are going to take a look at the first few scenes of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, available on HBO Max and on various streaming sites around the world. In this opening sequence of the prologue, we return to the death of Superman as first shown in Batman v Superman and we will follow the effects of his death cry as it emanates out through Gotham City, Metropolis, Atlantis, and Themyscira.

 

But first we have some logos. There’s HBO Max, which of course it goes without saying -- thank you so much to HBO Max for bringing us this cut of the movie. Then there’s an updated Warner Brothers Studios logo, still showing the famous studio lot in Burbank, California, and the iconic water tower, but in a cleaner shot than before where the lot sort of ripples on the side of the rotating logo. I was lucky enough to visit the WB lot in 2019 before the pandemic, and I left a few #ReleaseTheSnyderCut messages for them. And although there is certainly a ton of stuff we could complain about and blame them for, in the past and in the present, we do have to still admit that they produced Man of Steel and Batman v Superman and that they supported the principal photography of this 4-hour epic. Yes, it was terrible what happened in 2017, and we do still hope for full accountability of all those actions and the failures since then, especially with respect to marginalizing actors of color and characters of color, but we wouldn’t have Zack Snyder’s Justice League without Warner Brothers.

 

Next is Access Entertainment, which provided funding for the film. Access has purchased a large stake in RatPac productions, so thankfully we no longer have Brett Ratner associated with these DC films, but Access Entertainment is rooted in the wealth of Len Blavatnik who is from the Soviet Union originally and has many ties to Vladimir Putin and Russian oil. The unfortunate reality with these hundred-million dollar Hollywood productions is that a lot of big money gets involved. But mostly we’ll just try to focus on the creative side and the story interpretations.

 

Then comes the DC animated sequence that started with Wonder Woman in 2017 and has appeared at the start of most DCEU films since then and also several of the tv shows. It wasn’t in Shazam, though, because director David Sandberg said he forgot it and Warner Brothers never reminded him. It also was not included in Wonder Woman 1984 just a few months before Zack Snyder’s Justice League. I personally like how this animated intro reminds me of the Justice League animated series, and it’s nice to have a quick acknowledgment of the comic book foundation of these movies as well as a reminder of Green Lantern’s typical role in the Justice League.

 

The blue DC logo is briefly replaced by a DC logo that seems to be situated within the opening scene, and an orange streak of lightning passes behind the logo. As will become clear in a moment, this is the same color and type of lightning that tended to swirl around Doomsday in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. For example, the screen fills up with this sort of lightning when Doomsday has the boosh effects and when the bone spur emerges from his arm. Beginning the film with lightning may also subconsciously cue us into ideas of Zeus and gods, reflecting the fact that this film is going to take the story and elevate it to the playing field of the gods. Whereas Man of Steel started with an alien sort of texture, representing the sci-fi tone of that first film, and Batman v Superman started with falling leaves, representing the more down-to-earth story of the fall of men, we are now heading into Zack Snyder’s Justice League where a new age of heroes are going to arise in this story that involves ancient gods and new gods.

 

Speaking of the Dawn of Justice trilogy, it uses birth and death as the bookends of the stories, setting the tone in terms of taking these heroes seriously and putting us in a frame of mind where we can use these stories to probe into deep aspects of our humanity -- it doesn’t get more profound than birth and death, and that raises the question of how we should live in between. In a sense the whole trilogy starts and ends with birth. Man of Steel begins with the birth of baby Kal-El and then this film ends with the birth of the justice league. In between that arc from baby Kal-El to the formation of the league, we have quite a bit of death. Man of Steel ends with the death of Zod. And BvS starts with the death of the Waynes and the destruction of Metropolis and then the death of Superman at the end. Then Zack Snyder’s Justice League begins with the death of Superman and will go through the death of many Amazons and the death of the Stones and much more before the new age of heroes can finally begin.

 

Getting into this first scene, the first thing we see is an object that is sort of hard to comprehend at first and there is quite a bit of debris seeming to float all around, which makes us think back to the debris from the Black Zero Event shown near the beginning of BvS and also the debris that often floats as part of Superman’s flight abilities, but in this case as the camera shifts we see that the object is the bone spike that has impaled Superman’s body. So we are immediately thrust right into the intensity of this moment, and we are also brought back to that emotional climax from Batman v Superman. And it’s not just Superman’s death, we also see the Kryptonite spear, which reminds us of Batman’s dark turn and also of the fact that Superman, even though he died, did manage to save the world yet again. 

 

And for those of us who are BvS fans, this is a deep well of meaning that they are tapping into right from the start. We get a chance to reflect on what happened in BvS, we are viscerally reminded of Superman’s sacrifice, and it sets us up to think about how those events will impact the characters in this movie. We will see Bruce continue to try to make good on his promise. We’ll see Diana help bring about a world where men can stand together. We’ll see Lois and Martha in mourning, and we’ll see the league come to the realization that they need Superman in order to successfully face Steppenwolf.

 

Many people have talked about their appreciation of the structural interlocking of the films in the Dawn of Justice trilogy, with BvS beginning with a new perspective on the ending of Man of Steel, and now Zack Snyder’s Justice League beginning with a new perspective on the ending of BvS. We even talked about this in our last episode, but we want to be sure to point out that this is not just a cool way to build continuity, it is also rich with meaning in terms of the overarching ideas about the complexity of multiple perspectives. MoS was largely from Clark and Lois’s perspective, as Clark seeks his place in the world and Lois represents humanity coming to recognize and trust who Superman is in his heart. But then BvS is about competing perspectives and the biases that can come from failing to see from someone else’s point of view. BvS explores what it might look like for the world to see Superman -- not someone like Lois who has investigated his past and knows him personally, but someone on the street level seeing the effects of godlike Kryptonians raining fire on the world. And what does it mean for the previously most powerful people on the planet to be kicked off the top of the pecking order? How do they see Superman and how will they respond? BvS starts off that story by bringing us back into the action from Bruce’s point of view.

 

Now, with Justice League, we are going to see how Superman’s example affects the other meta-humans. We are going to explore how Superman’s sacrifice and example functions as an inspiration to others. We will seek his monument by looking around him. And we will also explore the broader idea of heroism and leadership, with a leader going beyond mere actions and direct effects but a leader becoming truly powerful when you rally others to your cause and inspire them to be better than they were. These indirect effects, rippling and radiating outward, are the sign of true leadership and can make profound differences in the world.

 

Although Superman will not get as much screen time as the other Justice Leaguers, his impact is arguably the largest. The world changed when he flew through the sky, and then it changed again when he didn’t. As we see in this opening scene, his death impacts the entire world. It impacts men and Atlanteans and the Amazons. And it also goes beyond Earth, signaling a new vulnerability here. So villains will seek to take advantage of this vulnerability, whether it’s terrorists in London or Steppenwolf of Apokolips. So these opening scenes that return to the prior film from a different point of view not only set up the themes of the film, they also build out the world and introduce new characters, placing them in relation to what we’ve seen already.

 

Visually, the way Snyder and the effects present this new look on an old scene puts us, the viewer, into the scene as an active participant, not just as an onlooker or spectator. We are reliving it as if we were Lois or Batman or Wonder Woman. We can go beyond our own reaction to this moment, as we experienced when watching BvS, and now we can focus on the other characters’ reactions. What did they think or feel when this happened? We see the pain and agony in Superman’s face. We see the sorrow as Lois realizes that he is dying, with her on the verge of sobs, which will set the tone for her mental state in this film. We see Diana’s face as she’s realizing that Clark is dying and has made the ultimate sacrifice for the world, giving her something to think about as she considers her own role in the world of man going forward. And then, as the beams of light go out, we see Batman and the clear sense of loss and failure. Even though they have succeeded in stopping Doomsday, his lip quivers and tears well up in his eyes because he now knows that he misjudged Superman and Batman realizes he could’ve been much more help against the true threat of Lex and Doomsday if he hadn’t been so tunnel-visioned by his rage and powerlessness. At the same time, this will be a moment of inspiration and rededication for Batman as he realizes that men are still good and he will have his faith in humanity restored. So this moment of Batman clenching his teeth is simultaneously this man fighting back tears but also resolving himself to use his amazing powers of focus and dedication to seek out and cooperate with heroes rather than hunting them down as a threat.

 

Getting back to the scream, a scream which sounds great, by the way, just in terms of sound design. And although BvS did have a quick echo of the death cry, mixing together what sounds like part of the scream from Superman at the end of Man of Steel after he killed Zod, here in Zack Snyder’s Justice League we really feel it and see a lot more of it than before. After Superman screams, he and Doomsday both fall to the ground. This is similar to how it happened in the comics, and of course we saw it from a slightly different angle in BvS. But then in BvS, the focus was on Superman and his personal story. This time we are going to ripple out into the broader world and the broader story. We also get a better look at how Doomsday's body covers the Kryptonite which may have helped in preventing it from harming Superman further. This is perhaps relevant to Superman not fully dying but being in kind of like a practically-dead state which very well could be the case, especially given the rising dirt on the coffin and Snyder’s comments in the past about how a Kryptonian’s cells are not going to degenerate like a normal person’s.

 

In terms of the Superman scream itself, there are precedents in comic books of a Super scream sending shockwaves around the world. The DC Database lists one of the abilities of Kryptonians to be “Super Vocals”.

• Super Vocals: A kryptonian possesses enhanced vocal/audio decibel abilities which they can access through precise muscle control. Enabling their voices to carry over incredible distances... or deliver a wave of amplified sound powerful enough to shatter glass or concrete.
• You can see some visual examples of these super vocals from Superman in Batman/Superman #17 and from Supergirl in Supergirl (Volume 7) #4.

 

There is also a somewhat infamous vocal power from the Silver Age, Superman’s super ventriloquism, which doesn’t show up in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, as far as we can tell, but it does further attest to the supernatural vocal abilities of Kryptonians on Earth.

 

We see the visual representation of the sounds waves from Superman’s death scream travel outward, which is a very comic-book style of manifestation, and as the camera pans toward the nearby parts of Gotham we get a view of the extent of the destruction. Seeing the contrast between the destruction near Doomsday and the intact skyline in the distance also shows us how, thanks to Wonder Woman, Batman, Lois, and especially Superman, the destruction was contained.

 

We follow the soundwaves into Gotham City and see an interior shot of someone in a hood sitting at a table. We will learn that it’s Victor Stone and he is holding his head in hands in sort of a sulking posture. Interestingly, Victor has always been described as the heart of the film. And in this first shot of Victor, he is paired with the official title card for the film. Zack has described Victor as the heart of the movie before, and recently it was confirmed by the sole writer of this screenplay, Chris Terrio. Terrio said the following to Hollywood Reporter: "Zack and I always considered Cyborg's story to be the heart of the movie.” "He has the most pronounced character arc of any of the heroes," beginning from a place of despair and ending with a feeling that "he is whole and that he is loved." https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/features/ray-fisher-opens-up-about-justice-league-joss-whedon-and-warners-i-dont-believe-some-of-these-people-are-fit-for-leadership?__twitter_impression=true 

 

We hear Superman’s scream reverberating to this apartment and it concludes with a mechanical noise which we discover is a strange, alien-looking box stored away in a closet. This suggests the box is responding to the sound of the scream. But it soon returns to a dormant state, perhaps after detecting the motherbox technology present in the nearby Cyborg. In that same closet we see football trophies, suggesting the apartment’s resident is or was a star athlete, but given they are stored away in a closet, there is perhaps some disassociation or discarding of such accomplishments as unimportant or irrelevant.

 

Thinking further about this first shot of Victor, he could be viewed as a normal human being when we see him from the back. And this sort of gives a layman’s perspective as a small person at home during this epic battle. And then he turns around and you see he’s actually not human, or at least not completely. To Carol, this establishes the beginning of his character arc, which is an internal conflict and a pervasive question of what is he. Is he the human we see sitting there at first, or is he something else, a frankenstein creation we perceive when he turns around? The contents of the closet mirror this contrast where we see some normal, human items and then among them is this alien element. These items hidden away in his closet also symbolize the idiom of skeletons in one’s closet. The idiom evokes the idea of someone having had a human corpse concealed in their home so long that all its flesh had decomposed to the bone, similar to how Victor has been hidden away in the apartment and his own humanity has been metaphorically stripped away bit by bit. To an extent, the skeleton-in-a-closet notion also connects to what has happened to Victor Stone’s body, having been torn apart, only to be reconstructed by the motherbox, the item in the closet which in Victor’s mind is an undisclosed element about himself which, if revealed, may further damage perceptions of him.

 

So this quick shot of Cyborg and the motherbox in Gotham City not only establishes some visual themes for Cyborg’s character arc, but it is also a plot point as Cyborg is intimately connected to the mother box, he’ll use it to resurrect Superman, it will get taken by Steppenwolf, and it will eventually become Cyborg’s task when helping the Justice League at the end of the story.

 

Continuing on, we see the sound waves of the death scream reverberate further as they travel across the bay, passing Stryker’s Island where Doomsday landed after falling from space, to Metropolis and to the crashed Kryptonian Scout Ship where the fight between Superman and Doomsday began. This is an awesome return to the settings of the prior films, very rewarding for those of us who love this Dawn of Justice trilogy. In another brief connection to BvS, a Daily Planet newspaper flies by and the headline reads “Was Superman Involved?” which is a reminder that at this point the public was still questioning Superman’s culpability for the Capitol Building explosion while he was out sacrificing himself for the people.

 

We now see the Lex communion scene again, but in a slightly different way. We see Lex Luthor turn abruptly as if surprised by Superman’s scream. But he gives a slight nod as a sign of understanding, and the completion of his goal from BvS. We’ve already seen one Motherbox activate, even if for a brief moment, having recognized the death of the kryptonian known as Kal-El. The scout ship, using its liquid metal holographic technology from Man of Steel, displays an imposing alien figure along with the three motherboxes before him. One of them vibrates and then rotates steadily while shining a light, similar to how we later see a crack appear in the Amazon motherbox which also shines a light from its opening. This seems to indicate that that box has fully awakened and is reaching out to this figure who we will learn is Steppenwolf. Orbs can be seen surrounding the figure, which are more prominently seen in the Batman v Superman part of this scene. This may indicate some sort of galactic positioning system showing where Earth is located. This is our first hint in this film at the impending threat arising from Superman’s death. 

 

Whereas Sam has been fairly open to multiple interpretations of this communion scene with Lex, the events here in Zack Snyder’s Justice League reaffirm for Alessandro his interpretation of what is happening here from his analysis in BvS. Lex probably uses the ship to find out what is happening in the fight between Superman and Doomsday. Knowing Superman’s fate, the sounds of Superman’s scream affirms what he knows, which is why he nods when he hears it. Having identified the awakening of the Amazon motherbox, the ship intercepts its signal to Steppenwolf and shows Lex the elements of this Apokoliptian communication, which surprises and concerns him. Basically, for Alessandro, Lex is getting a glimpse at a live communication between the motherboxes and Steppenwolf -- Lex is not communicating actively with Steppenwolf, nor is he simply accessing historical records.

 

Alessandro also thinks Lex’s epilogue scene in which he says he has “too much to live for” is an important element to Lex’s character. He is notably scared when facing Batman at the end of BvS. In Alessandro’s interpretation, this is a Lex that hates and fears meta-human threats and values his own existence. Seeing this new, greater threat that will inevitably come to Earth has left him shaken. While it does appear as though Steppenwolf turns his head toward Lex Luthor, that doesn’t necessarily mean he is seeing Lex. He could very well be looking forward at something in his current location. And although the storyline descriptions for Justice League 2 and 3 have been abandoned, they too give insight as to Lex’s general motivations, especially given that they were presumably still in play at the time that BvS and this scene were created. Those storyboards enforce Lex as a selfish, conniving villain. And another realistic possibility for why Lex is seeing Steppenwolf before him with the motherboxes is because, thanks to the scout ship, he discovered that the anti-life equation was on Earth and, asking the ship about it, was told about the motherboxes and shown this communication between Steppenwolf and the motherboxes.

 

Others, however, view Lex as smugly content with the impending arrival of Steppenwolf because it will prove his thesis of demons coming from the sky and his thought that mankind should be fearful and hateful toward meta-humans. With his ego, he wants to be the top dog and he wants hatred for anyone who may usurp him. He successfully tarred Superman’s reputation and then showed his vulnerability, and he also unleashed a Doomsday and now inadvertently called forth an alien invader, both of which exemplify the monstrosities of his meta-human thesis.

 

With regard to the liquid geo communion scene in particular, Carol has another interpretation which is that the Kryptonian ship is forewarning Lex Luthor that Steppenwolf is coming to get the boxes. To Carol it’s almost like the scout ship serves as a precog and is showing the inevitable result of Superman’s death, especially since later on we see the ship showing Cyborg the future if they revive Superman. So in a way, in this scene, instead of the future taking root in the present as a result of Superman being revived, it’s the future taking root in the present by Superman being killed. Perhaps Lex is absolutely surprised by what he is seeing but Lex in that moment understands what this creature is planning from what the ship is showing him.

 

A minor continuity point: We know that, although all of the boxes are somewhat awakened by Superman’s death, it is the Amazon’s motherbox and only the Amazon’s motherbox that initially calls out to Steppenwolf. So in this liquid geo representation of Steppenwolf and the motherboxes, our first thought is that the one that seems to activate and that Steppenwolf turns toward is presumably that Amazonian motherbox. But the way this scene is edited, and the way the scream is shown traveling outward, it seems as though the Amazonian motherbox has not yet been activated. Since the soundwave just reached Metropolis, and we see Lex hearing the scream and then immediately the motherbox on his right side activates, this happens in the scout ship before the scream has actually reached Themyscira. If the scream is a soundwave moving along the surface of the Earth, it would take approximately 6 hours to get to Themyscira from Gotham City. Of course, we also see the scream going through water, and it could presumably travel through the Earth itself, too, which could significantly reduce its travel time --- but even going through the solid matter of Earth, it would take something like 30 or 40 minutes to get to Themyscira, meaning that Lex is definitely hearing it way before the Amazons.

 

There are some explanations for this. The easiest one may be that the active motherbox in the liquid geo display is actually the Gotham City motherbox, Cyborg’s motherbox, rather than the Amazonian motherbox. So the light emanating from it just means it has been temporarily activated, not that it is calling out to Steppenwolf. In this case, Steppenwolf is able to learn that the motherboxes activate but maybe the Amazonian motherbox, later on, will go even further and actually send Steppenwolf coordinates or will call for him to come -- so the Gotham City motherbox is active, and Steppenwolf sees that it’s active, but he doesn’t come until the Amazonian motherbox actually sends him an even clearer and more definitive message.

 

Although this is the cleanest in terms of the continuity of editing and the physics of sound travel, even super sound travel, it doesn’t quite feel like a perfect explanation because the highlighted mother box in the liquid geo just behaves so much like the Amazonian mother box. As we said before, our initial hunch was that it represented the Amazonian motherbox waking up and calling to him. So another explanation is that, like Carol said, maybe the scout ship is actually projecting forward into the future just a little bit and is actually showing what the Amazonian mother box will do and what Steppenwolf will do an hour or so in the future.

 

Or maybe it’s just a minor continuity error, and it’s meant to be a live look-in on Steppenwolf and the motherboxes but the timing doesn’t quite work out correctly. The filmmakers wanted to have this moment of Lex seeing the motherbox awaken, and to have it tied to this imposing Steppenwolf figure, which will give a bit of insight into what the Amazons are concerned about, and so the desire for that moment in the story outweighed the actual continuity and physics of the sound wave. 

 

Alessandor feels that, although this continuity error may very well have just been an oversight, it could also have been a creative decision of non-linear editing in order to convey the information to the audience in a specific way while also maintaining an artistic flow to the visuals. Since the Motherboxes are made from a science so advanced that it looks like sorcery, the Amazon motherbox could have detected the scream at the moment it occurred, before the actual soundwaves arrived, and the audio cues are merely symbolic given Zack Snyder’s visual storytelling. In this way we see how the world is affected by following the scream as it reverberates outward from its source but receive the information not necessarily in order. This establishes the threat of Steppenwolf for when we actually see the Amazons react to the activated motherbox so that we have a bit of knowledge about what it is they are concerned about when we see them react.

 

Anyway, next we see the shot pan away from Metropolis out toward the ocean and then it submerges to see an Atlantean turn and react to hearing Superman’s scream. This transition is done really nicely with droplets of water appearing on the screen before total submersion. The sound waves reverberate through the water to the structure that houses the Atlantean Motherbox. Around that tower we can briefly see collapsed structures suggesting this was an old, abandoned hub of some sort, which makes sense when we consider that the motherbox has been secured here for thousands of years. We see some beautiful gradients of blue, and what would have been our first look at the Atlantean world under the ocean if this version of the film had been released in 2017. We also see our first glimpse of Amber Heard as Mera, who has a sort of regal costume, and she likewise responds to the sound of Superman’s scream. The Atlantean motherbox shakes in response to the sound but fails to awaken. Though we technically don’t know what these boxes are yet, this underwater being, who we learn later is Mera, seems familiar with the box and is notably concerned by the box’s reaction.

 

We then get a third panning shot over a body of water, and this one is especially long and beautiful. The clouds are especially celestial and it sort of gives us a sense that we’ve seen land and water and now air. This time the camera moves toward an island which can immediately be recognized as Themyscira for those who have seen the Wonder Woman film. Connie Nielsen’s name is prominently featured in the credits at this moment. The camera passes through an arc that kind of resembles one that Superman flew through in the African-looking setting in Man of Steel during his first flight. The camera then zooms in on a round building on a cliff at the edge of the opposite side of the island and travels down into the opening on its roof toward a third box. The camera tilts to reveal a band of Amazons guarding the box like the Atlanteans were doing, although the Amazons seem to have even more people dedicated to this purpose than the Atlanteans did. It implies to the audience that there is some sort of very serious threat at play here.

 

A closer look at the box shows it reacting to the sound of Superman’s scream, which also evokes a reaction by the Amazons who quickly draw their weapons at the ready. We’ve seen criticism that it doesn’t make sense that these Amazons are just standing around guarding this box and ready for battle when it awakens, given that it’s been thousands of years and there are quite a few Amazons dedicated to this effort. But it’s important to consider that of the three races who have sworn to protect these boxes, the Amazons are the only ones that were actually present during the invasion in which these motherboxes were left behind. So they understand the threat that is posed by their reawakening and likely have a rotation of warriors guarding the box.

 

The box shakes as one brave Amazon, Philippus portrayed by Ann Ogbomo, draws near it to investigate. Philippus throws her shield aside to free her hand in order to reach out to the box. She seems to throw the shield hard and far so as not to obstruct her own path should she need to react quickly. Before she can, though, the box cracks open and shines a light similar to the box we saw in the liquid geo hologram inside the scout ship. Again, this is why our instinct is to correlate the two. Philippus then tells the other Amazons to alert the queen, officially informing the audience that there is reason to be concerned.

 

With regard to the music in this scene, we can say that we are already very thankful to have Tom Holkenborg as the composer. First of all, Rebecca keenly noticed that the music for the DC animation is a slowed-down version of the Justice League theme, first released as “the crew at warpower.” The main horn melody from that piece is softly and slowly played over the DC heroes. And in the opening sequence itself, similar to how Hans Zimmer approached these films, Holkenborg starts with a sort of soundscape that sets the mood, and then it gradually becomes more dramatic as Superman’s face comes into focus. A subtle hint of the Wonder Woman vocal plays over her reaction shot, and then some minor seconds in the strings, familiar to us from BvS, play as we see Batman and Superman’s final death fall. It crescendos and then falls away a bit in Victor’s apartment, allowing the sound of the motherbox to take center stage. And then the music becomes ominous as the scene turns toward Metropolis with a choir entering for angelic effect when introducing Steppenwolf. The music grows quiet like the bottom of the ocean when the scene goes underwater. Then what will become a familiar woman’s voice echoes as the scene approaches Themyscira, and the music dies out completely allowing the tension to build with the sounds of the motherbox whirring.

 

Overall, these first few minutes do a very nice job of setting a serious tone and an epic scope, while also establishing that Superman is dead and hinting at this alien threat that is connected somehow to the three boxes and we can anticipate that it will threaten various societies across the globe, probably starting with the Amazons.

End of Episode

That’s our analysis of this first sequence in the prologue of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. We will be continuing on with our thoughts on Bruce’s trip to Iceland, and we are also going to be continuing our Man of Steel analysis as well, working toward a complete breakdown of this Dawn of Justice trilogy. Those Man of Steel episodes will drop first on our Patreon page, which is Patreon.com/JLUPodcast.

 

If you aren’t already aware, myself and Hamad Al-Mansouri along with a few others, had created a GoFundMe to raise funds for mobile billboard trucks in order to send the message to restore the Snyderverse directly to WarnerMedia. Hamad and I have also contributed several thousand dollars of our own money to amplify the efforts of so many generous donors by doubling the number of mobile billboard trucks and adding a premium flyover banner at AT&T headquarters. This will run on April 21st in New York, Dallas, and Burbank. I encourage you all to spread the word.

 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/restorethesnyderverse-mobile-billboard-afsp 

 

Additionally, we at JLUPodcast want to celebrate the release of the Snyder Cut and advocate efforts to restore the Snyderverse by giving away 3 copies of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 4K UltraHD Blu-ray. For the first giveaway, all you need to do to enter is quote tweet JLUPodcast’s twitter post sharing this episode with your favorite scene from Zack Snyder’s Justice League along with the hashtags #JLUPodcast, #RestoretheSnyderverse and tag @hbomax. We will accept one entry per person up until 5PM Eastern Time on April 16th.