Justice League

Essential on continuity and the version almost nobody recommends. Zack Snyder left the production after a death in his family, Joss Whedon was brought in to complete it, and the studio imposed a two-hour maximum. What exists is two films interleaved: a sombre one about absence and a jokey one about a team, cut together at roughly a scene each.

The seams are visible everywhere. The colour grade changes between shots, the score is replaced, several sequences are reshoots of material already filmed, and a digital alteration to remove a lead actor's moustache, contractually grown for another production, became the most discussed effects work of the year.

What survives is the cast. Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck are both good, Ezra Miller's Flash gets the only functioning comic material, and Ray Fisher's Cyborg is the character most damaged by the cutting: his arc is the emotional spine of the longer version and is reduced here to a few lines.

The antagonist is a digital creature with an axe and no stated motive, the three boxes are an errand, and the ending resolves with a sunrise. If you want these events, the four-hour version tells them properly. This one is here because it is what was released.