I picked up "Justice League" on BluRay 3D a couple days ago. This isn't a movie I really wanted to own in 3D. Not only is the movie pretty terrible regardless how much you like the characters, but I saw the movie in 3D on a Cinemark XD screen and was pretty unimpressed with what I saw. The 3D was inconsistent, mostly flat, and rarely engaging. It was probably inevitable that this wasn't going to be a great (or even good) 3D experience. The movies long and troubled history resulted in the film having two directors, with two completely different styles and shooting methods. It was one of the few times when director Joss Whedon (NOT Zach Snyder) was so unimpressed with the 3D conversion of the film as a whole, that he asked IMAX not to bother showing it in three dimensions.
So, coupled with the fact that the movie wasn't enjoyable, I was surprised to find myself buying the BluRay 3D. I find myself doing that for a lot of movies I don't care for though, just to throw the format a few bucks (and to complete the DC Extended Universe collection...whatever that's worth at this point). When I got home I ultimately did end up watching the movie again, and ten minutes in I was stunned and shocked: This was a COMPLTELY different 3D conversion of the film! What's more, this is what should have been presented in theaters, and (more specifically) the kind of visual experience that would have been right at home in IMAX 3D. This new 3D conversion is so much better, that it results in a movie that is almost completely different as far as visuals are concerned. The dialog scenes actually have field depth that makes the images immersive. The action sequences pop in a way they just didn't in theaters. The IMAX aspect ratio is kept, giving the picture an epic scope.
Why on Earth wasn't this the version show in theaters?
Look, I know this doesn't make the movie any better, but it does goes to show that if the film had been delayed a little bit, Warner Bros. would have had an excellent 3D theater experience on their hands. Heck, had they delayed it they might have also had a better movie, but I'll let other videos and articles debate that one. In the meantime, Warner did good by going back and completely redoing the 3D conversion so that it was actually watchable at home. They didn't need to do it. They certainly knew they weren't going to ship a lot of copies. But they did right by their consumers, and that is easily one of the best things I can report on this site in a long time. Oh, also, it appears Best Buy and Target are taking the high demand for the 3D disks more seriously this time around, as there were MANY copies of the BluRay 3D on store shelves, so hopefully fans will actually have the chance to buy it this time!
I missed the 3D version in theaters, but I wonder how much of it was just what theater you saw it in. I watched Wonder Woman in 3D in two different theaters; one's projection wasn't quite right and the left/right images were too far apart making it a significantly worse experience than the second time I saw it in 3D. That second time was also interesting in that I had watched it in 2D in the exact same theater (not just the same theater complex, I mean the same projector, or at least the same room) the day before and was severely disappointed because the picture was insanely dark, making night scenes virtually unwatchable, but the 3D version looked perfect. All I'm saying is that it's possible that the theater you saw it at just didn't bother to calibrate their equipment correctly rather than WB throwing yet more money into it post-release.