I was expecting to really dislike it, but I actually mostly really liked it. By far the best Snyder comic movie (not counting Watchmen, which is my fav of his). The changes from the Whedon cut to this are mind boggling. How someone made the decisions they did for that 2017 cut truly baffles me. They destroyed the movie and for no real benefit. I didn't like everything though. The Wonder Woman intro scene was a bit too cartoonish with how insanely over powered they made her, but the moment with the little girl after was great. Some of the plot points and dialogue were really bad, but nothing that made the movie suffer really. One trade off, however, was that they got rid of my least favorite scene from the 2017 cut and also got rid of one of my favorite moments from that one too. The Batman fighting a guy on a roof to find a parademon might have been the dumbest scene in any of these movies, so I was really glad it was gone. However, the "save one person" moment between Batman and The Flash was also gone, which I really thought was a great character moment.
I also would eliminate like half of the epilogue. The future nightmare scene with Joker was just very VERY bad and stupid and could have been deleted. And while it was cool to see that little cameo at the very end, it wasn't really necessary and could have been cut pretty easily.
Overall, a huge improvement and a pretty good movie.
I have very similar thoughts on the movie and many of my friends thought the same.
I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed the aspect ratio, when it was announced that the whole movie would be the IMAX 4:3 format, I was a bit skeptical but honestly it looked fantastic. Odd to say it but that was my favorite part of the movie, but I completely enjoyed watching it through that lens.
I'd rate this movie 8/10.
I liked it more than BvS. Whedon's JL was probably a 5/10.
spoilers below
Things I loved
The scenes with Darkseid were great. The back story showing the war with Zeus and the Amazon was exceptional. I never read the DC comics extensively so it was a great deeper dive into the JL in the DC universe.
Giving Cyborg, Flash and Steppenwolf a bigger backstory was super helpful to flesh them out giving motivations, establishing the characters and overall arc.
I don't remember much of the 2017 JL but recall Steppenwolf being hideous more than the mustache.
The color palette also worked for me, some scenes could have used more color but overall, it fit the tone of the movie. The fight scenes I thought were amazing. They all appeared interesting and fit with the context of the scene.
Odd/weird things
The slow-mo scenes... as good as they all were it could've been trimmed down. There were way too many of them, the important ones at the end would've felt more powerful had they used it sparingly.
Was it just me or did Batman look fat and awkward in some scenes? reshoots? probably new VFX? there were some scenes his movements seemed janky and he looked chunky in those parts.
The music was ok. I think it detracted at times and was great at others. I could hear shades of the Mad Max Fury Road soundtrack at many places. I think Junkie XL also overused the WW theme quite a bit.
The movie could've been trimmed and tightened and I think would've been fantastic if around 3 1/2 hrs.
Aquaman was probably the most underutilized even with the recut. I think his contribution didn't feel as great as the others in the grand scheme of things.
The epilogue was a mixed bag, the nightmare scene was fantastic but felt so out of place. I know it hints and sets up the future sequel which unfortunately from what I read isn't happening, at least not with Zack Synder involved. Martian manhunter?.. huh? I think he was wasted honestly, felt very tacked on more than the nightmare vision.