Well, it’s finally here. Warner Bros. has released Zack Snyder’s original Justice League vision to HBO Max, and well, I got some thoughts!
Before I start with my thoughts on the movie. I just want to quickly say a few things. Firstly, and upfront, I was not the biggest fan of the whole “Release the Snyder Cut” movement. Not because I don’t like Zack Snyder, it’s just that we had been so far removed from Justice League – the Studio/Joss Whedon cut if you will – that I thought it didn’t really matter anymore. And while yes, I did think that he probably got the short end of the stick when he leave the project because of his daughter’s passing, it was really more of the how the movement of “Release the Snyder Cut” that got to me.
Because the whole thing, especially at the beginning was just way too forced – and I know many called it cult-like – I always found it funny because NO ONE was really that down with Snyder. It’s like all these basement Snyder fans suddenly broke free and raised their pitchfolks to rush online and start the movement. I really don’t remember this many people LIKING Snyder before all of this, which is why I always thought it was weird.
Which leads me to Zack Snyder himself. I liked Man of Steel, I still like Man of Steel and Batman v Superman…well not so much. And I know I’m not alone in this but when it comes to Zack Snyder, he’s a great VISUAL storyteller. But when it comes to story/plot not so much. Sometimes you get great looking movies with a pretty descent story like Man of Steel and sometimes you get Sucker Punch.
All that said, I am glad that Snyder can finally put his vision, albeit it’s only the first part of his vision out to the world, because this was suppose to set up Justice League sequels 2 and 3. Which obviously won’t happen anymore – well, at least not Snyder’s vision of Justice League 2 and 3. So let’s get to my thoughts, my quick thought.
Quick Thoughts
PROS
–Ray Fisher’s Cyborg. Snyder mentioned when he was still directing that Cyborg was the emotional core of the movie, and we finally see that. He plays a very large role in this, and you can make the argument that he’s kind of the second lead next to Affleck’s Batman. Hell, maybe even the actual lead. I’m not going to get into the Fisher behind-the-scenes stuff with Joss Whedon, cause that would be a whole separate post, but needless to say, after watching this cut of the movie and remembering the role Cyborg had in Whedon’s cut, yeah he got screwed.
–Snyder’s R-rating is Here. Snyder’s known for this R-rated stuff like 300 and Dawn of the Dead so with no fear of the MPAA on this one, there’s blood EVERYWHERE, and people getting chopped in two. There’s also some F-bombs thrown in for the hell of it I assume.
–The Russian family/town arc is gone. That was a Whedon addition, I didn’t mind the Russian family arc in the original theater cut, as it showed the heroes being heroes while also facing the huge villain army, but it did take away from everything. So that said, the third act is pretty different. At least in terms of how it plays out. Now, it’s just the League facing Steppenwolf and his Parademons.
–A nice little Easter Egg: Unfortunately, the Snyder cut included a nice world expanding Easter Egg for comic fans, which again, will not go anywhere. Ryan Zheng (The Wall, Shadow), who plays the lab assistant to Joe Morton’s Silas Stone is revealed at the end to be Ray Choi aka The Atom. This is of course before he takes the mantle of The Atom, and it looked like Snyder did intend on using the character in the future or at least making sure that the studio could have.
CONS
–It’s too long! I’m the last person that wants to complain about a movie being too long, because sometimes some movies could be an extra ten minutes long, or ten minutes shorter. NOT THIS MOVIE! The movie is basically an assembly cut, that has been reworked into a full-fledged movie. Sometimes that works, but even other Director’s Cut know when to leave stuff on the cutting room floor. Which leads too…
–Too Much Slow-Mo: Seriously, why is there so much damn slow-mo during the first half of the movie? And I’m not just The Flash scenes (at least there it make sense). I’m talking about the other scenes that don’t need slow-mo like Lois walking down the street. I’m a fan of good slow-mo like the next guy, but why is there so much here? It wasn’t necessary!
–The infamous Nightmare Sequence: We know that this was one of, if not the main, thing that Snyder went back and shot. And honestly, as much as the Nightmare Sequence/Alternate Reality stuff looks cool and could be cool to see a movie or large chunk of a movie, it felt like an afterthought here. It really did felt like it was just tact on at the end.
And I get it was suppose to lead into the the reveal of The Martian Manhunter, but I don’t know, it felt out of the place for me.
Going back just a bit. We finally see Jared Leto’s Joker interact with Ben Affleck’s Batman. Which is cool, I know a lot of fans have been wanting to see them together, even me a bit, but it was just fine. Again, the whole scene is just kind of out of place. Then on top of that, the scene is out of focus for like ten seconds, which just bothered the hell out of me. Artistic or not, put your damn movie in focus!
–The Lois Scenes: They seem more out of place or not important even more with the four hour movie. I get that she’s grieving and it is suppose to show how she hasn’t moved on, but she literally disappears for a long time, and when she comes back I was like, “oh, that’s right. She’s in this.” THEN, I don’t understand why in the Lois/Martha scene, it could have just been Martha talking to her and not Martian Hunter in disguise. Because in hindsight, wouldn’t Lois bring up the fact that she had that conversation with Martha? I would have understood if that was suppose to be the only reveal for Martian Manhunter, but it isn’t. Which also makes his appearance in the end, not that all surprising anymore since we’ve already seen him.
STILL PROCESSING
–The CG: Most of the new budget went into the CG anyway, so most of it does look good or polished for the most part. The new Steppenwolf design is cool and better than the past design. The character does also feel a little more like an actual character, since he has an actual backstory instead of just being one-note, and showing up being evil.
Darkseid’s design is okay. I think I’m still just use to the cartoon version – because that was my first introduction to him. This design is pretty different but a welcome one. And while, yeah, it was only suppose to introduce him, again, knowing we’re not going see him again, is just like “cool, it’s Darkseid, oh, that’s right.” That said, some of the new CG is a little wonky, like when Steppenwolf is talking to Dasaad with the monolith (or whatever it was). The Maritain Manhunter design could have used a little more work, but again, time contrasts probably worked against it. He does look okay though. There is also other small moments in there, but hey, we’re talking about a superhero movie here so yeah.
The Aspect Ratio: One of the big things about Zack Snyder’s Justice League was how Snyder wanted to present the movie, which was with the different aspect ratio. Honestly, once the movie gets going, I rarely noticed it. I did notice during some of the action scenes and then the hero shot at the end. If you watch the movie, forgive the ratio. We’re just not use to it.
But all of that leads me to the main thing here, which I know, everyone knows, and I can hear everyone saying – get over it, just enjoy the movie-
NONE OF THIS MATTERS ANYMORE.
Warner Bros. has made it known they are moving away from Snyder’s original vision of the DCEU and his Justice League, so really the whole set up of Darkseid coming to Earth to find the Anti-Life Equation doesn’t matter despite the good setup – which was always on Earth? But Darkseid invaded Earth so why didn’t he know it was here? Was he so focus on conquering that he didn’t realize it…again, hindsight.
Plus, the Maritain Manhunter scene with Bruce is pointless. At least story wise for giving fans hope. Because again, say it with me, none of it matters because it’s not canon. Sure, maybe WB will surprise us and rework The Flash again so some of this stuff can be worked in, but I doubt it. The hashtag movement worked, for this, but will it work again? Very doubtful.
While it’s great for fans who wanted to see this are FINALLY seeing it, and we get to see what Snyder had originally envisioned and shot – for the most part , because there’s a lot that Snyder still wanted to do – Zack Snyder’s Justice League is just another Director’s Cut special in the end of the day that has no baring over what we’ll see in the upcoming DC movies like Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, The Suicide Squad, Black Adam and everything afterwards.
Overall, I guess I would recommend this to you. It is a different movie than what we saw four years ago, so it’s a different experience and a very different movie – and not because it’s so damn long.
Rating: Stream/Rental
Movies with Chris 