I didn’t like Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. It took two flights of escalators leaving the cinema before my brain kicked in and a cry of “What the fuck was THAT!?” escaped my lips. Maybe my expectations were suitably lowered going into Justice League the first time around, but for all that film’s problems, at least I could say I didn’t hate it.
What I did hate was the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign that grew over the intervening years. Some good was done through fundraising efforts tied to it, but at its worst it felt like pandering to the Internet’s nastiest tendencies, and that if encouraged, no highly anticipated movie would ever be accepted at face value upon release again.
Which brings us to Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Warner Bros. have spent a reported US$70 million to bring Snyder’s vision to life. Was it a colossal waste of time and money?
First things first, this is not a “work print” or anything like that. Despite the odd, square, IMAX aspect ratio, Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. have, at least, spent their effects budget well. Oh, and despite the press photos, it is in colour.
Moustachegate is now a thing of the past. Steppenwolf, still the villain of the piece, is far more alien and intimidating now, in ways that static shots of him in his spiky armour don’t do justice. He’s much more lethal in action too. The colour and look of the film now fits in better with Snyder’s aesthetic, some frames look like they could easily slot into 300 or Sucker Punch. It’s muted, dark, but not shrouded in murk.
On a base level Zack Snyder’s Justice League looks far better than the theatrical cut of the film, but is it a better movie?
Undeniably, yes.
Young Bloods
The story still follows mostly the same beats as the original; Steppenwolf comes to Earth for the Mother Boxes, Batman/Bruce Wayne assembles the League to stop him, the League realize they need Superman (deceased) to have a hope of winning, but everything is more coherent. Everything makes more sense. Nearly all my questions from the theatrical cut are answered satisfyingly.
Of the two and a half hours of new footage, every character get more screen time, obviously, but Cyborg and The Flash benefit the most.
We finally get those flashbacks to Vic’s American football game, his origin, the exploration of his powers, and his troubled relationship with his father. No wonder Ray Fisher was so pissed. His breakout role was butchered. (Mild Spoiler: he no longer says “Boo-ya!”)
Barry’s arc (he now has one!) ditches most of his fumbling towards heroism from the original. Lines like, “It’s really cool, you guys seem ready to do battle and stuff, but, full transparency, I’ve never done battle! I’ve just pushed some people and run away!” are gone, in favour of actual heroics. He may stumble occasionally but he knows what he can do as The Flash and gets to do it, taking a pivotal (and honestly, pretty kick-ass) role in the film’s climax. Ezra Miller’s weird running even looks better and more fluid in The Snyder Cut.
We also get a little more background for Aquaman and Wonder Woman, but nothing too earth shattering. There are just a lot more nice moments with the team, especially with Bruce, which might be the addition I’m most happy with.
Spruce Bruce
From small moments of levity with the other members of the League (not those from the original cut), to using his, and Alfred’s, smarts to help the team more, to being a far more active and effective presence in fights with the parademons, Affleck’s Batman is fleshed out in small but impactful ways. Affleck (he was the bomb in Phantoms you know) gets to show off his movie star charm as Bruce Wayne. Just giving his interactions with the rest of the team room to breathe gives them more life.
He actually gets to be a Batman that’s more in tune with past iterations of the character instead of a dour murderer. After Batman V Superman I never thought I’d see this iteration of the Dark Knight act on faith, to have him say that, and be right there with him.
While Superman, and Henry Cavill’s naked upper lip, do still return, the circumstances surrounding that return are slightly different, have better stakes, and are just more emotional.
A lot of that emotion comes from Tom Holkenborg’s/Junkie XL’s score, which ditches Danny Elfman’s homages to the classic Batman theme from the theatrical cut but builds heavily on Hans Zimmer’s Man of Steel theme to great effect. Even when he’s not evoking previous films, Holkenborg’s score kicks the energy of the action scenes up one whole notch, if not two.
Justice League: Take 2 is clearly a better movie than the one we got previously, but is it a good movie?
Brevity Is the Soul of Wit
At four hours, it’s still too damn long. This would have never flown in cinemas. As the first cinematic team up of the League, it’s suitably “epic” in scale, but even “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” only spent 2 hours 24 minutes on their first cinematic team up, topping out at 3 hours 2 minutes for Avengers: Endgame. Even Francis Ford Coppolla seems to have realised that Apocalypse Now: Redux was just too long a time in the cinema at a paltry 3 hours 22 minutes, cutting it back for his later Final Cut.
There’s still some fluff in here that could have been be cut. There are some cameos and additional weight given to smaller moments that could have reasonably been cut without impacting the story, but Zack Snyder’s Justice League is still a cinematic folly. Thankfully streaming the movie means you can take regular breaks and return to it whenever you want, a fact aided by the fact that the film is handily divided up into 6 easily digested parts with an epilogue.
It’s tremendously difficult to separate my thoughts on this cut from the theatrical one. Despite its reputation for being grim/unwatchable, the jokes here land more, the team building works better, and the emotional moments hit harder, it’s amazing what you can achieve given the time.
There’s Always a “But…”
Barring a miracle, we’ll never get to see the next two parts of Snyder’s planned Justice League trilogy but he’s politely left all the sequel baiting moments in this film, and has talked about them extensively, so we have a pretty good idea what to expect. This movie sets up the world of Steppenwolf, and his boss, far better than the original did. In fact, it makes the exclusion of these elements even more baffling. Perhaps mainstream audiences, with no familiarity with Jack Kirby’s Fourth World might have balked at the sci-fi weirdness, but nothing here is more “far out” than parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After watching The Snyder Cut I have to admit even I’m a little sad we won’t get to see how the story ends.
Not many filmmakers get a second chance like this, and Zack Snyder hasn’t squandered his in finally bringing his vision to the small screen. For comic book fans this is a far, far better realization of DC’s heroes than the first time around, but I doubt your significant other, or your Gran, will sit through it if they have no love for the source material. For the comic book faithful however, it’s pretty great.
Jared Leto’s Joker still sucks though.
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