Synopsis
Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.
Directed by Zack Snyder.
Written by Zack Snyder, Chris Terrio and Will Beall.
Starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Ezra Miller and Henry Cavill.
Released currently on Now TV to stream.
Review/Waffle/Goodness knows what
This is going to be a little different to normal. I was going to try and do a review of the film and then do a bit of a comparison, but I just found it easier to free flow some nonsense under headers to make it slightly more digestible. So I present to you my sort of, but not really, review of Zack Snyder's Justice League...
Batman / Bruce Wayne (oops, spoilers!)
Brucey has a much more background role in this film. Despite being at the forefront of the plan to bring everyone together and using all his gadgets, he just seems to... hang around. While he's instrumental in the beginning of the end battle he literally stands around and watches everyone else struggling. It very much felt like "grandpa" was handing over the mantle.
Wonder Woman / Diana Prince
She's beauty and she's grace, she'll head butt you in the face. Diana always kicks ass, and I can't fault her for any of that in this film, I can however fault the scripting. Much like I disliked the ladies of Marvel assembling in Endgame, I wasn't a fan of the changes that happened with Wonder Woman.
2017
Steppenwolf: "This one is mine."
WW: "You overestimate yourself."
2021
Steppenwolf: "This one will be mine."
WW: "I belong to no one."
Sweetie, no one thought that's what he meant. As well as that there's the extended bank scene where Wonder Woman stays and checks on the hostages she's just saved and gives a little girl a pep talk about growing up to be whoever she wants to be. It all felt out of place both times, it would have been much easier to have the girl stand up to the gunman or do something rash and then Wonder Woman reappears to save the day.
Aquaman / Arthur Curry
His interactions with the team are much more prominent in this version. Instead of the grumpy, jokey guy, he gets to show a caring side when it comes to Cyborg and he has actual(ish) conversations with Flash. As a character, there was much more to him this time... and he wasn't the only one.
Cyborg / Victor Stone
My actual notes said "what was this tragedy?!" While I'd heard things about the Cyborg changes, I hadn't read much into it, so seeing what there was in the new version... I felt robbed.
Cyborg's backstory was such a huge amount of this film, seeing him before his accident shows us so much about his character and the reasons behind his relationship with his father. His whole character is turned on its head because of what we see, he goes from being led by his technology to trying to discover what he can do and becoming one with it. It's a much more powerful piece for him.
Flash / Barry Allen
Again, here we get a lot more story, but this time it's real time and not the past. I'm going to mention the biggest thing further down in this non-review review, but for now I want to talk about the change of character.
There are some very subtle changes to Barry's character, when he first meets Bruce they change the music video that's showing in the background and they make him a lot less babbly and hyperactive overall, making him a lot more... sensible..? As sensible as he can be. Throughout the new version everything is more toned down, but he also felt a lot more clumsy because of the missing babble.
Superman / Clark Kent
I wouldn't say that there was much difference with Supes himself apart from the suit scene where he gets a non-existent pep talk. And I know people are raving about the black suit, but I can't say it did much for me.
Lois Lane
The Lois I saw in this film does not feel like a logical step for her, even with the devastation. Lois is strong, but in this cut she comes across as a shell of a woman. Her continued involvement at the paper in the original felt right, it's her calling, it made sense for her to stay around in some role. Actively avoiding it really didn't sit right with me.
Baddies
Yeeeeeeeeesssss. This was so much better. Everything, better.
That CGI... *chef's kiss*... I absolutely hated it in the first one. It was just unbelievably bad. This time it was sleek, our assortment of bad guys looked "realistic" and menacing instead of half-finished.
Darkseid's actual presence made for a much more compelling bit of villainy in the film. With the bigger danger from him being on the cusp of appearing there was a much better threat than the previous storyline of just Steppenwolf lurking.
I was, however, struck by the horrible truth (again) that the DC and Marvel worlds are ever so similar. The Darkseid/Steppenwolf relationship just reminded me of the whole Thanos-y/Ronin one in Avengers.
New characters and other stuff
- Ryan Choi - There was potential here for the future of the universe, but after adding Flash, I have my worries that adding another character that's got a connection to existing content.
- Deathstroke - We got a little of him in the first one, Joe Manganiello in anything is all good by me.
- Joker - I don't particularly have anything against his Joker, it's more that I didn't like anything about the scene he was in.
- Iris West - It would have been nice if we actually knew it was Iris without having to look it up.
- Pregnancy test - Lois, in her new found devastation has the box hidden in her nightstand. Baby Supes may never see the light of day now.
- Martian Manhunter - Brief fleeting views, but again, not sure how an existing character being redone in another version sits with me.
- Speed force - A much bigger coverage of the speedster's powers, another piece that could have held something big for the future of the franchise.
- Multiverse - I was particularly yawn about the teaser of this, didn't like the scene, didn't really care for the future. That could have been because I'd been watching for so long though.
Music
I enjoyed the music in the first version, though I'm willing to admit that it's very reminiscent of late 90s Batman movies. I can understand why that might not be to everyone's cup of tea. The new version... *sigh* the combination of the drawn out scenes and the stretched "meaningful" music became very tiresome.
The Emma Cut
Snyder gets his cut, I want mine. These may be jumbled up but you'll get the idea.
✖ The Wonder Woman bank scene - I didn't notice how irrelevant the scene was in the first one, but the extended cut made it highly apparent. It's on the cutting room floor for me.
✔ Diana jumping down into the cavern and finding the visuals of the boxes. I thought that this worked quite nicely compared to the Bruce/Aquaman meeting one did.
✖ I am absolutely cutting the scene with the creepy singing villagers and the woman sniffing Arthur's jumper.
✔ While the singing and the sniffing was creepy, the Aquaman disappearing into the water part of this sequence was better than the original.
✔ I mentioned this above, but Batman's role in the final battle is very different... give me his inclusion from the first one.
✖ As much as it led to some fun little pieces, I'd keep the new version of the Russian landscape and not have the Russian civilians thought-out the film.
✖ I'm cutting the pet shop scene...
✔ ... however, I would happily have a scene with him saving Iris (if we actually found out she was Iris), but no hotdogs.
✔ Absolutely keeping the speed force/time travel talk being a bigger thing. I loved the scene where he runs time back into being...
✖ ... but I'm cutting out Flash's talking during that run.
✔ Darkseid is staying, great improvement on the first.
✖ I don't miss the Flash babbling, so I would definitely leave a lot of that out, but I think you need to keep just enough to have him more like Flash 1.0 and not Flash the Snyder Cut.
✔ Cyborg backstory... we deserve it.
✖ I don't care for tea, and I don't care for Alfred and Diana faffing with it.
✔ The brain bugs were a good device, they can stay.
✔ All the Aquaman/team interactions are staying.
✔ Snyder Lois is out, original is back, but I'll allow the pregnancy test to stay.
✔ The 2021 version of the grave-robbing scene is staying instead of the original.
✔ Extended Supes fight before Lois arrives... keeping it.
✔ Silas Stone's sacrifice with the cube was a powerful moment, it's staying too.
✔ I miss that lasso truth scene where Aquaman opens up about the plan, that's being resurrected harder than Superman in a puddle of electrified goo.
✔ Lastly, I'm keeping more of the Cy and Flash story, specifically them being instrumental in the success of the final battle.
Thoughts
The Snyder Cut sets up so much for future Justice League adventures, and those things would have been good... but the film absolutely didn't need to be this long to still do that, some of the scenes were so drawn out that it became painful. (I like Jason Momoa getting hit with buckets of water as much as the next person, but even I didn't need that full scene of him standing on the dock in the waves. At one point I wondered if they'd shot extra footage for an aftershave commercial.)
Overall it had a much more serious tone to it, and I don't mind that in a superhero film, but then it goes and throws in the petshop/hotdog scene. I feel like it was meant to be funny, but almost everything about it stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the film. I saw someone say they thought this version of the film was funnier in general compared to the first, I'm not sure we watched the same movie.
If you read my reviews you'll be aware of my feelings on "bizarre" ratios. In things like The Lighthouse I can see why they go with certain aspect ratios, but unless they're being shown on a screen that is that size they're really not for me, it's a distraction. This is a very personal feeling of course, there are a lot of people who like the aesthetics and style choices around this sort of thing. For me though, I want that full screen experience, especially with this sort of blockbuster.
I'm one of these strange people that likes most superhero movies, I liked the various Fantastic Fours, even Green Lantern... and I enjoyed the original Justice League cut. I gave it 4/5. And while seeing everything that was cut out of it makes me feel like we were robbed, I still enjoyed that movie on a rewatch. I'm unlikely to sit through the epic version again by choice, whereas I probably would rewatch the first one.
I always find it a little baffling when it comes to DC and Marvel. For me, Marvel always got the films right, but the TV shows were just okay. And DC always got the TV shows right and their films were okay. (When I'm saying okay I mean they're watchable but I wouldn't need to rush to rewatch them.) That felt like something that was on the change. Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam, all seemed to find a level that worked in a way I hadn't felt about their films in a while. I wanted to see them again, they mixed dramatic and fun in a way that Marvel have always been able to nail. But while this version of Justice League goes out and does its own thing, and that's perfectly acceptable, the tone felt wrong for the set of characters that were brought together... and when you put all the little niggles together from across the whole thing it leaves me with a film I'd be fine without.
Perhaps my rating of this is a little unfair, it has a lot of things I like in it after all. The negatives outweighed the bad in the end though, and as much as I like the Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman development, they wouldn't compel me to sit through it again. Not even in chunks.
What you should do
If you're a fan then you're going to watch it, or probably already have. I'm not sure my recommendation would sway someone into a decision on this one no matter how I felt about it. If you want to sit through nearly four hours of this then you should. But if you're not sure you fancy it, then it's probably not the right time to watch it. Only go for it if you have the urge to watch it, otherwise I think it could be a struggle.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Some superpowers would be handy, probably some all round Supes ones.
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