Zack Snyder's Justice League

Today, I finished watching Zack Snyder’s extended “Justice League” cut, which was released on HBO Max back in March. Seeing how this film is four hours long, I watched it in pieces while I was exercising, since that’s what people have been doing during the pandemic. Now, I will let all of you know if I thought this is better than the theatrical version.

Four years ago, when the “Justice League” film was released, it got mixed reviews. Many DC comic and movie fans had dismissed the film for its poor, unfocused script. Mostly because the film went through a difficult production and some serious changes between 2016 to 2017. There were reports that Zack Snyder left during the production because of the suicide of his daughter Autumn, then Joss Whedon came in and changed things around and may have ended up changing things a little too much than he should have.

Apparently die-hard fans and cybercitizens went all over social media with the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign, and the studio eventually listened after a few years. Now we finally get the version Snyder always wanted to release, and it became a four-hour long movie that came out on HBO Max. Fortunately, the famous Snyder cut this time around makes Justice League into a film worth seeing.

After Superman (Henry Cavill) sacrifices himself to kill Doomsday, Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) travels all over the planet to gather a new team of superheroes, which includes Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), to defend everyone from an oncoming alien attack. That attack is Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), one of Darkseid’s (Ray Porter) minions who wants to get the three Mother Boxes, the powerful and indestructible boxes that are capable of building and destroying the planet.

Tatat Bunnag said in his review, “While the premise in Zack Snyder's Justice League in broad terms remains the same as the 2017 film, with double the runtime, the new film is a methodical slow burn and has a much deeper interest in exploring its characters more than one may expect.” Nearly every character in the extended version in every way has more of a background and is far more articulate and appealing. These improvements help us really like the characters and understand where they’re coming from.

The premise for the Flash and Cyborg mainly – since the presence of those two characters were mainly dull and somewhat boring in the theatrical version – really bring forth everything that’s human and strong about them. Mainly, Cyborg feels like a well-rounded person in this movie, and for the first time, you see what he thinks and understand more of his family background (Joe Morton and Karen Bryson). Bunnag said, “And it's frankly stunning how engaging Barry Allen/The Flash is here compared to the bland iteration in the theatrical cut.” Allen struggles to find a direction in life and keep his promise he gave to his father, played by Billy Crudup. Now the film pieces the character together from his decision to help the heroes to accepting his responsibility to use his powers for good. Steppenwolf is also more a well-done villain in this version. There’s more clearness to his motivations, which include his duty and loyalty to Darkseid.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League also nicely gives us more background on the three Mother Boxes, which was never explained in the theatrical version. When we look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how they have released so many main and solo movies over the years to go into so much detail on each of the Infinity Stones, we see the DC Extended Universe never had a chance like that before. Now, thanks to the extended version, there’s more than enough time to let viewers know more about the Mother Boxes. Bunnag ended his review by saying, “Ultimately, Zack Snyder's Justice League is definitely a surprise vindication for the director and really saves the movie from the dustbin of history. With its improved stories, better realised protagonists and antagonists, I believe that it should resonate with fans better than ever.”

We also get appearances from other famous DC characters, like Jeremy Irons as Alfred, J.K. Simmons as James Gordon, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke, and even Harry Lennix makes a surprise appearance as Martin Manhunter. We even hear the voices of Carla Gugino as the A.I. on the Krypton ship, Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner as Clark Kent/Kal-El’s fathers.

 For those who did not really get into the theatrical version, check out the Snyder cut. There are still some problems, it doesn’t resolve all the issues from the theatrical version, but they do improve on those mistakes. Snyder’s direction and characterization are better, but he just can’t do Superman justice. That’s a major complaint that I can understand where people come from when they say that. However, seeing how this is a long film, which it in pieces, since you can watch it on HBO Max, if you have an account. Still, you should see this because it is a great film and another one of my favorite comic book films. I didn’t mind the theatrical version like a lot of people did, since I missed some of those comedic moments that were in the theatrical version, but the Snyder version was worth it in the end.

Thank you for joining in on today’s review, stay tuned tomorrow for the continuation of “The Addams Family Month.”