Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
“What are your superpowers again?” – Barry Allen.
“I’m rich.” – Bruce Wayne.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written by: Chris Terrio, Zach Nyder, Will Beall
Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller
I haven’t done a superhero movie review yet, and I likely won’t do many of them. Why? With a few exceptions, they’ve all essentially evolved into the same movie – a predictable story of good versus evil, a slew of bankable actors, and about 95% CGI. This isn’t to say I dislike superhero movies – quite the contrary; I’ve seen every Marvel and X-Men movie, most DC films, and all the old and new Spiderman and Batman movies. However, this film demanded a review based solely on its unbelievable production story, and unique optics.
Here’s a quick recap of the production:
For those initiated in the world of superhero movies, you might remember that Justice League was already released by Warner Bros. in 2017, starring the same actors listed above. This was an important release for Warner Bros, who were attempting to combat the overwhelmingly popular Marvel universe by producing more of their DC superhero film franchise. Bringing together the characters of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg for a live-action film, Justice League was meant to contend with The Avengers for popularity.
However, the production of the film was thrown into chaos in early 2017 when original director Zack Snyder announced he was stepping away from the film to be with his family after the death of his daughter.
Marvel wonder-boy Joss Wheadon (who had just come off The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron) was hired to see the film through postproduction and reshoots.
On November 2017, Wheadon’s version of Justice League was released and was considered both a critical and commercial flop.
Following the movie’s release, Wheadon was embroiled in controversy as members of the cast and crew (including Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg) cited unprofessional and abusive behaviour from the director during production.
This, coupled with the bad reception of the film by fans, lead to a fan campaign against Warner Bros, with people staging rallies in 2018. By 2019, the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign had taken on a life of its own, with billboards and banners being purchased to heap more pressure on Warner Bros.
On the second anniversary of the theatrical release, Snyder and cast members Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck and Ray Fisher take to social media to demand a release of the Snyder cut.
On May 20, 2020, Warner Bros. finally caves to people power and announces that the Snyder Cut will be released on HBO Max in 2021.
Snyder estimates that it cost around $70 million USD to refine his raw footage into the final cut.
So like I said, it’s a pretty crazy production story, with Warner Bros. essentially being bullied into spending more money to re-release a film they’d already lost money on. If anyone wants to learn more about this story, I suggest reading Anthony Breznican’s extensive Vanity Fair article here: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/02/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut.
So, the 70 million dollar question – was it worth it? With all due respect to everyone involved, I think the quick answer is no. I’m not a die-hard comic book fan, so I’m sure there are nuances and references I just don’t appreciate, but this movie was absolutely exhausting. With a runtime of 4 hours and 2 minutes (!!!!!!), this is easily the longest movie I’ve ever watched, and in one sitting it’s a slog. To fill up the runtime, Snyder has included a lot of unseen footage and also filmed some new scenes. Ironically, my biggest criticism of the film is that it’s far too long. I know that Snyder was given creative freedom to include what he wanted and present his version of the story, but by adding time I felt like it made me even more critical of the content. Every single scene I was questioning, “does this scene really need to be in the movie?” To be fair, the answer was not always no. For instance, a bunch of the new scenes added context, background and depth to the six main characters. With six main leads, you need a lot of time to properly introduce their pasts – particularly for The Flash and Cyborg, who haven’t yet received stand-alone films. This is a problem that has plagued other DC movies, most prominently Suicide Squad, which gave us a movie with eight lead characters but only properly introduced two of them. So yes, additional character background is good, and I’m sure comic book fans will eat up the extra content. Unfortunately, this was the only positive I could find with the added length. The big ‘new’ scene for the film that was reshot in 2020 (in the ‘Epilogue’) was awful, and clearly just an excuse to try and shoehorn Jared Leto’s Joker into the film. The remainder of the additional scenes in the Snyder cut were just extensions to the various CGI fight scenes. Now, I’m all for good action scenes, and watching superheros use their various abilities to beat up on a henchmen army can be entertaining, but the CGI army was the worst part of the original Justice League movie - why would Snyder extend this?
A superhero movie is only as good as it’s villain. Thanos? Fantastic villain. The Joker? Also a fantastic villain. They have charisma, a purpose, and a motive for destruction. A faceless CGI army with a leader who for some reason wants to destroy the universe? I couldn’t care less. The big baddie in Justice League is Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciaran Hinds), and while Snyder does provide some further background to his character (and the fact that he is a secondary villain to the more powerful ‘Darkseid’), he still doesn’t meet the lofty standards of other famous villains. And don’t get me started on his punching bag henchmen – CGI shadows who are never shown to injure a single character – it’s a boring and uninspiring combination, and I think the major downfall of the movie. Unfortunately no matter what Snyder did with the cut, he wasn’t able to change the bones of the story enough for me to care.
Now, I’ve just outlined some extremely disappointing aspects of the film, but it’s impossible to deny that Zack Snyder has improved the aesthetic of the film dramatically. Similar to 300 and Watchmen, Snyder has muted the colour palate and given the film a much darker look. It is now an R-rated film (compared to the original PG-13 release), with more visible gore, and definitely less of a ‘kid-friendly’ feel. Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen is the only real source of comic relief, but even that is kept at an absolute minimum. He has also redesigned the aesthetic of Steppenwolf and Superman, to make both characters more visually imposing. The biggest change I believe Snyder made (and the one least likely to have been green lit for the big screen) was altering the aspect ratio of the entire film to 4:3. This means the frame is almost a square, rather than a standard movie aspect ratio, which is much wider than it is tall. When asked about this, Snyder insisted this was because comic books have more action happening vertically rather than horizontally, and he wanted to bring this aesthetic to the film. Maybe it’s the movie nerd in me, but I thought this was pretty cool, and definitely unique for modern cinema.
In summary, this absolute marathon of a film will only appeal to you for one of three reasons:
You are a massive comic book fan and will enjoy the additional comic book lore presented in the extended cut.
You’re a die-hard action scene fan and want to binge the mindless violence throughout.
You have four spare hours and absolutely nothing else to do.
I’m sure there are plenty that fit this bill, and as of now it has received mostly positive reviews from the bloodthirsty DC Comics fan base. It just wasn’t for me, and I still think the only good recent DC movies are Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey. I’d much rather watch a four hour Marvel film until DC up their game.
Rating: 6/10