“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” Review
(From Left) Cyborg, The Flash, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman stand united in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” the director’s cut of the 2017 superhero film.
After years of Tweets, petitions and even cries from the cast and crew, the director’s cut of the 2017 film “Justice League” is now available on HBOMax. With a buildup not seen since “Avengers: Endgame,” “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is one of the most interesting director’s cuts ever made and is far superior than the original 2017 superhero film.
Essentially telling the same story as “Justice League,” the film sees Batman (Ben Affleck) assemble superheroes Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg (Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Mamoa and Ray Fisher) to fight against an alien conqueror named Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) and his army of Parademons. However, whereas the original film was less than two hours long, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is a little over four.
The history of Justice League is complicated but here is the basic summary for people who haven’t been waiting anxiously for this cut. In 2013, Zack Snyder directed the first film in the DC Extended Universe (a cinematic universe based around DC Comics characters) “Man of Steel,” centered on Superman (Henry Cavill). It was a big hit at the box office, although it did divide fans and critics, and resulted in more DC films including “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (also directed by Snyder), “Suicide Squad” and “Wonder Woman.”
In 2017, Zack Snyder once again was directing a superhero film, “Justice League,” which would take Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, already established superheroes, and combine them with the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg in a massive event of a film. However, after all of the principal photography had been finished, Snyder received the heartbreaking news that his daughter Autumn had taken her own life. Understandably, Snyder decided to step away from the project to be with his family.
Warner Bros., the studio which owns the rights to DC, appointed director/writer Joss Whedon, who previously helmed “The Avengers” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” to finish the film. However, Whedon and Warner Bros. had the film, which was meant to be three hours, to be trimmed down to two hours, changed the color to be more bright and shot new scenes to inject more humor in the film. When the film was finally released, fans took issue with the tonal inconsistencies, mediocre plot and the less-than-two hour runtime.
Director Zack Snyder (Right) interacts with Ben Affleck (Right) as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman on the set of “Justice League.”
Many fans felt that Snyder’s original vision had been tarnished by the studio and demanded to see Snyder’s original vision with #ReleaseTheSnyderCut trending on Twitter. Snyder himself revealed that his original cut did exist and, in 2020, Warner Bros. revealed that the Snyder Cut was finally coming to fruition. Now, $70 million later to finish the special effects and editing, the original vision has come out.
Everything about this film is infinitely better than the original cut with character motivations expanded, action sequences made longer and the entire film being given an epic weight to it. Watching “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is like watching a completely different film with every minute of footage being either new or altered to serve Snyder’s original vision.
The Flash and Cyborg have more time dedicated to their character development and Cyborg is given several scenes which elevate him as a character, turning him from one of the most boring characters of the original cut to being one of the best in the new cut. A lot of the dumb jokes the Flash made have been dropped in this new cut, but he still maintains the optimism that makes him so endearing.
Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are given more epic action sequences and Batman really steps up as a leader. With each film he appears in, Ben Affleck just fits the role of Batman so well. Henry Cavill also plays Superman incredibly well, he looks much better in the black suit and he really shines. But what’s in this film that the original “Justice League” lacked was a sense of teamwork. Every superhero is here for a reason and they all work together well despite being very extreme people.
The film’s main villain, Steppenwolf, has also been given more weight, and a kick-ass new design, that turned him from a boring CGI villain into a relatively interesting and threatening character.
The action scenes are much better in this version and utilize Snyder’s style of slowing down certain bits of the scene as seen in Snyder’s work like “300” and “Watchmen.” The film’s extended run-time helps with the action sequences because there’s just more room for people getting punched.
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” isn’t flawless. It does have some issues with the pacing, particularly in the last half hour. But for a four hour film to feel very seamless for the first three and a half hours is pretty impressive. The film also contains a 15-minute dream sequence with Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) and The Joker (Jared Leto) that is very unnecessary and bogs down the plot, but Snyder clearly wanted to give fans everything that he shot so who is he to hold back when he’s given complete control of his director’s cut.
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is a major gift to fans who wanted this for so long. It’s also a beacon of hope that maybe, just maybe, studios will finally let filmmakers make the films they have envisioned and the studios will just stick to what they do best: shoveling money and staying out of the artistic side of things. While it’s unclear if Zack Snyder will return to the DC Extended Universe, this film is a solid entry from Snyder that makes me want to throw up my arms and shout “Hallelujah.”
DC Films in release order:
Man of Steel (2013)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Suicide Squad (2016)
Wonder Woman (2017)
Justice League (2017)
Aquaman (2018)
Shazam (2019)
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
