Review: Justice League (Snyder Cut)

How different could it possibly be?

During this entire #ReleaseTheSnyderCut fiasco, that’s what I’ve always wondered. The combination of backlash from Batman v. Superman’s poor reception and a family tragedy led to Zack Snyder leaving the Justice League project just as it was finishing up production. Enter Joss Whedon, who, while coming off an equally lame effort with Avengers: Age of Ultron, seemed like the perfect person to come in and help Snyder’s movie be a little less depressing. Say what you want now but, at the time, that hire was praised universally. Warner Bros. wanted Justice League to be The Avengers, and fans just wanted a little more color and a little less Superman and Batman murdering people. Easy enough, right?

Well, instead, Whedon made a plethora of changes and re-shot a lot of the movie to make it a bit more family-friendly. We all know how that turned out. Aside from the poor CGI to conceal Henry Cavill’s mustache and several groan-inducing one-liners, Whedon’s cut of the film is easily forgettable. Shortly after is when you started to hear the cries for Zack Snyder’s version. Were they in denial? Absolutely. Was their campaigning a bit aggressive? No doubt. But you have to hand it to that community, they didn’t give up. While people like me figured that the differences would be limited to the color of Superman’s suit and the overall saturation, there was an entire fanbase making just enough noise to keep that hashtag relevant—even if it was usually mocked by most. With the pandemic and movie studios, in general, panicking over not making any money, it was the golden opportunity to finally let Zack Snyder do his thing.

…and it’s actually pretty good.

The differences between Whedon’s Justice League and Zack Snyder’s are apparent right off the bat. (Punny!) Even when the scene and dialog are the same, there’s just a bit more context in Snyder’s versions to keep you on board. Now, sure, Snyder’s version is twice the size in length, so it has that ability, but I think that there’s more to it than that. In both releases, you have these visionary directors that are way too far up their own ass. The difference is that Snyder devotes far more time to make you care about the characters that you’re watching. There are so many scenes in this film that add charm and interest into the characters—shot by Snyder—and that Whedon threw in the trash so that he could make an Aquaman joke. Barry Allen’s introduction is the weirdest omission, I think.

In an effort to shorten this review and not make it 7,000 words, here are a few of the hits and misses for Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Hit: This Machine Has a Soul

No wonder Ray Fisher is so pissed at Joss Whedon. In the theatrical cut of Justice League, Cyborg is a glorified extra, just there to round out the team. He doesn’t do a whole lot, and the little screen time that he is given is wasted on cringey one-liners. In Snyder’s cut, the dude is essentially the main character of the film. He gets a backstory; you get to see the reason for the resentment towards his father and the survivor guilt that he has for surviving the car crash that killed his mother. We also get to see very early on the scope of Cyborg’s abilities. While we’re told that Victor’s powers could allow him to launch all of the nuclear weapons on Earth at once, he’s literally on a street corner using that ability to add funds into a mother’s overdrafted bank account. It’s a great scene, and it’s nowhere to be found in Whedon’s version.

Once he’s introduced, Cyborg and his father are the backbone and the soul of the film.

Hit: Steppenwolf Ain’t (As Much of) No Bitch

In addition to a much-needed redesign, Steppenwolf’s motivations for going to Earth and retrieving the mother boxes make a lot more sense in Zack Snyder’s cut. As the disgraced general of Darksied that is wanting to reclaim his honor, Steppenwolf has to conquer 50,000 worlds and add their inhabitants to Darksied’s army in order for him to clear his name. With Superman dead, that makes Earth is ripe for the taking. It’s not much, but it’s enough to make Steppenwolf something besides Generic Bad Guy #1.

He’s also a bit of a badass in this film. That redesign has him look intimidating as opposed to the old man that wants to rant about Walmart not selling Dr. Suess books while he’s having his Cracker Barrel breakfast. As he whoops the Amazon’s asses and (rightfully so) mocks them for trying to take him down with bows and arrows, he presents himself as a legit threat…until Superman shows up.

Miss: Oh no. Oh no. Oh no, no, no Gadot.

Can we finally say that Gal Gadot’s not a very good actress? It’s not the accent, and it’s not the material. I mean, it’s fine. I still love her as Wonder Woman. She’s beautiful, has a great screen presence and gifs of her smiling will always make my knees weak. I’m not saying that she shouldn’t be in this role, I’m just saying that maybe the epic exposition dump that explains the entire backstory to the film shouldn’t be read by someone that reads it with the same enthusiasm as someone that reads an eye chart.

Miss: C’mon, Man

Quick sidebar: There are three mother boxes. Darksied’s needing all three of them, so, sure, best to split them up. No problems there. Amazon’s, they build a giant boobytrapped tomb to hold one of the boxes and they keep it under surveillance 24/7. Mother Box Hiding Grade: B+

Atlanteans, they keep theirs sitting on a pedestal, which is pretty weak, but that pedestal is miles under the ocean, so they get points for that. Mother Box Hiding Grade: B

Man? Man digs a hole and throws it in. Not even a big hole. No wonder that it was the first Mother Box discovered. Mother Box Hiding Grade: F-

Hit and Miss: What a Knightmare

Okay, so let’s talk about that epilogue. In a dream sequence that we’re led to believe will come true at some point, we see this post-apocalyptic city that looks like something out of Mad Max. Walking along the highway we have Batman, Mera, Deathstroke, Flash, and Joker. This band of misfits are trying to evade “him” but decide to holdup and chat. That “him” is Superman, who has gone full heel after the death of Lois (and likely their child) and seems to be working alongside Darksied.

As Batman and Joker have a tense discussion about watching those that they care about the most die—and reacharounds—Mera says that she’s going to kill Superman for what he did to Arthur, and then punctuates that like a dumbass by slamming her trident on the ground just loud enough to catch the attention of someone that might have super hearing.

Sure enough, Superman swoops down ready to whoop dey asses. And then that’s it.

It’s such a cockblock and I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I enjoyed it and I’m glad that we got a peek at where Zack Snyder was wanting to go in future movies, but it’s also so disappointing that we’re never going to see more of that. Snyder has announced that he’s done making DC movies. Affleck has handed his cowl over to Robert Pattinson. Nobody wants to see Amber Heard again. It just felt a bit weird to sit through this four-hour movie, find yourself enjoying it, and then end it with such a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Hit and Miss: Martian Mancreeper

Halfway through the film, there’s a great scene between Martha Kent and Lois inside of Lane’s apartment. Martha opens up about losing the Kent farm, talks about her struggles of losing Clark, and tells Lois that she needs to live her life again. They hug and cry, and as Martha leaves, she transforms into Martian Manhunter. In context, it doesn’t make a lot of sense and has you asking more questions, but for a cheap pop, it’s pretty good. I just wish they would have left it at that.

The final moments of the film involve Bruce Wayne waking up from his Knightmare and walking outside to find a levitating Martian Manhunter. M&M says that Darkseid isn’t finished and that they’re going to have to team up to stop him. Really? You blow your cover to drop that bombshell, dude? No fucking duh. Instead, I wish that the dialog would have been true to the point of the scene.

(Interior Wayne Manor)

Bruce Wayne awakens from his dream. Something catches his attention outside his giant window house. He walks to OUTSIDE.

(Exterior Wayne Manor)

Bruce Wayne: Can I help you?

Above, a green man flies above BRUCE. This is MARTIAN MANHUNTER.

Martian Manhunter: (Looks into the camera) Hi everybody, you might have seen me about 2 hours ago and been a bit confused. I’m a Justice League guy. Some people know me. I’m not Vision. Some call me…Martian Manhunter.

Dude, we got it. Fuck off. We want Lanterns, bro. Not you.

Hit: (No) Flash Funk

I just want to say that I’ve never really understood the appeal of the Flash as a character. Maybe it’s because my first exposure to the character was through that ridiculous mid-90’s live-action series, but he’s just always felt lame. Joss Whedon’s theatrical version of the film only further cemented that thought in my head. But I think that Zack Snyder was able to illustrate the appeal better than anyone else has. Several of my favorite scenes in this film show Barry Allen showcasing his power differently. Saving cute girls and a couple of hot dogs from being smashed by a truck is one thing but going so fast that you can reverse time and alter the outcome of the epic final battle in your favor…that was just fucking cool. It’s a defining moment for that character. It left me with this desire to see a solo Flash film whereas, in Whedon’s version, he was reduced to helping a random family escape a potential blast radius.

Final Take

It’s remarkable how different this version of the film is. It’s way too long, but if this was the film that we got in 2017, I think that things would be completely different for the DC cinematic universe. Warner Bros. was so quick to move on from Snyder to get away from his overly ominous Batman V. Superman, but it looks like Snyder had already been righting that ship in the first place. When you compare the two films, there’s not a single thing that Joss Whedon’s film did better.

All-in-all, it’s one of the best comic book movies ever made, and I’m glad that Zack Snyder was able to redeem himself and deliver his vision. Very happy for him and all those that campaigned to make this happen.