Into the DC Murderverse: "Zack Snyder's Justice League"

"Zack Snyder's Justice League" (2021)

 

Well, you did it, Joe. You successfully bullied a major movie studio into releasing a new cut of a movie that came out 4 years ago. That's right, some of the most toxic fandoms in all of the fandoms (and that's saying something) after a years long campaign, got what they wanted. The release of The Snyder Cut of "Justice League." A 4 hour bloated magnum opus restoring Zack Snyder's "vision" after he left the project and Joss Whedon oversaw a Frankenstein's monster of tone that was unleashed on the unsuspecting public. So, hashtags work? I guess. We'll see how #RestoretheSnyderVerse fares. 

Principal photography on "Zack Snyder's Justice League" began in April 2016 and concluded in October 2016, (deja vu) with additional photography taking place in October 2020 costing an additional $70 million. The film stars Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman, Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry/Aquaman, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash, Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Joe Morton as Silas Stone, Ryan Zheng as Ryan Choi, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon, Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta, Amber Heard as Mera, Ciaran Hinds as Steppenwolf, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Ray Porter as Darkseid, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Harry Lennix as Calvin Stanwyck/Martian Manhunter, Billy Crudup as Henry Allen, Joe Manganiello as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke and Jared Leto as The Joker. The film was written by Chris Terrio. It was directed by Zack Snyder. "Zack Snyder's Justice League" was released exclusively on HBO Max on March 18, 2021.

Everyone loves gray.

I'm going to be upfront with you all. If you have read my previous blog posts about the DC Murderverse aka the Snyderverse or you know me at all, you know, I'm not a fan. I'm vocally not a fan. I will tell anyone who cares and those that don't, how much I hate Snyder's take on these beloved characters. I know you're going to find this difficult to believe, but I was not one of the multitudes clamoring for the release of the Snyder Cut. Like I said in the intro, for the most part, I believe the most vocal Snyder fans are loud, misogynistic trolls along the lines with the "Star Wars" fans who hate "The Last Jedi." For a long time, I mean up until it was announced, I was very vocal about how the Snyder Cut would never see the light of day, that a major movie studio would never kowtow to the whims of a very vocal minority of fans. Well, I'm here on this day to say, I was... wr--, I was w... Man, this is really difficult, even in print. Deep breath. I was wrong.  OK. Now that's out of the way, let's get to it.

I'm going to say this from the start. "Zack Snyder's Justice League" is a much better film than Joss Whedon's. I know what you're thinking: low bar. And, you're not wrong. That being said, objectively, the movie is decent. It is much more coherent. You get a better sense of what Steppenwolf is trying to accomplish. The tone is consistent throughout. A lot of the film's cringiest moments are excised. The forced cheesy comedy is gone. Wonder Woman being objectified is out. That's right, no more gross scene of the Flash falling on Wonder Woman's chest or Aquaman sitting on her lasso and basically hitting on her. All this is for the good. "Zack Sndyer's Justice League" is really watchable. That may sound like faint praise, but it is not. "Zack Snyder's Justice League" is not a terrible movie, but it isn't a great movie about the Justice League.

Why am I wearing this? It's iconic.

The best parts of Whedon's "Justice League" were Affleck and Gadot's Batman and Wonder Woman. These are the two characters that Snyder gets. They are the anchor points and it's great. Snyder may have disposed of Whedon's quips but that isn't to say that the movie is humorless. Bruce's initial meeting with doesn't have the iconic (?) "you talk to fish" line, but it does have its own subtle humor, which is great. Affleck really comes into his own as the Dark Knight in this movie. He was kind of one note in "BvS: DoJ" which wasn't really his fault. In this new cut, he's able to be more than just dour. He's remorseful. He's a cheerleader and it mostly works. Gadot continues to slay as Diana. She just knows this character. Every choice Gadot makes as an actress feels like something Diana would. I continue to love Jeremy Irons' Alfred. It feels classic and new all at once. I would watch a movie with just him, Bruce and Diana in the Batcave just like riffing. It'd be great.

The Snyder Cut fleshes out the roles of Cyborg and the Flash quite a bit. The Flash gets a nice introduction where he saves Iris West and it's cute. It's Ray Fisher's Cyborg that really benefits from this cut though. Cyborg is barely a character in Whedon's cut, but The Snyder Cut makes him a pivotal, important person. A lot of what happens hinges on Vic and because we see him before the accident, during, see him interact with his father, all of that hits a lot harder and the film is better for it. Even Aquaman gets a bit more fleshing out with his mini convo with Vulko, though I will say, I don't think that was really all that necessary.

Beefcake.

Another issue with Whedon's cut was Steppenwolf, specifically how he looked. It's... better in The Snyder Cut. It's not perfect and it should still look a lot better, but it's more streamlined and cleaner. While it was nice to see Darkseid and Desaad, the CGI was still not my favorite. I watch a lot of super hero movies that have a ton of CGI and I'm still surprised that this looks so shoddy. It is only a little bit above what you'd expect to see in the Arrowverse. But I digress, this is the praise portion.

The action in "Zack Snyder's Justice League" is, for the most part, a lot cleaner. I especially enjoyed his cut of the fight between the Amazons, Steppenwolf and the parademons on Theymscira. The fight scene in the tunnel when the League first confronts Steppenwolf is head and shoulders better, too. It doesn't hurt that the sexist scene is gone. I'm a long time comic fan, so I totally appreciate the "heroes fight before eventually teaming up" trope and "Zack Snyder's Justice League" has its version of that when Superman is revived. It's good comic book fun, which this film could have used more of. Barry's look of shock when Clark looks at him in super speed, the headbutt battle between Superman and Wonder Woman, Batman shitting his pants. It is great stuff.

Oh good. Jared Leto's Joker. yay.

This movie isn't perfect. It's better, but there are still issues. The movie's ridiculous runtime is one of them. I appreciate that the film being longer facilitated some new strong character moments and gave things room to breathe, but it also gave Snyder lots of room to exercise some of his worst directing quirks. It's no surprise that I don't have a lot of respect for Zack Snyder as a director. And I think part of the reason for that is that he comes off as someone who thinks he is better than he is. Snyder is no auteur. He's no Stanley Kubrick. He's no Martin Scorsese. Hell, he's not even a Quentin Tarantino or Steven Spielberg. He thinks he is, which is the issue. He is basically George Lucas, but he won't accept it. Because he thinks he is this amazing director, he believes that every frame of film he films is gold. It's stellar. It's film history. Snyder is obsessed with images and that hinders him when. you pair it with his delusions of grandeur. Snyder really believes that every image is important and treats them that way, which means that nothing is important. If everything is treated like it's integral, the things that actually are don't hit or have the impact that he would want them to have.

Women who aren't Amazon don't fare the greatest in this movie, which if you've seen "Sucker Punch" it shouldn't be a surprise. Amy Adams' Lois Lane is the biggest victim of this. Gone is the strong, independent Daily Planet reporter. In her place, is a sad, defeated woman who will never stop mourning a man that in the grand scheme of things she barely knew. And she's pregnant? Cool. This is not Lois Lane and I will not accept that it is. Martha Kent's most impactful scene doesn't even belong to her since we find out at the end of it that it's actually Martian Manhunter in disguise. Great. 

The film's runtime really works against it. Yes, it allows for some nice character moments for like Cyborg, but it also means that Snyder left nothing on the cutting room floor. Did we really need three almost identical scenes of Steppenwolf reporting to Desaad after he gets a Mother Box? Seriously. They are basically the same. They are the cinematic equivalent of "this could have been an e-mail." The scene with Vulko and Arthur feels superfluous. Do we really need to know Arthur is rebelling against the Atlantean crown when we have a similar scene with Mera later on? Then there are those epilogues. An additional 30 minutes that set up things that will never happen. (Maybe. I also didn't think this Snyder Cut what happen. So, what do I know?) The film could have ended with Supes flying off. Instead we get more set up for movies that both Warner Bros and Snyder have said probably aren't going to happen. Great for the Snyder fans jerking off to this, but for everyone else? Meh.

Boom.

So, I praised more of Cyborg's backstory above, but it's not all great. Ray Fisher is pretty monotone and lifeless in the role. I get that he's playing a robot, but Cyborg has a personality. And Fisher really gives nothing. It makes those scenes kind of hard to get through and pay attention to because he's really giving you nothing. 

My biggest issue with the Snyder's Murderverse remains in The Snyder Cut. This doesn't feel like the Justice League. This doesn't feel like the characters that I have read almost my whole life and still ready weekly in floppies. Even characters that Snyder gets mostly right still do things that feel glaringly out of character. Take Wonder Woman's big solo action scene against those terrorists. Why did she do her bracelet attack to take out that one guy? It is needlessly brutal and doesn't feel like Diana. It doesn't even jive with the Diana we've gotten to know in her solo films. Superman still feels like a non-entity. He's the catalyst for a lot of this and it is hard to know why. Why are these people grieving this guy who didn't even feel like a real hero from what we've seen? We have to take a lot on faith and it's difficult to do that.

I am glad that Snyder fans got this. Good for them. Personally, I don't really need more from Snyder's Murderverse especially seeing that epilogue and knowing what he had planned for this trilogy. Do I really need to watch a 3-4 hour movie where Superman is killing people because Lois is dead? Especially, when Snyder has done nothing to craft Superman into the beloved hero he should be? I don't. So I'm happy to leave this in the past and move on to bigger and better things.

Next up, it's fun, magic and abandoned children with "SHAZAM!"

Ok. Snyder fans. Non Snyder fans. I want to hear it. Lay your feelings on me in the comments.