Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

I remember actually more or less liking Justice League when I saw it. On reflection, it was a bit of a mess, but it hit a lot of sweet spots for me, showed a Superman that was finally acting like Superman, had a charming cast at the center, and was at the very least a step-up from Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad. Zack Snyder is many things, but he didn’t seem to be a good fit for superheroes that embody hope, even when they actually claim to do so. However, a number of fans of Snyder’s work seemed to really want his version, not one finished by Joss Whedon, under the impression that it would be the superior version.

Well, the fans got their wish, and the four hour (no joke!) version of Justice League is available now for anyone with an HBO Max subscription. Is it an improvement or some sort of bloated monstrosity that should have never seen the light of day?

In the grand scheme of things, there isn’t much different in terms of plot between the two hour theatrical release and this four hour director’s cut. Bruce “Batman” Wayne (Ben Afflect), feeling guilty for his role over the death of Superman (Henry Cavill), and knowing there’s something bad and evil out there, needs to pull together an alliance to stop whatever it is. He already has Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), and in short order, the two of them approach and attempt to recruit grumpy wouldbe monarch Arthur Curry, the Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the superfast Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), and Victor Stone (Ray Fisher), the victim of an experiment his father performed with an alien technology that left the promising student athlete as some kind of cyborg. They need to stop the alien Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) from acquiring three Mother Box devices that will do a very bad thing and pave the road for cosmic villain Darkseid (Ray Porter) to come to Earth and add it to his collection of worlds under his brutal thumb.

Really, it is more or less the same plot, only this time the story is told over a more deliberate pace, allowing the characters a chance to get some background in and interact a bit more. The more Whedonesque tone is gone, the colors are darker, and the music cues that included bits from past Superman or Batman movie franchises has been replaced with a more original score by Thomas Holkenborg. There’s still some humor, but it fits the tone of the movie and how it all works out. In fact, if any character benefits the most from this newer, longer version its Steppenwolf. Before, he was just a largely anonymous alien monster. This time around actually gives him a motivation, shows his disgust for fellow Darkseid underline Desaad, and allows his plot to actually move intelligently. The same holds true for the heroes, particularly Fisher’s Cyborg who seems closest to the center of the movie and has a genuine storyarc. Not bad considering he was the one given the least to do in the theatrical release, and arguably even Snyder’s biggest detractors (and I may be one of them) would argue that casting was never an issue. Momoa and Gadot proved their stuff in other movies, Affleck was a great Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Miller, while never exactly funny, was amusing enough as the Fastest Man Alive.

Essentially, this is actually a pretty good telling of the same story. It’s not without its flaws, most notably being these characters are not generally all that heroic. My biggest issue with Snyder’s Superman is the character, we are told, is an inspiration to everybody, but aside from the fact that he is some kind of indestructible strongman, what is it exactly that makes him so inspiring? He doesn’t smile much or interact with the public. If anything, in the previous movie he seemed rather dour most of the time, and most of the humans he interacted with outside of Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and his adoptive mother Martha Kent (Diane Lane) were a lot of military people. He didn’t seem to interact much with the general public and was generally a (often literally) distant figure. But Snyder is on-record for saying his goals with Justice League were to create something epic and operatic. Oddly enough, that concept somewhat fits in with the DC heroes. True, they tend to be more altruistic than Snyder shows them to be, but for decades they had rather bland and interchangeable personalities. Some, most notably Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow (who isn’t in the movie), have developed more distinctive personalities, but the rest are still basically just good people whose quirks often depend on who is writing them. However, Snyder seems to be playing them as icons, and that…somewhat works.

That more or less describes how I felt after watching the movie. I felt it somewhat worked. It’s not a great film by any stretch, but I don’t regret watching it. Considering Snyder mostly used existing footage (only doing some reshoots with a small group of actors that mostly took the form of an extended dream sequence at the end of the movie), it’s more of a sign than anything else how badly studio interference messed with Snyder’s vision (whether you care for his vision or not). If Snyder was hired to make the movie, he should have been allowed to make the movie, and arbitrary deadlines and time constraints imposed by Warner Brothers didn’t help much. I seem to recall watching a YouTube essay (probably from Patrick H Willems but I can’t find it right now) that says Snyder doesn’t create scenes where characters interact but rather moments where they do something that looks cool and that’s about it. That holds true here, but if this is meant to be operatic and the characters are supposed to be more larger-than-life icons….well, it somewhat works and I found myself if not loving the movie, then at least appreciating what it may have been trying to go for.

I’m actually not sure what to grade this one, but be aware I don’t really have plans to watch it again and more or less appreciated it for what I think it was going for.

Grade: B-