By the time Justice League rolled around in 2017 a lot of people had lost faith in the DC Extended Universe, and it proved to be a divisive film splitting critics and audiences down the middle with some claiming it was great (especially in comparison to Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad) and some were just as disappointed in the first big screen adaptation of DC’s answer to the Avengers as they had been with its predecessors. Much of this fell on the extremely troubled development the film had with original director Zack Snyder departing the project during post-production due to the sudden and unexpected death of his daughter. With Joss Whedon left to steer the ship into port, he had some major alterations made to the film, most of which weren’t disclosed until years after the films release. An extremely dedicated fanbase wanted to see what Snyder’s vision for the film would have been, with #ReleaseTheSnyderCut trending on social media for weeks. Eventually Warner Bros. listened, and Snyder returned to the project to make the film his way, with no executive interference. Set to release alongside HBO Max, Zack Snyder’s Justice League promised to be truly epic…but has the quality of the film actually improved, or is it just another gigantic waste of money for Warner Bros.?
Five thousand years ago, Darkseid (Ray Porter), a tyrannical ‘New God’ and his army of Parademons attempted to unite the Mother Boxes to terraform Earth into a replica of their world, Apokolips. They were stopped by the united forces of man, Amazonian, Atlantian, Green Lantern, and the Old Gods, who following their victory separated the Mother Boxes and hid them away so that Darkseid would never be able to find them again.
In the present day the boxes have been re-awakened by Superman’s (Henry Cavill) death at the hands of Doomsday, alerting Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds), a disgraced lieutenant of Darkseid to their location. In an attempt to win favour with his master, Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons travel to Earth to reunite the boxes so that Darkseid can return and finish what he started five millennia ago.
Sensing the impending destruction of the planet, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) set about assembling a team of metahumans to combat Steppenwolf and protect the Mother Cubes. With the assistance of Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and The Flash (Ezra Miller), they must revive Superman and stop Steppenwolf before they are too late.
Five thousand years ago, Darkseid (Ray Porter), a tyrannical ‘New God’ and his army of Parademons attempted to unite the Mother Boxes to terraform Earth into a replica of their world, Apokolips. They were stopped by the united forces of man, Amazonian, Atlantian, Green Lantern, and the Old Gods, who following their victory separated the Mother Boxes and hid them away so that Darkseid would never be able to find them again.
In the present day the boxes have been re-awakened by Superman’s (Henry Cavill) death at the hands of Doomsday, alerting Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds), a disgraced lieutenant of Darkseid to their location. In an attempt to win favour with his master, Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons travel to Earth to reunite the boxes so that Darkseid can return and finish what he started five millennia ago.
Sensing the impending destruction of the planet, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) set about assembling a team of metahumans to combat Steppenwolf and protect the Mother Cubes. With the assistance of Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and The Flash (Ezra Miller), they must revive Superman and stop Steppenwolf before they are too late.
To compare Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the 2017 Justice League is almost impossible. Despite at their very core being the same film, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is better in every single conceivable way…and not just a little bit better either. This new version of the film blew my expectations out of the water, and then some, with what is probably one of the best superhero films I have ever seen.
This is far more than a simple Directors Cut, this is a totally different film. Obviously take that statement with a pinch of salt because it does obviously have the same plot and re-uses a lot of the same footage. But the way the story plays out, the order in which events happen, the way characters are developed, and the amount that is removed and replaced with better scenes makes this film at times unrecognisable to the original version.
All the information about Darkseid, Steppenwolf, and what the Mother Boxes are actually used for it all new. There were rumblings of it in the 2017 film but there was no context given to Steppenwolf’s actions, and he had no character. He was just a big CGI bad guy who wanted to destroy the world using some mystical boxes. Now, there’s an actual story behind it, and it allows you to become invested in the Justice League’s mission to stop Steppenwolf succeeding. Steppenwolf still is a villain that lacks the depth necessary to be a great villain, but in comparison to the same character in the 2017 film it’s an overwhelming improvement and makes Steppenwolf a villain you enjoy seeing on screen and do find intimidating. Darkseid isn’t in the film a huge amount, but his presence is much greater than that of Thanos’ in the MCU pre-Infinity War. His introduction and the role he plays in this film act as an incredible setup for what could have been in the future of the DCEU. You get a great sense of his power and just how unstoppable this guy really is, and it’s a shame that we’ll likely never get to see sequels to this film to see where it could have gone next.
This is far more than a simple Directors Cut, this is a totally different film. Obviously take that statement with a pinch of salt because it does obviously have the same plot and re-uses a lot of the same footage. But the way the story plays out, the order in which events happen, the way characters are developed, and the amount that is removed and replaced with better scenes makes this film at times unrecognisable to the original version.
All the information about Darkseid, Steppenwolf, and what the Mother Boxes are actually used for it all new. There were rumblings of it in the 2017 film but there was no context given to Steppenwolf’s actions, and he had no character. He was just a big CGI bad guy who wanted to destroy the world using some mystical boxes. Now, there’s an actual story behind it, and it allows you to become invested in the Justice League’s mission to stop Steppenwolf succeeding. Steppenwolf still is a villain that lacks the depth necessary to be a great villain, but in comparison to the same character in the 2017 film it’s an overwhelming improvement and makes Steppenwolf a villain you enjoy seeing on screen and do find intimidating. Darkseid isn’t in the film a huge amount, but his presence is much greater than that of Thanos’ in the MCU pre-Infinity War. His introduction and the role he plays in this film act as an incredible setup for what could have been in the future of the DCEU. You get a great sense of his power and just how unstoppable this guy really is, and it’s a shame that we’ll likely never get to see sequels to this film to see where it could have gone next.
2017’s Justice League had a strict two-hour runtime limit placed onto it by Warner Bros. following complaints that the previous DCEU films had been too long (which they had been). If you’ve read my review of the 2017 film, you may recall me saying that Justice League is arguably the only film in the DCEU so far which would have required a runtime longer than two hours. As a result, everything was rushed. Character introductions were over within the first thirty minutes and by the end of the first hour there was almost no character development left to be seen. Superman wasn’t brought in until the last act, and it was all just so rushed and light on details.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League meanwhile relishes in the details, doubling the films runtime to four hours. It’s going to be rich of me to say that I love how long it is when I criticised the previous DCEU films of being a bit long…but the difference is that (especially in comparison to Batman v Superman, the previous longest film in the DCEU) this film justifies its lengthy runtime by filling every moment with important details.
We get an entire origin story for Cyborg, a character that in the original film was relegated to just a few scenes and lines of dialogue as the character that could hack computers. He’s given actual purpose in this film and Fisher delivers a great performance.
We also get a bit more time with Aquaman and The Flash. They aren’t given as much screen time as Cyborg is, but they are both considerably expanded upon in comparison to their 2017 versions. With Aquaman, his scenes act more like a prelude to the events of his solo film, introducing a couple of key characters and even introducing the impending threat of his brother Orm. The Flash doesn’t gets the least new info added, but in contrast he did have the most screen time in the 2017 version out of the new heroes. His new stuff does add a bit more to the character, specifically his powers, and he’s significantly less goofy this time around, but for the most part he remains very similar to how he appeared in the original film.
Batman is made more tonally consistent with how he appeared in BvS, so thankfully no wise cracking one liners this time, and the same with Wonder Woman; but the two characters much like The Flash remain similar to their 2017 versions.
Superman gets a big change. He’s still brought in kind of late but he’s given a lot of setup for future stories and his struggles with being brought back from the dead are brought to the forefront more than they were in 2017. He’s a more damaged person this time around, and it gives the impression that he’s no longer humanity’s brightest hope.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League meanwhile relishes in the details, doubling the films runtime to four hours. It’s going to be rich of me to say that I love how long it is when I criticised the previous DCEU films of being a bit long…but the difference is that (especially in comparison to Batman v Superman, the previous longest film in the DCEU) this film justifies its lengthy runtime by filling every moment with important details.
We get an entire origin story for Cyborg, a character that in the original film was relegated to just a few scenes and lines of dialogue as the character that could hack computers. He’s given actual purpose in this film and Fisher delivers a great performance.
We also get a bit more time with Aquaman and The Flash. They aren’t given as much screen time as Cyborg is, but they are both considerably expanded upon in comparison to their 2017 versions. With Aquaman, his scenes act more like a prelude to the events of his solo film, introducing a couple of key characters and even introducing the impending threat of his brother Orm. The Flash doesn’t gets the least new info added, but in contrast he did have the most screen time in the 2017 version out of the new heroes. His new stuff does add a bit more to the character, specifically his powers, and he’s significantly less goofy this time around, but for the most part he remains very similar to how he appeared in the original film.
Batman is made more tonally consistent with how he appeared in BvS, so thankfully no wise cracking one liners this time, and the same with Wonder Woman; but the two characters much like The Flash remain similar to their 2017 versions.
Superman gets a big change. He’s still brought in kind of late but he’s given a lot of setup for future stories and his struggles with being brought back from the dead are brought to the forefront more than they were in 2017. He’s a more damaged person this time around, and it gives the impression that he’s no longer humanity’s brightest hope.
Tonally the film is brought much more in-line with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. This may not be to everyone’s taste as they are considerably darker and more depressing films than anything else in the DCEU, but I feel like it works really well with Justice League. Thanks to this darker tone and a higher age rating, the action scenes are a bit more violent and sinister which nicely reflects the end of the world premise.
As per Snyder’s usual remit, the colour is totally drained from the image making it visually darker as well as tonally. I’m also fine with this, it fits in well with the previous films and matches the tone of the story. What did surprise me was the decision to present the film in a 4:3 aspect ratio, to imitate IMAX screens. Its intention is to give a taller image and therefore make everything seem on a larger scale, however because this is a film that isn’t being presented in IMAX I find it peculiar that a 16:9 ratio wasn’t chosen instead. Remove the horizontal black bars that usually become present in many IMAX releases and just have the picture be full screen. It wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, and I totally understand why they did it. But unless you have a huge TV or watching it using a projector on a large wall you’re not going to get the desired effect.
As great as it is, it’s not perfect. I feel like the ‘Epilogue’ chapter was unnecessary. I think had the film not introduced Martian Manhunter and given us a sneak peak at what would have been in a future Justice League film then it would have been slightly tighter. Luckily because it’s the Epilogue it can easily be missed if you don’t fancy watching it.
The special effects are also still underwhelming. They’re significantly better than in the 2017 film, but they still have that rubbery look to them fairly frequently, and the film in general has an extremely excessive use of sub-par green-screening.
I’m honestly extremely happy that Zack Snyder’s Justice League has done as well as it has. I understand that Warner Bros. has moved on from the DCEU as it existed back in 2017, but it’s a shame that Snyder may never be able to continue the universe he was building because this version of Justice League actually had me very invested in what would come next, despite the films leading up to it (aside from Wonder Woman) being generally below average.
But what I’m really excited for it the possibility this opens up for film directors in the age of streaming services. Since the existence of the first cinemas there has been restrictions placed on directors in order to get as many bums in seats as possible, and now more than ever film distributors are controlling every single facet of a production to make it as appealing to as many people as possible and shown as many times as they can to maximise the profit. But with streaming those arbitrary restrictions like running time are removed. Avengers: Endgame being a three-hour theatrical cut was a gamble for Disney to make because the film couldn’t be shown as many times in comparison to a two-hour film…but if its available on streaming then it can be as long as the director wants it to be. It’s also clearer to me now more than ever that Man of Steel and Batman v Superman weren’t necessarily bad because Snyder’s vision was flawed, but much more likely that WB were holding him back.
I do hope to see Snyder’s vision continue in some capacity, but only if it equals the quality of this version of Justice League or tops it. Returning to the quality of DCEU pre-2018 simply is not an option any longer.
As per Snyder’s usual remit, the colour is totally drained from the image making it visually darker as well as tonally. I’m also fine with this, it fits in well with the previous films and matches the tone of the story. What did surprise me was the decision to present the film in a 4:3 aspect ratio, to imitate IMAX screens. Its intention is to give a taller image and therefore make everything seem on a larger scale, however because this is a film that isn’t being presented in IMAX I find it peculiar that a 16:9 ratio wasn’t chosen instead. Remove the horizontal black bars that usually become present in many IMAX releases and just have the picture be full screen. It wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, and I totally understand why they did it. But unless you have a huge TV or watching it using a projector on a large wall you’re not going to get the desired effect.
As great as it is, it’s not perfect. I feel like the ‘Epilogue’ chapter was unnecessary. I think had the film not introduced Martian Manhunter and given us a sneak peak at what would have been in a future Justice League film then it would have been slightly tighter. Luckily because it’s the Epilogue it can easily be missed if you don’t fancy watching it.
The special effects are also still underwhelming. They’re significantly better than in the 2017 film, but they still have that rubbery look to them fairly frequently, and the film in general has an extremely excessive use of sub-par green-screening.
I’m honestly extremely happy that Zack Snyder’s Justice League has done as well as it has. I understand that Warner Bros. has moved on from the DCEU as it existed back in 2017, but it’s a shame that Snyder may never be able to continue the universe he was building because this version of Justice League actually had me very invested in what would come next, despite the films leading up to it (aside from Wonder Woman) being generally below average.
But what I’m really excited for it the possibility this opens up for film directors in the age of streaming services. Since the existence of the first cinemas there has been restrictions placed on directors in order to get as many bums in seats as possible, and now more than ever film distributors are controlling every single facet of a production to make it as appealing to as many people as possible and shown as many times as they can to maximise the profit. But with streaming those arbitrary restrictions like running time are removed. Avengers: Endgame being a three-hour theatrical cut was a gamble for Disney to make because the film couldn’t be shown as many times in comparison to a two-hour film…but if its available on streaming then it can be as long as the director wants it to be. It’s also clearer to me now more than ever that Man of Steel and Batman v Superman weren’t necessarily bad because Snyder’s vision was flawed, but much more likely that WB were holding him back.
I do hope to see Snyder’s vision continue in some capacity, but only if it equals the quality of this version of Justice League or tops it. Returning to the quality of DCEU pre-2018 simply is not an option any longer.