Justice League: The Snyder Cut
Justice League: The Snyder Cut is rated R for Language and Violence
I am not a Zach Snyder fan. I have mercilessly mocked Batman Vs Superman and Man of Steel for years. To be honest I never forgave him for ruining the Guardians of Ga’Hoole movie (Yes, that is the one about talking owls. It is not a good movie, but I liked the books.)
So I had no trouble believing the rumors in 2017 that Zack Snyder had basically destroyed the live-action Justice League movie and subsequently was asked to leave. I also believed that Warner Bros. brought in Joss Whedon, of Avengers fame, to save the day. When the movie came out later that year, I choose not to watch it. I assumed that Whedon had done as much as he could but that the movie was beyond saving. Why sit through a painful movie that I knew I was going to hate?
In 2020 it was announced Zack Snyder and his team were going to release Justice League, the Snyder Cut. This was going to be Snyders’s version of the movie and would be 4hrs long. I was dreading it, 4hrs of slow-mo, dark and broody scenes, and absolutely no joy or humor whatsoever. Featuring actors that everyone paned after the official release, playing the sad and personality-less version on characters I love.
But thanks to my unending curiosity and a need to write this review, I sat down and watched it. First, let me say I have never been happier to have all of my expectations shattered. The Snyder Cut is everything a DC superhero movie should be and everything fans knew it could be. (Not only did the characters and the story make my nerdy heart happy, from a filmmaking perspective, but it is also fairly very well done). Secondly, and let me make this clear, Snyder Cut is not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination. There is still too much slow motion, the soundtrack is confusing, and oh my goodness Zack Snyder must have used every establishing shot he had (we did not need that many different angles of the icy mountain.)
There are a lot of things the story got right, but the biggest thing that a DC movie finally did was give context. The DC universe is massive and complicated, there are so many heroes and villains and side characters and alternate realities it is hard to keep track of them, even if you are a dedicated DC fan. But for those of us that are not that dedicated, it is overwhelming. There has always been a reliance in the DC cinematic universe (DCCU) on the audience already knowing the stories and liking the characters. They have never taken the time to endear their characters to the audience or explain their superhero’s powers, but Snyder Cut finally did. Both Cyborg and the Flash are new characters to the DCCU, and without their backstories or character development, they can be very unlikable characters. We really got to know them both in the Snyder Cut, especially Cyborg. Cyborg’s backstory, his relationship with his father, and his growth are the heart and soul of the Snyder Cut. Brilliantly played by Ray Fisher, the audience feels for this kid and roots for him and his dad. From my understanding, none of this was in the official release. A choice that will baffle me and the rest of DC fans for the rest of our days.
Another thing they got right was the humor. For once I laughed at the appropriate places in the DC movie (I am sorry Aquaman… I laughed at all the wrong moments). Snyder let there be fun in the movie, a component that DC seems to have been opposed to for the last 10 years of moviemaking. This really made the whole Justice League much more likable and relatable. While the story is serious and the stakes are high, (It is the END of the world, after all) they don’t take themselves too seriously. The Flash helps with this, by not only enjoying being a superhero but nerding out at getting to work with Batman. This levity mixed into the dramatic situations is what Marvel has been doing for years and is one of the reasons their movies are so beloved by audiences.
There are several really amazing fight sequences and action scenes in this movie. The different heroes and their unique fighting styles are fun to watch. To be clear Justice League is rated R. One of the reasons for that rating is that Justice League, Snyder Cut is a violent movie. There is a lot of blood and bad guys get stabbed and decapitated on the regular. While Snyder does not revel in the blood and gore, he doesn’t shy away from it either. This fits into the DC universe, where even the cartoon movies don’t gloss over violence. The violence adds weight to the fights, and seeing a superhero bleed gives the possibility that your favorite hero might not only lose but die in the fight. This isn’t for everyone and that is ok. It is worth mentioning that there is a point to the violence and it never seems gratuitous.
Despite these successes, there are several problems with the movie. Snyder seemed to relish in artistic shots that added nothing to the movie. Some of these shoots are really pretty, they just feel like a time filler. He also must prefer inclement weather, as it must always be either snowing, raining, foggy, or really dusty in every scene, for no reason whatsoever (other than maybe it looks cool). Also, Snyder has a slow-motion problem. He doesn’t seem to understand that slow-motion does not inherently make everything more dramatic. It is like salt, a little bit adds flavor and depth, and too much just ruins it. Zack Snyder is an artist, and sometimes his artsy ideas get in the way of telling a good story, which is a shame
The soundtrack was confusing and also a little be too artistic. As a rule, the audience shouldn’t stop and think about the soundtrack of a movie while they are watching it. The soundtrack should enhance the story and emotions in a way the seamlessly fits into the movie. The Snyder Cut soundtrack repeatedly takes the audience out of the story, by having music that is counter to the emotion of the scene or environment. Maybe they were trying to make an artistic choice that was supposed to add this layer to the story, however, these choices made me laugh and cringe at all the wrong moments.
My 10 years of mocking Snyder films are deserved, they are bad movies. However, I should apologize to Snyder for assuming it was all his fault. If the Snyder cut shows us anything, it is that in film making the director only has so much power. The story they set out to tell gets changed and warped in editing by producers and studio executives. I am sure that sometimes that is for the better. In this case, WB took a great film with a lot of potentials and spent millions of dollars in reshoots and edits to turn it into a lame film that no one enjoyed. I for one am glad the Snyder Cut got its day in the sun.
IF Snyder gets to make more DCCU films in the future, I hope he keeps improving. Maybe with his vision, DCCU can live up to what all of the DC fans know it can be.
Content Overview
Language: There are more and a few uses for F*** and Sh**, as well as Heck, Hell, and several exclamations of “Oh My God” and “Jesus”
Sexual Content: None
Violence: The violence in this movie is more akin to most rated R war movies rather than the traditional PG-13 superhero movie violence. Blood and body parts fly. Alines and humans alike get stabbed, slashed, and straight of decapitated, all with the accompanying blood. In one moment Mara (princess of Atlantis) starts draining the bodily fluid from a bad guy through his nose. They don’t revel in the guys and gore, but they don’t leave anything out either.
Objectionable Content: The Amazon women wear way less clothing in Justice League than they do in the Wonder Women movies. They have gone from feminine armor to metal and leather bikinis. This is very disappointing and regardless of the intention behind this change looks like the male costume designer took clothes off the women, when a female customer had already established costumes for the Amazons.
*Batman shoots a gun, I object to this as a DC nerd and Batman fan.
