Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

Xmodem on 3/20/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (8 likes)

How do you even approach Zack Snyder's justice league?

The obvious place you can go in criticism is to compare it to the theatrical release, off-hand that comparison would make the Snyder Cut look quite good. The TLDR is that it is for the most part "better" than the theatrical cut... but relying on this as criticism would still do a disservice to problems in the Snyder cut. In fact, many of the issues with the Snyder cut call out more clearly why a theatrical cut was made.

You could be vague and say that the Snyder cut is certainly Zach Snyder's cut for all the good and bad that implies.

It certainly has trademark negatives that I loath, Playing a well-known song over slow-mo footage isn't a suitable substitute for character development. That trick only "worked" in watchmen because we all knew he had too much story to adapt and most of us knew the backstory, it hit necessary beats effectively. When he tries to do that to build a new narrative it fails because what he's trying to imply is far murkier without that additional context.

A positive of it being a Zack Snyder cut is the film is also filled with his ability to come up with cool a creative visuals. The man knows how to do a 90's comic book splash page on the big screen. He relies on this too heavily but when it works it works.

It also lives up to his history of his director and extended cuts being a strength of his. The man works best with a *lot* of the runway because he tries to pack *way* too much plot into his films. That extra runway by its nature makes his stories make more sense.

Of course, this also means that this movie is *LONG*. You know some times when people watch a really long movie the biggest compliment is that it didn't feel as long. I can't give that compliment to the Snyder Cut, you can feel its length. It really drags when it drags (which is thankfully not as much as expected). There are certainly times where you wonder how long it's going to keep going and it's almost always longer than you expect.

All in all the extra runtime does make it a story that's easier to follow, it lets every narrative point that's brought up in the first two acts be as fleshed out as it can be and that's actually quite nice.

Still, I totally understand why the executives wanted it cut down and brightened up. I'm honestly uncertain if this would play as well in a theater where you would only have a single intermission at best. Although there is a lot more humor than I expected from a Snyder film and some of it actually lands well... the volume of "Serious tone™" is still pretty heavy. The positive involving the tone is that the super long runtime gives you a lot of moments to breathe.

It works as a "Director's Cut", I'm not certain if it works as a 4 quadrant Theatrical Film.

It's a Snydery mess whose positives come from it being a Snydery mess.

On the complete fan service side of things though I did love the Ryan Choi & Crispus Allen moments. I like that they made The Flash slightly less of a spaz. Still, the weird denouement fan service at the end felt like it was from another, slightly worse movie (even if I'm a sucker for the characters they used).

I don't know, I'm not going to convince anyone who loved it of Snyder's flaws. I'm also not going to convince someone who irrationally loath the man that he has his moments. This one is for the die-hard fans and anyone with a curiosity about how all of it would turn out. Casual observers (especially impatient ones) might want to pass it up.

Superherofan1 on 3/20/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (4 likes)

One of the best superhero movies ever!

Fontinella on 3/20/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (2 likes)

Polished turd is still a turd. Snyder's version may technically be better but it's still an awful movie. Just longer to endure.

noobpb17 on 3/20/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (5 likes)

just watched it, it didn't disappoint, second best CBM after TDK

JoeJoe1 on 3/26/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (2 likes)

Bad versus epic bad still results in bad.

CriticalMe on 3/28/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (4 likes)

Much better than the original. A good movie that fans of these characters deserved, but nothing that will blow you away!

Avenger7 on 4/8/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (1 like)

Zach Snyder’s Justice League is STILL bad. Laughably bad to be honest. Now I understand what Joss Whedon experienced after watching this bloated, wandering, disjointed, grim mess. I would have hacked the movie apart myself in order to try and offer something passable to tolerate. There are so many nonsensical scenes and poor transitions that it was comical. Also, the level of cartoonish action is cranked up to silly levels. Honestly, the CGI cut scenes and lack of weight in other CGI scenes plays like a bad cartoon.

Eagleskywalker87 on 4/20/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (4 likes)

Okay, let's find some peace here because the people who love and hate this movie are both equally toxic yet both equally wrong. The Snyder Cut is good yet flawed. I cared for the characters and thought they were all well developed but the story is still silly looking villains searching for fantasical maguffins and does have logical issues. A lot of the issues from the Whedon cut are fixed and the movie has a whole is more coherent, but it can still be trimmed and it does has pacing issues (particularly in the first half). The climax contains some of the most Epic moments in any superhero movie but the set-up at the end wasn't necessary. It is a grim movie but still finds the balance of being more joyful than Bvs and less joke-y than Josstice League. You may not have been a fan of the vision but it comes from a place of love and passion unlike Josstice League which was passionless and frankensteined. This may have not worked as a widespread threatical release but I watched the full 4 hours without any breaks at home in complete silence and it was a pretty awesome experience. Bottomline: This movie isn't a masterpiece like The Dark Knight but it still is very solid.

noobpb17 on 5/2/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (0 likes)

just rewatched it, far from a masterpiece but it's still really great and by far the best DCEU movie

Wade92 on 11/12/2021 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (0 likes)

My 2,000th entry on flickchart

JimmyMcGill on 8/27/2022 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (0 likes)

It’s a truly great blockbuster, one that surpasses the earlier theater release in every conceivable way.

MatthanMovies on Feb 16 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (0 likes)

Overrated and boring. Some great ideas in here that should be other movies not mashed into one.