Film Review: Zack Snyder’s “Justice League”
The Snyder Cut movement saved this re-release, but not from self-indulgence as Henry Cavill’s Superman suits up to save the Earth from opposing doom again.
Rating: PG-13 / Running Time: 4h 2m / Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Action, Fantasy / Directed by Zack Snyder / Streaming on HBO Max and in Theatres: Thursday, March 18 / Warner Bros.
Let’s get this out of the way first.
We know what kind of films Zack Snyder directs, desaturated color palettes ✅, man’s pseudo relationship with God’s ✅, and a very stylized film that is held together by a shoestring plot that serves no substance, also ✅. With all that being said, should you see the overblown 4 hour epic of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)? We should thank the Gods we have HBO Max.
Unless you been trapped inside a Mother Box for past three years, you definitely witness the biggest far cry from any fan community with #ReleaseTheSnyderCut after the poor reception of Justice League (2017) and after 180,000 signatures later we have the biggest fan film ever made.
Snyder’s Justice League opens up with the death of Superman by the hand’s of Doomsday in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El’s (Henry Cavil) screams opens up three Mother Boxes — three living MacGuffin-like machines worshiped by three witches, an obvious citation of the Wayward Sisters from Macbeth. Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), unaware that doomsday has been unleashed on the world is still trying to recruit metahumans, Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), The Flash/Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg/Victor (Ray Fisher). Once Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds), the film’s antagonist, is summoned by the three Mother Boxes, he lays waste to the Amazonions with his parademons. Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) reunites with Batman to save the world.
Beyond that — the Snyder Cut is a waste of time. Snyder thinks longer equals better. Sure, the performances are okay, with Affleck switching back and forth between his Batman and Bruce voice in the same scene with the same cast of characters. Affleck doesn’t need to hide his identity, it seems everyone knows who he is somehow? Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane) are wasted here. Lois is here because she has an unearned love affair with Kal-El. Lois serves no purpose — say for maybe three scenes. Martha is relevant for maybe one or two scenes. Godat as Diana is the film’s bright spot and serves as “exposition queen” for the viewer. Miller is probably the most annoying sidekick since Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’’ (2008). Momoa and Fisher are boring in their roles. This film has enough run time to give all these characters the pathos they need, but less time is spent on character work and more is spent on selling action figures. Billy Crudup plays Henry Allen, Barry Allen’s father, doesn’t know what movie he is in. His performance is too good for this film.
The film’s message is unearned. Superman’s death is the death of “hope” in the world. The “S” on Superman’s chest is the symbol of hope. A title that Kal-El has been wrestling with since the “Man of Steel” (2013). Kal-El has not defined himself yet, is he Prometheus stealing fire for mankind’s humanity, is he Minos, a judge, in the aftermath of the fall of man, or just some guy who wants to help? None of the previous films answers that question, and this film doesn’t either. Affleck’s Batman pathos is more believable — not for the hand fisted premonitions that everyone in this film seems to have, but for the lessons Bruce learns from Kal-El’s death. Steppenwolf is on borrowed time. He is more like a Pinhead-like judge from “Hellraiser” (1987) than a mustache twirling villain.
Snyder shouldn’t take all the blame for this film. Warners greenlit Chris Terrio’s Mario Puzo’s schmorgesborg of a script. However, Snyder never directs with a question, certain characters’ wants and needs are never earned. He mixes hyper-realism scenes with CGI scenes to ground the film but it doesn’t work because there is no subtext to make those scenes work. Outside the hyper-realism scenes, the tone in the film is one note. No sense of any character work from the camera. The action scenes are popcorn fun. The best action moment is the set piece on Paradise Island with Steppenwolf and the Amazonions, which gave the audience a real sense of character work through action. However, characters have special abilities in the third act that begs the question where was this magic at the end of act one?
Snyder had his day onset already in 2016. The film didn’t work then and it certainly doesn’t work now. This film is the result of internal problems at Warners and the merger with AT&T back in 2017. Despite what camp you fall on, Whedon’s Justice League or Snyder’s Justice League both films are the result of studio interference. Too many cameos. Too many MacGuffins. Too many inconsistencies with its own canon. Snyder’s version is written like a bad meme from “Dude, Where’s My Car” (2000) “and then?” “and then?” Just one run on sentence that never ties its themes and its plot together. If David Brenner, the film’s editor, removed an hour and a half from the movie, it would still work.
