Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Comic-Book Movie Masterpiece
Zack Snyder’s Justice League fully resurrects ZSnyder’s artistic vision as one of the most daring filmmakers of our time.
*Warning: This article contains spoilers for Zack Snyder’s Justice League — though many plot points that are addressed are the same as the 2017 cut. Read at your own risk.*
Few filmmakers have caused such vivid comic-book fan discussions as Zack Snyder. His DCEU films, Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, were responsible for many heated debates amongst the DC community. Man of Steel challenged viewers by presenting Kal-El/Superman (Henry Cavill) as a brand-new iteration of the Son of God — until Batman v. Superman deconstructed Superman’s original mythos and painted him as False God or a weapon of mass destruction, instead of a newfound symbol of hope and light.
No matter what you think of Snyder’s artistic (and screenwriting choices), his DC films were vastly different (and refreshing) than many of the corporate-filled “content” we are getting from major studios, where most blockbusters would rather play it “safe,” rather than challenge its viewers on how mythic figures, such as superheroes, can be perceived when we don’t understand their power and purpose in the cosmos.
During the production of Justice League, Snyder was forced by the studio to extensively retool the film, to add more “humor” or “lightness” to its tone, compared to Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman’s murky, brooding setting. This is why when Snyder and his wife left the post-production of the film to deal with a personal family tragedy, Warner Bros. didn’t wait for his return. They hired Avengers and Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon to reshape (and reshoot most of) the entire movie, trim it down to two, precise hours and make a quasi-carbon copy of his success with Marvel Studios.
The result was a painful, cringe-worthy mess that had nothing to do with ZSnyder’s original vision and stripped everything he initially set-up in his previous two DC films to kowtow for a fanbase that allegedly wanted the DCEU to be exactly like the MCU. Spoiler alert: most fans (myself included) were livid after seeing what Warner Bros and Joss Whedon did to Snyder’s Justice League. They immediately demanded a release of the film's original cut — originally met with a cold response by many movie reviewers denying the cut’s existence by saying it doesn’t exist or “Why would Warner Bros. reshape the entire movie? It’s probably because the original cut is bad!”. Even worse: “Over 50,000 people have signed a petition under the assumption that Warner Bros. just has Zack Snyder’s finished cut sitting in a vault somewhere.”
Let me address this first: of course, the cut existed all along. Are you kidding me? Snyder shot a Justice League film in 2016/2017, only to have his entire vision stripped away when he had to take a step back for personal reasons by the corporate idiots of Warner Bros., who desperately wanted this movie to reach 1 billion dollars and replicate the critical and commercial success of The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Guess what? Not every movie needs to replicate the MCU — Kevin Feige et al. have figured out a formula guaranteed for success, and the reason why people enjoy these films so much isn’t much the “formula,” but actual storylines and interesting characters the movies and shows portray…alongside some fan-service.
After years of high fan demand (with some reaching toxic-levels of harassment) and speculation of whether or not the cut existed, Zack Snyder announced an unprecedented event in May of 2020: the release of his uncut, original vision of Justice League on WarnerMedia’s new streaming service, HBO Max. Now that it’s here, in its 4-hour, 1.33:1 glory, I can safely say that Zack Snyder’s Justice League was well worth the 5-year long wait and fully realizes Snyder’s original, artistic vision as one of the most daring comic-book filmmakers of our time.
Everything, and I mean, everything that the 2017 cut of Justice League lacked in is fixed and/or improved in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The most important aspect of any comic book film (or any film really) is character development/growth. Ray Fisher’s Victor Stone/Cyborg highlights the film and the character who benefits the most from the original cut. Fisher has also been the only actor who has publicly denounced Joss Whedon’s behavior on-set, directly accusing him of workplace harassment, with some outlets believing his origin story was cut entirely from the “Whedon version” out of pure spite of Fisher.
Whatever happened doesn’t entirely matter here, since the most sickening part of the entire process was stripping any ascension to stardom for Fisher, for his incredibly moving performance as Cyborg. His tumultuous and complex relationship with his father, Silas Stone (Joe Morton), isn’t throwaway lines anymore: it’s now the heart of what makes Cyborg such a fascinating character. In the “Whedon cut” of Justice League, Silas survives — and he “reconciles” (not really) with his father by “learning” what his purpose on Earth is. In The Snyder Cut, however, Silas sacrifices himself to mark a Mother Box for the League to defeat Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), which will further deepen Cyborg as a human character, above all else, rather than an “angsty robot who’ll come to his senses at some point.”
Speaking of Steppenwolf, Snyder can create a redemption arc for one of the worst comic book villains of all-time. There was nothing remotely interesting in Steppenwolf’s original portrayal in the 2017 cut — he was yet another soulless, vapid, comic-book villain hellbent on taking over the world for…reasons unknown and is easily defeated when the team comes together. However, in the Snyder Cut, his reasons and motivations become clear — he is serving a higher purpose in retrieving the Mother Boxes. He wants redemption from DeSaad (Peter Guinness) and Darkseid (Ray Porter) by proving himself he is capable of giving to Darkseid the “Anti-Life Equation”. Of course, many of these plot-points aren’t resolved, as Snyder envisioned the film to be split into two parts. Still, the fact that there’s actual character development to craft such a powerful villain makes the film 1000 times more compelling than the corporate cut of Justice League.
In one of the film’s best action sequences, where the Amazons meet Steppenwolf for the first time, trying to protect their Mother Box by keeping it “moving”, there’s actual weight to the story and the stakes at hand. Steppenwolf doesn’t feel like a cut-out, disposable villain anymore — every hit he makes serves that “higher purpose”…we now know why he’s doing this. Because of that knowledge and actual character development, every action sequence has weight to them. The Amazon sequence doesn’t feel like a music-video edit with a boring, two-dimensional villain anymore. Snyder's camera movements and artistic choices further deepen the villain’s relationship with the human (or, in this case, Amazonian) characters and make the action feel lively and kinetic, compared to Whedon’s random cuts to shorten every single scene made by Snyder and always finds a way to add his terrible writing in them.
The Snyder Cut also resurrects Superman (Henry Cavill), and Batman (Ben Affleck)’s original arcs — by fully completing them. Superman’s “resurrection” now has a purpose, after his sacrifice to the world in Batman v. Superman. Ben Affleck continues to prove that he is the best on-screen incarnation of Bruce Wayne/Batman, now fueled with a renewed sense of faith and hope in the world after Superman’s sacrifice. Even with roughly 10-ish minutes of screentime as “Black Superman” and giving a mostly silent performance, Cavill arrives smack-bang where the League needs hope and delivers one of the most satisfying moments in any comic-book film I’ve ever seen. I truly wish he will return to the role in the DCEU, regardless if it’s a cameo or a supporting appearance in another film.
Ben Affleck is making his return in Andy Muschietti’s The Flash (Ray Fisher should also be written back into the movie) and also accepted to return for an additional sequence in ZSJL featuring The Joker (Jared Leto) — which, unfortunately, is the film’s worst scene. Leto doesn’t give a bad performance as the Joker (he doesn’t say “we live in a society,” which is either the greatest troll in the history of cinema or the most disappointing aspect of the entire film…pick your poison), but the film didn’t need the extra “Knightmare” sequence and the embarrassingly bad interaction between Bruce Wayne and J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter (Harry J. Lennix). When Lennix says, “Oh, and some have called me The Martian Manhunter,” (as if we didn’t know he was The Martian Manhunter), it reminded me of the ending of another studio-tarnished film, Fant4stic, where the team comes up with the official name after Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) says, “It’s fantastic.”
Still, the fact that this almost mythic cut of the movie is finally here, in all of its uncut glory, is a feat to behold. It’s miles superior to the corporate-mandated cut of Justice League, but it’s also one of the greatest filmmaking redemption stories of our time. Now that The Snyder Cut is finally here, some fans are eager for Warner Bros. to Restore the Snyder Verse. Of course, many hints in the aforementioned “Knightmare” sequence give the audience hints on what they could expect if The Snyder Verse was indeed restored. However, I don’t believe The Snyder Verse will ever see the light of day.
The Snyder Cut’s existence was made possible solely through fan engagement — which gave fans exactly what they wanted, without any studio interference. Snyder, however, seems eager to move on from the DC Universe, with his next project, Army of the Dead, hitting Netflix in two months. Some might not be ready to see what Snyder does outside of the DC universe, but I cannot wait to see him diversify his filmmaking genres and explore other types of stories other than comic-book storylines. He fully completed his vision, which I’m forever grateful for…and we should all thank him for it.
If you are streaming the film this weekend, please donate to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention here. Don’t just do it for Autumn, but for everyone whose death could be prevented.
