Zack Snyder's Justice League- Film Review

Wow what a journey this has been for the DC fans…

With the highly anticipated ‘Justice League: Snyder Cut’ now out on HBO Max for fans to feast their eyes on, it’s time to review the film and reflect upon one of the greatest fan feats of all time.

Before I start this review, I feel like I should reflect upon how the Snyder Cut became from a ‘release everyone dreamt of’ to a reality.

The Snyder Cut was the actual film we were supposed to get back in 2017 rather then that Joss Whedon atrocity. However the sad news of the passing away of Zack Snyder’s daughter flew in just at the time when the film was in post-production, and Snyder sadly had to hand over the project to Whedon during a time of grievance and mourning. After Snyder left the set, Whedon helmed the task and opted for extensive reshoots, and there was a studio constraint- the film cannot exceed 120 minutes. With all restrictions in place and a complete change of style and approach, Justice League (Or ‘Josstice League’ as called by the fans) was finally released in 2017. And as you know it, it was a big-budget misfire. The film seemed rushed, unpolished, too much Whedon-ish and completely different than what the DC fans are accustomed with.

After that film, fans were enraged, and they wanted to watch what actually was supposed be the Justice League. Several online protests were called, petitions were signed and fans used everything at their disposal to get the film released.

Finally, the dreams of many fans became a reality when Warner Bros. announced the project back in February 2020. Since then fans started counting days to the release of the hyped up film, and now that it’s finally here, everyone is talking about it.

Anyways, moving on to the review.

Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ is a reimbursement of freshness into the DCEU. What seemed like a studio going downhill picked up finally, to the relief of the fans, and a successful shot at redemption has sent DCEU off into setting up their universe again. Snyder’s Justice League, though pretty lengthy and seems to drag at times, utilizes much of its duration to set up a few characters, notably Cyborg and the Flash. Victor Stones, or Cyborg, a rather obscure character, is beautifully sketched out in this film, unlike Whedon’s version where he seemed like a mundane, CGI addition only for the big CGI fight scenes. Here he seems more humane, and this is achieved by a good chunk of total duration being dedicated to his character and Ray Fisher’s brilliant performance. Moreover, his CGI is well-polished in this film. Another character beautifully fleshed out was Barry Allen, aka the Flash, and though I’m not a big fan of Ezra Miller, I think his performance was scintillating in this film. He also gets a ginormous amount of characterization in this film, and the humor coming out of him was not an overkill. But rather regulated which I think blends in perfectly with the film’s tone. In Whedon’s cut, he had all these cringey humors which made the scenes awkward and did not blend in at all with the film, but in here he is much better. Speaking of characterization, Clark Kent also gets to shine in this film, and surprisingly he is very humane in this film. Snyder beautifully explores his story arc and that made Superman, one of the most insanely powerful characters in all of fiction, fairly relatable at times.

Moving on to the CGI and battle sequences. The CGI in this film is mercifully better than the one we got in 2017. It looks better, and seems less noticeable in terms of Henry Cavill’s fake mustache. Steppen Wolf looks way better this time around, and all the other CGI looks beautiful. Speaking of action sequences, the battle of Themyscira was a jaw-droppingly fun sequence in Snyder’s version, and it pumped me up at times while the women of Themyscira were tossing the motherbox around and being chased by Steppen Wolf. The fight sequences were beautiful, as is expected from Snyder, who specializes in big CGI showdowns, and it is a pleasure to watch Wonder Woman, who is beautifully portrayed by Gal Gadot, fend off Steppen Wolf’s army using her eye-catching abilities. Aquaman, portrayed by Jason Momoa, is fun to watch too when he grabs his trident to fight Wolf’s minions. Every character in the Snyder Cut gets their moment to shine, and kudos to Snyder for fleshing them out well before tossing them into war against each other. Also, the humor is toned down in this version to fit into the dark atmosphere set up earlier in the film, which makes the film more intense and less light hearted.

Now moving on to some negative aspects of this film. This film is 4 hours long. Yes, 4 HOURS. It was a pain to sit through the entire runtime, and it took me 3 days to completely watch the film from opening to end credits. I wonder why they changed their minds and decided to coagulate so many storylines into one feature film, it could have made a beautiful 4-episode series since it was coming out on HBO Max anyways. Moreover, there are a few storylines that seemed mediocre to me, especially Snyder’s attempt to make Lois Lane a relevant character. No offence to Amy Adams, I’m a big fan of her acting, but her character seems bland at times in this film. There is also a CGI character in this film who appears near the end of the film, and his addition was only for the fan servicing and setting up the platform for future films. There’s a story with Darkseid, the infamous DC villain, and his backstory was interesting but rather unnecessary in my opinion. If some of these additions could have been left off the film could’ve been trimmed down to 3 hours at least.

Other than that, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a refreshing experience, one that was far better than the 2017 film and a successful attempt at redemption. I’m genuinely excited to see what else DCEU has in store for the fans.

I’m going to give Snyder Cut a B+.

Thank you for reading my review!