Film Review: Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

A grave injustice was done four years ago. Perhaps it was desperation, greed, or just plain incompetence, but in delivering an epic superhero mash-up to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner Brothers whipped together Justice League with haphazard results. Zack Snyder finished the work already, having filmed hours of content that merely needed editing and polish. Unfortunately, he had to step away from post-production when his daughter passed away. Warner Bros reeled in Joss Wheadon, and for reasons that I will probably never fathom, he reshot a number of scenes, swapping out Snyder’s gravitas for quippy banter nobody asked for. Epic scenes were replaced with bland, talky scenes that felt more at home in soap operas or sitcoms. And all of this was mashed together between the bloated action scenes, leaving hardly any room for story beats, emotional payoffs, or any kind of nuance. Unsurprisingly, the film flopped. But the reasons were so transparent that fans petitioned for a real director’s cut to be assembled. Despite the cost involved, Warner Bros surprisingly obliged and let Snyder return to finish what he started.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League follows the events of Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, and naturally the three together comprise a face-melting trilogy. With Kal-El’s demise in the previous film, mysterious artifacts suddenly awaken around the world, and a menacing tyrant from another world seeks them out. When the forces of Themyscira and Atlantis fail to stop Steppenwolf, Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) team up with Aquaman (Jason Mamoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and the Flash (Ezra Miller) to analyze the threat they face and find a way to save the world.

Sure, this is the same plot as the 2017 cut, but this sucker is almost four hours long, split up into six bite-sized parts as a miniseries format. Even though all the big-scale setpieces remain, they are spaced out with substantial breathing room to permit longer, better scenes. We’re finally given a proper understanding of Cyborg’s character—where he came from, why he despises his father, and we’re ultimately given a stronger avenue to care and root for him. Aquaman is treated with greater earnestness, and I appreciate the scenes that foreshadow his own stand-alone movie from 2018. Steppenwolf is given a make-over, visually for one, and with just enough dialogue to give him a better motivation, which elevates him a grade more. However, it’s the appearance of Darkseid—a bigger, more menacing antagonist who wasn’t even in the original cut--who will elicit more chills. The mythology behind the Mother Boxes seems so much more interesting--maybe because it feels less rushed, and they feel like threats more than McGuffins (and this is probably because their use is actually entwined with the plot and characters better). There are probably hundreds of other smaller details that unifies the movie and aligns it with the other DCEU properties (including a reappearance of Jared Leto as the Joker, Eisenberg’s return as Lex Luthor, a brief glimpse of Deadshot, a better representation of a Green Lantern dude).

What impresses me the most, however, is that the film is structured in a way that makes more sense. It’s clear that the 2017 cut shuffled many of the same scenes in a nonsensical way and tried to smoothen it out with extra dialogue. In Snyder’s cut, every character is given their own spotlight, and they are developed sufficiently before moving onto the major turning points and big-scale action scenes. Despite some exposition, most of the story is delivered with visually striking scenes that show more and tell less--the exact opposite of the older cut, and hot dang it works. Nothing feels rushed, and somehow very little feels extraneous.

All that being said, if you hated Zack Snyder’s work before, this film will not change your mind at all. His excesses are still highly evident--the film is loaded with slow-motion, disaster porn, CGI, and brooding. The entire film is given a dark veneer that paints every scene in black, brown, gray, and bronze--the exact opposite of Wheadon’s candy-colored treatment. It’s also head-scratching that this was all finished in a square 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Compared to other Snyder films, however, I believe this one is much more palatable, with a steady camera. Composition and angles are often quite striking, and it captures the locations, props, and costumes with remarkable detail. Special effects paint most scenes with fantastic results--it’s not the best CGI ever, but it’s a vast improvement from before and it looks awesome to my eyes. One of the greatest improvements is with the music score--Tom Holkenborg (aka JXL) brings back the themes that Hans Zimmer originally spearheaded, and they add a lot of awesome-sounding guitars. However, it adds a lot more emotion and changes the dynamic of all scenes (especially the action scenes), and it goes a long way in delivering a punchier experience.

Performances remain the same as before, but with far less jokiness and hokeyness. Ben Affleck is still quite the intimidating presence as Batman. I’m a little more awed by Ray Fisher’s role. A little less impressed by Gadot—she still looks great in action, but her line delivery leaves something to be desired. Jason Momoa exudes machoism and gravitas--his role seems stiff here, but at least he’s not saying stuff like “ah-right!” again. I never had a problem with Miller’s Flash, but I know many viewers find his humorous take annoying—little has changed between the two cuts. I’m still impressed by Henry Cavill’s take on Superman. A plethora of other stars—Jeremy Irons, JK Simmons, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe, Leto and Eisenberg—round off this huge cast with admirable talent.

Despite the sheer length of the film, its strengths became apparent to me when I considered the epic setpieces that were coming (such as the bank robbery scenes, the big fight under Gotham Harbor, the resurrection of Superman, the climactic fight) and knew that this film would not whiz through each of them the same way the 2017 cut did. Space between the action matters, and Snyder’s completed cut represents the story as it should be told—with attention given to setting up the characters, the stakes, the mythology, and the reasons behind the spectacle. Few years ago, it seemed like Warner Bros and Wheadon were solely interested in the spectacle—it’s meaningless without the right setup. It ticks me off the more I think about it because, in a hundred years of cinema, you’d think studios would understand how films fail when they’re sliced and diced too much. This kind of nonsense ruined Suicide Squad (not to mention non-DC films like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Spider-Man 3, 2015’s Fantastic Four). This somewhat mirrors the situation decades ago with Superman II, in which Richard Lester finished Richard Donner’s film with way too much comedy and cheese. Some time later, the Donner cut showed us the vision that could have been (imperfect of course, but still fascinating and arguably improved). In the modern age, we have the good fortune to see Zack Snyder’s vision for Justice League in good quality--a far better experience than the unjustly butchered version previously released to theaters. Some things can never be changed or fixed about it, but it at least feels coherent, complete, satisfying...and immensely epic.

It feels like justice has been served.

8/10