Determined to ensure Superman’s ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.
There’s not much that can be said about Zack Snyder’s cut of “Justice League” that hasn’t already been scrutinized in great detail. For those of you living under a rock, I’ll reiterate the gist: Zack Snyder walked away halfway through the shoot of “Justice League” due to a family tragedy, and the studio handed the reins to Joss Whedon. Normally more than adept at handling big-budget comic book spectacles (“The Avengers”), Whedon seemed lost, awkwardly vacillating between his trademark humor and ponderous self-seriousness. The end result was a flop at the box office, and widely criticized as perhaps the worst entry in the DC canon (yes, including “Batman and Robin”).
Rabid fans united and, via the online campaign dubbed “Release the Snyder Cut,” relentlessly petitioned to have Snyder’s original vision restored. In an unprecedented turn of events, the studio caved in (read: saw profit), allowing the filmmaker to reassemble the film into its intended shape. Whether its four-hour running time was part of the original vision or a tacked-on indulgence remains unclear. The improvement in overall quality, however — the fleshed-out characterizations, the now-coherent plot, the much more impactful villain — cannot be denied. It’s a Snyder film, through and through: overblown, solemn, ridiculous, sometimes beautiful, sometimes garishly ugly, epic, and not a little hollow. Fans of the filmmaker will love it, detractors will loathe it.
In the wake of Clark Kent/Superman’s (Henry Cavill) death, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) unites with Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to recruit a team of superheroes to take on the almighty Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds). That’s the plot in a nutshell. According to producer Deborah Snyder, they only shot one new scene; however, there were reshoots, and a ton of added VFX shots (over 2,000 new ones), some of which comprise entire sequences. Supes’s black suit impresses; that “Flash/hot dog” sequence is cute, and there’s the Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennnix Jr.), and arguably the highlight, that ending with the Joker (Jared Leto).
The sheer number of acting stalwarts here is jaw-dropping: Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, David Thewlis as Ares… Too bad they’re all given little to do, and the leads aren’t nearly as charismatic as the supporting cast. Affleck — surprise, surprise! — is a blank slate as Bats (here’s hoping Robert Pattinson will fare better in the upcoming umpteenth reboot). Gadot channels earnest heroism, glamor, and not much else; Cavill’s Supes is forgettable at best; Momoa seems like he’s auditioning for his solo Aquaman outing; Ezra Miller gets the worst one-liners as Barry Allen/The Flash; and Ray Fisher’s Victor Stone/Cyborg, while certainly more intriguing in this version, still comes off as a perfunctory character. The decision to cast Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Author remains inexplicable.
The film looks spectacular in 4K. Say what you will about Snyder’s more annoying tendencies (the bombast, the poor handling of dialogue, the inflated ego of it all), but he’s a great visual artist, his heroes truly god-like, battling it out against the most stunning (albeit digitized) backdrops. Judging by IMDB’s 8.1/10 score, the film satisfied the fans that fought so tirelessly to have it released. Mission accomplished, then.
Now available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, and DVD
