Disclaimer: I intended to rewatch the 2017 theatrical cut of Justice League before watching Zack Snyder's Justice League but I have a three year old and my evenings are precious. Instead I watched the Snyder cut over two nights.
Call me Nostradamus, Zack Snyder's Justice League is indeed better than 2017's Justice League. It's more cohesive, tonally consistent, at times thrilling, and it's villain has some form of motivation and no longer looks like complete ass.
It's also four hours long despite sharing the same basic, paper thin, plot that the theatrical version had. Unless Bruce Springsteen is involved nothing should be four hours long, and while the film is a significant improvement over the previous debacle, this is the 'everything but the sink' version and it predictably suffers for it.
With that said though I actually enjoyed Justice League 2021... for the most part. The general story beats are the same but I was taken aback by just how different the film is, having assumed I would just be watching longer versions of scenes I'd endured four years ago. Warner Brothers didn't just have Joss Whedon pop some gags in here and there; huge portions of the film are markedly different. In the main the scenes that are simply extensions are the action sequences. Here Zack Snyder is entirely unfiltered, taking advantage of the new R Rating by lopping off limbs and heads and living out some weird angsty teenage fantasy. It's spectacular and exhausting. Snyder can throw together an action sequence like no other but when every skirmish is presented like the Battle of Helm's Deep the effect is numbing. That's Snyder in a nutshell, in a vacuum the scenes are breathtaking but as part of a whole the entire thing collapses under it's own weight.
Far more effective are the character beats peppered throughout the opening (sigh) two hours. None of the characters will be studied in literature classes but there are a number of nice additions that give our heroes some badly needed extra dimension.
No one benefits from this more than Ray Fisher's Cyborg. Even without the behind the scenes unpleasantness, I can't imagine Fisher would have been happy with how utterly gutted his role was in the theatrical cut. I would have been hard pressed to describe Victor Stone beyond 'the robot one' in 2017 but here he is close to being the heart of the picture. Following a car crash that killed his mother and nearly him, he is resurrected by his scientist father with the help of an alien artifact. But despite being able to talk to machines, fly and turn his body into any assortment of weapons he remains locked away and bitter at the man who did this to him. Joe Morton had little more than a cameo in the previous film as Victor's father Silas Stone but he is a main player here and the relationship between the two men is an emotional core the previous version simply didn't have.
Poor old Ben Affleck continues to be decent in a very odd version of Batman. 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice kneecapped this franchise from the off with a litany of bad decisions but they really wrote themselves into a corner by introducing a retired Dark Knight and presenting him as something of a dimwitted asshole. Granted both he and Superman were dimwitted assholes but having Bruce constantly calling Superman a beacon and the best thing since sliced bread when an hour before that same Superman died Bruce was smashing a sink over his head... it's just odd and try as it might the film doesn't really rehabilitate him by the end.
Wonder Woman still gets the thankless task of explaining every aspect of the plot in long, painfully dry monologues. Gadot is a fine Wonder Woman but none of the warmth or charm of her solo outing is here, and apparently none of it was on the cutting room floor either. There is a glimmer in an early scene where she inspires a young admirer but for the rest of the film Diana scowls and frowns and gives history lessons. Snyder did however make damn certain to utilise Diana's battle prowess in the action sequences because of course he did. In fact her introductory action beat will have you questioning why the team even needs Superman, or the Flash for that matter.
Speaking of The Flash, both his and Aquaman's roles remain relatively unchanged. I had no issue with Ezra Miller's performance in the original cut. The film takes itself agonisingly seriously and any comic relief is welcome, there is a terrific scene where Barry Allen saves Iris West that should never have gone. It's all set up for his solo adventures but it's character work so I'll take it. And Jason Momoa is Jason Momoa. Big, handsome, charismatic and handsome. And handsome.
There's not much more to say about Henry Cavill. He once again does his best with a really poorly written role that Snyder and co just can't seem to crack/understand (say what you want about Whedon but he at least understands what it is about Superman that has resonated for nearly 80 years). The resurrection of The Man of Steel is still absolutely absurd. There is a scene where the team work out they may be able to bring Supes back that borders on parody and when they do formulate a plan it's the same barely coherent guesswork as before (only this time there is more time to stress how incredibly risky the plan is). I'm not sure what the answer is here. Realistically you have to take Superman out of the game because he can punch people into the sun. I'm not sure killing him only to immediately bring him back is the way to go but there must have been something less ridiculous. It's the same issue the Russo's tried (and arguably failed) to tackle with Captain Marvel in Avengers Endgame, how do you create tension when your character can split a mountain in half?
On the villain side of things the only way was up for Steppenwolf, the film's central baddie. He's had a visual upgrade and benefits from a significantly beefed up backstory. Here, rather than the mastermind, he is a follower of Darkseid, DC's ultimate big bad, and is trying to win back the favour of his master. He's not giving Darth Vader or Hannibal Lecter a run for their money but the difference here is night and day. There is an almost pathetic desperation to his assault on Earth and in an extended attack on Themyscira he is a genuinely threatening presence. It's frankly bizarre how neutered he became under Whedon's direction given how well he seems to understand villains. There is plenty that could go from this version (we didn't really that ten minute Jason Momoa Davidoff advert) but everything about Steppenwolf is great and the improvement it makes to the film can't be overstated.
So it's a ludicrously bloated, at times enjoyable and very silly film, but more than that it's a fascinating look at what an 'assembly cut' of these kind of enormous pictures are. We often hear directors describe initial cuts of films being four or five hours long before they are edited and cut down to a sane runtime. Well this is what that looks like. This is what Zack Snyder's Justice League looks like when no one says "Zack that shot of Lois in the rain doesn't need to be forty minutes long".
There is a decent, entertaining and very dopey two and half hour version of this film. If Warner had just held their nerve and hired someone to just finish what Snyder was doing they would have had a success... and saved $100 million dollars. People would have wanted that Cyborg movie, they would have been invested in Snyder's plan for a Justice League trilogy, they wouldn't had to have seen that insane moustache-less Henry Cavill. I don't think any version would have washed the stink of Batman v Superman off the franchise but it could have righted the ship instead of leaving the studio scrabbling to relaunch it.
To my surprise my overwhelming feeling after this, apart from exhaustion, was disappointment that the whole thing had been cut short. Snyder's proposed post apocalyptic final chapter is a bit much for my taste (there is a tease at the end of this that looks like a fan film) but it would have least been something different. As much as I heap praise on Marvel, they rarely, if ever, swing for the fences like this.
Through sheer willpower fans got Warner Brothers to #releasethesnyder cut. With Snyder done with the series the likely success of #restorethesnyderverse is slim and honestly, thinking about it, that's a bit of a shame.
