The Snyder Cut — Review Thread

I see you’re a reasonable man.

Brazenly putting one's opinions out on a public platform often means needing to give a mea culpa when proven wrong. Zack Snyder's Justice League certainly threatened me with such a possibility, and not just because I dismissed the theatrical cut as the lamest mediocrity. About a year ago I made a video essay called Fan Entitlement and the Quick Fix, where I railed against modern fandoms demands that their franchises be "fixed" when they feel they go wrong, and that involved a lot of discussion on #ReleasetheSnyderCut. To be clear, the thesis of the essay was more rooted in fan cultures than it was the qualities of texts themselves, but I nonetheless said some pretty uncharitable things about the then mythologized Snyder Cut. Most declaratively, when I answered my own question of whether the Snyder Cut could 'fix' Justice League with a firm "absolutely not". Less than a week later, the Snyder Cut was announced for HBOMax and now it has come, a four hour cut of Justice League built entirely from what Zack shot five years ago (plus a new epilogue). This begs the question, did the Snyder Cut prove me wrong?

Yes and no. To be clear, Zack Snyder's Justice League is an improvement over the theatrical release of the film in just about every way. Characters like The Flash and especially Cyborg who just sort of showed up in 2017 are now given storylines and proper placement within the film as a whole. The added running time also gives the film a lot more time to breath, much more able to convey both the threat at hand and the magnitude of the Justice League coming together. Speaking of magnitude, Snyder's interest in grandiose visuals is done much greater justice here, with colour grading more online with the man's visual sensibilities. I can see why his desaturated look might not appeal to everyone, but this version of Justice League looks more consistent than theatrical, where the brighter colours felt distinctly unnatural. Even action scenes which made it into the theatrical cut are made much better here, given more excitement and tension now that they've been restored to their full glory. Most of Joss Whedon's bad jokes have also been cut, though the film still shows a much lighter tone than the misery of Batman v. Superman. And then there's the climax, which is quite similar to the theatrical, except with beautiful character moments for The Flash and Cyborg which frankly border on awe-inspiring.

All that to say, the Snyder Cut does a lot much better than the patchwork Warner Brothers released in theaters and for however horrid certain bros were online, I am glad this superior cut of the film has seen the light of the day. But I don't know if I'd go as far as to say it fixes Justice League. At the end of the day, this is still a movie with a woefully interesting villain in Steppenwolf, a character this version gives more motivation yet less menace. Rather than just being an evil conqueror, Steppenwolf is essentially in debt to a greater master in Darkseid, but that wrinkle doesn't fundamentally change his scheme nor does it imbue the character with any more personality. And while fans might get a kick out of seeing the ruler of Apokolips on film, he ultimately does very little. Frankly, he, Steppenwolf, and Desaad all blend together as these dark CG monsters who speak vaguely of how "this world will fall" and such. Similarly, Martian Manhunter shows up here in two mostly baffling places, first to undercut a moment of real drama, and second as part of an endless epilogue that does nothing for this story.

And that leads into something else about this movie which is the length. Much as I'm glad Justice League has a lot more room to breathe and I'm generally not one to fret over runtimes, 4 hours is a long ass time for a movie with cartoonishly simple conflict, both external and internal. A four hour movie was never gonna be see a wide theatrical release and even split into two movies I have my doubts. There's a clear enough point of separation at the two hour mark that would have given Part One a big action climax, but at the same time, I don't think that first half would have made a very satisfying movie in its own right. Of course, it's interesting that the Snyder Cut's worst elements have nothing to do with the original footage, but the new piece shot for this HBOMax release - the epilogue. Snyder brings us back to the Knightmare fantasy from Batman v. Superman, with the Dark Knight leading a scrappy rebellion of heroes against an evil Superman on an apocalyptic (or Apokoliptic) Earth. I sort of assumed Snyder going back to this well was to give it closure given the movies these scenes would be elaborated on are likely not being made at this point, but we once again have more sequel bait that goes nowhere, has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, and at this point comes after the main conflicts have already been resolved. But what makes this scene so awful is Jared Leto's Joker. Leto is already the worst actor to ever play the character and I might argue his performance in this scene is even worse than anything he did in Suicide Squad. The dialogue is also terrible, complete with Batman's edgy f-bomb. It's a shame because, for whatever else you might say about Zack Snyder's Justice League, the movie is generally much more cohesive and really delivers a satisfying finale. But then it just keeps going, collapsing in this truly terrible scene.

The epilogue leaves the Snyder Cut on an awkward note, but even so, the movie definitely surpassed my expectations. I could even see myself watching it again (which is good because I'm probably gonna have to show it to my brother). All told, I don't think this is a case of a great, or even good movie being butchered by the studio, but rather, a decent but unreleasable movie being botched by a studio who fumbled at the finish line. Whatever the case, this version of the movie is vastly superior to that what we got in 2017 and for what ever other bullshit "the movement" caused, I'm glad Zack Snyder got closure.

C

Too lazy. Besides, I have a Snyder video due out in a week or so that I'm sure will be universally beloved.

Send him a link to the site.

Lol. Is it one of your students?

Please tell me it's not The Fandom Menace.

He posted a reaction video to one of Coop's videos that's almost as long and boring as the Snyder Cut.

The sad thing is that's not even half the amount of times that shitty music cue is used.

Even SmudBoy would be on board.

"Wondering why stories are lame?" How is anyone supposed to take an author seriously when that's the first thing they write?

PG Cooper is already feeling so vindicated.