| Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) | |
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Rating: 7.9/10 (437,075 votes) Director: Zack Snyder Writer: Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Zack Snyder Stars: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot Runtime: 242 min Rated: R Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy Released: 18 Mar 2021 |
| Plot: Determined to ensure that Superman's ultimate sacrifice wasn't in vain, Bruce Wayne recruits a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. | |
Not the “totally different film” that the pre-release hype from fans suggested, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is still the same basic story about Steppenwolf gathering the motherboxes to combine and bring Earth to its knees on behalf of his master, Darkseid. With no Superman on the scene, Bruce Wayne seeks out other ‘heroes’ to unite and stand against the gathering darkness – but soon realise that they need to find a way to bring Superman back. The difference here is that the film takes longer to cover the story, adds in some sub-plots, expands a few characters out, and then tags on a coda at the end for good measure.
Now, first things first, yes this is better than the 2017 version – but then again, being worse would be a feat all of its own! It looks better, although still struggles with some dubiously rendered moments (which, given the lockdown constraints to finish the film, I will forgive). Some of the more cringeworthy moments are gone – although there are a number of moments that fans who campaigned for this had hated on because they believed they were “Joss reshoots” that are still present (how embarrassing!) But, it is still weighed down with the same basic plotting by Terrio, and all the dialogue that comes with it – only this time we get a few F-bombs to, you know, make it more adult (in a 13 year-old’s idea of what a ‘mature content’ film means!)
Without any restraint, and allowed to go full-Snyder, the film is packed with slow-motion to the extreme, some bizarre moments of music drops, and the first hour is a slow crawl of scenes we have already seen much faster in the last version – sometimes editing is for the better. Once Barry Allen joins the fray, that’s when it sparks up a bit. One character that was a weak element of the last version is now the strongest in this one. I was never sold on the casting of Ezra Miller, but the removal of some of the weaker moments that Whedon added really benefits him. Instead of the whimpering and afraid version, we now have one who knows and understands his powers, and his anxious jittering is more a social anxiety as opposed to cowardice – he is a hero, confidently so, just trying to find his place in the team.
Cyborg, however, still doesn’t grab me! I don’t have much time for the character in the comics – he is a literal deus-ex-machina, with pretty much undefined abilities – and there really is no benefit to him now being key to the story here – the same story worked okay without him!
Let me just mention one of the many small additions that actually annoyed me – an early scene of Martian Manhunter, before all hell breaks loose. Not only does it cheapen what was otherwise an emotional moment between Martha and Lois, but now it appears he is present on earth, knows what is happening, but when, you know, the planet he is on is at risk, he doesn’t bother trying to help???
CGI blood splats look painted on at times, not helped by the sometimes cartoon-like manner of the impacts, and a decapitation is cool, but not really there for any reason other than to say, “Yeah, we are brutal!”
All in all, this is a film that needed serious editing, and a little less slow-motion. There’s a decent 3 hour film in here at best, maybe 2 and a half hours. But as it stands it is one purely for the fans, who are getting every bit of fan servicing that they want – and by fans, I mean fans of Snyder’s take, not necessarily fans of the comics as this line-up doesn’t sit well with this comic book fan (then again, I never took to New 52, so was happy when Rebirth came along and made clear it was all a mistake).
Would I like to see more from these characters? Definitely, and Flashpoint is now one of my most hotly anticipated films – but with a different director please. Zack had his time, let him move onto other things now (back to zombies, which I can’t wait for!)
