Zack Snyder’s Justice League Review

By: Adam Beam 3/26/21

Photo Courtesy: Zack Snyder/Twitter

In 2017, when “Justice League” hit theaters, nobody expected the mess that they would be seeing. With scenes that clearly cut between two director’s visions, awkward CGI, and some laughably terrible dialogue, the film was both a critical and financial disaster.

With all the studio meddling, fans began to speculate that somewhere, buried deep in a Warner Brothers vault, was director Zack Snyder’s original cut of the film, which they dubbed the Snyder Cut.

For the past three years fans petitioned endlessly, with Snyder constantly teasing them with the existence of his original version. And now after all this time, Snyder’s vision has finally come to life with his four-hour version of “Justice League” coming to HBO Max.

At this point it should go without saying that Snyder’s cut here is vastly superior to the Whedon cut in every possible way. Gone is the forced quippy dialogue, gone is the terrible oversaturated colors, and gone is everything that made the theatrical cut such a mess. The Snyder Cut is essentially an entirely different movie, and you come to realize that only about 40 minutes worth of Snyder’s footage was used in the theatrical cut. The difference is night and day.

The film’s greatest strengths is its characters, as now with the 4 hour runtime, every character is given time to breathe and develop throughout the movie. We also get a chance to see our heroes interacting as a team, playing off of each other, and leading to some great character moments. The standout being Ray Fisher as Cyborg, who now actually has a purpose in the story, and is without a doubt the heart of the film, which is a nice change of pace from him having nothing to do in the Whedon cut.

Ezra Miller’s Flash is far less annoying this time around, while still remaining as the film’s comedic relief, as well as giving us some of the film’s most stunning visuals.

Another character vastly improved upon is the film’s central villain Steppenwolf, who went from one of the worst comic book movie villains, to a far more interesting and understandable threat to our heroes.

While Snyder’s version improves in every aspect, it still contains a few flaws that many will find in his other ventures. For starters while visually the movie is pretty well done, there are times when the visual effects are almost laughably bad. It also feels like the movie could definitely be shortened down from it’s four hour runtime, especially the Knightmare sequence which feels incredibly tacked on at the very end of the film.

And for those who were wondering, this might be Snyder’s most slow-mo heavy movie, with it being used to almost comical level.

Overall though, I’m able to look past these issues and say that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a legitimately good movie. With everything from the action, to the characters, to the visuals and more being improved upon there is absolutely no reason for anyone to watch the theatrical cut of the film ever again.

If you consider yourself a fan both of DC Films and of Snyder’s other work, you will certainly not be disappointed.