Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Although the behind-the-scenes details are sketchy, we know that 2017’s Justice League, though credited to Zack Snyder as the director, was more of the direction that the studio wanted the franchise to go than where Snyder was taking it. Warner Bros. had grown increasingly disenchanted with their decision for Snyder to be the architect of their cinematic universe and wanted to be the ones to steer the ship in a much lighter and optimistic direction.
When Snyder wanted to put such things as a romance between Bruce Wayne and a grieving Lois Lane, they knew he needed to be reeled in. They began to say no and demanded he keeps his film to no more than two hours in length to suppress his indulgences and make more money at the box office with increased showings. In May of 2017, Snyder was under so much personal and professional pressure, he stepped away, mainly due to overwhelming grief, as well as alcohol abuse on and off the set, following the suicide of his 20-year-old daughter Autumn two months prior.
Warner assigned two-time Avengers crossover writer-director, Joss Whedon, to step in. Although the public was told that Whedon was finishing the film for Snyder, he served merely as a hired gun to write and shoot entirely new scenes at the studio’s request. Warner wanted the fun and optimism that made the Marvel franchise films more successful rather than the dark and brooding nature of the Snyder-verse films that only a small-ish but loyal fan base adored.
Meanwhile, actor Ray Fisher claimed that Whedon was abusive and unprofessional on the Justice League set. Fisher also said DC Entertainment’s Geoff Johns and Warner production head Jon Berg enabled his behavior and that Whedon cut out people of color and tampered with Cyborg’s skin tone. Whedon’s spokesperson claims that a variety of other people handled digital alterations. The studio has gone into an internal investigation of Fisher’s claims, though Christina Carpenter and Michelle Trachtenberg corroborate Whedon’s environment of cruelty on the sets of the TV shows, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.”
Evidence continued to spread that Snyder completed a rough cut of his film, roughly 140 minutes long. Fanboys clamored on social media to #ReleasetheSnyderCut, because what Warner released, they felt, was a compromised vision at best, and at worst, a complete butchering. Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck went public with their belief that Warner should let out what Snyder had done, and Jason Momoa claimed to have seen Snyder’s unfinished footage and that it deserved to go public.
When Ann Sarnoff took over the reins of Warner, the fans bombarded her with their pleas. Soon, the Snyder Cut was announced for release as an exclusive for their new HBO Max service to help compete against the likes of Disney and Netflix. People were stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and looking for new content. This provides a low-risk proposition to generate publicity within a very critical demographic of consumers. Knowing that the film is going to a streaming platform, Snyder is liberated from former restrictions, not worrying about removing scenes for time or appeasing the corporate suits.
Warner just wanted to release the rough cut as is, no additional work, but Snyder flat out refused because it seemed like Warner didn’t care about anything but keeping trolls off their back and putting out an incomplete product that few would champion as vindication for their meddling decisions. Snyder would rather the cut be a myth of wonder in people’s minds than to see it in a non-functional state. To get Warner interested, executives were invited to a screening of the nearly four-hour workprint still retained by Snyder from his laptop into the theater in his home that had black-and-white footage with unfinished effects and additional storyboarded sequences tying finished scenes together.
The cost of creating the hundreds of new CG effects, film additional scenes, and adding new music would be $70 million to bring to the light. Snyder would accept no fee other than what they already paid him in exchange for complete creative control of what he produced with the money. He could also use it to bring in funds to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention as a way to honor his daughter Autumn. Snyder reconnected with screenwriter Chris Terrio to help shape it into a new movie unshackled by prior commercial considerations.
Warner initially contemplated releasing the film in four chapters but, once complete, approved a full four-hour cut because it might have voided contracts if it became something classified as a TV show instead of a movie. Snyder estimates this new cut contains about 2.5 hours of unseen footage, exploring much more Barry Allen as The Flash and Victor Stone as Cyborg. He also introduces Steppenwolf’s New God nephew Darkseid as a bigger-boss supervillain.
None of the footage includes anything shot by Joss Whedon. Snyder says he would rather destroy the movie than include a single frame he didn’t direct. He never watched what Warner did with Justice League but heard enough through others’ complaints to know they let the fans down. New special effects and Tom Holkenborg’s score accompany the repackaged and extended-release. It is in the 1:33 aspect ratio to match the 35mm footage that was meant to be shown in IMAX theaters.
Anticipation for the Snyder cut grew exponentially with a new trailer featuring Jared Leto’s Joker, the only newly shot sequence of the film he did in his backyard. When Ben Affleck bailed on the intended solo spinoff, Warner rebooted with a new Batman starring Robert Pattinson in the future, denying the intended conflict with Leto’s iteration of the mad clown. In this film’s epilogue, Snyder adds additional nuggets of what the fire Snyder-verse could have been. A Green Lantern scene meant for the film was changed into the Martian Manhunter character. He also includes Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke, the intended main villain for the solo Batman film, which Snyder intended to pattern after David Fincher’s The Game, except with Bruce Wayne’s life being dismantled. Snyder was saddened that these iterations of the characters weren’t going to clash on the screen, so he felt they should get their due while he commanded the stage.
As with the 2017 version, the story follows the events of Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Superman is dead, leaving a vacuum as Earth’s protector. A hulking alien from the planet Apokolips named Steppenwolf comes to Earth to retrieve the three hidden Motherboxes, cubelike artifacts with mysterious, powerful energy, enough to destroy planets when combined. Batman can’t take on such a force alone, rounding up a team of superpowered beings from Earth to stop impending doom -the goddess-like Amazon Wonder Woman, the god-like Atlantean king Aquaman, the turbo-speed demon Flash, and the cybernetic wizard Cyborg. And yet, they will still need the power of Superman somehow.
If the Snyder cut puts anything to rest, it’s that Snyder’s original vision for Justice League shouldn’t have been tampered with. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it definitely paces better than Whedon’s and actually makes some sense. It also places a solid emphasis on the newcomers to the screen, Flash and Cyborg, and contains genuinely compelling moments. In fact, when Snyder came back to the property, he realized that the main arc of the film is Cyborg’s and built his new cut around that as a Cyborg film that happens to incorporate the rest of the power players in the DCEU.
There’s more room for a story to breathe in four hours while also introducing two major heroes, a couple of major villains, and to form the Justice League in a way that feels much more natural. Cyborg’s scenes are the most compelling, the Flash sequences the most fun, enough to elevate Justice League as more than the typical Snyder money-shot marathon.
Although a better overall experience, Zack Snyder’s Justice League does suffer from inherent problems in Snyder’s delivery. Its dark and brooding atmosphere laces emotional weight on sequences without adequate build-up for the maudlin tone. The characters are too superficial for us to feel their state of mind, coming across as perpetually troubled and emo without adequately connecting us to their plight.
The Motherboxes, also derived from the mind of Jack Kirby, make more sense in the Snyder cut. They’re still an uninspired concept. They serve the same function as the Infinity Stones from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look like the Allspark from the Transformers. Compounding this, Steppenwolf is a boring villain that looks formidable yet never captivates the screen like a Joker might. His Parademon army is just as uninteresting, seemingly existing only for the good guys to smash up while performing Snyder-esque slo-mo heroic battle postures.
Snyder has had “director’s cuts” that were longer but not necessarily better. Oftentimes, they meant more excess and redundant action-hero poses. Snyder’s tendency is that slowing down the action means excitement, but they often prolong the monotony of an already overextended sequence. Emotional moments of anguished characters, especially Lois Lane and her mourning for Superman/Clark Kent, remind us of how absent the development of their relationship has always been. It rings hollow, despite two capable actors in Diane Lane and Amy Adams to do the crying and hugging.
Superman is relegated mainly to deus-ex-machina plot-device moments toward the end of the film. His return from the dead couldn’t lack any more grandeur or gravitas. It falls short because Snyder’s Superman is more of a symbol than a character, not worth exploring on any psychological or emotional level beyond the story’s needs.
Superman appears in a black suit as a nod to the “Death of Superman” saga from the comic books. Steppenwolf gets a metallic make-over in the Snyder cut. Snyder also introduces Darkseid, a longtime major villain for the Justice League. Snyder had planned Darkseid to develop into the main foe in the DCEU for future Justice League team-up battles.
The erratic effects can sometimes be overbearing, and the film devolves into mind-numbing displays of light, sparkles, and slow-motion derring-do. Compounding the issue is that some of the CG-enhanced choreography is too herky-jerky, and there is an “uncanny valley” aspect to the character movements when things need to play out fast. The rampant green-screening also contributes to making the film seem more like a video game than a rich fantasy experience come to life.
We can be thankful for the absence of the pointless Russian family from the Whedon cut, which sank all momentum every time they appeared. The lengthy epilogue exists solely as fan-service with “what could have been if only Warner would have let me” moments to introduce characters and plot threads that will leave fanboys salivating and everyone else confused. The epilogue doesn’t add to the preceding story and denies us the closure befitting a length and exhausting extravaganza.
Justice League plays more like a fan film than as a story to entertain beyond them. If you’re a fan, you’ll enjoy it. If you’re not, this won’t convert you. However, unlike Whedon’s version, this one hits enough strides at regular intervals that it makes Warner’s preferred take worthy of never been watched again.
The film is dedicated to Snyder’s daughter Autumn in the end, and the song that plays out over the credits, “Hallelujah,” was her favorite, sung by Alison Crowe, who performed it at Autumn’s funeral. Snyder found it a cathartic experience to finish the film and to honor her memory.
Now let’s petition for the release of David Ayer’s cut of Suicide Squad.
MPAA Rated: R for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief strong language
Running Time: 242 min.
Cast: Ray Fisher, Ezra Miller, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Joe Morton, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Billy Crudup, Connie Nielsen, J.K. Simmons, Amber Heard
Voice: Ciaran Hinds
Director: Zack Snyder
Screenplay: Chris Terrio