March 28, 2024

Zack Snyder’s Justice League makes the cut

The original Justice League was dead on arrival. But, the “Snyder Cut” offers a chance at redemption.

 When the first Justice League movie was released in 2018, I left the theater rather confused and unsatisfied. It was a hard-to-follow mess with flashy visual effects. Most importantly, it was the nail in the coffin that made many DC fans upset that their movie universe was lackluster in comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which released Avengers: Infinity War the same year.

After the release of Justice League, it wasn’t long before word got out that a different version of the movie existed. It was referred to as “The Snyder Cut,” and it was rumored to have two and a half hours of unreleased footage. 

DC fans immediately jumped into action, posting on social media requesting or even demanding that the Snyder cut be released. Almost two years later, here we are as Zack Snyder’s Justice League was released on HBO Max and became viewable with a subscription. 

Now stands the question: Is it better than the original?  The short answer is yes.

The plot is much easier to follow than before. In the original, I legitimately had no idea what was going on for half the film. Now, with the extra time for exposition, I actually had a grasp on what was going on for most if not all the movie. Characters like The Flash and Cyborg are given more introduction time.

 The main villain, Steppenwolf, gets a few scenes as well that explain why he is on Earth and why he is interested in the three boxes that we see in the film. 

The visual effects in the new scenes are also really good and they compliment the effects of the original cut.

They removed a bunch of dialogue within the Justice League team so that The Flash was the one who made all the jokes, which was a significant improvement from the original cut. They also added scenes that included new characters that we have not seen in the DCEU prior to the Snyder cut’s release. 

My main issue with the movie is its runtime. The Snyder cut clocks in at four hours and two minutes. For a fan like me, this isn’t really an issue. The problem is when you aren’t already a huge DC fan. I suspect that it would be very difficult for a general audience to enjoy this movie with a run time of four hours. 

In contrast, most Marvel movies have something to offer other than superheroes. You can watch Iron Man for Robert Doweny Jr. and you could watch Doctor Strange for crazy and colorful visual effects. It is hard to justify watching this movie for someone who is not a fan already. 

In my opinion, that keeps this movie from being great and we are left with just something good, instead.

featured image courtesy of HBO/DC via The Direct.

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