‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ Review: It’s Okay!

Zack Snyder’s Justice League, more popularly known as “The Snyder Cut,” is… Just fine. The four hour long film, which will be released on HBO Max this Thursday (March 18) has been one of the most divisive and discussed topics in entertainment for years now, but the end result is neither the savior nor the destroyer of cinema that many viewers and critics will most likely hail it as in the coming days (and weeks [and years]). Instead, it’s exactly as advertised: Snyder’s original “vision” of 2017’s Justice League, for all the highs and lows that implies. Some of the never-before seen scenes are pretty excellent. Some are cringe-worthy and atrocious. But the large majority of them? They are best described as: okay.

Chances are, you’ve already made up your mind about whether ZSJL is for you based on the incessant online discussion about the project, or perhaps based on the first paragraph here where I declared it “just fine.” (Warner Bros., you are more than allowed to use that quote for the poster.) But in case you have been blissfully unaware of what’s been going on behind the scenes, here’s the short version:

After releasing 2013’s solo Superman (Henry Cavill) film Man of Steel, Snyder followed up with 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which introduced Ben Affleck as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and killed Superman. Despite critical drubbing, and neither movie becoming the billion dollar behemoth Warner Bros. surely wanted, Snyder was also signed up to direct a team-up epic, Justice League. That movie, which was released in 2017, introduced Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg. The team was brought together to fight your requisite enormous Earth-destroyer, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), a harbinger for DC Comics uber-bad Darkseid (Ray Porter) — who shows up in ZSJL, but was unceremoniously cut from the 2017 version.

Due to a variety of circumstances, including the tragic death of Snyder’s daughter by suicide, and reported increasing pressure from WB to deliver the movie they wanted, Snyder left the project. Directing was turned over to Avengers helmer Joss Whedon, who had been brought in to punch up the already in production script. Depending on who you listen to, Whedon reshot a huge chunk of Snyder’s production, and what was released in 2017 was what could be generously called a mixed bag. Fans of Snyder hated Whedon’s sunnier, more human take on the DC Comics universe, as well as what some saw as the project being stolen from the former. Detractors varied from benign shrugs of indifference, to antagonistic takes on what should have been WB’s Avengers, and ended up nowhere close.

Then, the rumors started that Snyder had his own cut of the movie, one that — in fans’ minds, in particular — would right all the wrongs of what they started to call the “Joss-tice League,” and revive the “Snyder-verse.” The subsequent movement, #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, gained steam in both positive, and negative ways. On the positive, multiple fundraisers for suicide prevention and awareness were looped in along with planes flown over San Diego Comic-Con and social media campaigns. On the negative, some supporters of the Snyder Cut would regularly take to social media to bully, harass, and outright attack anyone who said anything less than glowing about the project, including journalists, media executives, creatives, and even fellow “fans.”

Though the story has been tweaked and changed over time, here’s the official version as of 2021: Snyder did have a cut that he left WB with. It was a rough assembly with unfinished effects, color and sound that was about four hours long. Snyder thought that maybe some day he’d show it as a fun goof for fans in a couple of decades. Instead, HBO Max gave him a reported $70 million plus to finish the effects on the footage, add CGI, and shoot a four-ish minute long coda set in a dark future of the DC universe.

Yeah, that’s the short version.

The problem is, what will drop on March 18 can only generously be called a movie. Snyder didn’t film his entire script before he left the production, though he did film dozens of potential paths for his superheroes to go on, in order to have options in editing. The result is four hours long, split into six parts (plus an epilogue and a prologue), and tells a story often missing important connective fiber, plus copious amounts of what would have ended up as deleted scenes added back into the cut to flesh out the length. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is like reading through a choose your own adventure in order, with all the weird backtracking and side trips that implies. Some of those trips are fun, some downright poignant, some very, very embarrassing (I am looking at you, brand new coda). But it all still doesn’t add up to a coherent story, or arguably worse, coherent character arcs.

That’s particularly clear in the first two parts of the movie, which find Batman traveling around the world, unsuccessfully trying to gather a team. He’s got Wonder Woman, who has some fights and issues of her own to deal with, but nobody else is interested. By nobody else I mean: Aquaman, because other than Batman trying to recruit him, not much else happens with the members of the Justice League for the first hour or two of the movie. Even the two featured superheroes don’t get much to do other than brood and get annoyed nobody is joining them to fight… Well, honestly, they don’t even know what they’re fighting, just that Batman had a bad dream back in Batman v Superman, and he never got over it.

Side note: the only way you would know that was his motivation is if you watched and remembered the previous movie, it doesn’t really get referred to in any way until towards the end of ZSJL. These are, to be blunt, the sort of things that clearly worried WB and led to the handover (more on that later).

In fact, the only character to get any sort of development in the first two parts is Steppenwolf, surprisingly, who is sad that he disappointed Darkseid (how, exactly, we never find out), and really wants to make things right by joining together three cubes called Mother Boxes into something called the Unity, and turning Earth into a wasteland. And I’ll mention again: this is about seventy minutes into the movie, punctuated by spotty fight scenes that don’t really connect chronologically to the rest of the action happening on screen.

Things pick up considerably in Part 3 when we’re finally fully introduced to Cyborg and The Flash. The Flash’s backstory, given the whole of the movie, is also not very coherent or necessary, but it is, at least, fun to watch. Miller’s Barry Allen is down on his luck, trying out a job at a pet store, when he locks eyes with a woman (Iris West, played by Kiersey Clemons) who he saves from a car crash. There’s not much more to it than that, but it serves as a showpiece for where Snyder has always excelled: the visuals. Time slows down to a near stop as Barry flits around the street, rearranging people, snagging a floating hot dog for the puppies, and pulling Iris to safety. It’s gorgeously filmed and animated, and Miller’s delighted reactions are like watching a human puppy, something that he continues to channel amicably through the rest of the run time, providing the film’s scant comic relief.

Cyborg, though, is the backbone of the movie, and it’s borderline insane that he’s not fully introduced until so relatively late in the film. Fisher’s Cyborg is also a complete 180 from how he was played and is perceived in the theatrical cut (again, much more on that version of the film in a moment). There, he was getting used to his new Mother Box-granted cybernetic powers, but was a pretty straightforward, confident hero. In Snyder’s version, Cyborg is a former football star turned lurching, pained Frankenstein’s monster, horrified by his own lack of flesh and terrified of what others might think of him. And in between all that self loathing, he has plenty of time to seethe at his father Silas Stone (Joe Morton), the man who made him this way. More than any other relationship over the course of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the one between Cyborg and Silas works, has a complete story and emotional arc, and makes a compelling argument for why (among other reasons) Fisher has been so vocal in his displeasure about what went down during the reshoots.

The third character arc that works — and this is possibly because it’s relatively focused by comparison in the final act of the movie — is the resurrection and return of Superman. Easily the best sequence in both versions of Justice League, which remains relatively unchanged other than a few small quips here and there, is the fight between the newly alive (and very confused) Superman and the rest of the League. It’s really the only time in either version they all work together as a team, and Superman is so over-powered as a character it makes an even competition. Nothing in all four hours of Zack Snyder’s Justice League matches the gasp of shock and delight elicited from an audience of any size (whether in a theater or at home) when The Flash tries to run in super-speed at Superman, who is holding back Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg, only for Superman to turn and look at him, also in super speed. The anger on Cavill’s face and the surprise from Miller are perfect, and the fact that the sequence mixes real, human reactions with epic superpowers is what makes it the height of the film.

What follows is surprisingly poignant. The nearly mute Superman is turned back from killing his fellow heroes by the timely intervention of Lois Lane (Amy Adams). The less said about an absolute bonkers scene between her and Martha Kent (Diane Lane) — who turns out to not be exactly who she says she is — earlier in the movie, the better, though it is Lois’ ostensible motivation for being there to turn Superman away from the fight. They fly off to Kansas, he reconnects with nature, and then eventually with Martha (the real one this time) and Lois, before flying off to don a new, black Superman suit and save the world. Man of Steel has always been the strongest of Snyder’s DC Comics based movies, and part of that is the melding of pseudo-Terrence Malick-esque visuals with Cavill’s soft-spoken, understated Clark Kent. You get more of that in these Smallville sequences, and they certainly aren’t hurt by the strains of Hans Zimmer’s gorgeous score for the Superman solo flick which seep into the soundtrack, scored by Junkie XL.

But ultimately it doesn’t all amount to much. The climactic fight that pits the Justice League against thousands of evil bugs called Parademons is your requisite CGI mess, and despite his early lead as “most sympathetic character,” Steppenwolf is not a compelling villain, nor does his defeat carry much weight. Sure, he was going to destroy the planet; but Zack Snyder’s Justice League is built with the trick that it was supposed to be Justice League – Part 1, meaning the real villain is waiting in the wings, and the climax of the movie is meant to set up another. In fact, as Snyder tells it, this was just the first part of the trilogy: after Steppenwolf, in Part 2 the Earth would have been plunged into the nightmare vision Bruce Wayne has in Batman v Superman, and again at the end of Zack Snyder’s Justice League; then in Part 3, the climactic battle that brings the whole Earth together to fight Darkseid.

Those second and third parts will never happen (at least, not until HBO Max plunks down another $600 million dollars), so instead you’re left with a four hour assemblage of footage that doesn’t really have an ending. The less, in fact, said about the ending, the better. While the climax of the film showcasing the Justice League going head to head with Steppenwolf again leans into Snyder’s strength to shoot/create in a computer clear, brilliant compositions and fight scenes, there’s still thirty minutes of the movie after that. More than even the first seventy minutes, which putter along without much to say, the epilogue is beyond indulgent, and occasionally reaches the point of grossly embarrassing. Perhaps a positive response to ZSJL will spur on a sequel. But if it does, Snyder should consider reshooting the final sequence outside of COVID quarantine. For a director best known for his visuals, it’s uncomfortable to end four hours of viewing (not to mention years of fan campaigning) with something that just looks rushed and poorly shot.

Mind you, poor visuals are the greatest sin of the theatrical version, and one that ZSJL corrects (up until that very bad, no good coda). Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a much better looking movie. It’ll be natural to compare the two films, and thankfully, HBO Max has both of them on tap so if you want to watch six hours of Justice League back to back, you can (I did, but I’m a glutton for punishment). The first thing you’ll notice is the color correction. Snyder has desaturated his shots, aiming for a more realistic look. Whedon (though Snyder has sole director’s credit on the theatrical version, for ease we’ll refer to it as Whedon’s version), ramped up the colors across the board, aiming for the bright, poppy look of a comic book — and his work on Avengers. Snyder has a better understanding of the visual language he was going for, and the scenes actually pop more, despite the darker, grayer world on screen.

But Whedon has never been a visual director, preferring to focus on the dialogue and characters, and that’s where the theatrical cut shows off the weaknesses of the Snyder cut. Though it’s not good, per say, at least the version released in theaters tried to connect the movie to the previous films set in the universe. It also gave emotional arcs to Wonder Woman and Batman (who weirdly get not much to do in the Snyder version), and attempted to widen out the scale of the film. For a movie about global superheroes fighting a universal threat, there’s not much of the perspective from, you know, the world on what’s happening; and in both versions the action climaxes in an abandoned Russian village. You can see Whedon’s version straining to correct these mistakes (again, it’s not a good movie) with everything from the addition of news footage featuring on the ground interviews, to a Russian family escaping from the Parademons, to insert shots and tweaked dialogue to better explain the actual plot of the movie. But at least it tries.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, while Whedon’s simplified plot helps provide explanations of what’s happening, there are times when Snyder’s myth-making is more satisfying, if less sensical. In the theatrical cut, Superman’s resurrection is tied to Batman feeling responsible for his death, which works better for Batman’s arc, but makes less sense as to why the heroes need Superman. In Snyder’s version, Steppenwolf invades because he knows Superman is gone; ergo, the heroes realize there’s something Steppenwolf must be afraid of, and they need to bring Superman back to defeat him. It’s plot over emotions, and I guess your mileage may vary depending on which side of the coin you think is more interesting.

However you lean, having the theatrical cut streaming side by side with the Snyder cut is the best argument for its existence. Most superhero fans will more than likely focus on which one is better, and which is worse. The answer, by the way, is they’re both good and bad in their own ways. But the much more interesting part of this project is to see why the choices were made to attempt to correct what they did in the theatrical version. Not all of the choices work, but you can see why they were discussed, and why scenes were tweaked and dialogue re-recorded. Big changes were made, like nearly the entire reasoning, execution and choreography of the final battle with Steppenwolf to make the movie stand on its own and cut down on the amount of straight-up murdering Batman does. And little changes were made, like how in the Snyder Cut, a kid draws a picture of a Parademon that looks exactly like Batman just so the Gotham police department can say “Batman is out of control!” In the Whedon cut, that was subbed out for an insert shot of a picture that at least splits the difference (Parademons look nothing like Batman???). Watching back to back, you can see where tweaks in dialogue made in post smooth over the plot, and give characters connections and motivations — and from the perspective of a film artifact or curio, it’s fascinating. Those that can push partisan film world/comic book fan politics aside will get a glimpse behind the scenes into the filmmaking process in a way we really haven’t seen before.

Does this, though, suggest an unthinkable possibility? That somewhere out there is a third cut of the movie? One that forms a Unity of its own and creates an Ultimate Version of Justice League? One with all the character arcs intact, a story that makes sense, and the epic myth-making and visuals present in the Snyder version? Dare I say: #ReleaseTheUltimateCut?

Or maybe a better option is, like the Justice League at the end of the movie, we all move on with our lives and worry about that darker future when it comes. Until then, Zack Snyder’s Justice League makes a perfectly okay way to pass four hours.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League streams Thursday, March 18 on HBO Max.

Where to watch Zack Snyder's Justice League