Justice League

Despite today’s entry for 2017’s Justice League (trailer) happening nearly four years after its original theatrical release, it was imperative for me to revisit this film a month out from HBOMAX’s planned March 18th release of the director’s cut that has the added prefix, Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Where do I begin with the backstory on this one!? Glossing over the behind-the-scenes hoopla would be a disservice, especially for any of you readers checking this out many years after the fact who have no idea about how these two versions came to be. I will attempt to provide some degree of context before jumping into my take on Justice League, so please bear with me….or jump ahead a few paragraphs.

Director Zack Snyder caught a lot of flak from ardent comic book fans for his darker takes and artistic direction on Superman and Batman in his two previous films, Man of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. I reviewed both films here already and was part of the minority who was a fan of the polarizing films. Fast forward a couple years later and Snyder wraps shooting Justice League, which is the big finale to the current arc of DC Comics movie canon much like how Avengers: Endgame was for the Marvel films. However, early in post-production Snyder suffers a family tragedy with his daughter committing suicide and has no choice but to leave his post on the film, but not before handing off post-production duties to Joss Whedon, the director behind the first two, uber-successful Avengers films.

Amidst all this controversy, the executives at Warner Bros. are receiving a ton of criticism of not wanting another lengthy, dark tome of a superhero film like Snyder’s previous efforts. I praised The Avengers and other MCU films on here before, and I love their style of filmmaking too, but one common trait among Marvel films is that they are generally more lighthearted with more gags and feel more like “soft” PG-13 experiences. Which is a good thing for those films because that was how they were envisioned from the beginning, but speculation was running wild going into Justice League’s 2017 theatrical release that Joss Whedon was under intense pressure from Warner Bros. executives to reshoot scenes to add in more family friendly humor, and lighten up the length and tone of the movie in post-production to appeal to the criticism. The result was a two hour movie that was not a hit with much of anyone. Snyder critics were not satisfied with the changes, and fans like myself of Snyder’s past films felt like his work and vision for the movie was compromised.

Over the next few years, slow-but-steady support grew over social media to #releasethesnydercut of Justice League. I thought this social media movement was a pipe dream that would never seem like a possibility for Warner to dedicate those resources to allow Snyder to re-cut the movie. Eventually though, much of the original cast and crew, and more and more fans frequently kept that hashtag alive, which culminated several months ago when Warner Bros. announced that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be releasing on its HBOMAX streaming service this coming March. Snyder’s version will be double in length at four hours, and HBOMAX was originally going to release it as four weekly episodic installments, but later switched it back to one whole film. I am grateful that Snyder is finally getting his chance to redeem himself and release the movie how he originally envisioned, and am hopeful he wins over fans and critics alike. Now with the director’s cut just over a month out, I wanted to make sure to watch 2017’s version of the film one more time before then so I can get a better grasp at what was switched up for the new cut. Are you still with me? Good, now let us proceed with breaking down Whedon’s take on Justice League.

This 2017 cut opens up with a flashback of kids doing a smartphone interview with Superman (Henry Cavill), fresh off the scene of duty which leads to an opening credits montage of the world still reeling from the death of Superman after his battle with Darkseid in Batman V Superman. This then jumps to Batman (Ben Affleck) failing at recruiting Aquaman (Jason Momoa) to join him for anticipating a new threat. That threat is the return of Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciarán Hinds), who is on a quest to regain his power by procuring three hidden “Mother Boxes.” Eventually Bats touches base with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to proselytize aid to combat Steppenwolf. That help comes in the form of Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller). Both heroes are introduced with having conflicts with their fathers, but eventually Wonder Woman convinces Cyborg to join up, and Batman has an entertaining scene with The Flash who fanboys out at Batman after he surprises Flash in his hideout.

I am conflicted with Miller’s performance as Flash. I cannot help but feel he is the one who received the bulk of the re-shoot orders to add in some extra doses of levity throughout the film, because he repeatedly chimes in with one star struck idolizing gag after another throughout. A few of the jokes actually hit, but they are a bit much and I could not help but think I would have appreciated his act more if his zany would have been dialed back by about 60%. My gut tells me that was how Snyder originally directed him, so I will have to wait to see what his cut has in store. I cannot lie and admit I was like plenty of fans online wanting Grant Gustin to bring his pristine TV version of The Flash to the silver screen instead, but I understand Warner Bros. in wanting to keep the CW-TV canon and movie canon separate….but then they did that brief Gustin/Miller crossover last year on the TV series….and well, I have no idea what to make of it other than I was cracking up throughout their bizarre exchange, so I will just link you to the clip here to decide for yourselves.

A huge mid-film clash with Steppenwolf leads to Aquaman joining the team and Batman deciding it for the best to exploit the tech used on Cyborg to resurrect Superman….it does not seem right to type that out so matter-of-factly, and the buildup for this miraculous endeavor is shockingly swift and to the point. They accomplish this feat by digging up ‘ol Supes and bringing him to the magical waters that were used to resurrect Zod in the last film, and then apply one of the mystical Mother Boxes in conjunction with electrical energy from Flash’s speed to bring Superman back from the grave. It works, and the resulting fallout from a shaken-and-rampant Superman dueling with his new Super-pals was a delightful debacle to watch playout before Lois Lane (Amy Adams) shows up to reignite Superman’s humanity. Seeing those two reunite for a couple special scenes in the film was heartwarming, but also felt rushed with their brief screen time they share together, and I am hoping to see their dynamic explored more in the new cut.

The final act sees the Justice League forming to take on Steppenwolf who now has the power of all three Mother Boxes on his side for an early advantage, until Superman shows up and instantly lays waste upon him and Steppenwolf instantly transforms from universal threat to a puny-putty-squad-esque-pushover. I am all for the Justice League prevailing, and I know Superman is invincible and all that, but I was stunned to see Steppenwolf instantly crumble to the ‘ol blue and red. I am hoping for a slightly more dramatic back-and-forth encounter in Snyder’s reimagining, but I will not hold out hope for the amount of CG work involved already in Whedon’s version and cannot imagine how much it would cost to completely alter the final battle for a more enticing experience. In the aftermath of Steppenwolf’s demise is the establishing of the building blocks of the Justice League’s headquarters in a charming hint of what is in store for this superhero team. Also make sure to stick around for both stingers, as the first has an awesome exchange between Flash and Superman to answer the long-debated fan question of which hero is faster, and then a stinger of the villains to come for the inevitable sequel.

There are eight extras totaling a little over an hour of bonus features to sift through. Of the eight pieces, there are three I recommend checking out the most: Road to Justice interviews many DC writers and artists who do an intriguing abridged history of key story arcs from the Justice League over the decades. Heart of Justice is a closer look at the historic core of the team in Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Justice League: New Heroes conversely goes in-depth on Cyborg, Aquaman and Flash. If you need to get caught back up to speed on the DC films, than those three extras are a recommended primer worth checking out.

Even with all my aforementioned qualms with Justice League above, I did not come out of it outright hating the film. If Flash’s humor would have been dialed back a couple degrees and just an extra 10-15 minutes added to some of the scenes that I felt were shortchanged, then I would have had a better outlook here instead. I know the average theater-goer despises 2+ hour films, and for the average theater-goer that is not a hardcore comic book fan, than this Whedon cut of the film should suit you just fine. However, I cannot get fully behind what feels like a sabotaged cut, and eagerly await to see what the four hour version from Zack Snyder has in store for me next month.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

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12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
The Accountant
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
The Avengers: Endgame
The Avengers: Infinity War
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
The Clapper
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed I & II
Deck the Halls
Detroit Rock City
Die Hard
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Grunt: The Wrestling Movie
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Hell Comes to Frogtown
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
I Like to Hurt People
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Last Action Hero
Major League
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Man vs Snake
Marine 3-6
Merry Friggin Christmas
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Nintendo Quest
Not for Resale
Payback (Director’s Cut)
Pulp Fiction
The Punisher (1989)
The Ref
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VIII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Slacker
Skyscraper
Small Town Santa
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Sully
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
The Wizard
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men: Days of Future Past