Movie Review - Zack Snyder's Justice League

One can't talk about this film and not talk about the context and behind-the-scenes intrigue that preceded this feature's release. Warner Bros. had selected stylistic director Zack Snyder to helm its super-hero team-up film and fast tracked its release in order to capitalize off the success of Disney's The Avengers (2012). Snyder directed two films leading up to it: Man of Steel (2013), which re-introduced the character of Superman, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), which re-introduced the character of Batman. Snyder produced Wonder Woman (2017), which was directed by Patty Jenkins but was very much influenced by Snyder's style. Snyder then began work on a film that would combine Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and several other DC Comics characters into a super-hero team-up that would have them saving the world from powerful aliens.

Due to a family tragedy, Snyder wasn't able to finish his super-hero team-up. Instead Joss Whedon, the director of The Avengers was called to complete the film. Whedon re-wrote and re-shot a lot of scenes that Snyder had envisioned. Whedon's version was released in the fall of 2017. Critics panned the film and it didn't make enough money in the box office to consider it a success. It fell short of the lowest of the three previous films, that of Man of Steel. In the aftermath of that 2017 release, a campaign on the Internet and social media began for Warner Bros. to allow Snyder to go back and finish what he started and complete his vision. The campaign was called #ReleaseTheSnyderCut or just #SnyderCut. Fans weren't sure it would ever come to be, but alas here it is.

Ben Affleck reprises his role of Bruce Wayne aka Batman, a billionaire by day and crime fighter at night who dresses up in an armored suit that looks like a bat. He decides to bring together a team of super-heroes after the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice because he realized there are global threats that he and regular humans can't handle. He learns that there are several super powered people on Earth that he can recruit. One of which was already recruited. Gal Gadot reprises her role of Wonder Woman, the daughter of a god and the leader of the Amazonian warriors on a private island called Themyscira.

Batman and Wonder Woman spend the first half of this film going around from place to place, finding these other super-heroes and recruiting them to the team. They become supremely motivated when it's revealed that an alien villain has arrived on Earth and is causing havoc, death and destruction all over the planet. Specifically, they pursue three super-heroes that they know exist. Because these characters weren't established in the three previous Snyder films, Snyder's job was to establish them. Doing so effectively was always going to take time. Whedon's version doesn't take the time to do so. It does the bare minimum for those three and sometimes not even that. Here, Snyder takes the time. He takes as much time as he can, almost to this film's detriment.

Jason Momoa plays Arthur Curry aka Aquaman. Whedon's version does the bare minimum to establish him but just barely. For example, we don't really get what his powers are and what the limits of them are. He can swim real fast and he can in fact breath underwater. He comes from a society that lives under water, but he's rather estranged to that society, as he prefers to hang out above the water with people who live on dry land. Snyder's version expands a little on Arthur, but it still feels like the bare minimum with this character. It feels like if he wasn't in this film, it wouldn't change anything at all.

Ezra Miller plays Barry Allen aka The Flash. Whedon's version does properly establish this character, but what Whedon does is make Barry the comic relief. Whedon basically used Barry as a joke machine or a vehicle for snappy one-liners. Barry is a speedster. He can move at lightning velocity. However, the utilization of that power was only really effective in one scene in Whedon's version. Here, Snyder makes the utilization of that power effective in three scenes, including the climactic final battle. He's still the comic relief, but it's not as hitting you on the head as he was in Whedon's version.

It should be noted that scenes involving Barry using his powers are in this film that weren't in Whedon's version. The first of which is Barry rescuing a young Black woman from a car accident. It's reminiscent of the Quicksilver scenes in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). It's reminiscent because despite it being about a person who can move as fast or almost as fast as the speed of light, the scene is done in slow-motion. It might seem hackneyed to see that slow-motion done again here, but Snyder is a master of slow-motion in film. He's been doing slow-motion effectively and brazenly since his smash hit, 300 (2006), so he knows how to do it well and powerfully here. It just gets to be too much because Snyder incorporates slow-motion in practically every action sequence. It helps to anchor some sequences and hurts others by dragging them out needlessly.

Ray Fisher plays Victor Stone aka Cyborg. If any character was supremely short-changed or given short shrift in Whedon's film, it's Victor Stone. Whedon really dismissed this character and doesn't even do the bare minimum, which is a shame, given that he's the only super-hero of color in this film. Victor is an African-American football player who is injured in a car crash and his father who is a scientist uses alien technology to turn Victor into a half-man, half-robot creation. Thankfully, Snyder rights that wrong and does justice for Cyborg. We get his back-story. We get to know his family. We get to know the extent of his powers and what he can do. Snyder makes us care and empathize for this character, which Snyder does better for Cyborg than the other super-heroes.

Snyder is good at generating interesting images and even striking ones. Continuing his tradition started in 300, Snyder is good at the beefcake shots. Momoa is the standout in a signature shot of Aquaman, shirtless and soaking wet, controlling the high, splashing waves, before disappearing into the ocean. However, Snyder outdoes himself in a flashback sequence that shows what are called the Old Gods fighting the alien villain called Darkseid. Plenty of people give Momoa a run for his money, but none more than Sergi Constance, a Spanish-born bodybuilder who plays Zeus in that flashback. However, it feels indulgent and it starts to feel overly indulgent by this point.

What's also indulgent are the new scenes that Snyder shot in the past year as new material for this film. There are scenes that are tacked onto the end of this film in what are the last 20 or 30 minutes that make no sense. They don't connect to anything prior. It's superfluous and teasing something that probably will not continue. It only adds to make this thing too long, much longer than it should be.

Rated R for some violence and language.
Running Time: 4 hrs. and 2 mins.

Available on HBO Max.