Movie Talk - Zack Snyder's Justice League

Man, we got hit with some comic book goodness a while back. The revamped Justice League as well as “Captain Falcon and The Mark Hammill-Look-Alike” hit right around the same time. I even got around to finishing WandaVision, aka “Grief Personified into Sitcoms” too. It’s goodness all around when you include Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat! Yeah, I usually start these Snyder posts with a bit of a joke, but not this time. There’s not anything out in theatres for me to joke about, but I could probably make fun of something. Let me just get on with this one.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League was something I wasn’t clamoring for for a couple of reasons. I’ve got my fair share of Justice League-ness, and the fandom surrounding it is a lot. I didn’t say “toxic” because that gets thrown around a too much, and it’s not like any fandom has no toxicity in it. Some folk I do follow seem pretty chill. Heck, anti-Snyder fans are about as annoying as some pro-Snyder fans. Yes, I said it and I’m not even that big a fan of Snyder. Even though the original theater version wasn’t that satisfying, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Then, we heard what happened behind-the-scenes with the reshoots, and… eegh. That’s not even including what got cut out of Snyder’s original cut.

When the WB announced that it was coming, I was “whelmed, traught, and feeling the ‘aster…” whatever that means.  As more of the trailers came, I started to get a bit more excited. I ended up watching it all in bits and pieces the day it was released. I’ll save the pretty spoilerish bits for below, but I thought it was pretty good. The tone is pretty consistent throughout with some good bits of humor and pretty heartfelt moments. The League is all on top form here and even Stepphenwolf comes off better. It’s not perfect (a bit overlong in places and a couple of weird plot points), but this blew out the theatrical cut by a mile.

All right, unless you’ve seen it all, don’t jump on me about spoilers. Besides, this does more or less play out like the theatrical cut, aka “The Cliff Notes Version” did. The League has to face ‘ole “Magic Carpet Ride.” The only difference here is that there’s much more context, people get fuller arcs, and we finally see the Dark one. These are just some thoughts I had:

1. We get more quality time with the League  

We get some much needed development and time with our heroes. Batman and Wonder Woman pretty much remain unchanged here, but things are better since there’s not too many tones running around. Cyborg and Flash are definitely helped out by the film especially Cyborg. I can see why Ray Fisher was upset about his stuff being dumbed down. This was essentially his movie to shine since we get more of his origin as well as some pretty heartbreaking moments.

One of the best things about the movie and someone decided to cut most of it out... yeah, I'm annoyed.

Barry’s also better here. He’s still the comic relief, but there were some legitimately funny moments with him here. He also gets an awesome moment to shine in especially toward the end of the movie. The only ones who felt a bit shortchanged was Aquaman and Superman. While Arthur does get a couple of better scenes to get him involved, he still feels like the third wheel. That may have been because he ended up getting his own movie. While Superman does get a couple of more good moments, he’s still barely around since he’s dead. Still, those were some good moments and they were much better than what we got in the theatrical cut.

The interactions between the League was also good. This was one area where the theatrical cut was fine in, but as I said earlier, things feel better here because the tone’s consistent. Other characters I thought had good moments were Alfred, Silas Stone, Lois, and a certain character I won’t mention. I will say that while Lois’s and Martha’s conversation here was much better, I felt it got undercut at the end by the reveal of that certain character.

2. Villains Galore!

One thing I was completely surprised by was how Stepphenwolf was handled. Yes, he is still a big, lumbering piece of CGI, but he seems more alive here. I shockingly have gotten used to his redesign, or the design Snyder wanted to go with. Yeah, it’s out there, but it kinda works here. I even liked the detail with the armor morphing. Also, the backstory with Darkseid does help out more than whatever the theatrical cut was doing. He’s still not that great of a villain since he does come off like a lackey, but at least this dude was better here. He felt more intimidating.

Talk about a glow-up. Yeah, he looks more beastly, but I like it.

He’s not the only villain that gets a good showing though. We get a better version of that Luthor/Deathstroke conversation. All I can say is that Luthor boy finally switched to decaf! Then, there was the Nightmare version of the Joker. It was okay, but I’ll touch on that later. Finally, we see Darkseid make his live-action debut, and he looks glorious. Even Desaad in his weirdness looked and sounded good.

3. The Action

He's back and in black!

There’s not much to say about the action other than it was pretty good. One thing the theatrical cut kept was the majority of the action and fight scenes. While most of it is still the same, things do seem spruced up and better effects-wise here. There’s no MuckFace-Man running around. It’s also bloodier, but it still feels in tone with something like the last two Avengers movies.  Y’all remember what happened to old Thanos, right? Also, Snyder decides to ask his favorite friend, “NEEDLESS SLO-MO,” to show up more. Don’t get me wrong because some of it was cool. Still, it wasn’t all needed. There is a reason this movie’s almost four hours long.

4. The Music

Finally, the soundtrack was pretty good and… you know, fits the movie. Look, Danny Elfman’s score for the theatrical cut wasn’t bad, but it just felt derivative. Junkie XL’s stuff here fit well with each hero. Yes, Wonder Woman’s weird theme with the bellowing woman overstayed its welcome, but it all worked. We got to even hear some old favorites from these series of movies.

5. Still some problems

While I did like the movie, I still had some issues here and there. This didn’t need to be almost four hours long. I know Snyder has his quirks, but this was pushing it a bit. I can see where some things could’ve been cut for time like some long takes and some of “NEEDLESS SLO-MO.” I would’ve made sure the cuts didn’t impact the story and development like… well, that other one did. There was a reason I was peeved about that thing being less than two hours! I feel like 2.5 to 3 hours would’ve done the movie justice (no pun intended).

Yay... he's back. At least he was a little better here.

There were also a couple of weird plot points that just didn’t make too much sense. The reveal at the end of the Lois/Martha talk was just one moment. The Knightmare scene at the end (which was apparently the only new stuff Snyder added to this opus) was alright. Maybe I’m tired of seeing evil red-eyed Superman or something, or I was annoyed with Jared Leto returning. At least Leto sounded better as the Joker this time. Other than these, Arthur and Superman getting a little less love, and Snyder’s love for slow-motion, this was good.

………………………………………

In the end, the Snyder Cut was a good time. While it sucks that we didn’t get anything close to this back in 2017, it was good to finally see what could’ve been. I don’t know what’ll happen after this though. I know folk are clamoring with that #RestoreTheSnyderverse hashtag, but I’m not in. I’m just glad we’re getting any comic goodness these days. Heck, it feels like we’re getting too much which is why I just feel unconcerned about it all. It could also be the fact that I got enough to worry about these days.  If Snyder comes back to finish it off, I’m there. If not, cool. I’m not opposed to a comic version of those last two movies, though.

Anyway, it’s definitely one I recommend even though I know Snyder isn’t the most well-liked bloke around for some reason. Well, I’m outta here. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there. Also, and I’m surprised to say this, be nice to one another, ya dang louts!

Oh yes!