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Old 03-20-2021, 12:01 PM   #13018
Damian Rey 2.0
 
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Zack Snyder’s Justice League 7/10

The basic story of the movie is the same. Steppenwolf comes to Earth looking to unite the mother boxes and Batman is trying to get the known meta humans together to fight him.

But beyond just the basic premise, this version is completely different in tone and style. It’s also, IMO, a much better, more entertaining and better realized story. The first thing that is painfully noticeable is how badly Cyborg was jobbed out in the WB mandated Whedon cut. In this new version, he’s the heart and soul of the movie, integral to the team’s ability to defeat Steppenwolf and making victory and Superman’s return impossible without him. Silas Stone was also an important character in this cut after being made to not matter at all in the original release.

To a lesser extent, but still noticeable, Barry Allen was also changed in the Whedon reshoots. He’s still a dork, but he’s far more endearing here, he’s already a hero, and while being vocal about having some fear about what they’re up against, he doesn’t hesitate to act, he isn’t caught off guard and in need of a Batman pep talk to push him into jumping into the action. He too is integral to the team’s success and actually bails them out despite the team initially failing. There’s also no dumb rambling about brunch or being generally goofy and awe struck at everything. He still has quips and says silly things, but nowhere near the level out annoyance of the theatrical

The team in general operates better in this version. Bruce Wayne isn’t hell bent on bringing Superman back, and the idea isn’t even brought up until past half the halfway mark after cyborg explains what the mother boxes are capable of doing. And even with a resurrected Superman, Bruce is still planning and creating a game plan to try and win. While he’s hoping he will help, Bruce’s plan isn’t contingent on Superman showing up. It hinges on buying cyborg and flash time to do their thing to disable the boxes.

And that’s another big character change. Batman is much more of a tactical, sound leader here. I actually liked this version compared to the maniac we got in BVS. Unfortunately we don’t get anything close resembling the warehouse fight scene. But this Batman felt much more like the animated series version.

Steppenwolf too is also better here. Much more menacing. Much more brutal. And he actually has motives and a little bit of a backstory to explain why he’s doing what he’s doing behind simply being a bad guy trying to get 3 evil boxes.

This version isn’t perfect tho. The run time is egregious. I decided to watch it a second time to actually take it in as my first viewing was strictly to sit back and enjoy myself. I’ve criticized Snyder before for thinking he’s more artsy and profound than he really is. He’s Michael Bay trying to be Chris Nolan. That’s on full display here. Yes, the run time does allow for the plot and characters to breath and for the story to play out in a way that isn’t rushed and actually makes sense. But it didn’t need to be 4 hours. I’m halfway convinced the run time was done partly to jerk himself and his ego off and partly as a middle finger to WB for initially and soundly rejecting his original rough cut and intervening with the production afterwards, eventually leaving him to walk away.

The movie could have easily been cut into 3-3.5 hours. I think 3 hours would’ve been pushing it, but it could get close. There are scenes that linger for far too long where the lingering doesn’t add anything to what we’re seeing. For instance, after Aquaman initially rejects Bruce’s offer to join the fight, a group of women villagers sing what I could only assume is some sort of tribute song. They start while Bruce is there watching Arthur leave, then Bruce walks away but we stay watching them sing this song we can’t understand for what felt like an eternity. It was fine to include the song, but once Bruce walks away, the scene is over. But Snyder kept the viewer there. For no reason.

Another example is the new Knightmare scene they filmed. Other than a dumb groping line by the Joker, the conversation between him and Batman was actually pretty good. But Christ is it long. Snyder holds SEVERAL out of focus shots of the Joker for no reason. It just drags out and brings down an otherwise good scene.

When the team is entering star labs and infiltrating the Superman ship, I think they were shown going thru several doors. It felt like they were shown walking thru the entire facility. When really they only needed to be shown getting the truck in, with Barry posing as a military agent, and them getting to the lab that leads to the ship, where cyborg and his dad have a nice little moment.

Shit like that adds up. Add in that every fight sequence had ridiculous and unneeded amounts of slow motion added, and you can see how this movie is basically dragged to the 4 hour mark. Again, I do think it needed a long run time. You had 3 new heroes and a new villain that all needed time to be established. But there’s a lot in the film that’s just excess that could’ve easily been cut that in no way would’ve hurt the integrity of the story.

There’s also some weird pacing issues. Namely with Lois Lame. I wouldn’t have cut her scenes, but I would’ve grouped them all together. We see that she’s mourning, then don’t see her for a long while, before finally seeing her talk to Ma Kent, only for her to fuck off for a while before she’s back to finally signal she’s going to move on just before Superman comes back. All good scenes. Especially the convo with Ma Kent (which is completely ruined shortly after it happened). But they’re randomly inserted throughout the timeline of the movie in a way that adds nothing to what’s going on around them and would’ve been better used as a segment of the movie leading up to Lois witnessing Superman’s return.

Speaking of that ruined scene and a waste in general, what a completely useless and senseless addition of the
SPOILER: show
Martian Manhunter
. Didn’t add anything to the movie. Didn’t make since why they were on the sidelines for YEARS watching Metropolis and Gotham getting wrecked in the previous 2 movies, and ruined that nice moment between Martha and Lois. Completely unneeded. IF they had held off and revealed them at the end, keeping that scene the same but having them say they’ve fought these battles before and came to Earth due to the mother boxes firing off, great. That works. But that fishy happen. We got a shoehorned scene that actually made an otherwise good scene pointless.

Another positive note. I liked how they used Darkseid. He’s there, but he’s mostly in the background. But he looked good and his history lesson scene was good.

Overall, I do like this version. It’s easily Snyder’s best DC outing despite the ego stroking run time. I do think that its popularity is going to spurn sequel chances for Snyder to finish his story. And I 100% believe this was HBO Max’s intention. They are going to want subscribers and after the year is up and they lose the gimmick of being able to debut brand new films on their service, they’re going to need more content to grab and keep eyeballs. I’m all for it. I want to see where the story goes. Maybe in a mini series that gets broken up into 2 hour chapters or whatever. But I’d like to see it finished, and I’d be surprised if this is the past we see of the Snyder Justice League.
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