Movie Details
| Title: | Zack Snyder's Justice League | |
| Director: | Zack Snyder | |
| Year: | 2021 | |
| Genre: | Comic Book | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 03.20.21 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (7)
- 300
- Army of the Dead
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
- Dawn of the Dead
- Justice League
- Man of Steel
- Watchmen
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 03.20.21 | Internet | In the words of Griffin McElroy, "Who is Zack Snyder and why should I care so much about his cut?" What drove me to watch this was a curiosity in fandom. It's not so often that filmmakers get a straight-up do-over, but in the world of recent events like the petition to re-do the last two seasons of Game of Thrones and Joaquin Phoenix playing Joker 3 years after Jared Leto's performance, it seems like my generation of nerds and geeks are on the precipice of implosion. I'm not sure why people listen when we whine and complain so much, but it's turned the world of entertainment into an odd place. So I wondered what a take-two of this movie would be with twice the running time but only 3 days of reshoots. What helped was that I had practically no memory of the initial version. I kinda remember Batman recruiting people and there was a fight scene with Superman that made no sense but that was about it. So consequently, I had to read a bunch of blog articles about the differences afterward because there were several moments where I wasn't so much enjoying the action as asking myself if I'd seen it before. Like did batman have that weird spider vehicle thing? Or was Roose Bolton in it before? Were there Mother Boxes? And were they called that? Sounds like a joke out of Arrested Development. Turns out, I guess most all of that wasn't new, but with two extra hours Snyder could at least put together a cohesive narrative rather than a collection of trailer scenes. I don't know if the Lord of the Rings flashback was in there before but it seemed new to me, as was all the footage of Darkseid. Superman getting his memory back STILL seemed rushed even with literally all the time in the world, but I... think? the last battle was better? At least I understood the stakes. I will also say that it definitely felt more like the DC universe team-up event that it was supposed to, thanks to the inclusion of an army of notable actors who presumably signed on for larger roles in other movies. Seeing the cast go so deep was kinda cool, even if half the names were in one, two scenes max. It's still a Zack Snyder movie though. The music was terribly overbearing. It made me yearn for the days of early Michael Bay. This is the nightmare of all those critics who cried back in the 90s about music video directors changing movies forever. Of particular cringe was the female moaning whenever Gal Gadot got to stare vaguely left of camera in close-up. I get that each hero had motifs or whatever but ugh. I also spent the whole time wonder which Ben Affleck was 2017 and which was 2020. His weight and face-puffiness seems to vary quite a bit. I do think Flash and Cyborg got more screen time, a little more story depth, but you know... the whole movie feels like covered ground. Flash going fast with the world in slow-motion? That was the only good part of the last 3 X-Men movies. Joe Morton showing regret for exploring alien technology? T2. Lord of the Rings. The Dark Knight. And of course every Marvel movie already did all of this stuff. I get that Darkseid has his fans, but you can't show a cosmic dude with blue-gray skin and a square jaw sitting on a throne waiting to overthrow Earth and not tell me it doesn't sound familiar. So yeah, I think this was a better version than the theatrical cut, but it's probably also the last nail in the coffin for anything DC-universe related for me... except Batman maybe. and if that new Suicide Squad movie is any good. Goddamn it... |
