As a superhero fan I can not tell you how disappointed I was with the original Justice League movie. I thought it was boring with a total lack of character development, some absolutely pants special effects and very few opportunities for the cast to shine a light on their acting skills. But the Snyder Cut? Read on...
One of my pet peeves with team superhero movies, as we also saw with Avengers Assemble, is a lack of character development for anyone bar the main guy. And this also raises a good question - who was that supposed to be, if at all there was an intention to do that? We were given the critically acclaimed Superman reboot and origin story Man of Steel in 2013, which tripled it's budget in the box office. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice came to our screens in 2016 with a plot to split fans right down the middle - Batman believes that Superman is a threat to the human race and intends to set upon solving that problem. This film made even more money for DC than Man of Steel - there seems to be a theme here. Wonder Woman came along in 2017 and didn't quite get as much box office as BVS:DoJ but did whop Man of Steel! So we have 2 origin stories and 1 somewhat developed Batman plot. So we know about those guys, and we don't need too much explained. So why is it that one of the most pivotal characters in the Justice League; Cyborg, was glossed over so much, and two of these characters got more time than him? You might agree with me here and think he really could have done with so much more participation. Both Wonder Woman and Batman trumped Cyborg's screen time with a whopping 7 minutes and 10 minutes extra involvement. Even the Flash had a few minutes more than him! I don't know why he got chopped so much, especially when the origin story for Cyborg is a key point in the plot of the entire movie. Snyder cut put this right. The original vision, or so I've read, was that the movie would be from the perspective of Cyborg, and we really see that in the approach Zack had. So why did Joss change it up and take Batman's angle? Yes, Batman was the logical team leader with Superman no longer in the land of the living, but should that have equated to him being the main focus? I think not.
It's clear in the Snyder cut is that this is a team effort. And not just with the key heroes either, as we see Hippolyta and the Amazons protecting a Mother Box, we have the Atlanteans protecting a Mother Box and unbeknownst to him we have Victor's father hiding a Mother Box. There were some major plot flaws with the 2 hour spectacle we were shown back in 2017, but these were fixed with the full 4 hour version, not to worry. Steppenwolf actually having to go and do some digging to find out where the boxes were, for a start. He didn't just happen to know where they were as was implied first time around. There's a scene with Willem Dafoe's Vulko that shows us how Aquaman got his mother's trident, and also how he knew whereabouts the Mother Box was in order to assist in the efforts to stop Steppenwolf from getting it. We see Hippolyta fire the Arrow of Artemis at the Shrine of the Amazons across the ocean to Greece from Themyscira, and with this Diana travels to the shrine. She discovers that the arrow can be used to unlock a secret passage below the shrine and it's here that she finds paintings on the walls that detail the battle from the initital invasion centuries ago. Upon learning of Darkseid and his intentions, along with the Mother Boxes potential power when unified, she discusses this with Bruce. It isn't down to Lex Luthor this time!
I'm not sure if I'm right about this, so feel free to let me know your thoughts, but I felt like there was extra ass-kicking. Not only that, but the level of violence too - I feel like they upped the ante! Our protagonists weren't setting their stunners to maim let me tell ya. The fight scenes were thorough and more thought out, with extra chemistry between characters using their skills collectively as a team. The ending is different, so I'll not delve too much into that because I don't want to spoil it for everyone. I'm trying to stay away from big things that I enjoyed in that sense.
The special effects. Let's all think back to when the hot topic of discussion surrounding the Justice League was Henry Cavill doing reshoots with a 70s porn star 'tache. Remember those reeeeeeeeeeeeally bad coverups that left us all thinking... why didn't they just leave it out? All sorted. Snyder was all over this, fixing all the little niggles we moaned about after the initial release. It's like a blessing in disguise. It reminds me of when the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer came out and we all shouted Hell NO! Zack took on board what we criticised and just went in with his magic wand and solved our problems. The opening scene was actually totally different with Snyder choosing to pick up right where Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice left off, with Doomsday killing Kal'El; an important part of the plot of our revisit because it was his mighty cry that awoke the Mother Boxes, a crucial detail that didn't reach the original cut. Steppenwolf got an upgradein looks but a downgrade on th villain scale. With Darkseid introduced in the original battle that saw the Atlanteans, Amazons and Humans come together as one to push back his forces during his first attempt to destroy the planet by uniting the three boxes. The flying goblins that came with him also became so shiny! But I do think it was an improvement. Though, I have to add, both Steppenwolf and Darkseid gave me the feeling that there was a little bit of inspiration drawn from another powerful being from a different comic to screen saga *cough* Thanos *cough*.
Costume department I have a few questions for you! Why must Wonder Woman have a skirt that is going to make sure we got a few well angled shots of her bum? I'm not complaining about seeing it, because let's face it I imagine even superheroes have wardrobe malfunctions. OR maybe Diana doesn't even care if people see this! However I am of the opinion that she should be so fast and so precise with her movements that we wouldn't be privileged enough to catch a glimpse of her wonderous derrière. CW actually surprised me when they made a Supergirl costume that included pants, which I thought was both practical and took her modesty into consideration! Next up - the monochrome Superman outfit. Did I prefer it? I don't think so. Did it make sense since he'd died and come back? Perhaps! Does it indicate a new future for the character or a comic related saga that could be approached in the next instalment of Man of Steel? We shall see!
I do have a niggle in the music department. What was happening? We went from the typical Danny Elfman progressive cinematic experience to some random songs that didn't fit in with the scenes at all. There was a clear split between the originally intentioned Junkie XL soundtrack vs the orchestra driven strength of a superhero score and it didn't work. Adding in songs made it feel like it was trying real hard to be trendy, a little bit Suicide Squad-ish. I've never thought of the Justice League in that way and I wasn't particularly planning to. I like them as serious heroes facing extinction level events! I loved the strength behind the Wonder Woman theme and the sincerity of the Superman theme, and they were lost to this new style that was brought in (or back) with the Snyder cut.
There was a very different direction taken once Zack had to exit the production, and it is such a shame that this happened in the first place. Snyder Cut would have propelled this movie to the top of the DC ranks. It's unbelievable that the cinematic release of Justice League took less than it's predecessors. I think justice has been served! See what I did there?
Written by CB
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