I bit the bullet and watched the Snyder Cut · 6:55pm Feb 26th, 2023
Obviously it was better than the theatrical cut. There was no doubt about it. That version was visibly a mismatch of scenes cobbled together. Any cut that had a coherent style and narrative to it would be ages better if only for actually being a montage and not a bunch of stuff slapped together. Zack Snyder does come out as the better director and creative, and Joss Whedon's credibility is now officially dead. There's no salvaging of the original cut when this one now exists.
I used a fan colored poster because so much grey was actually hurting my sight, though.
On the finer points, I think the major difference is the focus. Where the previous cut barely had any main theme to go on about, Snyder's movie does have a common team of power and heroism. We can see it being actually explored and discussed without having to stop the movie to a halt or have too many monologues about what is the right thing to do.
Comparing it to the previous movies, it does come out as Snyder finally finding his footing. Like, I wish this was the style and direction taken in Man of Steel and later in Batman v Superman. The character feel more in character to their original counterparts, but that becomes a problem when overlapped with the previous films. Batman is the one who suffers the most from the comparison. While it could be a form of character development, the change is so sudden from one movie to the other, that it doesn't entirely match.
Which is definitely this movie's biggest problem all in all. It feels like it's closing a narrative that should have been set before. But because both movies had this rushed narrative to them, it doesn't really have them as foundation. Specially since so many of the mistakes this movie amends shouldn't have made it past the first drawn of the script.
On itself, it's a good movie. Not a great, life changing experience, but definitely not a forgettable one. And I agree with Ray Fisher on his role as Cyborg. In this cut, Victor Stone is an actual character, with motivations and development. I disagree with some creative choices, and with a later development of his character relationships, but all in all, his character arc was indeed central to the story. It seriously makes me wonder why was it cut from the theatrical cut, and it's hard to not wonder if racism was a factor given Fisher's later allegations against Whedon.
In fact, one of the strengths of the movie is managing what amounts to six storylines in a single narrative. One of the most common critiques against Batman v Superman was that it was three or four movies stuck together and tripping over each other. In a high contrast, Justice League does become a movie about six stories coming together as a single narrative. Again, I keep getting the impression that Snyder did learn from his mistakes in the previous two movies, but those movies should have amounted to more than just learning opportunities. It makes them a bit wasteful.
Which is still my constantly present critique on Zack Snyder as a director and on his Justice League. I still see this movie as a monument to excess. There's so much about it that really didn't need to make the cut. A lot of slow motion that doesn't really add up and kind of trample the flow of the scene between shots. Reaction and detail shots that plainly interrupt the movie. And even a couple of monologues that really didn't need to be there.
One of said scenes would be Barry Allen's first scene (the one I was complaining so much about in the previous post). It really doesn't add up a single thing, it says nothing that later scenes don't say better, and even as an introduction of the character, the following scene works far better as such for Barry Allen. This, along some other scenes, I could live without. I'm pretty sure a cautious editor, or edition team, could trim this movie to a half of its length.
Even if Snyder was in the edition room fighting for every shot, half of this movie's runtime comes out as padding, and a bit self-indulgent. It's clear at times this is Snyder's last shot at the DCEU, and in a way, the final chapter on the DCEU's story. So, yeah, there's some space to dedicate to the long goodbye. But other moments do come out as just patting themselves in the back. The ones that really stuck with me where when we got a stylish recall to 300 and even a couple to Watchmen. I get why Snyder would want to have those as a treat, but given this whole movie was already a treat on itself, it's too much.
Finally, and this is entirely personal, I still don't like a lot of creative decisions. Making Cyborg fully CGI was distracting, Flash's suit really doesn't work, even with the in-universe explanation of why it looks like that, Superman wearing the Black suit, Wonder Woman's armor being grey again after her own movie made it work so well with actual colors. In fact, the movie's entire lack of color dulled it out a lot.
But all in all, those are minor complains that really amount to the bigger problem that JL is behind its times, like it was made in the age where superhero movies were afraid of being such, which also stacks on the visuals being too close to the mid 2000's Marvel movies, making it look visually outdated. And both problems distill in it relating darker with mature, which is a narrative I still heavily dislike.
Cool movie, though. I feel that had this movie come out instead of the theatrical cut, the DCEU would still be in a better footing. But given that this movie still has to carry the many problems from Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, plus the side problems of Suicide Squad, I don't see this honestly making it farer than what we got did. Though, given how close it was to the style of say, Bryan Singer's X-Men, had this movie come out before the MCU settled, or even at the same time as Avengers did, it would have blown everyone's fvcking minds.
P.S.: The Knightmare Sequence needs to be unexisted. Just taking away from the movie doesn't cut it. I'd develop it in film just so I could physically set it on fire. It adds nothing, the acting is bland at best, it's trying too hard to look 'cool' and it even negates the entire movie's ethos about hope and heroism. It makes no sense to have this in any cut, and I feel second-hand embarrassment from some of its dialogue.
Also Steppenwolf was handled better, both with better character design and better presence in the story.
5715535
I still dislike the design when compared to the New Gods one. Given how Jack Kirby's style did translate pretty well in Darkseid and Desaad, it feels like they should at least have tried. But yeah, this was a huge step-up from whatever the hell we got first. Plus, I agree fully he actually looses his 'generic doomsday villain' traits by giving him a more personal motivation.