Zack Snyder's Justice League

Zack Snyder est un maître dans la prescription de placébos. Il est loin d’avoir résolu les problèmes du Justice League original ; il n’a fait que bidouiller le tout et doubler la durée. Certains personnages en ressortent peut-être un peu plus « vivants », mais on doit malgré tout se farcir, pendant une durée interminable, la vision de héros pratiquement invincibles (et, en l’occurrence, inintéressants) dont les pouvoirs manquent totalement de cohérence et qui ne font que suivre les idées du scénariste telles qu’elles lui viennent à l’esprit sur le moment. Ajoutons à cela un méchant des plus banal qui vient d’une galaxie des plus banale peuplée de méchants des plus banals, avec pour mission de diriger/détruire le monde parce que… parce que c’est comme ça ! Et pendant les scènes truffées de ralentis, les segments musicaux pompeux et un matraquage permanent pour des suites et spin-offs qui ne voient jamais le jour, je me disais que j’aurais mieux fait d’utiliser ce temps pour regarder deux ou trois films plus courts mais au contenu plus recherché. (28/03/2021)

Except for the fabulously overstuffed chapter where Steppenwolf's headquarters is attacked, this is the first Snyder film where I'm sort of willing to accept digital mess. It is tempting to make a screenshot of each frame and add text bubbles to the characters, this is a living comic book, like from Crew or BB Art. Thanks for that feeling at least, but I can't say I'm jumping in joy. What works on paper doesn't work in the film, the 4 hours of perceptual inferno and the fuckton of slow motion make you tired, so you are grateful for every subtle scene where two characters just talk, which are few and far between. I could have easily done without the pathetic epilogue and Leto's awkward Joker. (20/03/2021)

Ineffective, poorly coherent, long but sparsely motivated, hollow in terms of the plot, and psychologically ridiculous. Basically, four hours of futile attempts to give the impression of something fateful by staring into the void, overusing slow motion, and commenting music. But there's no such thing here. The characters have no relationships with each other, and everything Snyder has added here versus the awful Whedon version is more masturbatory fanboy filler than any kind of substantial and creative storytelling. The DC universe feels like an epic sculpture, but once you kick it you realize it's not made of steel but plaster. It's a good thing there are legions of fanboys whose standards have been so dulled by a series of cinematic disasters that they bow down even to this false idol. Back to Marvel. (25/03/2021)

Not impressed. It's undeniable that this is in line with Snyder's vision from the Ultimate Cut of Batman vs Superman, but whether it is for the better, that’s another question. It doesn't feel like a complete film with a four-hour arc, but like an episodic miniseries (and it is divided in chapters), where for every passable action set-piece there are a few minutes of interchangeable mind-numbing CGI mess, and for every successful scene like "Diana bantering with Alfred over the tea-making process" there's one WTF scene (though nothing in the style of “Martha”). At times it's light, at times it's in the spirit of heavy Wagnerian opulence "about gods and people (only without people)" and at times it's completely different. At times it's very spectacular and at times it looks like filmed in a soundstage with unfinished visual effects. You will be convinced that Affleck is a great Bruce but a mediocre Batman, and the same can be said about the rest. Basically, it’s full of contradictions. What saves a lot is that Aquaman and Wonder Woman have already had their movies in the meantime, so there's time for Cyborg (which sort of works) and The Flash (which doesn't work that well). The advantage is that it feels like a team effort, where everyone plays an important role, something that couldn't be said about the cinematic version. The villains are again punishingly bland (but at least with motivation). There is no justification for the four-hour runtime, it could have easily fit in three. Sure, Snyder does have a vision, and it’s clear he’s had it all along, but a vision a film doesn’t make, and his looks better on paper than in practice. It is still not a good film, it's a film with more than one good to memorable scene and moment, but as a whole it's an uninteresting hodgepodge of everything and nothing. At least compared to Whedon's cut, it's a watchable, uninteresting hodgepodge of everything and nothing. (18/03/2021)

Four years of annoying whining by teenage fanboys turned into a four-hour long comic book flick packed with a digital mess and an ugly style, and with heroes that are so cringe-worthy that it’s almost embarrassing. The only good thing is that I don’t remember anything about the original shite (Whedon’s cut), so I could take Snyder's cut as a fully new experience. What should be acknowledged is that at least the story doesn’t have any narrative gaps – that’s the only thing I remember from the original version: that it was very rushed and senseless as a result; Snyder's version is certainly not rushed. The problems for me remain: the characters are not even a bit likeable and the moment things go from the realistic interiors and exteriors to CGI action set-pieces what we get is an aesthetic holocaust. That’s something that hasn’t change from last time. That said, it’s nice to make people happy, especially in times like these, and if Snyder's cut fulfilled that goal, I’ve got nothing against it. Though I’d wager that 99% of the people that will like it already know it before watching it. (18/03/2021)