Zack Snyder's Justice League

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)

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)

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)

Snyder's comic book dark vision! I honestly didn't believe Zack Snyder could do it, but after Justice League, he's definitely repaired his reputation. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't looking forward to it and I suspected I would slag it, but in the end it's surprisingly good and the thing I feared the most (the fact that I would have to sit through two hours I already knew and didn't care much about) was proven wrong, and I found myself wondering quite often whether a scene was new or an old one, which is probably a plus. At first I was bothered by the 4:3 format because I’m not quite used to it, let along for four hours, so in that respect the film is a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, there are four epic climaxes every hour, so the time passes very quickly, the characters get more space (Flash is excellent with his jokes and slow motion reminiscent of the best of Quicksilver), the action is epic and pleasantly brutal. I really liked the first new featuring Zeus and Ares appeared, that one had balls. I was a a little disappointed by the entrance of Superman, somewhere after three hours and he probably had the least amount of space of all of the characters, and at times I wondered where Batman was at all 😃 But overall it’s more sweeping and compact, the story and the characters fit together better, and thanks to the decent action and awesome music it's a solid dark comic book movie that I won't be repeating, but I had an unexpectedly great experience. 8/10. (18/03/2021)

An uncompromising, sprawling comic book colossus. This time, Snyder arranged for the white collars to fail big time. The movie isn’t perfect, a little creaky here and there (Ezra Miller is awful in the role of Flash), but as a whole it works great. The dark tone is consistent with the two preceding pictures: a somber atmosphere, good character motivation and the action scenes are superb. Mainly, the baddies are not there just for a decoration, but there are motives for their behavior. Theatrical soliloquies, heroic entrances, a thunderous soundtrack. I’m happy. Maybe HBO will pay for the sequel too. (20/03/2021)

It took almost a decade before we were able to see the culmination of the Snyder Verse. In 2013 we got the reprise of the Superman origin, a much anticipated new beginning, and the promise of a whole new series of DC feature films. A full three years later, Wonder Woman rushed in for the first proper Superman/Batman reunion, and it took another year for Whedon's version of Justice League to hit theaters. After that, another four years had to be added until the release of the nearly four-hour-long director's cut of Zack Snyder's Justice League. How many other films have we waited for this long? Yet the truth is that the result is excellent. Distribution in the Covid era is primarily set for VOD and even in this environment, the film retains its IMAX format. The division into chapters helps to manage the mammoth length perfectly and makes you forget about the lighter version from 2017. The characters are restored to their seriousness, the individual lines are more thought out, their interconnections make more sense, and even a cartoonish villain like Darkseid evokes truly unpleasant feelings. Comparing a cut full of compromises and a cut with the original director's vision is ideal for many later analyses and generally for increasing audience literacy in the contemporary world. Even the re-release of such a film years later sets a precedent. But of course, the new version of Suicide Squad, which will be released after only five years, will be similarly atypical. (27/03/2021)

Snyder can check off the final box, his League is better overall than the original, but it certainly won't be for everyone. It's more layered, more plot-driven, with more emphasis on all the main characters. It portrays them better, it focuses on their motivations and values better, so the overall emotional impact is stronger, and the same is true for the villains, especially Steppenwolf. But I can't shake the feeling that while the film is a patchwork of beautiful, sometimes darkly gothic, sometimes Sin City-like overstyled scenes, with plain cool shots here and there, that works with good story material, but it's ultimately merely an adaptation of a concept that didn't work then and still doesn’t fully work after the facelift. At times, the whole thing feels too artificial and over-artistic, and I couldn't shake the feeling that Superman was just like a sore thumb and he wasn't the Superman from Man of Steel anymore, as if Cavill wasn't Cavill anymore. And ironically, the most memorable and emotionally powerful scenes are those when Affleck climbs mountains to an impressive musical score, or when Zimmer's Man of Steel theme plays. 3.5 stars at most. (14/04/2021)

I was curious and I was hoping it would turn out well. It is probably impossible to say that I had 100% faith in it. But the result exceeded all expectations, because Zack Snyder's Justice League is a completely different film, much better in every way. It doesn’t build on the fateful atmosphere of Batman vs Superman only at the beginning, but instead does it for four hours thanks to a lot of added runtime that has given many characters more space and meaning, also thanks to a lot of scenes (and especially the bad dialogues in them) that have disappeared. Indeed, everything that made me pause in the original film, which was illogical, concise and unexplained, abbreviated or inappropriate, is now either complete, reworked and explained to satisfaction, or removed. The worst attempts at adolescent humor have disappeared, the unsuitable color atmosphere has disappeared, the villain has motivation, the Justice League is no longer a hastily convened gang that has childish arguments... The change to the awakening of Superman is nicely visible, which was something inevitable in the original film that were waiting for from the beginning (and still it was bad, and I'm not even talking about barren scenes with Lois saying things like "You smell good", or “that itches"), while here it is the saving grace of an already functioning League, which is born logically, gradually, and whose realization and meaning feel different. Better. All this is supported and amplified by Holkenborg's music, which gives the preserved scenes a completely different dimension (nothing against Danny Elfman, because his music was again one of the best components last time), and in the end I was extremely sorry that the DC film universe has already unfortunately most likely been written off, and that we will probably only return to it in Flash's film, because after Zack Snyder's Justice League there remains great potential and plenty of ways to go. An amazing superhero film.___P.S. I didn't quite understand the 4:3 picture format at all, but it didn't take long for me to forget about it. (19/03/2021)

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)

I confess that (except for a few scenes) I've managed to almost forget the plot of the original Justice League, so I approached this version almost as a "new movie" (to put it a bit stupidly). I have mostly negative memories of a poorly done Superman and Steppenwolf, which have thankfully been changed for the better in the new version. However, I don't want to "throw dirt" on the Snyder-Whedon film, which I don't remember so much, because despite the visible audiovisual shortcomings and the shallow script, I was not bored at all. The purely Snyder version is already better to look at (despite the omnipresent darkness). I liked the change in the portrayal of Steppenwolf, and while some of the fight scenes looked confusing, it wasn't downright as much of a digital washout as the original film. Some scenes were even so well built and crafted that they felt like a "comic book come to life" (in a good way). I also give a thumbs up for the insertion of flashbacks into the plot – Darkseid's first invasion of Earth or Victor's story. Given the presence of more characters, different (supernatural) nations, crossing realities and space-time, the film can't escape comparison to Marvel's Infinity War and Endgame, where DC does fall a step short, but I still think this team-up manages to rise above the DC average. In addition to the plethora of action sequences, the film offers some humor (thanks, Flash) and family-relationship pathos, but it didn't distract me in any significant way. Also worth mentioning is the minor but memorable cameo by the Joker. All in all, slightly under four stars! (19/03/2021)