SPOILERS AHEAD: The goal of a movie critique is often to judge it objectively, as a stand-alone piece of art. If you’ve seen a lot of movies previously, it can be difficult to just ignore that foundation of experience that has shaped what you consider to be a “good” or “bad” movie.
Now, pile on top of that another vision of this same concept with mostly the same cast and similar conclusion. And pile on top of that how Zack Snyder’s Justice League even came to be a finished product, a story almost as extraordinary as what played out onscreen for nearly four hours.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on all the nitty gritty details behind the scenes. In very simple terms, Zack Snyder worked very extensively on Movie A. Warner Brothers Studios seemed initially very much behind Movie A, then decided they wanted Movie B. Avengers director Joss Whedon was brought in for reshoots and rewrites to make Movie B shorter and come out on a timeline meeting the demands of the higher ups at WB.
Movie B hit theaters in 2017 to largely a blah response. WB was hoping for a $1B – $2B international box office, what they got was around $658M. Reputation-wise, and financially, they got taken behind the woodshed. It currently holds a Metacritic metascore of 45…one point above 2020’s Bloodshot.
Zach Snyder says he has not seen 2017’s Justice League, I’ll take him at his word on that. He did start a (or bolster an existing fan) campaign to finish his version of the movie, leading to the now infamous #ReleaseTheSnyderCut hashtag. Either during the negotiations for AT&T acquiring WB or after the merger was finalized, someone began believing that was a good idea to help jumpstart subscriptions to the new HBOMax streaming service. Zack initially said he needed $20M-$30M, that number rose to $70M by the end (as myself and many, many other people predicted it would).
Zack got the money, brought back some of the cast to film a few minutes of epilogue footage, added some music and finished the special effects. Zack Snyder’s Justice League debuted on HBOMax on March 18th, 2021 and in some theaters (probably IMAX theaters, as it was shot in the IMAX ratio).
The movie picks right up with the death of Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. His death scream is heard/felt by the three Mother Boxes, incredibly ancient mystical matter manipulators capable of quickly turning the prettiest part of Kentucky into the ugliest part of New Jersey on a world-wide scale. This brings Darkseid lackey Steppenwolf to Earth to find the three boxes (they are about the size of a milk crate, just a little bit bigger) and unite them.
This would clear up the planet for Darkseid to come on over and finish a failed takeover he tried a really long time ago (shown in a flashback sequence). This longer version of the movie actually sheds an huge amount of light on the Mother Boxes and their functionality that the 2017 version ignores.
Batman works on assembling a team of superheroes because he is convinced something bad is going to happen after his talk with Lex Luthor at the end of BvS. We are introduced to Arthur Curry (Aquaman), Barry Allen (The Flash), and Victor Stone (Cyborg). To make kind of a long story short, Steppenwolf gets two of the three boxes, and the heroes have the third courtesy of Cyborg and his scientist father. They risk alerting Steppenwolf to the location of the third box by using it to resurrect Superman, which succeeds but he is discombobulated and flies off with Lois Lane to get his mind right.
Steppenwolf grabs the third box and retreats back to his base in Russia, the heroes head after him with a plan to merge Cyborg with the Mother Boxes machine to machine to attack it from the inside. Superman shows up! He’s wearing a black suit now. A timing snafu due to being shot in the leg forces the Flash to reverse time to charge up Cyborg’s entry into the Mother Box (a one-sentence summary of a very pivotal scene). Superman takes the combat lead and they dispatch Steppenwolf pretty quickly. Wonder Woman decapitates Steppenwolf and they toss his body through a portal back over to Darkseid, who gives them a look along the lines of, “This is far from over.”
There’s plenty to nitpick about the movie. Too much slow motion used, a few too many songs inserted in sequences that didn’t need them. Probably at least 15-20 minutes that could have been cut out. But let’s talk about the epilogue nightmare sequence, because that’s what this storyline’s future hinges upon.
Steppenwolf figures out the long sought after Anti-Life Equation rests on Earth and informs Darkseid, making the latter’s motivation even stronger to return and conquer. The Anti-Life Equation would give Darkseid ultimate power in the universe. It is hinted at that Lois Lane (or possibly the offspring of Lois and Superman?) has some involvement with the Anti-Life Equation. Bruce Wayne has a nightmare sequence where he leads a squad of survivors (including Jared Leto’s Joker, they must be getting desperate in the future) and Deathstroke against…at least Superman, who shows up angry. Lois Lane is dead and it hints that Batman allowed her death to thwart some larger disaster, which widower Superman is not happy about.
The future of Zack Snyder and the Justice League is very iffy right now. Snyder has said that his version is not canon to the DCEU, but this Lois Lane tidbit appeared in a warning from the Flash to Bruce Wayne back in BvS, which is canon. So that door is open to walk though if WB chooses to do so. The next Justice League movie, if there is one, might be set in the nearer future to introduce additional characters, saving that nightmare scenario for the future.
After seeing this version, it is clearly superior to Joss Whedon’s effort. Ray Fisher had every right to be angry about what happened with his character under Whedon’s helm. Snyder had given Fisher the key story arc of the movie, plus Cyborg and Flash provide the main moment to fix everything at the climax. Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Batman are essentially providing cover so those two can do their thing. This was all completely stripped away by Whedon’s version.
And this movie should completely satisfy Snyder’s fans. To their credit, they kept the conversation going in the face of significant obstacles to this movie ever coming out. Zack Snyder poured a lot of his time and talent into his vision for an epic story, and that story was finally told faithfully for people all over the world to see.
