Review: Justice League vs. The Snyder Cut

Forget Batman vs. Superman, it’s time for the greatest DC showdown of all time: Justice League vs. The Snyder Cut!

At a mammoth 242 minutes long, Snyder’s Justice League is an entirely different animal when compared to the cinematic release of the Justice League and lacks the awkwardly edited and entirely unnecessary hand held video interview in the opening of the cinematic release as well (thank God for small mercies). I mean no one could miss the awful editing done to hide Henry Cavill’s ‘stache in that scene once they notice it for the first time. On top of that, we got a villain with no motivation or back story in the original release while Snyder was kind enough to provide us with, not one but, two villains and plenty of motivation for evil doing to boot. So, while I try as best I can not to spoil this (I can’t promise anything), let’s have a look at Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

So, to clear up why there are two versions of the film, Snyder departed Justice League four years ago after the tragic death of his daughter and Joss Whedon was left to direct what ended up being a jumbled blur of pointless villains, unnecessary plots, over sexualized Wonder Woman shots and lacklustre character introductions or, in some cases, no character introduction at all. The Snyder Cut redeems the movie as a whole and gives newcomers, The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), a proper introduction into the DC cinematic universe along with the subtle introduction of one other hero in a blink and you’ll miss it moment. While that might already seem like a lot, returning heroes Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Batman (Ben Affleck) are slotted into place with ease in the universe, still fighting the good fight after the death of Superman.

Snyder clearly had a vision with this film and Whedon did not deliver. The first hero that Whedon under utilized was Cyborg, whose tragic backstory was entirely excluded from Whedon’s version of the story. Cyborg is little more than the skeleton USB key for the team so they can use computers in the original while Snyder not only adds to Cyborg’s past but also includes a dream-like visual representation of his communication with technology and shows the audience that, though he is mostly machine now, Victor Stone is still a person underneath all that metal. The cinematic release also saw Barry Allen (aka The Flash) as the comic relief with no other purpose on the team other than delivering poorly written one-liners. Snyder’s Flash, however, was that comic relief with less facepalm inducing one-liners but also plays a much larger role in plans and the final showdown against Steppenwolf.

As the General of the armada of Parademons, Steppenwolf was seen as the ‘collect one item to proceed’ villain of the original release with no real explanation as to why he was doing what he was doing and no retaliation against his actions. Snyder, however, gave Steppenwolf an upgraded, armoured look and gave the audience an explanation as to the overall plan while also including the overarching villain of the next few, what I can only expect and hope will be Snyder directed, DC instalments.

Personally, I felt disappointed by the cinematic version of Justice League and I welcomed Snyder’s version with open arms even if it was four hours long. The Snyder cut, essentially willed into existence by fans to eradicate the awful taste left in fans’ mouths after the original was released, is broken into six parts and an Epilogue so you don’t have to watch it all at once. On top of that, the Snyder cut does the world of good for characters’ development and growth, reverting Wonder Woman back to her status as a hero and not an object to be ogled as she poses. She was introduced as powerful in her original movie and Whedon demoted her to a pretty face in the background of shots. Snyder makes her the Justice League’s second in command and then proceeds to make half of the pointless plot lines in the original version, including the family living in a nuclear disaster zone tormented by parademons, disappear along with that God awful “Dostoevsky” line from The Flash as well. As a criminal justice major, you’d kind of hope that Barry would have more brains than that.

Overall, if it was up to me, I would have waited for the Snyder cut, split it in two and put it into cinemas because the Whedon version was an attempt at being witty and funny (and it was neither) in a universe that has already been portrayed as dark, gritty and realistic. I’m not saying that Snyder’s version was perfect but it was far better than what we originally got. If I had one gripe with Snyder’s version, it was the inclusion of [SPOILER ALERT] the Joker in the epilogue. I didn’t see it as necessary but I understand why it was done which is more than what I can say about Whedon’s version of the film. Though moments in the Snyder cut drag and the four hour runtime is daunting to say the least, if you have to watch one version of the Justice League or the other, pick the Snyder cut and get the story as it should have been.

Justice League: The Snyder Cut is available to stream now on HBO Max in the US and on Sky Cinema and
NowTV in the UK and Ireland.