Directed by:
Zack SnyderScreenplay:
Chris TerrioCinematography:
Fabian WagnerComposer:
Tom HolkenborgCast:
Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen (more)VOD (4)
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In Zack Snyder Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own past to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppewolf, Desaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions. (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (12)
In a situation where I expected everything or nothing, I end up again at an average. And it annoys me the strange instant trend of making Joss Whedon an incapable fumbler, who doesn't even get credit for the Avengers. The recent king of geeks is suddenly seen as an amateur, which is a shortsighted and consequently cowardly opinion. "Josstice" League might not have been a spectacular flick, but coming to someone else's project and piecing it together into a completely different result in a tight timeframe? The fact that a weaker blockbuster emerged from the movie is actually quite a miracle. And even more so, that's how it seems to me now. The reason is that, on the contrary, Zack Snyder, at a different time and with the support of his toxic cult, created a colossus that, due to the inclusion of originally unplanned characters, is not what it was supposed to be years ago, and that – probably the most decisive blow – gives a significantly different impression than the 2017 version. Really, if someone considers a theatrical cut unwatchable trash and they're talking about this one as if it's the experience of the year, then they either don't see the obvious or they had a clear opinion long before watching it. Because every other line is still "motherbox", Wonder Woman and Aquaman are once again underused attractions, Flash saves the majority again, and the outcome begins and ends with Superman. I see progress in his scenes, not necessarily because of the reskin, but because of the scenes that slightly get under your skin even without words and partly justify the excessive length. In the new version, it's at least visible that the idea with the "standard Slavic family" was a foolish mistake, but what do we get instead? After the rumors that Cyborg is the true heart of the movie, I can only shake my head in the end, because once again, he is desperately excessive, which is now more noticeable in more of his scenes. On the other hand, more Superman is always good, but altogether it's always just a few generic minutes of the same, without any coherent whole. A few episodes of a series combined into one mess. And as much as I don't want to offend anyone, because I mean no harm, I have to say one thing. Zack Snyder has gone mad. I don't know if it's because of his personal tragedy or the presumed power of his creation cemented by social media, but all his directorial decisions are either strange or downright nonsensical. Four hours, when a lot of scenes just repeat or vary what we've already seen? The IMAX format, when we know it's for streaming and not for the cinema? The black and white version, in which only fire can be distinguished by the human eye? And finally, the biggest disaster – the dream epilogue. Visually unconvincing, completely unfitting to the plot, and with the participation of the dreadfully terrible Joker, even more disturbing. Right here, the ambition of the creators flew to the highest heights, just to clang the loudest. And this is not about personal preferences, but about facts visible at first sight. I don't insist that they should just copy the Marvel model, but in this case, DC did exactly that and their four-times speed was never more evident. In the overall picture, it's the same as if the neighbors had come up with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame when in previous years they had only released the first Iron Man, the first Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain America: Civil War. And for that precise reason, I was repeatedly thrilled and moved by the Avengers, whereas here the emotions only resonate with Flash (mainly because Ezra Miller is perfectly suited to the role) and (with all due respect) repeatedly with Superman, and not just because Henry Cavill is even more of a statuesque Kal-El than ever before. The rest is held together by the strength of the actors or the opulent action, but there's not really any heart. Just beloved characters, sadly often condemned to being just action figures.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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