The road leading up to Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) has been long and fascinating. On November 17th, 2017, Warner Bros. released Justice League in theaters. The film, a visually and tonally-inconsistent abomination of a movie made up of scenes initially directed by Zack Snyder until he stepped away from the production due to a family tragedy, combined with extensive and expensive reshoots directed by The Avengers (2012) director Joss Whedon, was met with universal ridicule and indifference. Both critics and audiences deemed the movie to be a lackluster culmination of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU)'s films up until that point, like Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). The main points of contention included the film's inconsistent tone (which frequently tonally jumped from Snyder's dark but optimistic to Whedon's laugh-out-loud funny and goofy), a heavily altered color palette from Snyder's subdued use of blues, greys, and blacks to Whedon's highly-saturated use of primary colors, a way-too-short runtime of almost exactly two hours for a movie of this magnitude, and the lackluster CGI effects, namely those for the re-design of Steppenwolf (played by Ciarán Hinds) that transformed him from Snyder's original vision of a ferocious and physically imposing monster to Whedon's embarrassingly cartoonish and generic baddie of the week, and those used to cover up Henry Cavill's mustache that he had grown for Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), and was contractually obligated to not shave off during his reshoots as Superman.
It wasn't long before fans began reviewing the various trailers leading up to the release and noticing the signs of corporate meddling (i.e., visual changes to the same scenes from trailer to trailer, missing dialogue and scenes, and an abundance of campy oneliners that ultimately detracted from the overall experience. Given the theatrical version's overwhelmingly lukewarm reception, a group of passionate DC and Snyder fans, calling themselves the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, began demanding and pressuring Warner Bros. to release Zack Snyder's director's cut made before the studio's implementing of the drastic changes present in the theatrical version. There was (and to some extent, continues to be) an aggressive pushback from Warner Bros. and a sect of the fanbase questioning the Snyder Cut's existence. However, with Snyder himself ultimately confirming his director's cut's existence on social media, the fans pressed on with the newfound support of cast members like Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, and Ciarán Hinds. Despite most industry insiders believing the Snyder Cut's official release to be highly unlikely, a bombshell announcement was made in 2020. After three years of intense campaigning from the fans, Warner Bros. formally announced that the Snyder Cut, officially called Zack Snyder's Justice League, would be released as a streaming exclusive on their streaming service, HBO Max. This four-hour version of the movie, with much of Snyder's previously-excised scenes reinstated and Whedon's reshoots nowhere to be seen, sought to undo much of the damage made during the theatrical version's production and deliver to the fans what they had long begged and pleaded for.
The story for both versions of this film follows Bruce Wayne/Batman (Affleck) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gadot) shortly after (spoiler alert) the death of Superman (Cavill) in Batman v Superman, as they find and recruit several individuals with unique powers from Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Momoa), Barry Allen/The Flash (Miller), and Victor Stone/Cyborg (Fisher) to form the Justice League to save and protect the world from Steppenwolf (Hinds) and his army of Parademons. It's relatively straightforward on paper and in the theatrical cut but blown to epic proportions (in mostly good ways) by Snyder and screenwriter Chris Terrio with the level of character depth and subsequent growth, worldbuilding, and overall scope.
The main takeaways from the Snyder Cut are stronger performances compared to the phoned-in and awkward ones from the theatrical cut (specifically those from Affleck, Miller, and Fisher), the reinstatement of previously-missing context behind the characters' motivations, the restoration of Snyder's more consistent dark yet optimistic tone, and the overall visual style, which is a day-and-night comparison. There were times where Snyder's distinctive style teeters on becoming unintentionally silly (who knew that I would see a slow-motion close-up of a sesame seed in a Justice League movie?). Still, I will happily re-watch this movie in IMAX to do this viewing experience justice. It may not surpass the heights of my theater experience with Avengers: Endgame (2019), but I am sure that it can come close to that.
The characterizations are more fleshed out, especially Victor's, whose storyline made this version of the movie worthwhile. In this version, he feels like a genuine human being instead of simply "being there" and serving as the tech guy wrapped up in the most CGI effects in the theatrical cut. This movie's heart comes from Victor's relationship with his estranged father, Silas Stone (played by Joe Morton) regarding how Stone revived his son after a tragic car accident by cybernetically rebuilding his body using a Mother Box (one of three of the film's key MacGuffins) with the abilities of flight, advanced weaponry, and techno-hacking, but leaves Victor feeling disillusioned at the world around him after the loss of his mother and his original body. Throughout the Snyder Cut, Victor rediscovers his humanity in others and uses his powers for good. Pacing-wise, the four-hour runtime is surprisingly brisk, and I ended up being invested in the characters in the process (which is quite a rare experience for a DCEU movie). While certain scenes feel like deleted scenes re-inserted for the sake of delivering on everything that Snyder shot initially, it adds to the fact that this is a Zack Snyder project in the best possible way. The action scenes, like Wonder Woman's fight with the terrorists in the first act and the third act's final battle, are miles better than the low-stakes and over-trimmed sequences of the theatrical version make this cut much more memorable. The Snyder Cut's overall tone feels more consistent than the theatrical version's. The open matte 1.33:1 aspect ratio is unique from an auteur's perspective, and I respect Snyder's artistic taste. This aspect ratio surprisingly serves as both form and function as it not only looks incredible, but the fullscreen aspect ratio also allows the viewers' eyes to travel up and down when viewing the onscreen action like a comic strip, as opposed to side-to-side with a widescreen presentation. The fact that this format already looks tailor-made for IMAX screens is highly commendable on Snyder's end. The musical score by Tom Holkenborg, a.k.a. Junkie XL, is an absolute winner, accompanied by callbacks to Hans Zimmer's Man of Steel score with archival audio of Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe's characters of Jonathan Kent and Jor-el, respectively, which are glorious.
What can a highly-requested alternate version of a superhero movie entail for the film industry? From a financial standpoint, fans' popular demand for certain versions of specific titles on home video plays into and influences the growing home video market for film restorations and remasters in a similar way to how word of mouth and box office performances for theatrical releases indicate to studio heads how their movies are received and what they should do with their potential intellectual properties (IPs) in the future marketing-wise. Sometimes, alternate versions of films can take years of demand and public pressure until the needs of the fans are finally met, which can result in profit for the studios along the way. Such is the case for Zack Snyder's Justice League and Warner Bros. and DC's prior experience with Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006).
For context's sake, in the buildup to The Richard Donner Cut, Superman: The Movie (1978)'s director Richard Donner was fired by the producers in the middle of shooting Superman II (1980) and was quickly replaced with Richard Lester due to the production's increasing budget and running behind schedule. Despite Donner having shot up to seventy-five percent of the film with much of the original cast including Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, much of the movie was reshot under Lester (without Brando and Hackman) for him to fulfill a Directors Guild of America requirement, in which a director must shoot at least forty percent of a film to receive full directorial credit. As a result of the much-publicized behind-the-scenes drama, fans began to clamor for a Richard Donner version of Superman II, going as far as creating fan edits that compiled footage from various television airings. During the restoration of Superman: The Movie for the 2001 DVD release, talks began of an official reconstruction of Donner's original vision for Superman II before he was removed. During Superman Returns' (2006) production, Warner Bros. obtained Marlon Brando's estate's permission to use his scenes from the first Superman movie as a visual reference for a computer-generated recreation of Brando's likeness in Returns. This act paved the way for Brando's scenes in Superman II to be utilized in Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut on DVD and Blu-ray, as supervised by Donner and original creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz. This alternate version followed the original script and restored Brando's scenes while removing Lester's more campy sight gags and quips in favor of Donner's more tonally streamlined presentation, much like the first Superman film's structure.
I thoroughly enjoyed Zack Snyder's Justice League as a closing chapter for what could have been a distinctive cinematic universe that could have stood apart from Marvel's. The fact that Warner Bros. has repeated its history of compromising a filmmaker's grand vision for the higher-ups to make or save money for themselves is mind-boggling but not surprising. It is bittersweet to know that Warner Bros. already has plans to move on from the "SnyderVerse" that he had extensively planned out, as evidenced by the studio's prioritizing of Robert Pattinson's upcoming rebooted take on a younger caped crusader in The Batman (2022) and Michael Keaton reprising his iconic portrayal of Batman in The Flash (2022), this could be the last time that we see this incarnation of the Justice League (that we know of). However, a movement like #ReleaseTheSnyderCut proves that anything, especially one with a passionate fanbase and an actively ongoing campaigning strategy with the support of the individuals involved in the project, can make a film studio like Warner Bros. deliver what the fans want. For better or for worse, giving the fans what they desire and treating them with respect is a win-win situation for all parties involved.
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