ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021). A WHOLE NEW NARRATIVE. MOVIE REVIEW

Happy Midnight Oil

It’s almost midnight, I’m sleepy, but Zach Snyder’s Justice League is just now available at HBO Max. «OK, 15 minutes,» I said to myself. Two hours later I had to quit because I could barely keep my eyes open, and I wanted to fully appreciate what was until then a very engaging and entertaining film. That was the first impression I had upon watching the long-awaited film from Snyder. It did not dissapoint.

Tragedy strikes

In 2017, when Snyder was filming Justice League, his daughter Autumn took her own life at age 20 after a long struggle with depression. Snyder and his wife Deborah, who was also involved in the film as a producer, were devastated.

Executives at Warner Bros. meanwhile, pressured Snyder to make multiple changes to the story. and also, to make serious cuts on the movie. Due to this battle over creative control of the film, the Snyders decided to withdraw. «We just lost the will to fight that fight in a lot of ways,» Snyder commented.

Justice for the fans.

Warner Bros. brings in Joss Whedon to finish the movie and make all the changes the executives want. As we know today, the results were not as expected. The constant pressure from fans on the internet asking for the Snyder version made Warner Bros reconsider. They convinced Snyder to come back to finish the movie with his vision. He was allowed full creative control and an extra $ 70 million. Much of it came from Christopher Nolan and Ben Affleck. Snyder began to work on the version he always wanted to present to the public. It should be noted that Snyder did not charge anything for his work as a director.

Same story. Whole new narrative.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League begins where Batman v Superman; Dawn of Justice (Zach Snyder 2016) ends. When Superman dies, he lets out a cry of pain, and that reactivates the three mother boxes that Darkside left for millennia after his failed attempt to conquer the earth. Bruce Wayne/Batman, knowing that a great conflict was approaching that would endanger life on the planet, is dedicating himself into contacting other metahumans so that together they can face the big fight that is coming. By the way, there are a lot of similarities to the Lord of the Rings story.

Snyder’s trademark

Snyder makes for an extremely entertaining movie. At no point does it become tedious or tiring in its four-hour duration. Snyder’s signature trademarks are an injection of vitality into the narrative of the film. Beginning with his traditional good use of the initial credits to establish the story. Also, his signature use of combining slow and fast motion makes most fights exciting and very well accomplished. Wonder Woman’s first fight looks particularly good.

Another trademark is that the background songs come to the front, leaving the actions of the characters as just a background of the musical piece. Although on several occasions Snyder is carried away by the temptation to put good images to the detriment of the logic of the story. Important to add is that every single shoot is Snyder´s. Not a single one from Whedon’s was used.

Inconsistent SFX. Deep characters.

The special effects are good, but they are not consistent. There are times that they look great, and others look like a glorified video game. Steppenwolf’s armor looks awesome, but sometimes the effect on Cyborg’s face, part human/part robot, looks very bad. There are scenes where you can see an obvious green screen cutting. Having this long-running time allowed Snyder to add much-needed depth to the characters. We know more about the life of Barry Allen / Flash, the motivations of Arthur / Aquaman, and all the hard processes that Cyborg has gone through, who is the heart of the film. He even took time to give Steppenwolf a story so we can know more about his motivations.

The sound is sometimes too loud. But the music, in general, is great.  Also a common trademark on Snyder movies. The narrative is very well-paced, fluid, and entertaining, but in some ocasions the dialog just serves to explain the plot to the viewer and does not feel like a real conversation and this takes away a bit of veracity from the characters.

Fans delighted

A pleasant surprise.If you are not a fan, you may resent the long duration of the movie, but if you are a fan, you will enjoy every minute. Deep and well-developed characters, timely cameos, the generally well-crafted fight sequences far outweigh the predictability of the script, some nonsensical aspects in the story, and the inconsistency of the special effects. Snyder has produced a film of a high level of entertainment and that fills us with the hope that he will continue his vision in the DCEU.