Today we have come with Justice League 2021’s review. To put it in one sentence, Zack Snyder’s Justice League gets buried under its own weight and density. After months of “he will release it-he will release it not”, Zack Snyder has finally lifted the veil of the XXXL-version of Justice League. After months of character poster promotion, fan-serving teaser trailers, the film is now released on HBO Max and BookMyShow stream with its back-aching 4-hour-run-time.
To the uninitiated, the 2021 version of the Justice League is a director’s cut, a reboot, and a DC Cinematic Universe resurrection. The 2017 version of the film was completed by Joss Wheadon who was also the writer for number of Marvel Cinematic Universe films. He was called to complete the Justice League project after Zack Snyder had to take a leave of absence during the post-production of the film as his daughter committed suicide. On a single view of the film, one can easily understand the intent of the film which is to do justice to the original vision of Snyder as well as to ensure that the film can be a blue print for the other DC Superhero movies to come.
One of the major problems with the Joss Whedon’s version of Justice League was its dim-witted mild tone and its incoherent narrative. Much to the relief of DC fans, Zack Snyder with reigns in his hand has reworked the 2021 version of the film with much more coherent character arcs and motivation and smoother visual effects. The film’s screenplay choice is interesting to say the least as it comprises six-chapters, much albeit to a mini-series. Although, the film clocks at a back-aching 4 hours of run time and the coherent plotlines fail to make the movie a palatable experience to non-Snyder-cult viewers.
Much akin to its Marvel counterpart, Justice League is the story of 6 superheroes form Earth come together to form an alliance and save Earth from Darkseid (played by a graphically subdued Ray Porter). Darkseid and his chief enforcer Steppenwolf are on the pursuit of 3 magically powered Mother Boxes which when combined, can lead to utter chaos and destruction of the planet.
To stop these evil forces, Batman (played by a seemingly constipated Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Flash (Ezra Miller) and last but definitely not the least, Superman (Henry Cavill), come together and form the Justice League. After Superman sacrifices himself to kill the Doomsday, Batman takes the responsibility to form the league and assigns himself the role of the captain.
Among the improvements over the previous version of the film, the film’s run time is made use of in a positive way. The Zack Snyder uses its 4-hour-runtime in establishing context around the characters’ motivation and thus, the storytelling is far more coherent and engaging. While the Joss Whedon’s release jumped from joke-to-joke, action scene-to-action scene, Snyder’s cut is a slow burn with each character explored.
Unlike the Whedon’s version, where characters just acted out of necessity of the filmmaker’s vision for the end, nearly every character in Snyder’s cut gets a crucial scene or two which establishes their motivation and their journey. Ray Fisher’s Cyborg is completely resurrected as his character was, for the most part, cut in the Whedon’s version of Justice League. Cyborg’s struggle to adapt to his circumstances and then overcome them makes him an extremely redeemable character to say the least.
However, even the Snyder’s cut is not able to balance the fine line between the spectacle and the emotion, which Avenger’s Endgame was lauded for. The dialogue of the film remained exposition heavy and the rapport between the Justice League characters remained as awkward as before. Unlike MCU’s Endgame, where the best moments came when characters spoke to each other and showed their vulnerable side, Justice League’s best moments came when the team just flung into action not saying much.
On the effect’s side, Zack Snyder’s staple slow motion action, which he made a use of in 300, Watchmen and Man of Steel, is used more than it was needed. When these slow-motion actions sequences are used in short spurts and edited well, one can’t help but be awestruck on the technical wizardry. But in Justice League, it’s these kinds of action-sequences that are used so much that it just adds to the overall run-time and makes the watching experience more of a chore.
The intensity with which Snyder attempted to elevate the comic book material to an art-house film that can be an enjoyable experience for the mass and class alike should be appreciated. But the movie due to its exposition heavy dialogues, its ponderous run-time and its fan-service scenes, gets buried under its own weight and density. When done with the film, you’d be hard pressed to feel any warmth for these superheroes, which itself can be considered the biggest failure of the film.
