Wow. Just wow. This was amazing. We asked and they delivered. The Snyder cut. The Justice League we wanted from the beginning. Today, I will be explaining what the Snyder cut is and I will be going through some of the behind the scenes talk from the movie as well as some of the changes that were made to the Snyder cut from the theatrical cut.
For those of you who don’t know, Zack Snyder’s Justice is a remake of the DC movie: Justice League, released in 2017 directed by Joss Whedon. The original movie was originally meant to be directed by Zack Snyder but he had to turn down the opportunity to be with his family after his daughter died by suicide. The 2017 movie was meant to set up two sequels, all originally meant to be directed by Zack Snyder.
But I am more than grateful to have this version of Justice League. I have a lot of good things to say about this movie; so many things were changed for the best, the first noticeable change being that this Justice League is just over 4 hours in length. One of my favourite changes in this Justice League is what they have done with Steppenwolf. In the theatrical cut, I felt like Steppenwolf wasn’t as intimidating as he should have been. He just looked like an 8 foot man who put on too much makeup and his battle axe worked like a baseball bat. But in the Snyder cut, Steppenwolf had been upgraded big time; he had reactive armour which would catch arrows shot by the amazons in the movie and crush them; it would also retract if he was in Darkseid’s presence as a sign of worship. His axe had also been upgraded; every swing by Steppenwolf’s hand was a bloodbath. His opening line is one of my favourite lines in the entire movie: ‘I have come to enlighten you to the great darkness! I will bathe in your fear’. The ‘great darkness’ is referring to Darkseid. This was the villain we wanted in the theatrical cut, a warlord with immense power.
One of Steppenwolf’s titles is the Charging Bull which I really like because it reminds me of one of my favourite quotes from the Snyder cut spoken by Alfred to Bruce Wayne when assembling the Justice League: ‘If you can’t bring down the charging bull then don’t wave the red cape at it’, the ‘red cape’ in this line is referring to Superman.
Unfortunately, Zack Snyder himself has confirmed that there will be no sequels to his Snyder cut, which is a real shame because of how enjoyable and successful this was; and at the time I am writing this review, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is not canon in terms of the DCEU (DC Extended Universe), which I don’t entirely agree with because in the upcoming Flash movie in 2022, it explores the multiverse and it will have two different versions of Batman: Michael Keaton’s Batman from the Tim Burton movies, and Ben Affleck’s Batman that is in the DCEU movies. The multiverse is confirmed to exist in the Snyder cut when Steppenwolf is speaking to Desaad about the Anti life equation and says: ‘The anti life equation: the key to controlling all life and all will throughout the multiverse’. And we also have a new Batman movie coming out in 2022 with Robert Pattinson playing Batman. So it would only make sense for the flash to explore the multiverse.
My favourite scene in the movie is in the final battle when Steppenwolf completes the unity to acquire the anti life equation; at this point, it seems like all is lost and Darkseid has won. But flash phases through the shockwave emitted from the unity and runs far beyond the speed of light to reverse time and prevent the unity from happening. The reason I love this scene so much is because it is a crucial turning point in the movie; this scene is visually stunning with everything being atomised and reversed back to normal from dust, like nothing happened. I think this scene is also really impactful for Flash because the entire planet is relying on him to turn back the clock; his final words before the timeline is reset are: ‘Make your own future. Make your own past. And it’s all right now’. Another reason I think this is impactful for flash is because the words ‘Make your own future’ were the last words Henry Allen (Flash’s / Barry’s father) said to Barry a few days before the unity was synchronised. The music in this scene is also amazing; the track is called: ‘At the Speed of Force’. Junkie XL did an incredible job composing the music for this movie and every time I hear this track, it gives me goosebumps; it is extremely well written.
The only problem I have with this movie doesn’t happen in the movie itself, but it’s with the fans. I have seen online that fans have raiding reviews of other Warner Bros movies with #RestoreTheSnyderverse, the most notable being Godzilla vs Kong. I don’t think this is the right way to get the Snyderverse; I think depending on which direction the Flash movie goes we will get the Snyderverse. But for now, the Snyderverse is not happening and it probably won’t happen ever; as I said earlier, Zack Snyder said himself that his Justice League movie will not get any sequels which means no Snyderverse. I also want the Snyderverse to be canon, but crashing in on other people’s reviews that have nothing to do with the Snyderverse or the DCEU as a whole is not the right way to go.
But apart from that, it is an amazing movie and I recommend it to whoever may read this review. It is an intriguing and compelling story and I feel like it is really unique in terms of other superhero movies.
By Trey Mitchell-Andrews
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