Re-edited film does justice to Snyder’s vision
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is practically an entirely new creation. A re-edit of the 2017 “Justice League,” it runs a full two hours longer than the original and is different in feeling, aura and intention. “Justice League” was an empty-headed action movie that didn’t aspire to much. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” couldn’t be more ambitious.
It’s Snyder’s attempt to make the greatest superhero movie ever and to hold that title for years to come. It’s Snyder’s sincere attempt at a masterpiece, and though he doesn’t quite succeed, he’s made something epic, and he’s made it with integrity.
It would seem impossible — to add two hours to a bad movie and make it good — but this is the film that Snyder originally intended before his daughter died in 2017 and he had to abandon the project.
Joss Whedon, in an uncredited capacity, took over at that point, cut the running time to two hours and tried to inject humor. Basically, he tried to turn “Justice League” into a Whedon movie, but the sensibilities didn’t match. The end product had neither Snyder’s gravity nor Whedon’s archness but instead seemed maudlin and trivial.
The new film is neither. The director’s sense of purpose comes through from its first moments, as does an underlying sadness. An ancient evil has returned to Earth, intending to destroy everything, and Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) is going around trying to assemble a consortium of superheroes to fight off the impending invasion.
In the previous version, he seemed like a nonsuperhero in a superhero society, and thus the odd man out. Here he’s the representative of common humanity, just trying to use his money and talents to the best of his ability.
In this Snyder cut, everyone is just a little bit exhausted, tired of fighting an evil that is never fully defeated and keeps coming back. Like a lot in this film, there’s a feeling of metaphor about this, as though the story were dramatizing a recurring phenomenon in ordinary life. To be sure, it’s not hard to recognize that this movie, featuring dispirited and exhausted people, is being released into a much more dispirited and exhausted world than that which existed in 2017.
As in the 2017 “Justice League,” Superman is dead at the start, but because the Snyder cut goes on for four hours, Superman
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
★★★
Quick take: Supersized and better for it
Where to see it: Streaming on HBO Max
stays dead for a lot longer. This is significant, because the last time out, everyone who wasn’t Batman, Superman (Henry Cavill) or Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) seemed dull and nondescript. But now, with Snyder lavishing
time on them, Aquaman ( Jason Momoa), Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) come to life.
The Whedon version added jokes and kept all the action scenes. This version goes for long stretches without action, during which time we get to care about the people doing the fighting. The battle scenes still look straight out off a computer screen and argue against the possibility of there ever being a masterpiece superhero film — until it’s done, we can’t be sure it’s possible. But here there’s less action and more time for human scenes, such as those with Lois Lane (Amy Adams), paralyzed with grief over losing Clark Kent.
Then there’s the movie’s audacity, which is unexpected and admirable. It seems to end, but then goes on for another 40 minutes of somber scenes, including a long dream sequence involving the Joker.
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” may not be a great film, but it has the madness, strangeness and obsessiveness of a real work of art.
Running time: 242 minutes Rating: R (violence and some language)