Snyder’s ‘Justice’ is perfect for a pandemic
Nov. 17, 2017, wasn’t a particularly notable day. History didn’t buckle from shocking news. There wasn’t a celebrity faux pas that launched a thousand memes. But the day saw the release of “Justice League,” the megabudget film about the DC Comics band of superheroes that was supposed to be a powerful response to Marvel’s “Avengers.” It wasn’t.
This superhero teamup story became one of the most criticized and vexed Hollywood productions of the past decade. It was a box office flop that lost money for Warner Bros., a rare occurrence in the era of superhero movie dominance.
There’s a long list of reasons why the film failed, chief among them that director Zack Snyder had to quit midway through production because of a family tragedy. He was replaced by Joss Whedon, who we now know isn’t the nice, nerdy profeminist creator the geek world believed him to be, after a wave of accusations surfaced regarding his inappropriate behavior on set. Then there’s the film’s dark tone and visuals, which, next to the comic book hues of the Marvel movies, felt like a funeral procession for characters we grew up seeing in primary colors.
Oh, and Superman’s upper lip looked like a CGI scar.
Fans, naturally, revolted. Their criticisms were validated and led to the release of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” which hit HBO Max on Thursday, March 18. It is the same movie but with a refocused plotline, new scenes and other CGI magic that restores the film to Snyder’s intended specifications.
As fans waited for premiere day to
arrive, some were hopeful this fourhour iteration could be a major improvement of a serious disappointment — and, so far, the reviews have been surprisingly positive. But lost in this rampup is a question that’s not being asked enough: Did “Justice League” not work in 2017 because the movie wasn’t meant for that time?
Take a look at the themes surging through the film, and it’s clear that this is a movie made for the pandemic era.
“Justice League” is a film about grief during a time when all are flooded with feeling. It’s a film about forced adaptation to the unknown at a time when all are trying to manage a different way of living. It’s a film about a new invader threatening to destroy us (while we contribute to it by destroying ourselves). And it’s about finding hope in a symbol, or a person, we can rally around while we fight for a better future.
That wasn’t our 2017 worldview. But it damn sure fits the narrative of today.
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Too much has been written in the past four years about our divided nation. “Justice League” will never be considered one of the primary conflicts in this ongoing war, but there were moments it sure felt like a microcosm of our
times.
Few people defended the mess of a film after its 2017 release. But as the months and years passed, a quiet online narrative grew about how there was a better iteration of this movie locked away. The film became known as “the Snyder cut,” the original director’s true vision that was either corrupted by Whedon’s hubris or kept secret by the studio, depending on which conspiracy theory you chose to believe.
The Snyder cut story enraptured disillusioned fans so well because it promised a way to negate an uncomfortable reality — that their favorite heroes were packaged in a terrible movie. It was a way for these fans to believe their collective will could rewrite the past.
Soon, #ReleaseThe SnyderCut became a trending online hashtag, compelling people to buy billboards and banners pulled by airplanes asking Warner Bros. to release the film. It became a battle cry.
Now, that film is here. As a testament to fan control, but also as a highprofile reminder that we live in times when conspiracies can ignite movements.
***
Grief is a curious thing. It often arrives when we expect it but rarely affects us in the ways we anticipate. Kind of like “Justice League.”
Grief was supposed to be the driving force of this film, after Superman’s death compelled Batman to bring together a union of heroes to keep Earth safe in the absence of its greatest protector. And the emotion did define the movie, just not as expected.
In March 2017, Snyder’s daughter Autumn took her own life. Snyder left the “Justice League” production two months later, with Warner Bros. tapping Whedon to take over as director.
Since then, grief has been a cloud over this film — from the fans’ crushed expectations to the studio’s dashed earnings and the sad reality that, unlike a fictional character, Snyder’s daughter won’t return as a thirdact promise to make us feel better.
And, maybe that understanding is what we need right now. Because the fallacy of these superhero movies is that someone will always save us from destruction; that we can be ignorant, careless or foolish and somebody will fly in to correct our mistakes so life can return to normal the next day.
That delusion hasn’t felt as real for about 12 months.
Back in 2017, we weren’t as jaded. We weren’t looking at “Justice League” as a reflection of our suffering. It was just another movie about superpowered people in bizarre costumes helping us to get lost in a fantasy. Today, this movie hits a different note of resonance.
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Over in the Marvel Universe, back in 2019, “Avengers: Endgame” wrapped its narrative around grief in a masterful way, projecting how heroes, and viewers, would react to having half of our population instantly fade away. It worked because it was a real concern wrapped in unreal proportions.
“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” also wraps a real, human concern in similarly unreal circumstances. But those proportions feel different than they did when the first version of this film premiered. Now, the ideas of mass annihilation and constant threat are more concrete than they ever have been for most of us.
And we might finally have the superhero movie for that moment, right on time, right when we needed it.