What to watch
Sci-fi action. If a four-hour superhero epic feels a bit too much to bear, director Zack Snyder has helpfully split it into six chapters of 40-odd minutes each, allowing for bathroom breaks and naps in between sittings.
Justice League was originally released in 2017, the follow-up to Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2015). The director dropped out of the movie when his daughter died and Avengers helmer Joss Whedon was brought in to complete the film, which involved rewriting the script and shooting a lot of new footage.
That movie flopped at the box office, but, like its redcaped hero, it was resurrected by a fan campaign, “Restore the Snyder Cut”.
Snyder finally returned to complete his version of the film, with fresh visual effects and new footage shot last year, and boy, what a difference it makes.
The plot is basically the same – Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), wary of otherworldly threats to Earth, assemble a super-team of heroes, including Aquaman ( Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller).
Sure enough, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), a minion of the universe-conquering warlord Darkseid (Ray Porter), and his demonic troops start making trouble on Earth – and only Superman (Henry Cavill) is powerful enough to stop them – but he died in Dawn of Justice!
This version of Justice League has the same tone and style as Snyder’s previous superhero outings, Watchmen (2009), Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman, and it’s (very, very) long running time means all the characters are comfortably fleshed out, even the villains.
The visual effects have also been greatly improved – Superman’s CGI-shaved beard (which Cavill grew for Mission: Impossible – Fallout and couldn’t shave for Justice League reshoots) is nowhere to be seen and Steppenwolf no longer looks like a hurriedly rendered boss villain from an old videogame. The pacing, editing and storytelling are also much more cohesive.
Fans of Snyder’s other movies will love it, but more casual viewers would probably be better off treating it as a mini-series and taking advantage of the chapter breaks provided. –