Zack Snyder’s Justice League — Movie Review
by KJ Proulx
Every year there are films that are altered by studios for theatrical release. It’s nothing new, but when something happens to a movie like what happened to Justice League, it becomes a no-win scenario once they decide to change course. Upon Zack Snyder departing the original project for personal reasons, Joss Whedon was brought in to rework the film to the studio's liking. The original cut was roughly four hours in length and after reshoots and rewrites to work out a mere two-hour run time, basically, nothing, other than a couple of scenes remained from the original version. Shockingly, after four years, Zack Snyder was given the freedom and money to finish his project. This is the film that should’ve hit theatres back in 2017. I’m not someone who defends a project just to defend in either. This is a definitively better film overall.
Even the premise is nearly 75% different this time around. Yes, a team needs to form in order to defeat the looming threat, but it’s the reasoning that was missing the first time around. After the death of Superman in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, the echoes of his death spanned many cities, being felt by all of these heroes. Once that settled, a villain with an apocalyptic plan arrives, sending his pawn Steppenwolf to attempt his plan first. This in turn brings the Justice League together, but five of them may not be enough. Superman was the beacon of hope for this franchise and his absence makes a huge impact on the overall story.
Unlike many other Zack Snyder films that focus more on visuals over the story, Zack Snyder’s Justice League puts these characters and their backstories in the forefront. I’m pretty confident when I say that each core character gets about 20–30 minutes of screen-time to themselves in order to flesh them out and give them purpose. The reason all of them are even interested in trying to save the world is pretty meaningful. There are individual arcs for each of them and a few tears even came to my eyes in the final act. I’ve never said that characters and story were the focus of a Zack Snyder film before, so I have to give him all the credit in the world for that.
I would be remiss though if I didn’t mention the very solid work by writer Chris Terrio. His screenplay for Argo was fantastic but I also thought that his work on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was less than triumphant, to say the least. For me, he has been very hit-or-miss. After seeing his work redone by Joss Whedon and changed to his liking, I’m now seeing how much his original work was torn apart. Terrio’s screenplay for this film, although imperfect, was just a breath of fresh air. Giving every scene room to breathe, I just felt like I was watching an old-fashioned epic.
Overall, more than anything, I’m just happy that Warner Bros. realized what they did and allowed Snyder to finish his original vision. This project has been through hell and back. I can’t even imagine what everyone said who worked on this film when they watched that theatrical version from 2017. Again, aside from a few scenes sprinkled throughout the movie, this film is completely different. The same scenes from the previous film are extended and more flesh out, the villain actually has a purpose this time around, and every single character is finally fleshed out. Other than characters like Batman, Superman, or Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg are the two characters that surprised me. From start to finish, they were the biggest hearts in the story for me. In the end, whether or not you’ve seen the original version is irrelevant. This is a very, very good film on an epic scale. Yes, it has issues, but I think this release because it’s very good, deserves to be celebrated.
Rating: 4/5
Check out the trailer below:
