And we’re back with another dose of the Snyder Cut and a likely rather scattershot set of viewpoints around the changes made here. Unlike with previous reboots discussed here, a lot of material was in the original, the original I have already reviewed and the plot in this film is pretty much the same. It’s hard to determine exactly how successful the Snyder Cut has actually been. It’s certainly created a lot of buzz, and the more positive reception certainly helped but because it’s been released on a streaming service the value it creates will be dependant on how many subscribers it brings on and retains. And 2021 has been a big year for HBO Max with all of its big cinematic releases being placed on the service for free for a few weeks at time of release. This was an attempt to reclaim something as Covid has drawn audiences away from traditional theatres.
I’m losing track, let’s take a look at the rest of the
Snyder Cut.
I’ll say off the bat that of the two halves I watched, this
is the one I enjoyed the most but then how many films can you really say have a
better opening that climax? Especially in this genre. But I do have a few
things to say, and let’s start off with some positives because I’m occasionally
capable of giving those.
I really like JK Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. Not much to
say as he has little to do but I like him. Clark’s scene with his mother and
Lois is good and doesn’t have quite as much cringey dialogue, the energy
absorbing gauntlets were a fantastic idea, not sure why those were omitted in
the Whedon version, the climax looks better without the red filter, despite the
usual muted colours.
And Cyborg is massively improved over the original, not to
say he was flawlessly done but without a solo movie to properly flesh
everything out, I’m happy with what we got here. Silas Stone gets a bit more to
do and the complicated relationship between the two is explored at least on a surface
level. I like that when Cyborg hacks into the labs systems to evacuate the lab,
Silas is instantly suspicious and is about to report it but when he sees Victor
with the League, he backs his son’s play.
His death in a later scene was unnecessary in my opinion.
They established in an earlier scene that the mother-box could be super-heated
with a special light-ray or something and he sacrificed himself so he could
mark the box so the heroes could track it. It does lead to a badass line from
Victor when he’s the key to stopping the unity.
I think that’s the end of my positives
Their interpretation of Darkseid is pretty pathetic. I’m not
really fond of anything bar his look. His voice is your generic gravelly voice
his dialogue is exceptionally generic. Apparently, the anti-life equation is
written on Earth which makes no sense really but whatever.
Steppenwolf continues to be a fairly underwhelming villain
in his own right. He suffers from a generic voice and dialogue and a backstory
that felt in need of elaboration, this film is nearly 4 hours long. As for the
redesign, it’s unnecessarily overdesigned, occasionally they do something
clever with it but I have to feel for the animators who had to deal with the
100,000 spikes on that thing.
The other minor gripe I have is that they make Superman too
powerful. Steppenwolf’s axe thing was dealing powerful blows to Aquaman and
Wonder Woman but it does absolutely nothing to Superman, doesn’t even make him
sweat. Superman then easily beats up Steppenwolf allowing Cyborg and the Flash
to do their thing. The other disconcerting thing in the climax is just how many
guns Batman uses. If this Batman is okay with killing, why is the Joker still
alive?
So the film ends with some minor changes, first off the
scene with Luthor on the boat is changed and in my opinion for the worse.
Deathstroke having a grudge against Batman and agreeing to kill him for free
is…
And then there’s the “Restore the Snyderverse” fan-wank garbage that followed. Yes, we get another "Knightmare" section like the one in Batman v Superman. The Joker is there for some reason and it’s an even weaker performance from Jared Leto than the one in Suicide Squad. And going off interviews, this whole bit is about a time where Bruce loved Lois but she chose or something and Batman hesitated at a critical juncture which got her killed, which for some reason meant that Superman joined with the forces of Apokolips and is hunting down our heroes.
I’m really sick of evil Superman, it’s been done to
death. Snyderverse isn’t going to happen, this scene should have been cut, it’s
only there to get another twitter hashtag trending. Count me out!
And no, it’s not because I dislike this film, to the
contrary I do think the Snyder cut, despite its gargantuan 4-hour length, is a
vast improvement over the Whedon version, at least we’re rid of Superman’s CGI
Mouth. There is some element of him maybe listening as the tone is a little
brighter, and Superman a little more hopeful, bar that stupid ending. Oh and
Martian Manhunter shows up, he was too busy telling Lois to get back to work to
stop the world-ending threat and somehow looks worse than he does on Supergirl.
Zack Snyder’s vision for this movie is an uncompromising vision,
you can tell for better or worse that there wasn’t much creative oversight
here. The film improves on the Whedon version by not having some of the
cringier humour and putting more character focus on Cyborg especially. That
being said it is bloated and padded, particularly in the first half. And
despite all the fan-teasing on the Apokolips stuff that got a lot of people, including myself, somewhat excited, I ended up enjoying almost
none of it.
Though I owe Zack Snyder an apology for one thing, there
were a few times in that old review I credited Whedon for certain scenes I
enjoyed but since they also showed up here, that credit goes back to Zack.
R E B 6 5 T
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