Reb00t 1t - Zack Snyder's Justice League Part 2

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.

Reb00t 1t - Zack Snyder's Justice League part 1

OK, we’re looking at a different kind of reboot here. After Batman v Superman planted seeds for a Justice League, Zack Snyder was hard at work on the project and had done most of the filming for it, sadly it was interrupted by the tragic death of his daughter and he left the project to grieve and I hold no ill will toward him for that.

Still, that takes time and they needed alignment in the actors’ filming schedules and various other issues to continue filming, there were already difficulties with the product we ended up with, hence Supes’ awful CG chin to remove the facial hair for Mission: Impossible. So I get why WB handed over the reins to Joss Whedon. The problems were many-fold, WB execs wanted the film out so they could get their bonuses, he was also under pressure to lighten the tone based on reception to Batman v Superman. And no, I’m not defending Whedon acting like a piece of crap on-set, Ray Fisher has come out with some rather disturbing on-set stories with both Whedon and Geoff Johns mentioned by name as perpetrators.

Still, I’m not a huge fan of Snyder either, his take on Superman felt like a fundamental misunderstanding of the character and he drew on material that he also fundamentally misunderstood in Batman v Superman. He also began riling up fan interest in reviving his take on the film. I can’t understand the level of entitlement here, it’s not a good look and neither is the studio acquiescing to the tune of $70m? This film already had a ballooned budget thanks to all the reshoots.

Of course, with Zack it’s all about the artistic vision. How do I know he’s gone this pretentious route? This ‘movie’ has a 4:3 aspect ratio and is available in Black and White. There’s nothing wrong with an artistic vision however, but with a medium like film, it should be an entertaining product first and foremost and that’s the angle I’ll be judging it from. It’s also nearly 4 hours long so to protect my sanity, I’ll be splitting this over 2 reviews. They’ve nicely broken it into 6 chapters so I’ll try and stick with chapters 1-3 for this review, and 4-6 for next week’s review.