Personally, I don't have quite the problems others may have with the messy, somewhat convoluted unfolding of the DC Universe on film; we can't all be Marvel, and I wasn't really raised on Marvel to start. DC, for me anyway, was always about incredible, marquee level heroes whose stories were always in some sort of odd flux. You can't really mess up the conceptual purity of Superman, or Batman, or Wonder Woman... but my goodness, how DC can make a mess of which version and back story applies to which version that may be in a comic book, or on TV or on film. Any company that can simultaneously push "Titans" and "Teen Titans GO!" while seemingly oblivious to the inconsistencies, is happily, endlessly, slightly psychotic.
Ultimately, a true DC fan knows if whatever you're watching or reading is working for you... you just say "let's just go with that version and see where it winds up. How about that? Later, you can explain to me all about how Earth 7 is totally different from Earth 2."
So, sure, I can accept that the TV series Flash is a charming upbeat adventure, while the new movie Flash is possibly on the spectrum and kind of all over the place. Or let's just go with the Gal Gadot Wonder Woman because, well, she's just awesome. I miss Steve Trevor... but sure, whatever.
And so it came to pass that just when DC seemed to have all its ducks in a row: a grand plan to harmonize Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman and launch a full Universe of films and sequels... Zack Snyder (and his wife Deborah, who serves as producer) suddenly faced a tremendous personal loss, three quarters or so into finishing Justice League. Faced with mounting costs, and a film seemingly headed off the rails, DC rushed in Joss Whedon, who rewrote and recut the film, leading to the all right, but not necessarily great version that stumbled through theaters and set back DC's grand plans somewhat.
Meanwhile, a tantalizing online discussion emerged that "The Snyder Cut" - a mythical, magical version of the same film - would have been the show stopper that was promised, if only Zack had been allowed to finish it. Geeked out fans being what they are, and comic book intensity being all the rage these days... it's not exactly surprising that DC, Warner Brothers and HBO decided that, well, what the hell, it couldn't get worse, so why not go ahead and give the fans what they said they wanted.
So here we are... and here I am, four long hours later, still the DC fanboy of my childhood, making the best of yet more messy DC shenanigans. Is The Snyder Cut good? That may be the wrong question. Is it necessary? Kind of, yes. Is it a massive, bloated mess of a film that probably needed some judicious pruning? Well, definitely on that one, yes.
While the new Justice League does make clear that the Whedon version made a hash of a more coherent tale, at just over 4 hours, to say the Snyder Cut could benefit from a bit of a trim is kind of an understatement. An expansive opportunity for extended storytelling, this new Justice League offers a solid two part comic book of a grand adventure, yet still struggles to land solid emotional resonance and a sense of urgency.
As before, we start on parallel tracks: the mysterious emergence of alien forces searching for hidden devices on Earth, guarded by Amazons and soldiers of Atlantis... while Batman struggles to assemble DC's biggest names into some sort of League... a League of... Justice? Gradually, it becomes clear that the assembled group is meant to fight the arrival of Darkseid (which I always pronounced "Darkseed" as a kid, but is "Dark-side"), a massive evil bent on world destruction. Because of course he is.
It might help Snyder's case if mild variations of this plot hadn't been both the provenance of Endgame and The Chronicles of Riddick (no, really, go look). You can argue that some of this is archetypal - the hero's journey, and all - but much of what's here feels painfully regurgitated, both too much and not enough all at once. Moreover, more than Whedon's "smash and grab" version, Snyder's bloat robs the film of urgency and surprise: every development is so telegraphed or familiar, there's just no commensurate feeling of achievement. This much of a slog should at least feel like we got somewhere.
Snyder's long been a dialogue minimalist (which is good, because too much talk leads to Cameron like pedantry), and it's remarkable a film this terse runs quite this long; the third or fourth set of moody staring to dark rock tracks was pretty much enough, but the film soldiers on, relentlessly. A parade of "Isn't that...?" cameos also gets pretty tiring, since the ancillary characters mostly have little to do (except possibly to set up the exhausting set of sequels we may never see). Visually, the film holds together better under a consistent Snyder vision than in a Whedon/Snyder hybrid; Snyder really does have an eye, and even if I don't love it, his attention to visual detail is impressive.
As for the lead performances, it's fair to say Affleck shines best in this version, the blank slate nature of his acting gives Snyder the room needed to tell the story his way, with Batman more as observer than narrator. Ray Fisher's Cyborg benefits from an expanded presence and more coherency in his narrative. Gal Gadot has a sureness as Wonder Woman that overcomes the thinness of her role. Ezra Miller's jittery Flash, on the other hand, benefitted from smoothing out in Whedon's cut; here the intensity overwhelms. Henry Cavill's Superman languishes on the sidelines too long; his calm presence centers the final act and should have been there sooner. As for Jason Momoa... I get the whole flavor of the moment feeling... but Whedon had a better sense of how to make him feel more essential to the proceedings.
Ultimately, the Snyder Cut isn't a disaster. It's just a little long, a bit much, more hype and a bit less actual sizzle than was advertised. In its best moments - where dizzying heroics, dazzling visuals and minimal talk work together seamlessly - you can see the vision it takes to pull storytelling off on this scale. What wears the viewer down is all the rest: the needless discursions, striking levels of humorlessness, and the saggy feeling that little here feels new or fresh. (One interesting point: Whedon apparently lifted Snyder's Batman/Aquaman intro completely intact; and that sequence weighs down both films.)
So, now that we know what "The Snyder Cut" promised... where does DC go from here? Does the DCU honor the promise of Snyder's original? Or is it just a fever dream of possibilities that we'll always wonder about? Like many DC messes, the answer is probably "let's leave this here while we lurch off in an altogether new direction." Welcome newcomers! This is the life of DC fandom! You're welcome.
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