2017 feels like it happened way further in the past than it actually did, but it was only four years ago we got our first superhero team movie from the Distinguished Competition as Stan Lee liked to call them - Justice League.
I didn't hate the movie - in fact, I felt significantly more fondness for it than for its predecessor Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I thought Joss Whedon, brought on to finish the movie after Zack Snyder's adult daughter died by suicide during production, did pretty well for the movie world's version of a relief pitcher. I liked Whedon's attempt to humanize the characters, bring a little levity to the proceedings and add some rescue elements so that every setpiece wasn't just about fighting bad guys.
Boy, a lot has changed in four years, huh?
Recent revelations have pretty much destroyed Joss Whedon's reputation as a decent human, let alone cinematic comic visionary, there hasn't been a superhero release at the theatres in well over a year now, and HBO apparently gave original director something like $71M to finish making his version of the Justice League film, complete with reshoots, and are showing it on their streaming platform HBO Max (and Crave here in Canada).
I went into this viewing (at home, with Glory, while eating teriyaki chicken bowls and tempura from Tokyo Express) with a fair amount of trepidation. Snyder's grim, dull, and unnecessarily mature versions of Batman and Superman - characters, I feel obliged to mention, originally intended for young folk - never really resonated with me. As much as I enjoy his visual style, Snyder's disdain for "regular" comics (not enough sex or killing, by his own admission) asserts itself repeatedly in his other DCEU adaptations.
But a lot of fanboy clamouring about "release the Snyder cut" (which didn't actually exist, per se, until he recently made it) along with Cyborg actor Ray Fisher's assertions that Whedon was a bad person and also not a very good director got me curious enough to spend four hours checking out Snyder's version.
What did I think?
Well, it is far, far too long - but it is also a much, much better film.
It is much more tonally consistent, and though still very dark in places, it makes all the heroes look, well, heroic, and not necessarily ruthless, which I appreciate. The villain is far more fleshed out, the teasing glimpses of his superiors on Apokolips are well-handled, and the jokey bits are much more restrained - maybe too much, but YMMV.
Most importantly, newer characters Flash and Cyborg are given much more expansive backstories and opportunities to shine. I am really hoping that Ray Fisher gets another crack at playing Vic Stone in a solo film, and Ezra Miller's Barry Allen is an awkward, cringe-y delight. More screentime for Victor's father, Silas (played by Joe Morton - T2's Miles Dyson), was welcome as well, and underscored the tragedy of their estrangement.
A couple of rescue scenes are handled by individual characters and not the team, but adding one line about Steppenwolf's base being in an abandoned city removed any trepidations I had about the final set-piece.
It all still feels a bit too ponderous for me, and some of that is due to the oppressive four-hour running time, but the whole effort would probably feel a bit more briskly paced if fully 10 per cent of the film wasn't shot in slow motion.
There are some scenes that truly call for this treatment - pretty much any scene of the Flash using his powers where you want to actually see them, for instance, and scenes so full of action they would be incomprehensible at regular speed. But Lois Lane walking through the rain to Superman's memorial? We get it Zack - she is sad. Move along, please.
Likewise, I shared my friend Earl's indignation at undermining another character's tender, honest moment in order to introduce a character completely unneeded and irrelevant to this story. And without a direct sequel coming for this iteration of the JL, I really had a hard time seeing the point of it.
I am also grateful that Snyder got a chance to complete his vision for this movie, complete with retrospective changes, but I am even more glad that he is moving away from superhero movies. His next movie, a zombie-heist film called Army of the Dead looks very cool to me.
At the end of the day, is Justice League-The Snyder Cut worth seeing? That is a tricky question to answer. The Snyder Cut is by no means a superhero film for people who don't like superhero films. And despite most of us spending a lot of our time cooped up indoors, four hours feels like a lot to ask of a casual fan. Non-casual fans? Come on now, you've already seen it and you enjoyed the black Superman suit as much as I did.
But if you have the time and a bit of patience, and like the idea of these legendary heroes not only being larger-than-life but truly mythological in scope, facing a threat of Apokoliptic proportions, well, Snyder has made a movie that feels as operatic as it does adrenaline-fuelled.
Most importantly, if you have as much fondness for some of these characters, these icons of pop culture with us for the better part of a century, then I suspect you will find the time well-spent.
But don't make a drinking game out of the slow-motion or you won't get very far.
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