So like many fans today, I spent quite a bit of time watching Justice League. So here is my reaction to Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
When Is A Movie Not A Movie?
The question most fans probably want to know, is it better than the theatrical version. The answer is a simple yes, for a start there are no Cavill facial contortions to account for that mustache. Surely that would be improvement alone? Overall though, this version of Justice League really doesn’t feel like a movie, it’s just far too long for that and there is no way this would have sold well at the box office sitting at such an epic runtime. However, if you imagine Zack Snyder’s Justice League as a 7-part high budget streaming show, it works.
Snyder would have had to make some difficult editing decisions to get this bad boy into theatres. Or, split the movie into a two-parter. Though, I have to say the narrative wouldn’t really work as a two-part movie for me either. Truth is, streaming in an almost episodic format is the best way to consume this version of the movie. There are lulls in this four hour runtime which wouldn’t work in a movie as an event movie. However as show, primarily targeting an adult audience, I have little complaint.
When It’s A TV Show!
Most of the issues I had with Zack Snyder’s Justice League were similar issues I had with the theatrical version. However my reaction to the movie version was that it felt like a live-action animated film made for kids. All subtlety, or character motivation was stripped out in favor of moving the plot along. Those issues at least have been fixed here and each character is given some time to shine and develop. I can’t stress enough how much better Cyborg and Flash are here compared to the theatrical version. It’s night and day, and yet most of the issues here are only fixed by having such a huge run time.
The evidence still points towards DC making a mistake in moving too quickly into Justice League. If like Marvel we had had a Flash film, and a Batman film first, you’d probably shave off 30 minutes right away here. What I will concede, is that there was no need for Cyborg to be introduced outside this movie, this was really the perfect place for that character to first show up. Equally I feel like Aquaman coming after Justice League was right as well, but we really should have had Flash and a solo Batman outing. In fact, Batman should have been there before BvS was released.
Criticisms
There were some other niggles I had. The black suit Superman wears seems to be because he picked it out a Kryptonian closet. It makes no sense to me other than Zack Snyder doesn’t like too much color in his films. The characters are all so uninteresting visually as a result when together. I just feel like if you are going to use the suit, give the reason why he is wearing this and not his normal get up. That did not work for me. However on the whole Superman did, there were one or two moments from Superman I absolutely adored, and these were not the same as the theatrical version.
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My main gripe though was the inclusion of Jared Leto’s Joker in the epilogue. It just doesn’t work for me, and I feel no better about Leto as Joker than I did after watching Suicide Squad. I could say the same for Lex Luthor, however thankfully we really don’t see much of the bald one here.
Realistically the scene from the future could have been cut and left for a future sequel. From what Cyborg see’s and what we the audience know, it’s clear there is more to come. I just don’t think we needed that scene, and where it sits within the epilogue was weird placement. It should have been the last thing, after a fade to black or not used at all. It would also have worked better to say ‘4 Years Later’ and then show this scene as it takes us from the happy ending and lets us know it won’t be all plain sailing. Yet, with how long it was, I felt it was too much. A short under 2 minutes stinger with less characters would have done the same job far more concisely
Overall though I didn’t think I’d like Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and I actually did. Anyone else seen it yet? What did you think of my reaction to Zack Snyder’s Justice League? Leave any thoughts you have below, and remember LRM are doing a live reaction video featuring many of our contributors discussing their reactions to the movie later, so come back for that.
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