Film of the Week: Zack Snyder's Justice League

After numerous rumours and being told that the director’s cut doesn’t exist, it’s finally available for us to watch and enjoy, and it is a monster of a movie, clocking at an impressive 4-hours and 2-minutes. That’s 2-hours longer than the theatrical version of Justice League, but 9-minutes shorter than the director’s cut of The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King, so if you’re a fan of the latter film, then you’d be used to sitting down for 4 entire hours. But the question we have on our lips is: Is it worth it?

Let’s be completely honest and state that the 2017 version of Justice League was Joss Whedon’s film. Zack Snyder may have received overall credit, but it was Mr Whedon which shaped the film into what we got, and that final cut was the reason why fans started campaigning for the Snyder Cut. Joss’ version was made infamous mainly because of Henry Cavill’s CGI’d mouth, a factor which I’m pleased to note does not make an appearance in the Snyder Cut. What was the ultimate nail in the 2017’s Justice League was the vast differences in styles between Zack and Joss. Zack Snyder tells a story via visuals, whereas Joss Whedon relies on dialogue to progress the story, and trying to blend the two together for the theatrical version did not work, and we ended up with a total mess.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is far and away better than that of the 2017 version. The characterisation has vastly improved, the way Snyder utilised his visuals to tell one epic story really did keep me gripped. I would understand if you are hesitant at taking up 4-hours of your day because the hype may have set you up for something much bigger - and I was a little worried myself that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I am pleased to state that I did. I live with a dog, and it does not understand that I am watching a film, so when he has to go out to do his business, he has to go, and so I did have to pause it halfway through to take him for a walk around our area, but upon coming back and resuming watching the film, I was sucked right back into the story and the visuals. It did not matter to me that the film was 4-hours long.

It was evident from the beginning that Zack had poured a lot of time and effort, with passion, into making this film the best it can possibly be, and later hearing that he did all of that without a paycheck proves he really wanted to make the 2017 version the best it could possibly be. Unfortunately, studio interference and personal troubles got in the way, so following the campaign and seeing the total amount of love for this film goes to show that sometimes, the studio needs to back away and let the filmmakers take control.

Is it the most perfect film? No, but it’s the best it can possibly be, and that’s good enough for me. It fixed a great deal that was wrong with the theatrical version, and re-edited bits and pieces, and the final, director’s version is not just a film, but a passion project.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)