Zack Snyder's JUSTICE LEAGUE on HBO Max (3/18/21) 4 4

[Bosco685]

The Guardian

Zack Snyder's Justice League review – four hours of geek-pleasing grandeur

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Overall Rating: 4.0/5 stars

 

It started as a hashtag: a cheekily insurgent social-media campaign against big media corporations who presume to tell superhero devotees what’s good for them. Enraged by DC’s lacklustre Justice League movie in 2017 – which director Zack Snyder had to abandon during postproduction after a family tragedy, and which an uncredited Joss Whedon re-shot and re-edited – the fans took to Twitter demanding that DC Films #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. Like the GameStop share price, hopes soared. But so did cynical suspicions that a pristine “cut” would eventually be fabricated to cash in on customer excitement.

 

The Welles cut of The Magnificent Ambersons and the Von Stroheim cut of Greed are still not with us, but the Snyder cut of Justice League is, with a new chiaroscuro look, new backstories, new minor characters and a new, disturbing ending. Its sheer colossal size, its sepulchral feeling of doom and its trance-like sense of its own mythic grandeur make it weirdly entertaining, although the familiar superhero-movie MacGuffins are there, and the film needs to absorb the slightly uncharismatic performance of Henry Cavill, an actor who perhaps does not soar to the standards of superness, and is better off playing a character called, simply, Man, with an M on his chest and who has to walk everywhere. Did Snyder really intend the original film to last four hours? Well, this one does: an epic so splurgingly huge that you can see how it might have been purposed as four streaming episodes. Yet its dramatic and theological craziness only really come across when you consume it all at once.

 

You can see from a mile away where it is all going – or rather from three hours and 55 minutes away – and for me, the Justice League still does not have the colour, flair, snap and zap of the Avengers in the MCU; it comes to life most in the regular cityscape settings that it seems keen to avoid. But there is something absorbing about this operatically strange twilight-of-the-superhero-gods that might yet turn out to be daybreak.

 

The film has something preposterous but surreal, and there is a disturbing epilogue in which Wayne is confronted by his personal demons. Snyder’s film may be exhausting but it is engaging. Justice is served.

 

[Bosco685]

 

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[Bosco685]

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"Zack Snyder's Justice League" -- which some refer to as the "Snyder Cut" -- has achieved a historic victory for artistic integrity.

At face value, the film, releasing this week on HBO Max (with whom CNN shares its parent company, WarnerMedia), gives audiences a brand-new movie about their favorite DC superheroes. Dig a little deeper, and you find a testament to directorial freedom. That said, what is artistic integrity in an industry fueled by the bottom line? When does a film turn from director-friendly to committee-driven?

The story of "Justice League" sheds new light on these questions, changing the way we understand filmmaking freedom.

A director's cut is the version of a movie that best matches the filmmaker's original vision. This cut is one of many created by a studio before a final cut is released for public consumption. On rare occasions, the director's cut is also released to the public, usually several years after the original. Outside of a handful of popular directors' cuts like "Blade Runner" or "Kingdom of Heaven," most fall by the wayside in terms of consumer interest. "Justice League" stands apart here. The film sparked a worldwide movement to release the director's original vision, changing the way audiences interact with film.

It is the antithesis of artistic integrity and director freedom. The highly-publicized behind-the-scenes stories of the film's production, something rarely available to general audiences, was now a click away.

Coming off of 2016's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," director Zack Snyder immediately began shooting "Justice League." Poor critical reception and mixed responses from the general audience had the studio on its heels at the time. After wrapping principal photography, Snyder says he showed executives a rough cut of his film, where it was reported that WB brass disliked his "Justice League." Re-shoots were ordered by the studio and director Joss Whedon was brought in reportedly to add humor to a -script written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Chris Terrio.

 

Does artistic integrity stop with the director's vision? For "Justice League," actors had chunks of their performance taken out of the film, others removed entirely. "Zack Snyder's Justice League" is more than a traditional director's cut, and it changes the standard that studios must hold themselves to moving forward. Filmmaking and artistic integrity go hand-in-hand. Every director, writer, actor, cinematographer, composer, photographer, and production member is an artist.

There will always be a natural tug-of-war between artist and corporation, a mixture of ideas in the final product. The inequity arises when that tug-of-war becomes too one-sided. Enter the Snyder Cut movement to redeem the sense of balance so many have been yearning for.

The Snyder Cut is exceedingly rare, in that -- thanks in large part to the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut hashtag -- it's a film that went viral before it was ever released.

No, this was not the result of bots. On the contrary, the movement was a worldwide group of consumers, essentially picking up the rope of a tug-of-war game the studio felt they won in 2017. In May of 2020, HBO Max announced it will release "Zack Snyder's Justice League" on its streaming platform.

 

Fans will now be treated to four hours of "Zack Snyder's Justice League," complete with sequences featuring DC characters like Darkseid, Jared Leto's Joker, and Martian Manhunter. All of that, plus Junkie XL's complete 54-track score to set the tone.

The figurative rope from that tug-of-war game is now being held by paying customers, fans, actors, directors, reporters, and even curious onlookers. Through a collective stand, Justice League could lead to a culture where film audiences care for artistic integrity.

The conversation around the director's cuts will go on. The tug-of-war between artist and corporation will continue. But, the power of the consumer might be found in future negotiating rooms as the balance of artistic integrity. An ending that can rival any superhero movie.

CNN

[Old_Man_Adam]

1 hour ago, Bosco685 said:

 

Glad to see all these positive reviews , I was certain the critics would kill it either way - but what I’m interested in is the option of people who enjoy comic books , because that is what’s relevant to me 

[Bosco685]

54 minutes ago, Old_Man_Adam said:

Glad to see all these positive reviews , I was certain the critics would kill it either way - but what I’m interested in is the option of people who enjoy comic books , because that is what’s relevant to me 

Amen to that!

[Bosco685]

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It takes an extraordinarily diverse skill set to direct a great comic-book movie. You’ve got to be a visual-effects wizard; a maestro of story and pace; a popcorn humanist who can find the relatable dimension of a bunch of freaks in capes and breastplates and spandex; and enough of an artist to tie the whole thing together into an indelible Big Vision. It’s no wonder that in the years since Hollywood got eaten alive by comic-book culture, the superhero movies that have achieved a genuine sweeping transcendence can just about be counted on one hand: “The Dark Knight,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Black Panther,” a few others.

 

To that hallowed list I would now add “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” the thrillingly restored four-hour-long director’s-cut version of the 2017 DC Comics extravaganza. The new movie — and make no mistake, it really is a new movie — is more than a vindication of Snyder’s original vision. It’s a grand, nimble, and immersive entertainment, a team-of-heroes origin story that, at heart, is classically conventional, yet it’s now told with such an intoxicating childlike sincerity and ominous fairy-tale wonder that it takes you back to what comic books, at their best, have always sought to do: make you feel like you’re seeing gods at play on Earth.

 

It was online fans who first dubbed this project “the Snyder cut.” In March 2017, Snyder, after creative conflicts with the studio (and the suicide of his daughter), walked away from the film and saw it handed over to Joss Whedon, who rewrote and reshot more than half of it. In the minds of the Warner Bros. executives, still reeling from the bumpy launch of their DC multiverse, Snyder’s version was too long and too dark. Whedon chopped out the backstory, and a fair amount of the front story, swapping in jokes and glib patter and a kind of brightly lit gee-whiz aura. In other words, he churned out a hastily shot “audience friendly” version of “Justice League,” synced to the processed beats of corporate storytelling, that wound up pleasing next to no one.

 

The new “Justice League” exudes a majestic sense of cosmic historical evil. Its tone is less reminiscent of other DC or Marvel movies than of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The camaraderie among the superheroes is vastly deepened — with the cheeseball wisecracks excised, they develop a moving affinity for each other. In one of many examples of how sharpened Snyder’s filmmaking is, Ezra Miller’s Flash is introduced with far wittier dialogue than anything Joss Whedon came up with, followed by a mesmerizing bullet-time sequence in which he saves a young woman from a car accident — an episode that beautifully sets up the hidden empathy of his speed-of-light character. Gal Gadot’s Diana has the stalwart but tensely trepidatious presence that got fumbled in “Wonder Woman 1984,” Ray Fisher’s Cyborg has acquired the resonance of a half-machine Hamlet, and Ben Affleck’s Batman is like a different character: With all that Ben-friendly banter gone, he embraces the gruff-voiced, dread-tinged, sinister Bruce with sterling command.

 

Beyond that, this has to be one of the most visually spellbinding comic-book movies ever made. The clashing battles never give you that weary, here’s-some-more-CGI feeling, because they’ve been staged with a supreme conviction that’s more “Seven Samurai” than super invincible. Ciarán Hinds’ Steppenwolf, with his horns of evil, is still the prime antagonist, but while he seemed a trifle effete in the 2017 version, here he has been reimagined as a splendid hulk covered in gleaming herringbone platelets that bristle with his emotion, and he’s also a disgraced assassin who will stoop to the unspeakable. “Justice League” ends with what may be the best post-comic-book-movie teaser ever, as Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor and then Jared Leto’s Joker hold court in twin lectures of doom that make you hungry to see the movies they promise. It’s not just that these characters are back. So is the thing that too many comic-book films have destroyed: the sensation that something’s at stake.

 

[Bosco685]

Collider Review Overall 4.0/5

Shocking as they are usually mediocre with DC films many times

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I haven’t messed around with the RT site much even though many swear by it. My thoughts trump their top critics. But I was curious what critics thought about Snyder and wow. Watchmen and 300 are in the 60’s. Man of Steel in the 50’s. And those are his highest rated works. That tells me all I really need to know. Watchmen should be in the 90’s and MOS should be high 80’s. So with JL in the 70’s right now, I think I’m going to be blown away.

[Bosco685]

[Old_Man_Adam]

6 minutes ago, Oddball said:

I haven’t messed around with the RT site much even though many swear by it. My thoughts trump their top critics. But I was curious what critics thought about Snyder and wow. Watchmen and 300 are in the 60’s. Man of Steel in the 50’s. And those are his highest rated works. That tells me all I really need to know. Watchmen should be in the 90’s and MOS should be high 80’s. So with JL in the 70’s right now, I think I’m going to be blown away.

Good points , I shudder to think what they have Dawn of the Dead - as a Romero purist , I still loved that movie almost entirely ...

Spoiler

( minus the zom-baby of course )

 

[Bosco685]

Supposedly the Third Act is the strongest part of the story. And that's a super spot to hit the mark in a comic book movie.

[Bosco685]

This reviewer has trashed some of the modern DC live films.

Not today! 

Overall Rating: The biggest thing ever seen in a DC movie - ever. His new favorite DCEU movie. 82% final rating.

[bentbryan]

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100 reviews so far.

75 fresh, 25 rotten.

RT score 75%

Not that it matters at all. I’ll be watching in a couple of days and i believe it will be grand.

[Bosco685]

Overall Score: 9.0/10 - not sure how WB Studios is going to ignore the continued fan sequel demands