It's, uh. . . folks, it's the same movie.
Now, some good news! It's a significantly better version of the same movie, in most cases. And even at a whopping four hours, I won't lie - I had a lot of fun watching it, especially the back half. But this is still, functionally, the same structural film that released in 2017 - a beat-for-beat retread of the major plot points of 2012's The Avengers told less coherently and more stylishly and indulgently.
You can either click the link to read more about the extensive rewrites and reshoots with a different (apparently toxic and abusive) filmmaking team, or just google around. Here, originally shot for IMAX screens and now *checks notes* streaming on HBO Max, we have yet a third bite at the apple. This time with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder coming back to retool the assembly cut he'd taken with him when originally exiting the franchise, and what we are left with is a lot more establishing shots and connective tissue, a lot of subplots (some of which work and some don't) but nearly all of the same big narrative moments and set pieces and major action beats - including a horned underling with an army from space and a countdown clock to a portal of doom.
And I'm really not trying to just be a negative nelly when I say it kinda starts cooking an hour and a half in.
Guillermo del Toro talks about making monsters relatable by showing them "in repose." In other words, King Kong isn't compelling as a character (in spite of being an effect or a person in a suit or a puppet) because he fights dinosaurs, he's compelling because he sucks on his fingers when he pinches them in something. My point is that there's a whole lot of time to introduce DC's icons on the poster - Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, the Flash, Aquaman, Superman (ok, maybe nto the guys who's both invulnerable and dead) in this manner before having them get recruited during a sick "getting the team together" montage (think any heist movie, or the latter half of the Fast & Furious franchise). Show us something about the character and their stake in the world, then put their world in peril and ask them to help save it. And as much as Snyder leans heavily on All Iconic Imagery and Slow-mo Posing, All the Time. . . he manages to do this for a couple of the characters.
Making Superman's return a plot point you have to rush through to get to the big fireworks finale is a pretty bad idea, but at least Henry Cavill gets to play some recognizable and seriously strong Clark and Superman beats in the same movie. Both Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) have warring problems when it comes time for them to take an active role in the film's big set pieces. Diana has very little in the way of a character arc, or character full stop beyond "is strong and misses her boyfriend" while Bruce has lots of great character scenes learning to reach out to people again, but Snyder struggles to find anything to do with in a fight beyond "find a bigger gun." And after loving the hell out of Aquman, I'd forgotten how boring Arthur was for the first two acts of this film.
But when Victor Stone or Barry Allen take center stage, it almost becomes another movie. I run hot and cold on Ezra Miller's mumblecore comedy schtick, but the added scenes of him trying to get a job and talking with his wrongly-imprisoned father over the phone lay solid dramatic groundwork that pays off very neatly in the requisite CGI punchfest climax (culminating in what has to be a deliberate nod to Richard Donner's Superman that I loved). Ray Fisher as Cyborg is ill-served by the first half's disjointed editing, but acts his pants off walking a very difficult line between immediately relatable and unmistakably fantastical, and Snyder finds some of his best visual work in conveying the more internalized and esoteric nature of Stone's robotic powers.
What is most effective about Zack Snyder's Zack Snyder's JUSTICE LEAGUE is that it is absolutely capable of being "gonzo silver age Jack Kirby nonsense by way of the guy who directed 300" and kinda rules every time it commits to doing so (an expanded action scene on the Amazon's island of Themyscira that goes Full Heavy Metal Harryhausen being a good early example). Steppenwolf isn't much better as a villain with the new design, and it's neat to see Darkseid and the Apokalips Gang hanging out and talking Evil Plan Talk - even if their "airbrushed on the side of a van" version of Kirby's Space Shakespeare nonsense is a little underwhelming compared to, uh, other versions of similar recent characters in the medium. But when it lines things up and pays off a well-built character beat in a beautifully-framed action gag, it becomes an unmistakable archetype of what this sort of "silly superhero escapism as carved upon the pillars of the Parthenon" could be, like an Alex Ross panel come to life. There's even a genuinely solid (if familiar) denouement where it feels like a group of heroes that have reaffirmed something about themselves as well as discovering new friends, and are on the road toward being their better selves.
. . . and then the movie spends 20 minutes setting up sequels that will never happen in some of the most jarringly obvious reshoots this side of. . . the last time they released this movie.
If I sound harsh, that's because the entire tantrum thrown by "fans" to get this done over the past four years, combined with what we now know was a nightmarish workplace the first time WB tried to salvage this thing, and the frustration of a lot of talented people involved just makes me tired, but I also know I'm a hopeless mark for this. Whatever else you can say about Snyder, he was clearly pouring every bit of himself into this movie, and brings across a sense of combined mourning and hopefulness that genuinely taps into the better moments of these characters. Ones that could work far better with much tighter editing and less sequel baiting, but pretty damn rousing nonetheless.
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