 First, let's just hit rewind for a moment and go back to 2017's original cut. You can see right here for yourself that it was a DC I actually enjoyed at the time. As time passed by, however, I managed to get completely sidetracked by everything Marvel was doing. By the time of 'JL's release, we Marvel fan-boys had reached 'Thor: Ragnarok', and the immense deal that would be 'Black Panther' was on the horizon. Speaking for myself, I expected to be let down as I was with 'Batman v Superman', and for that matter, 'Man of Steel'. However, I had fun with it, but perhaps because I chose to rather than think thoughts like "here we go again".
Thus, the whole "#releasethesnydercut" thing that DC fans have been fighting with for years now was not a bandwagon that I ended up jumping on. I was actually somewhat satisfied with the original cut, and would tend to respond in true cinema-snob fashion - "It's just more Zack Snyder. Why is that a good thing all of a sudden?". Truth be told I've always found him kind of hit or miss, but my response would suggest I wasn't giving him a proper chance to hit. I had to finally take into consideration certain things like studio interference and tweaking, and above all else, the fact that I WANT to see more films where studios give its director full reign. So, I decided I wasn't being fair, and gave it a chance. For those unfamiliar with the plot/extended plot, here's a refresher. Centuries ago, a being named Darkseid (Ray Porter), with the combined energy of three "Mother Boxes", attempted to take over the world. In a flashback sequence, we see a massive battle fought between an alliance of Amazons, Atlanteans, Lanterns (at least one) and other humans going up against Darkseid and his Parademon army. Earth wins, and the Mother Boxes are separated and hidden around the world. As the film opens, we see where they end up; one in Themyscira, one in Atlantis and one in Cyborg's closet (don't worry, we find out why). One by one they are triggered by Superman's (Henry Cavill) final screams in death (from the end of 'Batman v Superman'), which send a sort of shockwave across the globe. One of Darkseid's servants, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), finds out about the reactivation of the Mother Boxes, and heads to Earth. He intends to invade and collect the boxes in an effort to regain Darkseid's favor. With the boxes, he will be able to terraform a new Earth in the image of their home world of Apokolips. Learning that there may be danger on the way, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) seeks the help of a handful of superheroes that include Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) to battle what's coming. The problem is, what's coming may very well have only been held at bay because Superman was still alive to protect the planet. All in all, it's the same idea as the first but with so much more depth. The first thing that might come to mind is the length of the film, running at a full 4 hours. What I delighted in, however, was that the film was split into six chapters and an epilogue. One could just as easily slow-burn this movie in sittings or watch it like its a miniseries, using the chapters as cut-off points if you need to break for a meal or something. So its length isn't something I feel I can totally criticize, but I will nitpick about the overuse of slow-mo in this that could easily cut a bit out of it. Superman's dying sequence is about 7 minutes long when it's all done, and that shows us the activation of the boxes and where they are located. Sometimes, however, the slow-mo could be good. I appreciated the use of it when the film showed us things like Flash saving a woman from a near-fatal crash so casually, or perhaps to even establish certain moods for certain moments. But like with most of Snyder's films, there's also a lot of it just unnecessarily there. Thankfully, however, he doesn't use it for everything here. Plenty of action sequences are fast-paced when they need to be, and on the whole, everything looks pretty amazing. Add to that a lot of DC catch-up fan service that can only fit into a 4-hour long movie, like the introduction of a certain Martian. I say that like it's a negative, but I mean it when I say it's a positive. It all seems to be attached to something Snyder wants for the DC universe that may not come to pass... but you never say never with this kind of stuff. By the end of it all, despite a few lingering criticisms, I was actually impressed. I wasn't quite as excited about it as others seem to be, but that's all just in the fact that I've always been a heavier Marvel guy than a DC guy - even before any of these cinematic universes. 'Batman' was about all I was ever into when it came to DC, whereas I grew up with 'Spider-Man' and 'X-Men' more on the comic book side of it. So a DC movie is fun for me to check out, but I'll never be as invested in them as I am with Marvel. Having said that, I can't really deny that once things got going, I did find myself far more interested this time than last time. We have more character background and development this time around, which was missing more than I initially considered the first time around - Cyborg perhaps being the best example. I'm very happy that Snyder got to see his vision for this through, and further dedicate it to his late daughter, Autumn. When you see that sort of dedication float across the screen, you think something like "screw my opinion, this is for her". Her passing was what initially made Snyder step away the first time around and have Joss Whedon finish it. Me, being a Whedon fan as it was, perhaps gave the previous film a little more credit than it deserved, thinking things like "well, Whedon's better anyway". I said I'd eat my words, and eat my words, I did. When you get right down to it, the Snyder cut, while significantly longer, is still far superior. Snyder's direction does the job of taking us into that dark DC world here more than he ever has before, and nothing but the slow-mo style really got under my skin. This is a dark, DC comic book brought to life on screen more than it ever has been. I don't know what's gonna happen for DC or what they have planned for the future (other than upcoming 'Suicide Squad' and 'Batman' movies) but I'd love to see things play through to where they can become the Pepsi to Marvel's Coke - perhaps second-fiddle, but an incredibly worthy second-fiddle. If producers can pay attention to what this film did for its fans, it would be a great first step! Why not just hit rewind a little bit and use this as the jumping off point for more DC movies in this universe. Perhaps a redo of 'Green Lantern'? Time will tell. Until then, if you have Crave/HBO Max and love your DC material, then you really should check it out (multiple sittings if necessary, but it's pretty worth it) 4/5
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