MOVIE REVIEW: Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

Zack Snyder’s Justice League should be impossible. Seriously. 

By all measures of Hollywood convention, it shouldn’t be possible to merge a popcorn blockbuster film with a serious character ensemble drama and a fanservice driven narrative, organically in a well paced form that feels shorter than the four hours and two minutes it’s listed at, and definitely not as a restoration of a previously mangled box office bomb. 

Yet here it is, right in front of us, as a piece of premium content on HBO Max. 

He did it. The crazy SOB, he did it. 

Look, it’s very easy to sit here and profess that the movie you’ve been waiting to see the light of days for the past 3.5 years now is one of the greatest things you’ve ever seen, but we’re well past that with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. This isn’t just a film that satisfies the rational core of #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, it’s a film that seriously raises the bar for comic book movie adaptations from here on out. 

Obviously the restoration aspect is notable. The fact that this is the culmination of Zack Snyder’s original vision for what Justice League was supposed to be in his 5-film arc that began with Man of Steel. The thing is, if you watch this film all the way through and you remember enough from the 2017 version that was altered and reshot by Joss Whedon, you find yourself asking most of the movie why a restoration was even necessary. Indeed, the vast bulk of this film was shot five years ago, during principle photography that ended in November 2016. 

So why didn’t we see THIS? Why were we instead shown clumsy one-liners, badly lit reshoots and an ultimately Frankensteined film that fooled no one, including the general audience? That’s the biggest question of the day here. 

It was reported years ago that WB executives called this version of the film “unwatchable.” I would bet money that not even a legally blind person would say that about Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Not joking. 

There is nothing about this film that isn’t a vast improvement over the 2017 disaster. NOTHING. Every re-appropriated shot, every added piece of dialogue, every reconstituted action sequence, every editing choice, and every bar of Tom Holkenborg’s utterly impeccable score is all we should have ever seen from the first live action Justice League movie in the DC Extended Universe. 

Again, this isn’t a question of fan service or self-fulfilling prophecy. This is looking at the film’s aesthetics on their own subjective merit. The 2017 film was too fast, eliminated too much necessary exposition, severed curtailed or completely destroyed entire character arcs and ultimately was only interested in being one thin popcorn film that was ultimately forgettable and easily dismissed.

There’s no forgetting or dismissing the level of character depth, grandiose scale or emotional heart that this film has. It’s truly unmistakable, and what is staggering is how organic all of it is from start to finish. At no point does the film feel bogged down, dragging or out of place with any of its elements. It manages to blend the deeply emotional and interwoven characters dynamics of the Justice League members and those of the supporting cast, along with the scope and scale of a comic book film that truly stretches across the entire landscape of Earth, and still has enough humor and largely accessible moments for the uninitiated general audience to enjoy. 

That’s what is most maddening again about Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the fact that it represents what the film could have been in 2017 had WB not knee jerked and changed course over the litany of bad reviews for BvS. Indeed, what most of those negative reviewers were looking for in that film is all over this one, yet it doesn’t sacrifice storytelling depth or character building just to make it hopeful and optimistic. It strives to do both at the same and does it without breaking a sweat over the 4 hour runtime. 

Speaking of that runtime and why it doesn’t feel like it: that’s a testament to its structure. The seven parts that it is divided into truly act and play out like episodes of a TV series, which this absolutely could have worked very well as. It’s an ingenious setup that gives the audience the sense of accomplishment and ease of binging in a mental sense, while still keeping the film contained as one huge story with so many layers at every turn. 

You’ve seen it on social media: Cyborg is the heart of this film, no question. Ray Fisher’s turn as Victor Stone is the emotional glue of the entire movie and following his tragic and tortured arc to see how he deals with it is the most enriching part of the film…...but it’s not the only one. 

Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen is given his ultimate due, playing the cinematic version of a hero we’ve seen on screen multiple times, but never like this. It’s easy to call him the comic relief, but some of his more powerful and emotionally loaded feats of strength and resilience are the best moments for him in this movie. 

Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, are as strong as they’ve always been and are now reinforced by how they were really intended to be portrayed in this story. That doesn’t just mean better lines, it means stronger chemistry and if we’re talking about the chemistry of this group as a whole, it’s phenomenal. Nothing is forced about the relationships between anyone involved, they all have their own personal motivations for being a part of this team and it’s arguably the most organic team-up effort we’ve seen in live action comic book films.

Henry Cavill IS Superman. This better not be the last time we see him on screen as such, but if it is, he had an incredible run that was way too short and it will be a travesty if he can’t continue it.  

The villains. Zod-level. Certainly in Steppenwolf’s case. Michael Shannon’s Zod from Man of Steel is still the better, but Ciaran Hinds gives this odd air of vulnerability and pity that you really don’t mean to have for the leader of a genocidal Parademon army, but you kind of do at times in the film, which is a true testament to him not being a one-note, plot device villain. In fact, the triumvirate of Steppenwolf, Desaad voiced by Peter Guinness and the Lord of Apokolips, Darkseid, voiced expertly by Ray Porter, is an absolute triumph of comic book film villainy in terms of story, depth and presentation. The VFX overall is absolutely on point in the whole film and most of those moments are close ups on the villains, done impeccably well. 

Without spoiling things, I want to give great respect to the entire supporting cast of this film. These are mostly great character actors like Connie Nielsen, Joe Morton, Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Jared Leto and so many others, but they all play such a strong role in supporting the overall narrative at the times they need to, and it’s also a great chance to highlight the work of Ryan Cheng as Dr. Ryan Choi and C. Amanda Maud in smaller character roles that again, serve to truly make this film a “real movie” and not just a paper thin, one-note summer blockbuster type of comic book movie. 

I mentioned Holkenborg’s score before and I’ll mention it again. Spectacular. How a comic book epic of this scope and scale should sound, from start to finish. It was as much an important character to the film as anyone else was, which is how great scores should be. 

There’s so much else to unpack and really process with Zack Snyder’s Justice League on a spoilery level and on other social levels as well with respect to themes in the film itself and the structure of Hollywood’s operation, but for the purposes of this review, which admittedly is a direct contradiction of anything I said about the 2017 film when I was still delusional about what it was, I’ll just leave as this will be a film and a process that we talk about as fans for years to come and how much this exceptional piece of work has impacted so many people and fans alike. 

You only hope that WarnerMedia and WB are now smart enough to see the potential for more of it. Much more.