Movie Review : Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
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Technically, Justice League is a film that came out in November 2017. It was so bad and messy that it almost killed Warner Brothers’ plans to cash in on their DC Comics film adaptations. Part of the reason why it sucked it that director Zack Snyder had to leave halfway through production due to his daughter’s passing and the subsequent hiring of Marvel’s Joss Whedon to “make it more fun”. The result was incoherent and incomprehensible generic blockbuster type film.
It sucked so bad that it made people forget Zack Snyder also sucks at filmmaking. Four years and a social media campaign later (#releasethesnydercut), nerds finally got what they wanted: a four hours long behemoth that I could only describe to be interestingly bad.
If you’re not already familiar with the plot to Justice League, you won’t have a lot of catching up to do. Intergalactic bad guy Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) is gathering artifacts named Mother Boxes that will allow him to invade and enslave worlds if fused together. One is in Atlantis. One is in Themyscira. One is on Earth. Seeing the writing on the wall, Batman (Ben Affleck) decides to unite superheroes in order to fight off this ancient, cosmic evil once and for all.
If that sounds exactly like the plot to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, that’s because it is. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the Wal-Mart version of these movies.
Why Zack Snyder movies suck in general
The best way I can describe the experience of watching Zack Snyder’s Justice League is that it would be like listening to Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain if Slash’s final solo took up the entire 9 minutes of the song. Everyone agrees that it’s the best part, but it wouldn’t be the cathartic release that it is without the prior emotional buildup. It’s satisfying in the context of wedding heartbreak. But Zack Snyder’s probably the type of guy to fast forward to Slash’s solo each time.
A normal film would introduce characters, goals and reason to cares about them in the first act, in order to build your emotional investment. There’s none of that here. Every scene of Zack Snyder’s Justice League is filmed with orchestral music, panning shots and slow motions that mechanically boost their significance. Snyder thought every detail of this movie to enhance its epicness. But if everything’s epic, nothing’s epic. It’s just exhaustingly normal.
Take The Flash (Ezra Miller)’s introductory scene. It doesn’t tell you anything valuable, but it shows him dramatically rescuing a young woman having a car accident. He’s extracting her from the convertible car she’s driving in slow motion while she’s flying around a sea of sausages from the hot dog stand she hit. The visual is ridiculous and the young woman doesn’t have anything to do with anything. It just introduces a superhero doing superhero stuff.
I don’t need to see what he does. It can come later. I need to know why I should give a shit about it. Storytelling 101.
Snyder’s juvenile fixation on self-seriousness and epicness is why all his movies ultimately fail. Somehow, it’s just clearer his Justice League… probably because of the leeway and the lack of interference he was given. The stakes were really low. It’s over three years after the initial failure of Justice League and any improvement over the initial mess would’ve been a win. Although Zack Snyder’s Justice League is bad, it is an improvement. It just has more interesting problems.
The problem with not telling a story
Zack Snyder’s Justice League obviously doesn’t care about retelling you the story of the theatrical version. It just wants to feel more impactful and it is. The was set pretty low. But it gets so lazy with narrative elements that it kind of borrows emotional credibility from other movies. For example, the chief of intergalatic bad guys Darkseid is really just a cheap knockoff of Marvel’s Thanos. From the head shape to the downtuned voice to his mannerism on the throne.
You don’t need to have seen Infinity War and Endgame in order to understand Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but it helps knowing why you should give a shit. Because these guys are generic space baddies. In fact, there’s very little different between Darkseid and Steppenwolf. They even have the same voice. One is subordinated to the other for some reason. What the fuck are these cheap names about too? Darkseid, DeSaad, Steppenwolf? It doesn’t help with credibility.
Who are they supposed to be? A fucking rock band?
Zack Snyder’s Justice League definitely borrows from Marvel, but it also swipes ideas from Lord of the Rings and really, REALLY relies on you already knowing and understanding who everyone is. I don’t mind when it’s Batman, Wonder Woman or anyone with an already established legacy, but how about you tell me who your fucking antagonist is instead of going for the space Sauron/Thanos kind of thing? The movie even has its own version of the ring.
One thing Zack Snyder did very well is the implementation of Superman (Henry Cavill) to the storyline. It is, by far, the character’s best moments in the DCEU. He is so ridiculously overpowered that he doesn’t need a lot of screen time in order to be dramatically effective and Snyder seemed to understand that. His utilization is night and day compared to the theatrical version of Justice League. Even in the middle of a pompous-ass movie, Superman feels super.
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In good conscience, I can’t tell you Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a good movie. It’s clearly not, but it isn’t conventionally bad either. It really suffers from too much good intentions, too little storytelling skills and a weird, almost juvenile desire to impress. It’s like for Zack Snyder, a good movie only needs to be slick and spectacular. It doesn’t need to tell an interesting story or have compelling characters. I hope it’s clear now that he's not a good director.
He’s not terrible, but he’s not good either.
5.6/10
