When Joss Whedon’s ‘Justice League’ was released in 2017 many fans were quick to compare it to his ‘Avengers Assemble’ film from 2012. It was a clear knock-off from that film from the moment that ‘Justice League’s' primary villain Steppenwolf appeared Loki-style in front of the Amazons. He ended up being very cartoonish and not threatening or intimidating at all.
The film was quickly hated by a lot of fans and resulted in what would become a long three-year battle between Warner Bros and the fans to restore the Zack Snyder version of the film.
Zack Snyder was originally hired by the studio to do what was clearly DC Comics’s equivalent of Marvel’s Avengers team but had to depart after a family tragedy. Cue in Joss Whedon making a right mess of things to make them (and Zack) look bad. Zack had only done ten percent of the original film before having to quit but the moment the fans found out about the footage months later, they wanted more of it.
Unfortunately, WB weren’t that enthusiastic at the idea even though it was clear that the footage that the fans had seen was so much better than what they had been given in 2017.
Then in 2020, WB finally announced that they were going to release the long-awaited director’s cut on the streaming service HBO Max and other streaming services world-wide. Fans everywhere rejoiced. The first trailer hit in September 2020 during the online DCFanDome event…and it was worth the wait.
There were clearly improvements right from the first view and extended scenes such as more on Cyborg’s (Ray Fisher) back-story and Henry Cavill’s Superman wearing the black Superman suit. Things looked great for the Snyder Cut.
When it was finally released on HBO Max, fans were thrilled with it and praised it. Even the critics were praising it too. I wasn’t able to experience the Snyder Cut until it came out on DVD and blue-ray in June and it was worth the wait (I don’t have NetFlix so that was the main reason why I had to wait for it).
It starts off with the death of Henry Cavill’s Superman after his battle with Doomsday on ‘Batman Vs Superman’. There is a very long extended scene in which Superman’s death-cry is heard throughout all corners or the world and also beneath the waves from Atlantis, home to Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman.
The hidden island of Themyscira- home to the Amazons and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman- also hear Superman's death cry...which activates the Mother Box that they're guarding. The group of brave women that are guarding it look cautiously at one another and one of them goes off to alert the Queen, Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen).
Sometime later, we see Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne going out to find Arthur Curry; the Aquaman. He has little luck in trying to recruit the stubborn Atlantian and leaves the ocean-side village empty-handed as Arthur swims away back to his own home underwater.
If you've seen the Joss Whedon version, it's still the same storyline but there's some differences and some extended scenes as I've said before. We also have a brief glimpse of the Justice League's well known villain Darkseid (voiced by Ray Porter); DC's version of Marvel's Thanos. Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciaran Hinds) is also improved a lot on this version as well as his design (toned down on the other version because he was considered "too scary" by WB) and voice being more intimidating than on the Whedon version.
Ezra Miller's Flash also gets more screen time and improvement and is less of a Spider-Man knock-off on this version. He too is also able to get in a few scenes in which he's not just running around and making Spider-Man-like one-liners and is actually making some effort into saving the day with the rest of his team-mates.
One of my favourite moments is the scene in which Steppenwolf faces the Amazons after when he first appears and thinks that the Amazons will fear him as other worlds had feared him before he had fallen. To which Queen Hippolyta says to her warriors "Daughters of Themyscira, show him your fear!" to which her warriors reply bravely "WE HAVE NO FEAR!". That is how you deliver a female line-up without it looking silly Marvel and Disney (I'm looking at you 'Avengers: Endgame').
Despite all the positivity that I have about the film, that doesn't mean that I don't have anything negative to say about it as well. Obviously the nearly four hour length running time is a downside to anyone who doesn't like it when films tend to drag on for too long. Then of course there's the controversial issue of Amber Heard as Mera. I'm with a lot of fans on this one; they should've either recast her or deleted her scenes altogether.
Overall, this film was worth the long wait and the fans were well rewarded with a brilliant film, despite the media and Disney trying to label fans as "entitled" just because they had wanted the real version of 'Justice League'...just like they had done when 'Sonic the Hedgehog' had came out in 2019 and the media had blasted the fans for the same reason and it had ended up doing very well too.
Sometimes with a bit of patience and listening, it's always best to listen to the fans and give them what they want. As had been shown on those two occasions the results can be very rewarding for the studio.
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