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Review: Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
I’d heard good things about this movie and after having watched, I think I can agree that the Snyder cut was the superior Justice League media. I say media because I struggle to call this a movie. It felt more like a miniseries than a movie. So this movie was decent, but allot a lot of time for it.
I’d watched the original Justice League movie years ago and I went back to my notes to see what I’d thought about the movie at the time. I think I’d found it choppy and a little trying too hard to be a Marvel movie. Knowing what I know now, that makes sense. The movie was likely always intended to be more in line with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. When he’d left Justice League the first time, Joss Whedon was hired to complete the film, Joss Whedon of MCU fame. Zack Snyder’s Justice League felt a lot more natural.
Spoilers.
Story
As I said, this movie felt more like a miniseries. I think movies that are good but long tend to feel that way because there are natural and logical progressions in the story, but they just take a long time to get to. In the case of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (that I will abbreviate as ZSJL from now on), there were title cards to indicate stages of the story.
The story was pretty typical of an ensemble superhero movie. A villain had come to earth and they had to band together to defeat them. It did also have some of the flaws of typical superhero movies, in that something that had never been mentioned before (the Mother Boxes) were presented with an artificial level of significance. We’d never heard of them, and you’re telling us that all beings on earth were focused on securing them?
This movie did a much better job of showing us the recruitment of these heroes. In my write up for the original Justice League (that I will abbreviate as JL from now on), I’d said that it just felt like the Justice League decided to be together. While the reasoning wasn’t particularly solid in this film either, there was more time spent into actually convincing them, by showing us who the characters were and why they’d have reasons to want to be heroes. This would have been especially important for Barry Allen and Victor Stone. At the time of JL’s release, the first Aquaman movie hadn’t been released yet, so we would have required more introduction for him. Funnily enough, for ZSJL, we would have already had an Aquaman movie, so not as much introduction would have been required for Aquaman. But for people who have not been keeping up with any DCEU lore, all characters other than Victor and Barry would have been a bit confusing.
I felt that the teamwork in this movie was pretty good. At no point did I really feel that any character was the main character. They all had different roles that I felt were utilized. That’s not to say that the leaders aren’t clear (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), but Aquaman, and especially the Flash and Cyborg were crucial to the plot.
I think I was annoyed with Lois Lane’s part in JL. In ZSJL, I was much more appreciative of Lois Lane and Ma Kent’s roles in the story. Superman didn’t come to his senses with the power of love. Rather, I felt that Lois Lane just helped Superman calm down, while he regained his senses. They kind of welcomed him back to earth before he was thrusted back into action.
I think the movie did fall off a bit at the end, after Steppenwolf was defeated. We had two main scenes, one was about Lex Luthor’s recruitment of Slade Wilson, and the other was about a dream that Bruce Wayne had about a dystopian future, after which Martian Manhunter gave him a visit. These two scenes would probably normally have been presented as post-credits scenes, as they introduced a lot of new characters, including Lex Luthor, Slade Wilson, and Joker. These scenes were definitely setting up for the sequels, which I believe are probably not going to come.
One thing I’d disliked about JL was the quippiness of the dialogue, leading to there not being much dialogue at all. I never felt like the characters were actually having conversations with each other. They were just making jokes at each other. There were also cringey jokes in JL. The dialogue in ZSJL was much better. While the conversations were still short, there was a lot more substance. Our joke characters made jokes, but that was always a secondary characteristic. Everyone was focused on planning and accomplishing the task at hand.
Overall, the story for ZSJL flowed much better and was just on the whole much more enjoyable.
Production
I did think the action started off on a weird note, mostly because I wasn’t used to the style of action in Wonder Woman’s introduction fight. It felt very fantastical and cartoonish. However, I think that was the only questionable scene for me. Otherwise, I did find myself excited for the fight scenes, especially since a lot of them involved teamwork and synergy among the Justice League.
The acting was fine. I’m not expecting anything crazy from a superhero movie. The dialogue was deeper in ZSJL so I felt that the actors had more space to be their characters, rather than just joke machines.
I do wish the movie was a little more colourful. DCEU, especially since Henry Cavill took on the Superman role, has always felt a little gray to me. I’d love if the movie was a little less gray.
The music choices were kind of random. Nothing really stood out to me except for the Wonder Woman theme that played when Wonder Woman was fighting. There were some symphonic piece played during various parts of the movie that felt a little generic if I’m being honest.
Characters
Bruce Wayne/Batman
Batman was one of the two unofficial leaders of this Justice League. He seemed less of a meme in this movie, though I could say that for pretty much every character. That being said, he wasn’t particularly memorable as a character. He was more of a plot device to get the Justice League together, and to give them their direction. I felt that he was most like an actual character in his interactions with Alfred.
He was definitely intended to continue being the leader in future Justice League movies, seeing as how much spotlight he got in the last two scenes. Slade Wilson was interested in taking down Batman. The enmity between Batman and Joker was expanded, and the deaths of Jason Todd and Harley Quinn were mentioned. And lastly, Martian Manhunter had come to Bruce Wayne, probably recognizing him as the leader of the Justice League.
But overall, in the Justice League movies, Batman was more of a character who was there because he needed to be, rather than a man with feelings.
Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman was the other unofficial leader of the Justice League. While Batman was more practical, Wonder Woman was meant to be more sympathetic, which was logical. When Batman recruited the Flash it was more of a matter of formality as the Flash was very eager. However, Wonder Woman had to get to know who Cyborg was, know his story, sympathize with him, and then let him understand how the Justice League could stop something like that from happening again.
In terms of the fighting, Wonder Woman was the main muscle, as Superman was MIA for much of the movie. Her fighting style was pretty fun to watch I must admit, and the movie definitely took advantage of the various powers that we know her to have.
Clark Kent/Superman
This movie is going to be confusing to a lot of people who aren’t too aware of the DCEU canon, because Superman was DEAD before this movie. He was revived in order to help with stopping Steppenwolf. While his rebirth caused some chaos, he eventually came to his senses.
He only assisted in fighting in the very final battle with Steppenwolf. Funnily enough, I felt like he had more screentime dedicated to his personal story rather than his time with the Justice League. After coming back to life, he realized he had to take advantage, and he proposed to Lois. By the end of the movie, Bruce Wayne had helped his mom keep her house and I presume Clark was going to live a happy life with Lois, either there in the country or back in the city.
Arthur Curry/Aquaman
It’s interesting how much of a boost Aquaman got after having a movie. What I mean by a boost is that in JL, I thought he was just a filler. We barely knew anything about him, and we knew he was just inserted there for hype for his upcoming eponymous movie. In ZSJL, he’s still kind of a filler, but his presence is so much clearer. I know who he is because I’ve seen Aquaman. He isn’t as involved in the Justice League, leaving the planning to Batman and Wonder Woman, and yet I don’t really question his place in the Justice League. That being said, I still think his character was the weakest along with Batman. Superman and Wonder Woman had the advantages of their own movies, and Cyborg and the Flash had more story development within ZSJL because they weren’t going to be having their own movies for a while.
Aquaman functioned as more of a muscle in terms of the action. That was cool though, there were some cool scenes where he and Wonder Woman fought alongside each other that I appreciated a lot.
Victor Stone/Cyborg
Cyborg’s story was massively expanded in this movie. He was a star football player as well as a gifted hacker. However, he had a strained relationship with his father because he’d never felt loved by him. Their relationship went under more stress after the death of Victor’s mother, and his own near-death. He was revived by the Mother Box, which his father had used without really understanding.
While Victor tried to use his cyborg body to do good, he struggled to connect with people and he still hated his dad. Diana convinced him to join the Justice League in order to prevent any such catastrophe from befalling anyone else.
Victor decided to join, and his past experience with the Mother Box made him a good authority on what it could do, in addition to the vast access to information he had. I think this was the reason why he (and the Flash) felt so much more integrated into the Justice League than Aquaman did. They had something special that would help in the mission. Not that muscle is bad, but Cyborg offered something special.
During the movie, Victor and his dad grew a bit closer. They realized that despite their differences, they still cared a lot for each other. Victor saved his father from Steppenwolf the first time, and his father helped him when the Justice League was trying to carrying out their mission by evacuating the lab. Victor’s father was killed when he tried to overheat the Mother Box so that the Justice League could track it better.
Victor’s job in the final mission was to basically hack (?) into the Mother Boxes and split them up from within. After some hiccups, he succeeded in doing so with Superman’s help.
By the end of the movie, I think Victor felt a little more human. He felt the love that his parents had for him, and I think the ordeal with him helping save the world made him realize that he could do good.
Barry Allen/The Flash
In JL, I found Barry cringe because he was a clear attempt by Joss Whedon to fit a certain character archetype that might have been popular in the early 2010s, but I had definitely outgrown by the time I watched it in 2018. In ZSJL, Barry was more like a relatable down-to-earth superhero. He was the comedic relief for sure, but we saw that he had heart. Barry studied hard at school because he wanted to get his father out of his jail. This was a choice he’d made, against his father’s wishes, and that shows us what kind of person Barry is.
I liked that Barry wasn’t just full of quips even with the Justice League. He was the comedic relief, but he was serious when he needed to be. He asked practical questions, he worked hard, and I appreciated that about him. He was an earnest guy who happened to be a hero, and this movie showed that.
Steppenwolf
The villain of this movie. He had come to earth to retrieve the three Mother Boxes, which, when united, would allow the Darkseid to come to earth and take over the planet. Steppenwolf wanted to do this because he’d fallen out of favour and wanted to redeem himself. While he’d almost succeeded, he was foiled at the last minute and killed.
Alfred Pennyworth
I just wanted to give a shoutout to Alfred because we got to see him more in this movie and I appreciated him. He gave a more human side to the Justice League as the social glue. He’s always been Bruce Wayne’s more socially skilled counterpart, and in that way, he was a glue for the Justice League as well.
He did work on gadgets for Batman and the other heroes, and he also helped them coordinate their missions. But I think he kind of represented the trust between the heroes, seeing as how Batman had left it up to Alfred to coordinate Superman when he’d decided he was ready to join the fray. Pity that we won’t see Jeremy Irons as Alfred again.
Overall
This movie was superior to the original Justice League which felt a lot like a MCU movie wannabe. This felt like a proper superhero film. The story was simple but that was all I needed. Rather, we needed more focus on the characters and teamwork which we definitely got in this movie.
I’d watched the original Justice League movie years ago and I went back to my notes to see what I’d thought about the movie at the time. I think I’d found it choppy and a little trying too hard to be a Marvel movie. Knowing what I know now, that makes sense. The movie was likely always intended to be more in line with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. When he’d left Justice League the first time, Joss Whedon was hired to complete the film, Joss Whedon of MCU fame. Zack Snyder’s Justice League felt a lot more natural.
Spoilers.
Story
As I said, this movie felt more like a miniseries. I think movies that are good but long tend to feel that way because there are natural and logical progressions in the story, but they just take a long time to get to. In the case of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (that I will abbreviate as ZSJL from now on), there were title cards to indicate stages of the story.
The story was pretty typical of an ensemble superhero movie. A villain had come to earth and they had to band together to defeat them. It did also have some of the flaws of typical superhero movies, in that something that had never been mentioned before (the Mother Boxes) were presented with an artificial level of significance. We’d never heard of them, and you’re telling us that all beings on earth were focused on securing them?
This movie did a much better job of showing us the recruitment of these heroes. In my write up for the original Justice League (that I will abbreviate as JL from now on), I’d said that it just felt like the Justice League decided to be together. While the reasoning wasn’t particularly solid in this film either, there was more time spent into actually convincing them, by showing us who the characters were and why they’d have reasons to want to be heroes. This would have been especially important for Barry Allen and Victor Stone. At the time of JL’s release, the first Aquaman movie hadn’t been released yet, so we would have required more introduction for him. Funnily enough, for ZSJL, we would have already had an Aquaman movie, so not as much introduction would have been required for Aquaman. But for people who have not been keeping up with any DCEU lore, all characters other than Victor and Barry would have been a bit confusing.
I felt that the teamwork in this movie was pretty good. At no point did I really feel that any character was the main character. They all had different roles that I felt were utilized. That’s not to say that the leaders aren’t clear (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), but Aquaman, and especially the Flash and Cyborg were crucial to the plot.
I think I was annoyed with Lois Lane’s part in JL. In ZSJL, I was much more appreciative of Lois Lane and Ma Kent’s roles in the story. Superman didn’t come to his senses with the power of love. Rather, I felt that Lois Lane just helped Superman calm down, while he regained his senses. They kind of welcomed him back to earth before he was thrusted back into action.
I think the movie did fall off a bit at the end, after Steppenwolf was defeated. We had two main scenes, one was about Lex Luthor’s recruitment of Slade Wilson, and the other was about a dream that Bruce Wayne had about a dystopian future, after which Martian Manhunter gave him a visit. These two scenes would probably normally have been presented as post-credits scenes, as they introduced a lot of new characters, including Lex Luthor, Slade Wilson, and Joker. These scenes were definitely setting up for the sequels, which I believe are probably not going to come.
One thing I’d disliked about JL was the quippiness of the dialogue, leading to there not being much dialogue at all. I never felt like the characters were actually having conversations with each other. They were just making jokes at each other. There were also cringey jokes in JL. The dialogue in ZSJL was much better. While the conversations were still short, there was a lot more substance. Our joke characters made jokes, but that was always a secondary characteristic. Everyone was focused on planning and accomplishing the task at hand.
Overall, the story for ZSJL flowed much better and was just on the whole much more enjoyable.
Production
I did think the action started off on a weird note, mostly because I wasn’t used to the style of action in Wonder Woman’s introduction fight. It felt very fantastical and cartoonish. However, I think that was the only questionable scene for me. Otherwise, I did find myself excited for the fight scenes, especially since a lot of them involved teamwork and synergy among the Justice League.
The acting was fine. I’m not expecting anything crazy from a superhero movie. The dialogue was deeper in ZSJL so I felt that the actors had more space to be their characters, rather than just joke machines.
I do wish the movie was a little more colourful. DCEU, especially since Henry Cavill took on the Superman role, has always felt a little gray to me. I’d love if the movie was a little less gray.
The music choices were kind of random. Nothing really stood out to me except for the Wonder Woman theme that played when Wonder Woman was fighting. There were some symphonic piece played during various parts of the movie that felt a little generic if I’m being honest.
Characters
Bruce Wayne/Batman
Batman was one of the two unofficial leaders of this Justice League. He seemed less of a meme in this movie, though I could say that for pretty much every character. That being said, he wasn’t particularly memorable as a character. He was more of a plot device to get the Justice League together, and to give them their direction. I felt that he was most like an actual character in his interactions with Alfred.
He was definitely intended to continue being the leader in future Justice League movies, seeing as how much spotlight he got in the last two scenes. Slade Wilson was interested in taking down Batman. The enmity between Batman and Joker was expanded, and the deaths of Jason Todd and Harley Quinn were mentioned. And lastly, Martian Manhunter had come to Bruce Wayne, probably recognizing him as the leader of the Justice League.
But overall, in the Justice League movies, Batman was more of a character who was there because he needed to be, rather than a man with feelings.
Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman was the other unofficial leader of the Justice League. While Batman was more practical, Wonder Woman was meant to be more sympathetic, which was logical. When Batman recruited the Flash it was more of a matter of formality as the Flash was very eager. However, Wonder Woman had to get to know who Cyborg was, know his story, sympathize with him, and then let him understand how the Justice League could stop something like that from happening again.
In terms of the fighting, Wonder Woman was the main muscle, as Superman was MIA for much of the movie. Her fighting style was pretty fun to watch I must admit, and the movie definitely took advantage of the various powers that we know her to have.
Clark Kent/Superman
This movie is going to be confusing to a lot of people who aren’t too aware of the DCEU canon, because Superman was DEAD before this movie. He was revived in order to help with stopping Steppenwolf. While his rebirth caused some chaos, he eventually came to his senses.
He only assisted in fighting in the very final battle with Steppenwolf. Funnily enough, I felt like he had more screentime dedicated to his personal story rather than his time with the Justice League. After coming back to life, he realized he had to take advantage, and he proposed to Lois. By the end of the movie, Bruce Wayne had helped his mom keep her house and I presume Clark was going to live a happy life with Lois, either there in the country or back in the city.
Arthur Curry/Aquaman
It’s interesting how much of a boost Aquaman got after having a movie. What I mean by a boost is that in JL, I thought he was just a filler. We barely knew anything about him, and we knew he was just inserted there for hype for his upcoming eponymous movie. In ZSJL, he’s still kind of a filler, but his presence is so much clearer. I know who he is because I’ve seen Aquaman. He isn’t as involved in the Justice League, leaving the planning to Batman and Wonder Woman, and yet I don’t really question his place in the Justice League. That being said, I still think his character was the weakest along with Batman. Superman and Wonder Woman had the advantages of their own movies, and Cyborg and the Flash had more story development within ZSJL because they weren’t going to be having their own movies for a while.
Aquaman functioned as more of a muscle in terms of the action. That was cool though, there were some cool scenes where he and Wonder Woman fought alongside each other that I appreciated a lot.
Victor Stone/Cyborg
Cyborg’s story was massively expanded in this movie. He was a star football player as well as a gifted hacker. However, he had a strained relationship with his father because he’d never felt loved by him. Their relationship went under more stress after the death of Victor’s mother, and his own near-death. He was revived by the Mother Box, which his father had used without really understanding.
While Victor tried to use his cyborg body to do good, he struggled to connect with people and he still hated his dad. Diana convinced him to join the Justice League in order to prevent any such catastrophe from befalling anyone else.
Victor decided to join, and his past experience with the Mother Box made him a good authority on what it could do, in addition to the vast access to information he had. I think this was the reason why he (and the Flash) felt so much more integrated into the Justice League than Aquaman did. They had something special that would help in the mission. Not that muscle is bad, but Cyborg offered something special.
During the movie, Victor and his dad grew a bit closer. They realized that despite their differences, they still cared a lot for each other. Victor saved his father from Steppenwolf the first time, and his father helped him when the Justice League was trying to carrying out their mission by evacuating the lab. Victor’s father was killed when he tried to overheat the Mother Box so that the Justice League could track it better.
Victor’s job in the final mission was to basically hack (?) into the Mother Boxes and split them up from within. After some hiccups, he succeeded in doing so with Superman’s help.
By the end of the movie, I think Victor felt a little more human. He felt the love that his parents had for him, and I think the ordeal with him helping save the world made him realize that he could do good.
Barry Allen/The Flash
In JL, I found Barry cringe because he was a clear attempt by Joss Whedon to fit a certain character archetype that might have been popular in the early 2010s, but I had definitely outgrown by the time I watched it in 2018. In ZSJL, Barry was more like a relatable down-to-earth superhero. He was the comedic relief for sure, but we saw that he had heart. Barry studied hard at school because he wanted to get his father out of his jail. This was a choice he’d made, against his father’s wishes, and that shows us what kind of person Barry is.
I liked that Barry wasn’t just full of quips even with the Justice League. He was the comedic relief, but he was serious when he needed to be. He asked practical questions, he worked hard, and I appreciated that about him. He was an earnest guy who happened to be a hero, and this movie showed that.
Steppenwolf
The villain of this movie. He had come to earth to retrieve the three Mother Boxes, which, when united, would allow the Darkseid to come to earth and take over the planet. Steppenwolf wanted to do this because he’d fallen out of favour and wanted to redeem himself. While he’d almost succeeded, he was foiled at the last minute and killed.
Alfred Pennyworth
I just wanted to give a shoutout to Alfred because we got to see him more in this movie and I appreciated him. He gave a more human side to the Justice League as the social glue. He’s always been Bruce Wayne’s more socially skilled counterpart, and in that way, he was a glue for the Justice League as well.
He did work on gadgets for Batman and the other heroes, and he also helped them coordinate their missions. But I think he kind of represented the trust between the heroes, seeing as how Batman had left it up to Alfred to coordinate Superman when he’d decided he was ready to join the fray. Pity that we won’t see Jeremy Irons as Alfred again.
Overall
This movie was superior to the original Justice League which felt a lot like a MCU movie wannabe. This felt like a proper superhero film. The story was simple but that was all I needed. Rather, we needed more focus on the characters and teamwork which we definitely got in this movie.