After years of infighting and campaigning, denials and assurances, the fabled Snyder Cut of ‘Justice League’ is finally here in it’s four hour glory. Having been butchered, re-shot and reshaped under the (now highly questioned) guidance of Joss Whedon, after tragedy force Zack Snyder to leave the film, into a two hour incoherent flop in 2017 that would have probably been it for ‘Justice League’. Now with the emergence of HBO Max, a new streaming service desperate for content, Zack Snyder was given $70 million to finish his vision. The story is essentially the same but Snyder’s version is more rounded. Watching it highlighted a number of things about the DC Film Universe. Here are our top five.
5. Cavill’s CGI face in the original release was unnecessary
You don’t get significantly more or different Superman in the Snyder cut but Henry Cavill was called back for reshoots while making ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’. Notoriously he had a moustache for that film and contractually wasn’t allowed to save it off. This led it his face being horrendously digitally altered in the 2017 version.
With the majority of the footage being the same you could have altered the story be relooping some of the dialogue rather than reshoot. It’s as though Whedon’s ego was making him reshoot Superman scenes just so he could say he had.
4. There might have been plans for the Justice League’s original villain
The Justice League’s original villain was Starro, a giant pink and purple telepathic starfish. In this cut, when Steppenwolf is getting prepared to invade Atlantis, he uses a face sized pink and purple metallic octopus to read the soldier’s mind.
With the amount of detail that goes into these productions its highly unlikely that this is a coincidences but due to office politics it is unlikely that we will find out if Starro was working in the background the whole time.
3. Affleck was done with Batman earlier than we thought
The Snyder Cut features a scene between Deathstroke and Lex Luthor that sets up Ben Affleck’s now defunct Batman film. This same scene was in the 2017 version but the dialogue was changed to set up the Legion of Doom. The only reason for this change must have been that Affleck had already walked away from Batman role while ‘Justice League’ was still in production.
2. Superman doesn’t fit with Snyder’s vision
Even though the S stands for hope, Zach Snyder spent three films telling us that Superman was on this planet to be feared. In ‘Man Of Steel’ Jonathan Kent tells Clark he cannot reveal his power because it will create fear. In ‘Batman Vs. Superman’ Batman fears him and in ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ everyone fears him. Batman is the hero that is meant to create fear in people and Superman is meant to be a beacon of hope. Snyder has constantly got his wires crossed with the characterisation, his Superman even seems to relish beating up alien lifeforms, to the point that it seemed his number one goal was to make Superman the villain of his universe.
1. Snyder say he’s out but is clearly tempting DC to pull him back him
Snyder said he would complete this film and then that would be that for his part of the DC Universe. He also said he needed money to complete his film and was going to shoot scenes that would stitch all the footage together.
It turns out that all the new scenes he shot don’t complete this film but rather set up further adventures for the characters. He could have constructed his vision as a complete film without a cliffhanger. It’s as though he was trying to make buzz for future projects.
We will have to wait and see what happens next. If the response to this film is strong then it’s only a matter of time before WB come knocking at Zach’s door again.
What did you notice from watching the film? Comment below.
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