Zack Snyder's Justice League
I was amazed by the amount of money spent on what would basically be a reshoot, but now I see that this is a totally different film. I'm amazed by how much is different. In some ways, due to the fact fans pushed for this to be made, it is more of an event than a film. If you are familiar with the original Justice League film from only 4 years ago, this is a truly new experience.
I assumed Whedon did what he usually did, and added a number of very memorable jokes, strong character moments, and emotional story points. (As examples, the line "Save just one person", the Aquaman sitting on the lasso scene, and the appearance of Lois at a key moment.) But he either really made a whole different film, or Synder just came along and made something far darker and larger than even he was originally going to shoot. (And that is a possibility considering what's happened in his life after he started filming.)
Whedon made much more of a Marvel feeling film, which isn't bad, but had the wrong starting point to work from, after Man of Steel and Superman vs Batman. Synder's Justice League is good, actually even better than the Whedon version, but almost purely because of the action moments, and consistency of tone.
Is anything funny left in the Synder version? Not really. I think some awkward Flash moments were supposed to be, but some stuff like Aquaman sitting on Wonder Woman's lasso worked in Whedon's version, and it's funny. I'm surprised it wasn't kept in. Less surprising to me is the opening Batman with a robber, which set the wrong tone for a scene in a film with a 'dark' Batman.
Watching it, I know it must be true that Cyborg was really pulled out of Whedon's. It really did change a chunk of the story.
One thing Whedon definitely improved was the ending of the first fight with resurrected Superman. I think Synder started it better (Cyborg's suit attacking), but Synder had Lois just happen to be walking by (with a brief shot of a pregnancy test?), whereas Whedon had Batman thinking several moves ahead, and having Lois being used as a hail-mary solution if Superman got out of control. That is a brilliant difference, and one of the few moments showing Batman to be the brains of the team.
But is the Synder cut a good film on it's own? I ask this because it's impossible to watch it and not know about the context, and compare it to the initially released version. (And be reminded this was supposed to be laying the groundwork for the next five films - that aren't going to happen.)
It is more than twice as long and far from twice as good. I'm certain the film didn't need to be four hours long. And probably 5-10 minutes of the Whedon stuff could've fit nicely in here, improving it. And it really needed less slow motion, and more time to explain things. I don't know much about mother boxes and Darkseed. The movie gave me nothing beforehand, and at the end, I'm not sure if I understand enough if I saw it again. I accept we don't need to waste time learning about Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman's origins because we should know them from the previous films, but Martian Manhunter and Deathstroke appear with no explanations of who/what they are. They mentioned things like Flash and time travel that I understand only from the tv show. We get a very odd time reversing scene at the end, that feels like the characters know something that we don't, there are implied repercussions that don't happen, and I really don't think that's how time travel would/could work in any sci-fi fictional version.
One reviewer I saw talk about this film mentioned how long some exposition scenes seemed here, which I didn't notice at the time, but maybe just because I still didn't understand all of it.
There is also a very odd epilogue, lasting maybe 20 minutes - these are not fun endings - don't really make sense, adding new characters, but doing nothing with them. This is exactly how not to do end credit scenes.
More amazing to me is that the studio must really have thought the fans would make this a huge hit, even though it was not to be released in theaters. There must be a really interesting story about what made them greenlight this.
Each film is worth watching, with Synder's a star better. I'm wondering if I'd like Synder's less if I hadn't seen Whedon's to compare it to. Sort of like how I wonder if I'd like the director's cut of Blade Runner as much without the theatrical that came before it.
4 vs 3 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment