I should establish the following. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a marvel of existence and an exhausting and at times very boring one at that. My relationship with the DCEU is rocky. As are most peoples. But with the movies it does have to offer, Zack Snyder’s are not my favorite. I thought Man of Steel was okay, and Batman V Superman was bad. I’m going to ignore the existence of Justice League (2017) for most of this review unless otherwise mentioned. I’m glad Zack Snyder’s Justice League exists. But I didn’t really enjoy too much of it.
This is really the only time I’ll discuss the former cut of Justice League. Zack Snyder’s is far superior. Each character feels more fleshed out, although the exception to this is Aquaman, but he still got some additional focus, just not as much as both Flash and Cyborg, and to a lesser extent Wonder Woman. Batman and Superman already had some Zack Snyder-directed characterization in previous films so they get less here, but it’s all still pretty good. This film being better than the last cut, however, does not make it good. The vision was a much better and more coherent story. And I’ll say this, it’s at least easier to look at. The CGI and visuals definitely had a much longer amount of time to look good. However, I hate the 4:3 aspect ratio. And I’ll tell you why.
The 4:3 aspect ratio was a terrible idea. Ironically the example I used is one of the shots I actually like, however, it's not justifiable still. I know it was Zack Snyder’s original vision, but he shouldn’t have done that part, not completely. To start, big blockbuster action is not meant to be in an almost square aspect ratio. It doesn’t fit, and it’s hard to look at when the action gets going. It’s not all bad, there were some really beautiful shots. But I wish they just used creative framing for the close-ups, and every other shot that looked good in 4:3. But the action and “wide shots” should’ve been in an actual widescreen aspect ratio. A lot of the shots just looked like they were awkwardly cropped to avoid copyright issues. I don’t however dislike the aspect ratio itself. And a modern use of a 4:3 ratio that worked exceptionally would be the lighthouse, which I believe also handles the mythological aspects of its film much better.
Zack Snyder said this about his DC movies. “What DC had was mythology at an epic level, and we were going to take them on this amazing journey. Frankly, I was the only one saying that." And I know he believed that, and I can commend him for it. But I don’t think it worked how he wanted it to. Perhaps it was a victim of circumstance, or maybe it just wasn’t executed properly. I think this film could’ve been great. And I’d honestly be interested to see Zack Snyder remake both Man of Steel and Batman V. Superman. But also, I don’t like those films and the faults in those passed into this movie almost seamlessly. I have another thought on remaking these movies, Get rid of the DC characters. And let Zack Snyder use his own characters, these movies would be a lot better for it. He doesn’t understand these characters, and I still think that that is true. And that’s where the problems of these films truly come from. So, have Zack Snyder sit down, and come up with the mythological characters he obviously wanted the Justice League to become, and the Snyder Cut could’ve been beautiful.
I did really like what he added to Cyborg’s story and thought it did definitely enhance the story. And with that I found more to just enjoy in this cut. The jokes were also fewer and farther between than the last cut and made them at least good enough to acknowledge, and they did not feel nearly as cringeworthy as before. I liked Superman's black suit. I liked some of the cinematography, much more than the last films. A lot of slow motion, and I didn't love it all but it looked cool in some scenes. It was really interesting to see precisely what Joss Whedon added to the original cut but not seeing it in this one. Because many of the worst scenes were added under his charge. Though there were a few interesting exclusions in this from the original cut.
It's crazy that I can say this next sentence. Steppenwolf actually had a character, sort of. A few lines of dialogue cemented a very basic character into this behemoth. Which I thought was a fine enough addition, it didn't hurt anything. Steppenwolf also looked better, I didn't love how he looked, but it was leagues better than the last cut's version.
The final showdown was much better in how they handled all its parts. Visually better, and the staging was also better. All the characters felt as though they were utilized better, and Cyborg and Flash were used to a fuller extent. It also didn't feel entirely like Superman did it all, which was much better than the original. By comparison, it was a very good fight. By itself, it was fine.
My final thoughts are this. I called Zack Snyder's Justice League a marvel of existence at the beginning of this review. That's because it's rare to see a director get to make the movie they wanted to make through and through without interference. And I think Zack Snyder had the right to finish this movie and his story in it. I don't understand, however, why they left it so open-ended. They set it up for a sequel it'll probably never get. So I don't really understand that. Although I don't like this movie, But I am glad others do. I'm glad that Zack Snyder got to make his movie. But his movie wasn't great.