It's not often a studio will bend to the will of fans. Fans made this movie happen, and we're given something far and beyond the Theatrical Cut. Although the length may deter some people, every minute is crucial in telling a compelling story for characters brought together for the first time to save the planet. It looks phenomenal on 4k, and if you don't want to have to pay for HBO Max for the rest of your life, a physical copy is the way to go.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided us with a free copy of this Blu-ray/DVD that we reviewed in this blog post. The opinions we share are our own.
“In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Brice imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own past to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid that their dreadful intentions.”
Zack Snyder has a tumultuous relationship with fans. He seems to be criticized for every detail of every film he makes, which based on the source material for a lot of it, can be quite near and dear to the hearts of countless people. Despite this, when people had nothing better to do during the pandemic, the #releasethesnydercut hashtag became a number one worldwide tweet, and to the surprise of everyone, Warner Bros. greenlit the project for their newest streaming service: HBO Max.
Not only was the complete vision of Zack Snyder going to be restored, an additional 70 million dollars was spent to complete visual effects, score and editing, as well as new material filmed. In essence, audiences are given a completely new version of the film, a version that would never have been considered if Snyder wasn’t forced to leave the film, with an astronomical runtime of four hours and two minutes long, something that never would have been permitted with a theatrical release.
If you’re looking for the exact differences between the Theatrical Cut and the Snyder Cut, there are countless articles already written describing these in detail. Essentially double the run-time, the majority of these changes revolve around character development of some of the new characters, especially Cyborg. The Cyborg character has fundamental obstacles in every on-screen incarnation we’ve seen through the years: Smallville, Doom Patrol, he’s a stuck in the body of a machine that he didn’t ask to be put in, through the questionable science of his father that refused to let him die. Doom Patrol really is able to explore this much more in depth thanks to it being a television show, but the Snyder Cut does a pretty damn good job at portraying the emotional pain he’s in, not being able to trust his father, the only family he has left. This journey takes a drastically different approach in its resolution, opting to scrap every bit of footage shot by Joss Whedon, taking a much darker turn. This can be said of the entire film, however, all the little funny quips that Whedon inserted are gone, things rearranged and changed entirely to be a very dark film.
For a film that is supposed to bring these heroes together to for the Justice League, we’re not able to learn much about them in the Theatrical Cut, or appearances before. Aquaman for instance had yet to have his own film, and some of the restored sequences are vital to understanding the character, and most importantly developing an investment in the character so you’d actually care that he’s a part of the team. This introduces several characters in their film debuts that should have been here, like Willem Dafoe as Vulko.
One of the best changes, in my opinion, is the expansion on the villains in the story. Although I honestly thought the original Justice League was pretty forgettable, what I remember most how uninvested I was in Steppenwolf and these demon insect creatures. A ton of new material is added to the film that fleshes out the antagonist quite well, including his desire to prove himself to his master, Darkseid. The Darkseid storyline isn’t just restored, but expanded upon as we learn about his ultimate goal, which is to acquire the anti-life equation, that can bend the will of all sentient beings to him. It’s a vital change that gives the audience much more clarity in what’s at stake and the cost of what happens if the new team of heroes loses.
While one of the main critiques of the Snyder Cut is its excessive length, I wholeheartedly disagree. I sat down to watch this thinking it would be a daunting four-hour task in which it would have to lose my attention at some point, but that wasn’t the case. The film is broken up into parts, masterfully edited to keep some of the best pacing I’ve seen in a film. Although I did end up breaking the film up into two sittings because of the late hour I started it, I never once felt bored or overwhelmed with the amount of information or screentime I was being subjected to. This perhaps is the greatest achievement of the Snyder Cut, and I think is pretty impressive.
Video
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is presented in 2160p 4k Ultra-High-Definition 4×3 1:33:1. Yes, you read that right, 4×3. If you were like me and this was an absolute surprise when the opening sequence began, it was really off-putting. I lived in a time when you had to pay close attention to what DVD you bought, one released in Widescreen, the other in Fullscreen. It was a very tragic thing to either purchase the wrong version by mistake, or get to the store to find that’s the only copy available. Getting a bit off-track, the point is, my eye was trained to look at 4:3 with disdain. While it does look like about a third of the picture is cut off thanks to the black bars on the left and right, the way it was filmed, you’re actually seeing more of the film as it is presented this way, which everything in Justice League had the tops and bottom cropped to fit the widescreen image. It did take a bit to get used to, but I eventually did, and was able to appreciate how Snyder used the expanded image to his advantage in several sequences.
The transfer itself on HDR looks stunning, offering the true brilliantly vivid and life-like colors, and deep darks, which the film contains plenty of both. This is clearly the way to see this film, so given the choice, opt 4k.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dolby Atmos, and is another stellar point on this set. Clear and concise dialogue coming from the center channel, combined with superb levels on the surrounds will ensure you’re totally engrossed in the action. The new score is also very nice, a great accompaniment to the new content and new storylines.
Special Features
The set comes with both the 4k and Blu-ray versions of the film, spread across 2 discs for each. One complaint I have about this set is that each version has one location for both discs, forcing you to stack them on top of each other. I’m never a fan of anything that could potentially scratch or damage the bottom of discs in any way, or stacking discs in general. Additionally, there is no digital copy included, only a QR code that takes you straight to the film on HBO Max, which if you don’t have a subscription for, you’re out of luck. I hope this isn’t going to become a trend for Warner Bros. and their HBO Max content, but at least we’re getting a physical copy. That being said, there is one feature on the discs:
- Road to Justice League: Director Zack Snyder reflects on his trilogy of films in the DC Universe
It’s an absolute anomaly that we were graced with the Snyder Cut, and that Warner Bros. listened to the fans to spend so much money on making this different version a realization. We now know what could have been in the future DC Universe, and although we may never get to see it come to fruition, supporting this version any way you can may ensure studios listen to fans in the future.
