Movie Review - Zach Snyder's Justice League

Normally I don't review extended or alternate versions of already released films, but today I'm making an exception. Since the release of Justice League back in 2017, fans have been wanting for a long time to see the film as Zach Snyder originally visioned. This is because the version of the film we saw in 2017 lacked a lot of what was promised in the trailers. This of course was due to Zach Snyder's departure during production due to the sudden loss of his daughter (of which this version of the film pays tribute to) and Joss Whedon being brought onboard to finish the work Snyder hadn't finished. But ultimately he changed too much (some out of his own accord and others at the urging of Warner Bros. and DC) and the film we were promised, ended up being a fan service Avengers like film disguised as a DCEU film with too many problems to count. The DCEU has always struggled to compete with the MCU due to changes in direction and not enough consistency. So lots of questions to answer with this version of the 2017 film so let's take a look and see if it was worth all that effort in the end:

What you'll notice as the film goes on is that its separated into parts which is likely due to the original plan for its release being a miniseries. But ultimately it was a film. The story is near to being the same as the original film, but extended and expanded upon. For those that need a refresher, the being known as Darkseid (played by Ray Porter) attempts to conquer the Earth thousands of years ago with powerful objects known as the Mother Boxes. A combined effort to take him on saw the Amazons, Atlanteans, the Old Gods, humanity and a Green Lantern battle him formally as seperate armies before becoming one unified force against him. After the battle, Darkseid fled while the boxes were left behind. One was given to the Amazons, another to humanity and the last one to the Atlanteans where each one would attempt to protect and hide the boxes in case Darkseid or any one of his allies ever return. Following the death of Superman (reprised by Henry Cavill), his death triggers the reactivation of the Boxes and so Darkseid sends Steppenwolf to Earth to claim them so that Darkseid can finally turn Earth to look like Apokolips with the Boxes as it's the one planet he has yet to conquer. The Amazons send a desperate message to Wonder Woman (reprised by Gal Gadot) who in turn warns Batman (reprised by Ben Affleck) and the pair work on forming a team of super beings to tackle the impending threat and possibly reawaken the hero that is the biggest threat to Darkseid.

There is plenty I really like about this film. Had it been the version we saw in 2017, perhaps the DCEU would've been a worthy contender at long last to the MCU. Is it better than the 2017 film? Yes. Does it fix all the problems? Most but not all. Does it deliver what was promised all those years ago? Yes and then some. Is it the greatest superhero film of all time as people have made out? No, not by a long shot. It is a long film, but the fighting is more epic than the first time around, the visuals are stunning and while I do like Danny Elfman as a composer, Junkie XL's score fits better in this film. Some of the actors that didn't appear in the original cut, do appear here, and we even get a surprise superhero appearance which wraps up a character's development (a character who played an important role in the first two DCEU films). Plus the time travelling Barry Allen (once again played by Ezra Miller) thing is finally given some closure. I guess overall, it proves to the higher ups that they should take more risks and actually stick to the route they intend rather than change it too much, rush it and make it all a big confusing mess of a cinematic universe. So yeah a much better film than what we saw the first time round and also more epic too. The fans finally got their wish, but it came too late due to what had happened between 2017 and now with the actors and filmmakers. 8/10