ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)
 |
| Critic - No. 201 |
Produced by: Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, Atlas Entertainment, The Stone Quarry
Written By: Chris Terrio, Zack Snyder, Will Beall
Casts: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller
Language: English
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Music: Tom Holkenborg
SYNOPSIS:
Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. - this film will be Zack Snyder's definitive director's cut of Justice League.
REVIEW:
There needs to be an extraordinary understanding and skill to direct a great comic-book movie without losing the essence of the characters and chapters. The director needs to not only intertextually adapt the comic into another medium but also needs to have a strong technical/visual sense, grasp of the source material’s substance, and deep knowledge of the target audience. In my view, the universe of DC comics is much more complex and deeper than other brands of comics and the success rate of good films derived from that is pretty low. Both Batman V Superman (2016) and Justice League (2017) got panned by the critics and audiences.
In March 2017, Snyder had creative conflicts with the studio (and the suicide of his daughter) and walked away from the film which was later passed down to Joss Whedon, who rewrote and reshot more than half of it. The end product was more of an audience-friendly version of the Justice League synced in with the vision of the business-driven studio companies. Of course, the fans sensed this after watching the diluted version, ‘protesting’ online for the studios to release the ‘Snyder's cut. 3 years later, here we are all buckled up to watch the 4-hour epic, original version.
As I mentioned earlier, the characters in DC comics are much more complex than what we see in the film adaptations and due to the extended running time, the film firstly was able to get into the skin of the characters easily. This makes the stakes and value of each hero much stronger in the journey. As an example of how Snyder’s grasp of the core character is tighter, there is an introduction scene of Flash with an arresting bullet-time sequence in which he saves a young woman from a car accident — an episode that beautifully sets up the hidden empathy behind his usual wisecracking head. Similarly, Snyder confidently takes a dark, somber but exciting route in developing the characters.
The most beautiful thing about the film is that, surprisingly, you never feel the length of it. The clashing battles are thoroughly engaging (with Snyder’s trademark style of murky, animated VFX - I will pass the complaint this time!) with a strong purpose that has been carefully engineered, thanks to the running time again. Yes, there are flaws but I don’t want to whine again about the back-to-back action sequences that still look packed in this 4-hour cut. Steppenwolf, the menacing horned villain, feels more emotionally well built this time, giving the clash more meat. His mission to prepare Earth for Darkseid’s conquest (inspired by Jack Kirby’s New Gods stories), is made more clearer in this version. With due respect to Snyder's attempt in salvaging the project, I just felt that this could have been a miniseries project from the start as a four-hour film (or a shortened Snyder’s cut) could have never worked for a cinema medium.
VERDICT:
Darker, clearer, and crazier, Snyder strikes with a more definitive epic that does ‘justice’ to the beloved superheroes of DC comics, resulting in a deeply rewarding experience for the fans.
CELLULOID METER- 3.5/5:
Comments
Post a Comment