Pros And Cons To Zack Snyder’s Justice League

So the long-awaited Snyder-Cut version of Justice League was finally released by fan request. Why is this a big deal? In 2017, Director Zack Snyder had to leave the production of Justice League after a family tragedy occurred. So, director Joss Whedon took over in his place, ultimately becoming one of the reasons why the movie flopped. The movie was hated by both the fans and the actors in the film. Later fans learned about how the movie would have turned out had Zack Snyder stayed as the director, which created the trend #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. Now that the Snyder-Cut has been released, the reviews have been split down the middle and can be a bit overwhelming. If you are still unsure whether or not you should watch the film, here are some pros and cons that might help you decide.

Bad: Took Way Too Long

You may want to make sure you have a clear schedule to watch this movie. Justice League’s run time goes for a little over 4 hours long. Unfortunately, you can feel every bit of those four hours as well. The main issue with the movie is it takes too long to try and establish each one of our heroes' stories. One of the reasons the MCU does so well is they take the time to get to know our heroes by giving them individual movies before the main ensemble film. The DCEU started that process with Batman V Superman and Wonder Woman but went straight to Justice League soon after. The movie takes too long trying to set up the rest of the ensemble and how they each come into play before continuing the rest of the story and only one person is given an origin story.

Good: Almost Every Actor Was Fantastic

Most of the cast did an amazing job portraying each of their characters. You can feel the weight of all the character's actions and decisions. The one who stands out the most is Ray Fisher as Cyborg. Cyborg plays an important role in advancing the story's plot forward and his character arc is focused a bit more in the film. While I’m still not a fan of the way The Flash runs in the film, Ezra Miller’s performance as Barry Allen drastically improved from Joss Whedon’s version. Barry Allen in this Justice League is given more opportunity to be his true self and still works to help his father as the movie goes on. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was improved in this film as her character was given more time to shine as a hardcore warrior who does her best to see the good in others. The film doesn’t treat her as a sex object who whines about her lost love.

Bad: Jared Leto As Joker Still Sucks

This is more of a personal opinion more than anything else. Joker doesn’t appear until the end of the film, however, if your reason to watch Justice League is to see how The Joker improves don’t bother. The laugh alone is enough to make you want to turn it off. The speech that was given was great itself, but the way Jared Leto delivers that speech just feels wrong. It’s almost as if he doesn’t know what movie he’s in. His performance makes you feel unsettled, not because you believe what he’s saying, but because the performance itself is awful. However, I do recommend giving it a once over because the scene itself is pretty good and Ben Affleck outshines Jared Leto. Plus, the scene itself ties into the next Justice League movie, if Warner Bros ever decides to make it.

Good: Action Scenes Were Fantastic

The fight scenes in general were amazing and incredibly easy to follow. There were only a few times where I rolled my eyes because Batman thought he was going to be helpful in short-range combat against flying aliens called “parademons”. However, Batman in the movie understands that he isn’t much without the rest of the team so he helps where he can. There were moments where a member of the team could finish a fight fairly quickly but each member had a role to play in every fight and never made you feel like they were useless.

The Bad: Too Much Slow Motion

With the movie being 4 hours long, it feels like a drag every time the movie puts a scene in slow motion. The movie goes into slow motion too frequently and oftentimes for moments that don’t need to be slowed down. Personally, I don’t need to see Lois Lane walking in the rain in slow motion, but that’s just me.

The Middle: The Movie Assumes The Audience Knows Everyone

It’s not exactly a big deal here, but some people might be confused about certain character’s appearances. Personally, I enjoy the fact that movie studios are starting to understand that fans are starting to slow down the number of origin stories for superheroes. The movie includes characters like Iris West and Martian Manhunter. If anyone watches The Flash television series, we know that Iris West is the future wife of Barry Allen. So it’s no surprise that Zack Snyder decided to give her a brief introduction. However, The Martian Manhunter is someone who is not as well known unless you were already a fan of the DC comics. The name speaks for itself, as he is an alien who is strong like Superman and can shapeshift. For new fans, people won’t know who he is and why we should care about him. Some people have even asked, “if he was there, why did he not help the Justice League.” However, these people were only given brief introductions and will most likely be included if Warner Bros decide to continue making another justice League based on Zack Snyder’s version.