So I watched the Snyder cut.

I actually quite liked the original. It was tonally different enough from the same old boring Marvel formula that it felt refreshing, even though I think objectively it's not as good as any of the Avengers movies. I've watched about an hour of the Snyder cut, and I agree with the assertation that they should have chopped this up and released it as a 4 part series because it's fucking slow, and not in a good way. Snyder seems to be trying to make the movie more "epic" by adding a lot of long, lingering shots and worldbuilding elements beyond the core characters (here's a two second shot of a random barista serving Lois Lane a coffee - why?!), but any reach for cinematographic greatness is undermined by the aspect ratio which makes the entire thing feel like it was shot on a fucking phone being held vertically. As a result most of the "new" footage feels extremely extra and unnecessary and, honestly, I kind of appreciate editors for the first time in my life.

I have to be pretty wary about talking shit about VFX, but there are parts of this movie which look extremely bad. It wasn't so painful in the original cut because everything moves at a pretty steady clip, but Snyder holds every shot for longer than is comfortable to watch. There are good studios responsible, which to me implies either they had zero budget, zero time, or Snyder had no idea what he was doing. The truth is most likely a combination of all three.

So yes, I'm split. I like the refocus on characters which, up until now, were relatively minor. I'm glad the one black superhero in the DC universe is getting some love and attention, especially after all the shit he put up with from Joss Whedon's crew. But I think Snyder has in the process forgotten that more isn't always better, and this film feels mostly superfluous.

EDIT (Spoilers!):

Alright, I finally watched the rest of the movie, and I have to admit that the second half is much better than the first. All the stupid sexual tension between Batman/Wonder Woman has been removed, as has much of the dorky humour - the flash especially is given a lot more opportunity to shine and do heroic things rather than just be a cowardly kid who is constantly tripping over himself and is scared to fight. I really liked all that stuff, and the Cyborg extras are all great as well. I think the darker/more pissed off Superman is much more interesting than the default boyscout Whedon was happy to serve up, and I like the implication that the war is going to be lost despite the battle being won. The general message was a lot more coherent, and the final fight sequence was a lot more enjoyable. The visual effects also noticeably improved as the film went on as well, I assume because the big finale sequence was given to a bigger studio like Weta.

So ultimately, the first 2 hours are padded with superfluous garbage and the second 2 hours have been tweaked into something a lot more composed and with a much coherent vision for what happens next for the franchise. So yeah, bit of a double edged sword really. I still think the aspect ratio is dumb and a good editor could have trimmed out at least an hour of that movie without losing anything of value, however.

It's somehow a better movie but also just a slog to watch. Even thought the story plays out better and characters are better fleshed out, there's 4 hours to do this so OF COURSE they are. I only worry about the precedence this movie sets much like I did with the Mass Effect 3 ending changing. How long before we have more inmates running the asylum moments in pop culture?

I enjoyed this new cut, but holy hell, that entire epilogue was unnecessary.

Leto’s Joker continues to be an unrestrained embarrassment.

For what it was, I came away fairly positive on the film in its current form. I do agree that Flash’s first scene was creepy but I enjoyed most of the other changes. More time with Cyborg was nice and I’ll take all the time I can get with Jeremy Iron’s Alfred.

@darksouls1988: Honestly, I would agree with you on a supercritical stance. But after watching red letter media which usually hates superhero films for all the things people like them, and I came in hands folded to hate the movie, and say the original was better, but the original is just a faster, "compact" movie but not a person's thoughts put to film. Zack's movie is his interpretation of his art, not the comics not the cartoon. It's his own take and hate it or love it, he's fully invested in that. Honest, think about it this way. 10% according to ign is in slow-mo. Speed that up and cut the final parts to an epilogue of DVD extras or after credits and you have a movie the length of Endgame. The movie has to attach you more than Endgame, while Endgame can focus on the story and not introductions. Point is, the movie is better explained, still the same structure of a kinda done storyline, and the villain isn't Kira from Jojo filled with charisma or charm, but the movie minus slow-mo and a few clunky scenes and a weak, not bad villain, then the movie is fine. Critically those mistakes make it bad for a critic, but fans can overlook this. Hopefully, we get more takes that are the creator's vision with a bit of editing since the movie shows, fans are intelligent and can watch long involved stories without ADHD like everyone expects from a general audience. Honestly, the movie was never, boring, besides the slow-mo unlike Endgame that was a bit boring in the middle, let's be honest. HONEST HONEST...thought I didn't say it enough. XD.

[Ed. Note: originally typed up March 19th, forgot to paste it over]

Coming home from work and the bar, I fired this up around 2AM with one last glass of Old Forester and let her rip. Turns out, it's easy to forget how long four (four!) hours is on a heavy buzz. I outright cackled when HBO Max dropped a disclaimer that this would be in a 4:3 aspect ratio out of some sense of artistic virtue, and from there I just couldn't survive this. I tapped out at the moment Cyborg was saving poor Linda Reed's life, but boy did I already have a ton of thoughts so here I am, rewatching the next day.

Can you fucking believe that at the moment Batman meets The Flash, there are three and a half hours left in this cut of Justice League? In what world does that make any sense? Does Zach Snyder realize how hilarious it is that he features a billboard for the AFSP right after that horrendous pairing of the old "I'm rich" superpower joke and a hip-hop beat delivered free of charge from Audio Network? It's especially unfortunate considering the circumstances surrounding that billboard's inclusion, but boy is it the worst possible timing.

I think the most emblematic scene of what makes the Justice League experience so fascinating is the sequence when Steppenwolf first emerges from the Themyscira Mother Box: does anyone else notice how goofy Connie Nielsen looks when she runs in a circle, seemingly hoping the VFX artists will point her character in the direction of a doorway in post? Everything that follows is pure empty calories: why does she keep pausing to save the lives of women she's purposely burying alive? Why's the whole structure gotta fall off a cliff because they shut some gates, and why does her platoon seem blissfully aware of exactly where the cliffside will stop collapsing?

Oh, hey - why's Ben Affleck's Batman so purposefully dumb in this version? There's nothing to the additional dialogue in his meetings with Aquaman and The Flash other than some vague notion of "how cool is it the audience knows who these guys are but Bruce doesn't," which Affleck constantly undermines by smiling in weird moments. Like, Affleck seems to know what Batman doesn't. Also, does Aquaman need the money or not? I think not, but third time seems to be the charm? There's that bit when Momoa starts walking back into the ocean after one of the conversations that remains weirdly Whedonian where he stumbles, very uncooly, on his first step and leaves me wondering if Snyder purposely sought out bad takes. What is the deal with Aquaman?

Does Snyder harbor some secret anger towards Amber Heard and Gal Gadot? Are hot dogs his absolute least favorite food? How Barry could ever catch a glimpse of those fleshy wrecks and not immediately gag is beyond me.

Anyway, here's where I stop complaining because <i>all of this is good, actually</i>. I don't mean good in the meme-y Scorcese bit, but this does truly make good on every promise of anti-cinema the hybrid theatrical cut crept along. The tone is so chaotic as to define reason, that chaos only enhanced by this bonanza of pointlessness. There's two short films about Cyborg's origins that helpfully define his powers while continuing to refuse answers as to why he's involved in this movie (other than fully establishing Joe Morton is here as a reference to Terminator 2), a short film about Thymescira that continues to short change every woman in an Amazonian uniform's acting ability, a short film about The Flash trying to get a job at a doggy daycare with the aforementioned hideous hotdogs and an unconsciously creepy rescue of a damsel in distress. Yes, yes, Cyborg was the emotional core of the film all along as it turns out and Fuck Whedon™ for that, but if you get to the end of that with anything but, "so...Chris Terrio needed a hacker for his finale, I guess?" I applaud your imagination.

I say short film because all of these sequences are seriously 10-20 minutes long, and if you've seen the original cut they don't add much to this movie other than what I really appreciate about it which is an outright refutation of thoughtfulness. You could watch this with rapt attention or walk in and out of the room every fifteen minutes and be no less prepared for what's taking place, but in either scenario you'd be smart to wear a goofy looking grin. This gleefully stupid little monster is so fucking nuts, man. It's like it both knows and doesn't know this story's already been told (not just this story, like the comics and Injustice and all that, literally this story, y'know?), eschewing internal logic at all times in favor of whatever the next "cool" idea is.

Like, say, a Knightmare?

Certain climaxes from the original arrive like a Final Fantasy VII Remake fever dream (if you know, you know) and there are two full hours of runtime that concern, oh, the final thirty minutes of the original cut. Two full hours that, of course, defy all description and logic and ought to just be seen for yourself. Just know that scattered across all we already knew about this story are unsubtle allusions to the themes of The Godfather and Lord of the Rings, and listen - "Fuck," says Batman. "Fuck," says me. Justice League is many troubling things for any cineaste, but if ambition and gall are your bag...good for Zach Snyder, man.

He doesn't always make the right choices with his projects and at this point it's clear he never will, but if this is how DC wants to refute <i>Infinity War</i> and <i>Endgame</i>, fine and please, thanks! I'm just sad all the men in this movie with a frothy crush on Wonder Woman don't realize she's the level of clinically insane that fell in love with a single man nearly, what, 4,900 years into her life and then, upon losing him, chose a life of solitude until the day she was able to insert his soul into another man's body and use that man as a sex toy. Oh, she's also dumb enough to keep her magical golden armor in storage for these big world-ending alien battles only to later get it beaten to shreds by a woman who became an Animorph. Shame on this franchise's treatment of Wonder Woman. And yet...

This franchise is bonkers and I love it!

2.5/5

I loved it, definitely needed the 4 hours and was good to watch on a streaming service where you can pause at times or watch over a course. Felt like binging a short series.

Definitely his best movie for DC(besides maybe watchmen), and much much better than whatever BVS was. Shows that they should have given these movies time instead of just rushing to be like avengers. Most fans agree too, I'm glad that the fans went for it as I had serious doubts after BVS, and for me Snyder is very hit or miss.

I hope they bring back the snyderverse as a HBO Max series type deal, as I think this proves he is a great director for a longer series where he can actually flesh out his ideas as I think cutting is his worst skill as shown in BVS with over long sequences that added nothing.

@av_gamer: If you think about it, Avengers infinity war and endgame are both 3 hours long and basically one big ass movie which would really be 6 hours long. It's something Warner Bro's didn't let the directors do, break things down and take their time to build the characters and the universe. I think there were 3 or 4 mcu movies before the first avengers. Batman didn't even get a solo movie before BVS and his character in that made no sense as they didn't build up any backstory as to why he's different from all the other versions (branding people, wanting to kill superman etc)