Justice League: the Snyder do-over

Allegedly, this Snyder Cut happened via HBO Max through the fans. Who these people are, I have yet to meet one. I do readily admit to enjoying Snyder’s 300 and he did the best job possible with The Watchmen, a story that works better as a miniseries (also see Dune, LA Confidential and The Foundation Trilogy). I didn’t like his take on Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman via his two films leading to this mess. They were just weak and it’s how I would’ve done those stories when I was a teenager being heavily influenced by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Uncanny X-Men.

So, is Snyder’s version better than what was released four years ago? Not by a long shot. As the saying goes, you can’t polish a turd. I will give Snyder credit for being more complete in the story since DC Fans (myself included) always knew the villain Steppenwolf was the vanguard for Darkseid, DeSaad, Kanto and Granny Goodness. They were left out of the first version. Beyond little easter eggs pointing toward a larger shared universe:

• Eventually there would be a new Green Lantern since the previous one died in the first fight to save the Earth and the ring left to find a new champion.
• Martian Manhunter appears a couple times.
• Ryan Choi works at STAR Labs, he would become the Atom.

…the movie is too damn long, bringing up the other cliché, more is less. Some scenes didn’t add to the story beyond padding the running time too. Wonder Woman defeating some nihilists was a 15-minute nothing burger.

My last beef. If Snyder intended to have Justice League shown in 4 x 3, the resolution of CRT-based TVs and cheap-ass movies, did he want this to be a flop? This was DC’s attempt to compete with the Marvel tent-pole flicks which are supposed to be 16 x 9, noisy and visually overstimulating spectacles. Or was he trying to creating an overblown TV event for the Nineties. The black bars on my TV’s sides were further proof of AT&T’s incompetence at owning beloved IPs.

In the end, the typical movie goer will have no interest in this and the majority of DC fans will continue to be bummed. I’ve said it before and I’ll continue saying it, DC needs to stick to the small screen where it has succeeded in animation and the Arrowverse. They should stop pissing away the budgets of mid-sized cities to make Razzie contenders.