Overall verdict: 9/10
The Good: Captivating visuals, intense action, dynamic camerawork, top notch visual effects, witty energetic dialogue, decently paced, near perfect portrayal of comic book characters, great acting.
The Bad: repetitive background music, lacks thematic depth of previous Zack Snyder movies.
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ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE is the version of 2017’s JUSTICE LEAGUE without the notorious reshoots and rewrites. Longer, prettier, and more cohesive, it is still very much the same movie in terms of the story’s broad strokes. Superman has died saving the world and a deadly alien warlord known as Steppenwolf seizes this opportunity to commence his conquest of earth by tracking down 3 powerful artefacts known as the Motherboxes. Meanwhile Batman, racked with guilt for his part leading up to Superman’s death, hopes to atone for it by gathering a team of super powered individuals to combat this looming threat.
To go into the controversy surrounding 2017’s Justice League and the journey leading up to the release of ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE would require a whole separate article or several. Hence this review will only be about this movie and how it holds up on its own. The answer to that is “very well”. It holds up as a definitive sequel to 2016’s BATMAN V SUPERMAN, taking place immediately after the tragic events of that movie with a slow burn almost mystery style build up before Steppenwolf makes his first appearance.
Meanwhile we are slowly introduced to the 3 new heroes: the Aquaman aka Arthur Curry, the Flash aka Barry Allen and Victor Stone aka The Cyborg. Structurally the movie is split into 7 chapters and I love how this mimics the experience of reading a comic book series issue by issue.
The build up is a nicely paced one balancing the looming threat of Steppenwolf with the separate character plot threads. Just as it starts to overstay its welcome, we are thrown headlong into the first of many action scenes.
Zack Snyder is in his element here! The action is intense with dynamic camerawork and amazing displays of power. Visual effects are used a lot but thanks to the masterful color grading and stylised lighting, they look very good. Steppenwolf himself is amazing in motion, a true beast of a villain brought to life by some of the best CGI work in a movie to date thanks to WETA Digital studio.
One of Steppenwolf’s earliest sequences that stood out was the Amazon warriors defending a motherbox against him.
Where one of Joss Whedon’s rewrites in 2017’s JUSTICE LEAGUE made the Amazons’ fear of Steppenwolf and his parademons a plot point, this version returns the Amazon women to the fearless fighters first seen in 2017’s WONDER WOMAN. Though clearly outmatched and overwhelmed, the valiant Amazon women fought with such strength and resolve in a style harkening back to Snyder’s 300.
At just over 4 hours, Zack Snyder’s JUSTICE LEAGUE is split into separate chapters, mimicking the experience of reading issues of a comic book series. Though the first and second chapter do jump around a bit as it does with introducing and fleshing out different characters, the plot threads come together as one cohesive whole once the heroes are all gathered by the third chapter.
Every hero has their chance to shine, their own personal arcs, fleshed out and developed very well, taking full advantage of the long run time.
Dialogue and interactions are done with that sense of wit and energy befitting the work of academy award winning scriptwriter Chris Terrio. Thanks to that, Ben Affleck’s Batman, Ezra Miller’s Flash and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg are the real standout performances. Affleck portrays a Batman that is uncannily close to his comic counterpart, having abandoned his more extreme violent methods seen in Batman V Superman.
The way he talks, the body language, his leadership of this new team of superheroes, straight out the comics. Now Miller’s Flash is living proof that you do not need overt jokes and slapstick humor to be funny. Instead of being portrayed as this bumbling comic relief, Barry Allen is smart, witty, still a little awkward but in a charming sort of way. His expressiveness sells every scene whether lighthearted or tragic.
And finally Ray Fisher. His role got the most cut out of it previously but here it is al restored. Taking cues from the more tragic Cyborg character originally conceived by writer Marv Wolfman, Vic Stone’s origin story, angst and troubled relationship with his father are played out perfectly by this amazing actor.
That is not to say that the other 3 heroes of Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Superman turn in weak performances no. It is just that they have less to do in the plot. Diana is the emotional pillar of strength that the team rallies around and Aquaman is the cynical gruff foil to The Flash’s idealistic personality. Superman is in the movie for even less but his presence is a strong one with his return, reunion with his loved ones and journey of rediscovery is very emotional. But once the action ramps up, it is these 3 who deliver the most on the larger than life epic action.
Epic is exactly what Zack Snyder’s JUSTICE LEAGUE is! It delivers in all respects, concluding a journey started in 2013’s MAN OF STEEL while still leaving enough room for any possible future expansions. The only area where I might nitpick a couple of short comings (and this are very minor nitpicks too) is in the often repetitive sounding music by Tom Holkenborg and that this movie is not as thematically deep as Snyder’s past movies. It does dip in to some questions on the morality of exercising absolute power in Cyborg’s case but that’s about it.
Beyond those nitpicks, I adored the grandiose almost operatic feel of this movie. Yes it is long and I feel that length is appropriate for a movie of this scale. However if there was just maybe a Cyborg origin movie before this, the movie could have easily been trimmed down to a more comfortable length. Nonetheless, This is “Lord of the Rings” for superhero movies. A true visual feast! I loved every minute of it and I would happily watch ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE again and again just to unpackage all the little details in there. Or at least until my HBO GO subscription expires.
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Entertainment: A
Story: A-
Acting: A
Acting: A
Characters: A
Music: B-
Replay value: A
"Brains": B-
