The Justice League we’ve been waiting for
The Synder Cut of the Justice League finally aired last week following pressure from the DC fandom to #ReleaseTheSynderCut and it was well worth the wait.
The Josh Whedon version of the Justice League which hit cinema back in 2017 was a jumbled mess of a movie with scenes which were merely stitched together to lead up to a final battle. There are numerous rumours to why this theatrical version was ultimately released but here’s my understanding of the situation.
Zack Synder finished filming the 4 hour version of the Justice League with just post production and CGI left to complete before release, however Warner Bros requested that the run time of the movie be reduced to 2 hours.
At about the same time Zack Synder suffered a personal tragedy, his daughter Autumn took her own life which forced him to leave the project, Josh Whedon was recruited by the studio to finish the movie.
The reason why Warner Bros employed the services of Josh Whedon was due to the work he delivered on the successful Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, DC were playing “catch up” to the MCU (the Infinity Saga) and wanted to incorporate some of the MCU magic into their movies believing this to be the answer to their box office shortcomings.
Josh Whedon’s first impression of Zack Synder’s version of the movie was that it was too dark and needed more lighthearted elements to make it appeal to a wider audience, this tone had obviously worked well for the MCU and so why would the same formula not work for DC.
The combination of the need to reduce the runtime coupled with Josh Whedon’s director ego to “put his own stamp on the movie” and make the dialogue and visuals of the original film “less dark” lead to almost 1.5 hours worth of re-shot material. Only 30 minutes of the Zack Synder version was used in the theatrical release of the movie in 2017…….. and it bombed!
The re-shoots (especially the scenes) with Henry Cavill were unnecessary and the CGI required to remove his moustache (which he was under contract to keep whilst filming Mission Impossible) were awful. Josh Whedon tried to crowbar in comical moments which unfortunately didn’t resonate with the audience and the movie rightly was slandered by the critics. It was obvious to all that this was a patched up farce rushed through to capitalise on the superhero movie hype at the time; the movie didn’t flow and the time required to develop characters and provide adequate and compelling story arcs were sacrificed to achieve the runtime target.
So the fandom took to social media armed with the hashtag #ReleaseTheSynderCut to vent their frustrations with the latest offering from the DCEU and despite the budget required to complete the post production and CGI to create Zack Synder’s masterpiece, the powers that be yielded to the demands and the Synder Cut was delivered.
As soon as you begin to watch this movie you can sense the director’s passion, his complete immersion into the universe and his vision — Zack has already written outline scripts for movies all the way up to JL3, he understands the universe and what the goal ultimately is. Some may think this is just an extended version of the theatrical version but they’re dead wrong, it is completely different with similar scenes to the theatrical version however these scenes are now fleshed out with backstory and developed characters, the movie flows better and is gripping from start to finish.
Although this movie has an epic 4 hour runtime — it is absolutely worth it, nothing feels wasted (except for the song the women sang for Aquaman near the start of the movie), the character backstories and development are completely necessary and make the story make sense which is more than can be said for the theatrical version. I always remember the scene from the Josh Whedon theatrical version where the heroes meet with Commissioner Gordon by the Bat Signal and they’re having a conversation about the parademons which had no background, they’d kidnapped some scientists but when did we see this happen in the movie or even hear about it, then Cyborg turns up and says his dad has also been taken in addition to the other scientists (with whom you also have no emotional connection to) and then they all vanish mid conversation except for the Flash who says “that’s rude” before vanishing himself, now in the Synder Cut this scene made so much more sense and I had an emotion connect to the kidnapped victims. Just little elements like this can be the fine lines between making a movie and a movie losing its audience.
Dedicated to his late daughter Autumn — there are moments where you know the Synder Cut has been dedicated in her memory before you get to the end (where it is put on screen) and the rendition of Hallelujah in the post movie credits brought tears to my eyes. I can’t help it, I cry whenever I see a good movie, tears of satisfaction or emotion but it shows that the movie was good enough to resonate and move me, which ultimately is what movies should do and why we watch them.
So the Synder Cut is the Justice League movie we all deserved and I’m happy that it was eventually made. The social media warriors certainly did the world a favour by not letting this go, I just hope DC continue with the Zack Synder vision as it seems to be the best path for the franchise.
