It was 2017 when Justice League was officially released to the public . The movie was initially directed by Zack Snyder . However , on March
12 , 2017 , his 20-year old daughter Autumn Snyder committed suicide . Because of this , Zack and his wife Deborah , who was a producer of the film , had to step out of the production . When the couple left , the
movie was already in its post-production phase , and Joss Whedon was then hired to finish the movie with extensive rewrites and hurried
reshoots which the studio demanded .
The 300 million dollar budget movie was
deemed as a disaster and was sneered at by both fans and critics alike . According to Peter Travers of the Rolling Stone , “ In the end , this allstar team-up is too afraid of the dark to work its way into our dreams .” Deborah Snyder even said to her husband that “ You can never see that movie .”
The fans , however , did not give up . They took to social media , demanding that Warner Bros . return Justice League to its original filmmaker and allow him to share his original vision of what the movie should have looked like .
Fans finally got their wish granted when Warner Studios saw the potential for something quite extraordinary on its streaming service , HBO Max . Soon enough , the Snyder Cut was released on March 18 , 2021 .
The plot directly follows the events of Batman v Superman : Dawn of Justice . The movie starts when the three ancient Mother Boxes reactivate after being asleep for a thousand years . This grabs the attention of the movie ’ s new villain ,
Darkseid , who sends his servant Steppenwolf and his pack to retrieve them for him . They successfully retrieve the Mother Boxes of
Themyscira and Atlantis , thus urging Queen Hippolyta to send a warning message to man ’ s world . The message is received by Wonder Woman and she informs Batman and they set out to form a team of
Metahumans composed of the Flash , Aquaman , and Cyborg . The movie ultimately culminates in a final battle between this new Justice
League and Steppenwolf , ending with the defeat and death of the latter .
From the get-go , the movie adopts a darker tone than the theatrical cut . It sets the tone for the atmosphere and
environment by using darker colors and a 4:3 aspect ratio , a ratio more comparable to an amateur YouTube video than a million-dollar blockbuster movie . Aside from that , there is also more extensive use
of blood in the film as when the Justice League engages in combat with the parademons , those creatures are shown to explicitly bleed and
ooze out blood . All of these contribute to the darker and deeper tone of the Snyder Cut as compared to the original .
The film also does well in giving better characterization to characters whose stories were rushed in the theatrical cut . Two characters in particular stand out the most :
Cyborg and the Flash . Cyborg is given a well-defined backstory and motivations . He feels human and the audience gets to relate and
resonate with his story . The Flash is another character that was left underutilized in the Whedon ’ s version . In the Snyder Cut , a lot more time is spent seeing the world through Barry Allen ’ s eyes such as
when he interacts with his father and when he saves a young woman from a collision with a truck . A crowning moment of character
development for the Flash would have to be near the end of the movie when he goes past his limit and uses the “ Speed Force ” to turn back time . This scene was not present in the theatrical cut and just
goes to show just how much was left on the cutting room floor by Whedon .
However , a weakness still present from the original release is how Superman is used simply as a Mary Sue-ish
messiah . Although how his story develops in the Snyder Cut is better than how it unfolds in the original movie , it still feels like the Man of
Steel is a basic boy scout , which is not how he has traditionally been presented . Superman is a symbol for hope and all the complexities involved with hope . Despite his invulnerable surface , within his
character lies a multitude of vulnerabilities . This is what the DC Cinematic Universe still fails to understand and tap into .
According to SambaTV , the film garnered around 2.2 million viewers in the first full week , this is less than the 3
million viewers of Wonder Woman 1984 . However , Bloomberg is reporting that HBO Max had an 8.9 % jump in video streaming during
the opening week , which in part was due to the release of the Snyder Cut .
All in all , fans were happy at the result of the movie . For them , it was a success as it was drastically better than the
original Joss Whedon version .
The Snyder Cut was a dream come true for the fans as it proved that with a little determination and support , ordinary people have the power to change big things .
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