RATING: B
The very fact that this alternate cut exists is rather remarkable in of itself; it came almost purely off an aggressive Internet campaign from DC fans who correctly guessed that the product we saw in theaters was not what Zack Snyder had envisioned. Snyder, who was already battling with WB execs over the direction of the movie, stepped away from production in early 2017 after the death of his daughter. Joss Whedon took over the production from there, and there were a lot of reshoots, and the tone was irrevocably affected by Whedon's influence. Eventually it was acknowledged that the "Snyder cut" existed, but that it was in an unfinished state, and WB had no interest in pursuing such a project at that point. And yet the aggressive Internet campaign continued, with the support of some of the cast themselves... until finally in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic and looking for ideas, WB pretty much said "screw it" and caved in, calling up Snyder to put the finishing touches on his work and releasing it to HBO Max--and eventually to home video.
Whether one has much interest in this movie/franchise or not, it's still impressive that that we did get the Snyder Cut after all. It's not particularly typical for a movie that was a failure upon its original release and with a studio that clearly did not care one bit about the idea, to get a "Director's Cut" like this. Also, normally Director's Cuts or extended editions do not change the movie *that* much; they might include previously cut things that help improve the movie or the experience, but with occasional exceptions, they aren't "necessary" to like/appreciate the movie. But also, normally you are not dealing with two separate cuts that are made by two entirely different directors with very different visions. (Note that Snyder is still the credited director on the theatrical cut of JL, but it's very clearly more a product of Whedon than of Snyder.)
To be clear, at a basic level, the storyline between the two cuts is still the same. Superman is dead after the events of Batman vs Superman, and inspired by his sacrifice, Batman gets the idea to put together a team of heroes to face whatever threats come next; which ends up being in the form of Steppenwolf, who seeks the MacGuffins known as the three Mother Boxes in order to destroy the planet. Thus, the already-existing duo Batman and Wonder Woman must team up with The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg to stop Steppenwolf and his Parademons. And of course, if you saw the Whedon Cut or even just looked at the poster for this one, you know that Superman will be involved at some point too, despite being dead at the start of this movie.
All of this is still the same. But the way the storyline is told, as well as the details, are shockingly different. It was revealed before the Snyder Cut came out that less than *half* of the Whedon Cut was actually Snyder's original work. And when you consider that the Whedon Cut was just under two hours while this one clocks in at a behemoth of *four hours* (so long they have to split it into two discs for the DVD release!), that leaves at least two hours worth of footage that was cut out. (The math may not quite add up there, but I'll explain why later. There is a *lot* to unpack here, by virtue of this easily being the longest movie I've ever reviewed on here and also having to compare it directly to another cut of said movie.)
There is a lot that is different here, so I will start with what has been improved. One of the biggest problems with the Whedon Cut was characterization/character development. Three of the members of the Justice League make their first appearances here, with no prior introduction before that (Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg). Properly introducing and developing them in just two hours in a movie like JL was essentially impossible. With four hours it's still a bit of a tall order, but Snyder makes it work better.
Getting to spend more time with the new characters does a lot to make us like them more; Cyborg and Flash both benefit nicely from this. Flash is not just the plucky comic relief anymore that can run really fast; he has his own arc. Cyborg, however, is where one of the biggest differences comes into play. As it turns out, his character arc is one of the more critical ones in this movie; both because of his connection to the MacGuffins, and because of the redemptive arc he has. Virtually all of this was butchered out of the Whedon Cut. Ray Fisher's performance actually stands out this time, because his important character moments are actually there this time.
Also, Steppenwolf is noticeably improved as well; he was a painfully generic villain before. Here, his appearance and design are heavily improved, giving him a lot more presence; even his voice sounds a little more menacing somehow compared to before. But he also has actually been given a backstory and motive this time, giving him some actual degree of gravitas as an antagonist.
Speaking of Steppenwolf, it's more firmly established this time that he's just a lackey of DC's big bad Darkseid -- in part by having Darkseid himself show up. I don't know how you cut Darkseid out of your movie, even if his role here is minor. But even with limited screen time, he makes an impression thanks in part to good voice acting by Ray Porter. Even with him basically doing the same thing as Thanos right now by just sitting around and sending minions to do his bidding until later, we still get to see him in action thanks to an extended version of the flashback battle of alliances--in which Darkseid is leading the attack this time, all of which makes for a suitably more epic sequence.
Speaking of that extended flashback battle, that's another positive here--some of the action scenes are longer here, but without wearing out their welcome and usually to good effect. A couple of the action scenes are actually different to how they played out before; in fact, the final battle is barely recognizable and much improved over the previous one, which was undone in part by simplicity and in part by the horrific re-done CGI. There are a couple of truly awesome moments that were inexplicably cut completely out of the theatrical cut that almost by themselves help make this more worthy of feeling like a proper Justice League movie.
A lot of what was critically wrong with the theatrical cut of Justice League is fixed here. But the Snyder Cut is not without issues of its own. Namely, where the previous cut was too short, this one is longer than it needs to be. This is most notable at the end, where you can actually tell where the movie would have gone to credits if the movie had released as intended (a closing voiceover from a supporting character shortly after the final battle). Instead, we get various scenes including the Lex Luthor/Deathstroke meet-up scene that was originally a mid-credits one in the previous cut. That's all well and good, but this gets taken to the extreme when Snyder decides to feed us *brand-new* material that he filmed very recently; none of which is actually necessary, and serves to be teasers towards what *would* have been future movies... none of which are actually ever going to be made. And then there's a new "Knightmare" sequence that seems to exist at least partially just so they can put Ben Affleck's Batman and Jared Leto's Joker in the same scene; and I'm actually not sure how many people even wanted to see that.
Regardless, this movie actually "ends" about 210-ish minutes in, and the rest is just superfluous. There's an argument to be made it doesn't need to be that long either (there are certainly a few parts that were probably cut for a reason), but in order to properly develop the story and characters, it would need to be around three hours (at least). If one still gripes about the movie being that long, blame WB for not making solo movies for Cyborg, Flash or Aquaman first so that we didn't have to devote at least an hour of this thing just to introducing them properly.
That is one problem that is inherent to both cuts; the fact that WB rushed the buildup to Justice League unlike what Marvel did. Snyder shouldn't have been in the position of having to introduce half of the characters in this very movie. Snyder makes it work for the most part, but this structural problem does still hold a bit of a shadow over the movie.
Still, while Snyder does manage to pull off the act of cramming all this stuff into one movie, he does over-indulge himself a little bit. Aside from adding all the unnecessary extra scenes at the end, he leans on his trademark slow-motion effects even more than usual, including in scenes where it makes no sense to do so... such as Lois walking out of a coffee shop. And then there's the weird female-wailing-choral effect that we get in a bunch of scenes, mostly associated with Wonder Woman. Some of this stuff is the result of having a completely uncut experience without studio interference; which is mostly to this film's benefit when compared to the theatrical cut, but at times this version can feel a bit strung out as well. And if you aren't really a fan of Snyder's style, this film may be a slog to get through.
The Snyder Cut is ultimately a definite improvement over the theatrical cut; and while it does not reach the heights of the Avengers movies, it does feel much closer to being the kind of Justice League movie fans would want. A lot of the cut characterization (as well as action) adds so much to this, and between this and how much of a nightmare the production was after Snyder left (due to how much of a jerk Whedon and a couple of WB executives were apparently being), the theatrical cut now feels like an abomination rather than just mediocre. It's nice that we did get to see Snyder's actual vision for this movie in the end, and that it did end up being a better final product, even if we will likely never see what would have come later in a follow-up Justice League movie.
