Durante la espera del inesperado anuncio de esta película hablamos de las circunstancias en las que el corte teatral de “Justice League” estuvo terminado. Ahora, después de un tiempo, finalmente podemos terminar con todas las especulaciones y dar un salto definitivo a la visión auténtica que tuvo Snyder para esta epopeya de superhéroes.
As anticipated the core story elements remain almost intact; the evil Steppenwolf arrives on earth seeking the 3 mother-boxes that (when united) will unleash destruction upon the entire planet. Knowing there is a looming threat aiming towards earth, Bruce Wayne tries to gather a team of super powered individuals to stand beside him and save the world. So, were the changes really worth the alleged 70 million dollars Warner Bros spent?
Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Superman do not have massive changes story wise. When it comes to the action scenes, they do benefit from the R rating with a remarkable combo take down near the end. Steppenwolf receives not only a couple of important exposition scenes that give him a clear narrative purpose but also receives an impressive update on his look which is now actually imposing. On the other end of the spectrum, Ben Affleck’s Batman does not shine at all. His bruting days as the very best thing in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ” are behind him. Batman has always been a character riddled with guilt, but that guilt always motivated him to be a ruthless and calculating vigilante that uses every skill and gadget in his arsenal to be prepared and stand out. However, after Superman’s death, Bruce only cares about assembling a number of people that do things he cannot. Batman always managed to take matters into his own hands but this interation makes him a desperate figure that usually doesn’t know what’s happening and contributes very little. Snyder took the character that he himself built to fight Superman and literally stripped him away from all his amazing qualities apart from the money and the Alfred. You can see glimpses of a different Batman in the epilogue, if you are still watching by then.
Making a four hour movie that is constantly engaging for the audience is a very difficult task and even if it doesn’t stick the landing, the Snyder cut had the perfect pacing idea. The movie is divided into 7 separate episodes that, as a whole, make the movie. These individual episodes have their own narrative structure, rhythm and even cliff-hangers at the end, proving that this movie feels too long for a single watch because it is. The format is actually structured as a limited series and as such, it would benefit immensely with a weekly release schedule like “WandaVision” or “Falcon and the Winter Soldier”. Even more so, taking into account that this is already an extremely long movie, epilogue must be briefly addressed.
The epilogue marks the moment Snyder overstays his welcome. The inclusion of a compilation of easter eggs, cameos and an entire nightmare sequence teasing a possible sequel that is not planned for production felt more like a pitch to the audience of what Zack wanted to do in the future films, rather than an actual piece of the film. Disjointed, forced and even condescending are some of the words that can describe this 20 minute long post credit mashup of scenes.
To sum up, the Snyder cut delivers a cohesive story with a consistent tone, endearing heroes with great individual and team based moments, as well as a decent villain to oppose them. However, the removal of nice scenes from the theatrical cut, the overall length, and the forced seventh episode; dragged the otherwise decent film to a bittersweet conclusion.