Fans of Zack Snyder’s Justice League have been expressing interest for quite some time about getting Snyder’s original cut and not the final version which saw Joss Whedon’s vision mixed in. However, the trailer we just received for the “Snyder Cut” doesn’t seem all that different, despite the $30m budger Snyder and company have to make this version of the film exclusively for the HBO Max streaming service.
Okay, so the first thing you will notice is that Darkseid gets a little more screen time but even with that, we assume his presence in the movie will be nothing more than a Thanos end-of-credits sequence since Steppenwolf will remain the major villain. We also couldn’t help but notice that the trailer shows off a lot of… what we have already seen but from a different angle. It almost looks like Snyder wanted to reshoot anything that Whedon did just because it was Whedon who shot it, and not because the reshoots dramatically improve and reflect more of Snyder’s original vision. Plus, we would be remiss not to remind you that a lot of what this movie contains are simply deleted scenes, which makes us wonder just where the $30m budget is going. If we had to guess, that likely ended up going strictly into the CGI for Darkseid and making Metropolis look like a desolate wasteland.
Speaking from personal opinion, as I most always do, I just don’t get why we are getting this movie as it seems more of just a remake of a few scenes rather than some unique overhaul and take on Snyder’s original vision. Sure, maybe some would say that the teaser looks better than the original movie but let’s not forget that 90% of Justice League was from Zack Snyder. Hell, even the original trailer looked better than the original movie (except for the Doomsday spoiler). Look, it’s not like the whole movie was completely reshot after Snyder stepped down and Whedon opted to come in and remake the whole thing. Also, with Synder having left the original film towards the end of production, we really need to stop calling this the ‘Snyder Cut’. It’s the exact same movie with the same scenes being reshot or being added with a $30m budget. Calling it the Snyder Cut suggests that there was an original movie that was completed by Snyder and then chopped up to insert Whedon’s vision, which is just not how things went down.
This whole thing is super weird to me but in full transparency, I have to say that I am not a fan of Zack Snyder, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. The guy knows how to set up a shot, sure, but his movies more frequently face heavy criticism rather than acclaim or favor. What I am saying is that I honestly don’t know anyone who goes to see a movie just because Zack Snyder directed or produced it (although I am sure there are dozens of them out there) but rather the intellectual property that he somehow managed to get his hands involved in and name stamped on. If anything, all the Snyder-Verse DC films straight-up disappointed and left most wanting and these films deserved so much better. If anything, I am prepared to see this slightly altered version of the original but my expectations are being met with a reminder that the DCEU kind of sucks, largely in part to Snyder and not Whedon (keep in mind that BvS was all Snyder). Not that Whedon did the DCEU any favors, but I always considered Whedon was pretty much just trying to glue together a broken glass vase that Snyder dropped and shattered to pieces.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League remake with about 10% of anything new and original will stream exclusively on HBO Max in 2021.