Zack Snyder's Justice League

Earth is in danger- Steppenwolf has arrived and is seeking the three mother boxes, hidden long ago and kept safe by different peoples. Once collected and linked, it will give him the power to remake the Earth and prepare it for Darkseid's rule. But Earth has faced this threat before- in ancient times, Amazonians, Atlanteans, and humans banded together to defeat the aliens and protect the mother boxes. Now, it's up to Batman to unify a band of heroes to ward off the threat . . . but do they have any hope without Superman?

The original Justice League movie was released in 2017. That movie wasn't great, for two main reasons: concept (DC produced this movie without previous movies for Cyborg, Flash, and Aquaman, meaning we had no backstory on those and the whole movie seemed poorly developed as a result) and execution (due to family tragedy, the director changed from Zack Snyder to Joss Whedon partway through filming, leading to a disjointed experience). Fans cried out for what might have been, with Zack Snyder hinting that his version of the film, had he been able to complete it, would have been much different. So they let him! They brought the actors back for re-shoots and enabled Snyder to complete his vision. Hence Zack Snyder's Justice League. How did he fare?

Pretty well, actually. This movie is a whopping 4 hours long. Adding footage doesn't inherently add quality (see Batman vs. Superman theatrical vs. ultimate cuts as case in point), but here, Snyder gave more backstory to characters we hadn't previously seen and fleshed out the plot in satisfying ways. I was surprised just how much changed- he didn't just add a bunch of scenes to the existing work, he went back and changed a lot, removing certain scenes or altering them to better fit his vision. It is a completely different movie. It's hard to get through in one sitting- I did it in four, actually- and some problems still exist, but this version is notably better than the original.

A final note: Snyder's daughter committed suicide during the production of the first movie, and I couldn't help but notice a theme of relationships with parents in this new version. The film is dedicated to her; a suitable tribute.

Rating: A-