Zack Snyder’s Justice League is an action-adventure film, directed by Zack Snyder (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 300). The reason the director’s name is in the title is because of the fact this movie came out before in 2017. That version of the film was directed by Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but it was originally going to be directed by Snyder. After a family tragedy involving his daughter, Zack decided he needed to step away from the project, and Warner Brothers decided to give Joss Whedon the director’s chair. After the movie was released on November 17, 2017, it received a lot of criticism for changing Snyder’s creative vision, and altogether making the film worse. Due to the negative feedback of the film, fans wanted to see Snyder’s version of the movie, but many people denied its existence. Now three years later, Zack Snyder has partnered with HBO Max to release his definitive version of the film.

   The film takes place after the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which ends with the death of Superman. Now that the Man of Steel is dead, an ancient threat has reawakened, and Batman must bring together a group of the world’s greatest heroes to stop Steppenwolf and his army of parademons. 

   What might turn a lot of people off about this movie is the four-hour length. However, Snyder thought of this and split it up into seven different parts. This works out if you wanted to make the film into a miniseries that would be around half an hour per part on average. Although the movie is four hours long, the pacing of the movie is great, which does not make it feel like four hours. It always feels like there is something going on and it never gets boring. Another reason that the movie is good is because of the references to the comics. Snyder is known for taking his movies far too seriously, and sometimes that means that there are typically barely any funny references to the comics. In this movie, however, that is not the case. In a scene where Flash is in a pet store applying for a job, he notices a woman about to be run over. He saves the woman from being run over, and quickly runs back to the pet store and feeds a dog a hot dog that he got at a hot dog cart, which is a reference to the character’s sense of humor in the comics. Speaking of Flash, his character along with Cyborg completely steals the spotlight from the rest of the cast. Their characters are more likeable and more true to source material from the comics. 

   The great pacing of the movie falls apart at the epilogue, even though this section of the movie features one of the best scenes of the film. The epilogue gives a follow-up to each character showing what happened after Justice League. The standout scene from the epilogue is the presence of Jared Leto’s Joker. In Suicide Squad Leto has been criticized for his portrayal of the character, but in this movie he steals the show.

   One downside to this movie is the fact that it sets up a lot of exciting content for the future that may never happen because the DC extended universe (DCEU) is based on the 2017 version of the film. This has sparked many fans to want DC to bring back Zack Snyder’s version of the universe. The phrase “#RestoreTheSnyderVerse” has reached over a million tweets over the week it released.  This has caused some people to worry that this movie may start a trend of remaking movies for no reason. For example, the Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony (Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) have said that they might make a six-hour cut of Avengers: Endgame, even though the movie is already great, and it is three hours long. Another problem with the movie is the portrayal of Batman and Superman. Both characters do not feel like their comic book counterparts. For example, Batman is known for being reluctant to join the Justice League, but in the movie he is the one who puts it together. Superman is known for being a kind and hopeful character, but in this movie upon his return, he attacks the team of heroes. Even Wonder Woman and Aquaman did not have much to do in the film.

   Overall, the movie had its ups and downs, but the experience of watching it after being teased about its existence and being told that it was going to be actually released over a year ago was an awesome feeling. This movie is for people who were dissatisfied with Justice League in 2017, people who are interested in the DC universe, or even for those who enjoy the historical aspect of a filmmaker actually going back and making their movie the correct way. 

   Zack Snyder’s Justice League is streaming exclusively on HBO Max with a physical version of it coming out very soon.