Why The Zack Snyder's Justice League Reviews Are So Positive
Zack Snyder's Justice League is getting a mix of decent reviews ahead of its release, with critics saying while it improves on the theatrical version and provides excellent immersion, the new Snyder Cut feels too long. At four hours, this critique was probably unavoidable – is Zack Snyder's Justice League a movie or a TV show? – but the reviews are on the whole more positive than expected and mark Zack Snyder's Justice League as a production worthy of more than just the super-engaged fandom that demanded its completion and release.
Zack Snyder was the original director of the theatrical cut of Justice League and worked on the film from pre-production in 2015 until May 2017. Snyder had shown Warner Bros. a rough cut of the film, but had to step away from director duties due to the death by suicide of his daughter, Autumn. Joss Whedon was then brought onto the project and completed significant reshoots, overhauling the story, for the theatrical cut that was released in November 2017. The DCEU has a dedicated and motivated fan base which, on the whole, is unhappy with the Whedon cut, particularly when comparing details from Snyder's original plan to the released version. The fan base started a campaign immediately, petitioning Warner Bros. to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, which was announced as an HBO Max original on 20 May 2020. Snyder and fan campaigns have also raised more than half a million dollars for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Zack Snyder's films have always received mixed reviews, often splitting critics and franchise fans in separate camps. His direction of two prior DCEU movies, Man of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, received mostly negative critic reviews but positive audience reception – inspiring a fierce fandom that would go on to fight for Zack Snyder's Justice League's release. Many of Snyder's non-DCEU projects have inspired a similarly divisive reception from critics and fans, including 300, Watchmen, and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Many critics are sure to write off the new version of Justice League while many fans are certain to love it no matter what. Which is why it's surprising that early critic reviews are – if not singing its praises – mildly positive.
Owen Gleiberman, Variety:
"It’s a grand, nimble, and immersive entertainment, a team-of-heroes origin story that, at heart, is classically conventional, yet it’s now told with such an intoxicating childlike sincerity and ominous fairy-tale wonder that it takes you back to what comic books, at their best, have always sought to do: make you feel like you’re seeing gods at play on Earth."
Karen Han, Slate:
"Snyder's Justice League is more, more, more in a way that most films wouldn't dare, and, after a year of no theaters at all... to see more movies that commit so completely to a vision that it's impossible not to be swept away."
Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair:
"Watching Snyder's intermittently rewarding epic - if nothing else a spectacle of completed vision - stirred up surprising emotions."
Alex Abad-Santos, Vox:
"What Snyder built is a much better movie, so much that I wanted to go back to my review of the original cut and dock it a few more points."
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com:
"This four-hour cut is the kind of brazen auteurist vision that Martin Scorsese was calling for when he complained (rightly) that most modern superhero movies don't resemble cinema as he's always understood and valued it."
Many critics have praised the six-part, four-hour film for being an ambitious take on the superhero genre that depicts its heroes as gods. It's swings for the fences, and delivers something that's difficult to not get wrapped up in. And many have said that, compared to the theatrical version, Snyder's take is a huge improvement, with one even calling it an auterist film that's unique in the sea of superhero movies. Meanwhile, other critics have been more conservative in their praise. The main criticism seems to be the length of the production:
John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter:
"Even a good superhero flick (and this definitely isn't) shouldn't be this long."
Maya Philips, The New York Times:
"The film seems to want more of everything except the quality that it most needs, and the quality that it seems to only comprehend in the abstract."
Philip De Semlyen, Time Out:
"It's all a bit #ReleaseTheDeletedScenes."
Todd McCarthy, Deadline:
"One could easily damn Justice League with faint praise for its single-minded sense of purpose, exceptional technical expertise and consistency of tone. You could more easily lambast it for the same reasons. It just drones un-varyingly along, like a spaceship on a very long journey."
The more negative-leaning reviews highlight the notion that the story is basically the same as the theatrical version, though twice as long with all of the deleted scenes and characters in it. But the end result, by and large, is roughly the same - including its quality. No matter the reviews, the fandom that so fiercely fought for the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League appear to have what they wanted. And they will love it no matter what the critics say.
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