Review: Zack Snyder’s Justice League
More Zack Snyder, less Justice League
What is most notable about Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t really the film itself, but the story of its making. It is, ultimately, a redemption story for its creator.
Many film productions have been marred by studio interference, reshoots, and the midstream switching of directorial horses, but not since Apocalypse Now has a director so drastically altered his movie in the process of releasing a director’s cut. And even that comparison falls to pieces. Francis Coppola, after all, was reshooting his own film, whereas the narrative in this case is that Zack Snyder has wrenched his movie back from the jaws of another director entirely. Like superheroes themselves, in order to review this movie, it is first necessary to understand its backstory.
After Mr. Snyder was tasked with overseeing the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), the comic giant’s answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), he directed 2013’s Man of Steel and 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. He had previously directed the adaptation of Watchmen in 2009, another DC superhero property, to receptions which were, for the most part, satisfied. His Superman and Batman films, by contrast, landed like lead bricks, and were skewered viciously by critics for years after their release. The latter film, in…
