The superhero film ‘Justice League’ premiered in Beijing, China, on October 26, 2017, and then was released in the United States on November 17, 2017. It stars Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, and Jason Momoa. There were high hopes that this movie would receive critical acclaim and achieve commercial success. Unfortunately, box office figures are not quite as good as was expected.
As a result of this, fans of DC Comics and films based on their characters have taken to Change.org. They are petitioning to Warner Bros., the distributors of this film, to release the unaltered version of the film as it was when Zack Snyder was the director.
Zack Snyder was the original director of this film and he was involved in the project right from the start. Although he is still credited as a director, he was unable to see the film through to the end. He chose to pull out of the movie when he suffered a personal tragedy.
One of his daughters, Autumn, commit suicide during the filming process. Autumn was the daughter he adopted with his first wife, Denise Weber. Snyder has three other children, one of whom is also adopted, with Weber, two sons from his relationship with Kirsten Elin, and two adopted children with current wife Deborah Johnson. Following the tragic death of his daughter, Zack Snyder wanted to spend time with his family and grieve away from the public eye.
At the time, ‘Justice League’ was in post-production and this was a process Snyder was unable to see through. Instead, Joss Whedon was brought in to oversee the rest of post-production and finish the reshoots. He was chosen as he was also the director of ‘The Avengers’ and would understand the film better than many other directors.
However, fans are not impressed with the final version of ‘Justice League’ and are blaming Joss Whedon for the end result. They are hoping that by getting people to sign the petition, Warner Bros will release the version of the film with Snyder’s director’s cuts and the score by Tom Holkenberg.
The fan leading the petition is Roberto Mata from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He has written a lengthy statement in support of the petition that fully outlines why fans are disappointed and offers reasons why Snyder’s version should be released instead.
It is not just the directorial style of the film that the fans are questioning, it is also the length of the film, which was shorter than Warner Bros. originally promised fans. They are also particularly perturbed that the score by Tom Holkenburg no longer exists and the score for the movie is now written by Danny Elfman. Fans feel that Warner Bros. has gone back on their word to stick to Zack Snyder’s vision in the production of this movie.
While it may seem ridiculous to many that a fan can start a petition and change the actions of a big film distribution company, but it already has over 28,000 signatures in support. It is difficult to say whether Snyder’s version is better or worse than the version that is now released. As things stand, ‘Justice League’ has received mixed reviews from critics and moviegoers alike.
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