Ask a fan of Zack Snyder whether the Snyder Cut was successful and they’ll likely point out the fact that people flooded the network trying to see it. Ask someone that’s looking at it from a critical standpoint and you’ll get another story since like it or not, there are still just as many questions concerning the Snyder Cut as there were for the original Justice League by Joss Whedon. It’s not really a desire to bring down anyone that happened to like the Snyder Cut, but more of a response to those that want to say that anyone that didn’t like the Snyder Cut doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Much as the Whedon version had a lot of miscues and unanswered questions, the Snyder Cut was filled with plenty of moments that should have rightfully made the fans say “Wtf?” since there are plenty of moments that appear to be there just for the sheer imagery that they were created for, as Snyder is known to enjoy placing in his movies. In some movies, this kind of effect is great since the imagery has a lot to do with the movie itself, but watching Barry Allen and Arthur Curry save different people in their respective areas without connecting the moments to the movie in any discernible way was enough to make some people think that Snyder was taking a lot of liberties with the fact that he was allowed to come back and plan out a 4-hour long movie.
Let’s talk about Wonder Woman’s random ‘save the day’ moment as well, considering that it wasn’t really connected to the movie either but was another chance to make her look cool, right until she started laying terrorists out in full sight of the hostages, which might have traumatized them in the process. It’s true that other superhero movies have done this same kind of thing, but no one’s stating that they’re innocent, since the trauma that is inflicted is real. Consider this, after flinging the bomb that the terrorists, who had no goal other than pure destruction, had put in the building, Wonder Woman then clapped her bracers together and basically annihilated the remaining terrorist, and even blew out a massive chunk of the building, possibly endangering the same people she was trying to save. Then, just to sweeten the moment, she smiles at a little girl who somehow overcomes any and all trauma and asks how she can be like Wonder Woman. Oh yes, it’s touching, and it’s something that once again bends the knee to social consciousness in a manner that’s almost sickeningly sweet.
But apart from those moments, let’s get back into the movie and the fact that Steppenwolf is a little different, even if this isn’t a great thing since his spiky armor doesn’t really take away the fact that instead of being evil and bent on his task, he’s now more like a whipped dog trying to please his master, Darkseid, who is pure evil apparently and is excited to hear that the Anti-life equation is there on earth. Of course, we hear a little more about this, but not that much, since the whole idea is for the Justice League to take on Steppenwolf and his parademons, who actually appear to be a little tougher than Steppenwolf this time since they give Batman way more grief than they did in the Whedon version, even though they don’t stack up against the metahumans. Even the Flash can take them out fairly easily, but when it comes to anyone above a parademon, Barry is kind of better off being backup, since despite the idea that his speed can help him pack one heck of a punch and he should be able to move faster than Steppenwolf, he’s still kind of an outlier on the team when it comes to power and usefulness. There’s just so much wrong with this movie that it’s amazing to think that people don’t want to see it while they focus on the few upsides that it has, meaning they like the fact that the league has come together, Martian Manhunter showed up, and Darkseid was finally shown in all his ugly glory. Apart from that, this thing feels like a mess that was slapped together around the Whedon version in order to tack on a couple of extra hours and a lot more exposition, some of which didn’t make a lot of sense when adding it in.
But like it or not, a lot of Snyder fans have convinced themselves that it was life-changing, excellent, and have decided that anyone who says otherwise is just wrong without any need for explaining why. That kind of blind devotion is a little sad really, since it also ignores the reason that HBO Max was having trouble keeping up with the number of users was that people were excited to see it, but evidently not that many were willing to admit that what they’d been hoping for didn’t happen. Yes, it was that bad.
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