So, was the Snydercut worth releasing?
Somewhat. I'm always game to see creators revisit a work that, for whatever reason, strayed from their intent. Rarely do we get to see it on this level, with a studio so willing to backtrack to the point where their initially preferred release is now widely considered a completely discardable waste. Especially since this was only 4 years ago, not 20 or 30, like the restored Nightbreed or the special edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
I still take pause due to the realm of the fandom who belligered this into existence through bullying of critics, creators, and fans of competing properties, and will criticize Snyder for ways in which he generalized to overlook those toxic pools and how they overlap with the increasingly vitriolic hate among not only broader fandoms, but society in general. Even played up to it with the "We live in a society" trailer stunt, which was complete bullshit as that line is nowhere in the film.
So it's a hand in hand scenario, where criticism needs to be aimed at both studio mistakes in the original production and the crowds the creator placated to so as to build the platform needed to make this happen. It brings us a handful of sequences of beautiful filmmaking which had been lost, and having this restoration does ultimately redeem the Snyderverse having existed, but that comes with the cost of giving a sense of power to people who will absolutely abuse it.
And Zack's trilogy still has its fumbles, its crass obsessions and vapid leaps over simple points. This film tries to firmly anchor the mythic elements of the DC pantheon with its simple yet grandiose themes of parents and children, heroes and sacrifice, and deeply rooted lore iconography. It largely captures that with the wayward king, the lone knight who needs to forge a team, the man desperate to push himself to go so fast it'll reverse the chaos of his life, the warrior who stands firm in her fight for peace, the child struggling to identify with the young man his parent literally made him. These are all strong stories. But the most necessary of them all, Superman, still doesn't sell, as it's so lost in its anger and darkness, its brutal conquest of any threat against his chosen world, its rejection of the colors of his soul even as he still claims to stand for hope. Superman is not Jesus. And Jesus is not a barbarian. By trying to mush this trinity of ideals together, Snyder never fulfills any of them. Much is made of how this is a story about the need for Superman, but never as anything more than muscle and power to hit things harder than the rest are capable of.
And the biggest issue with Snyder's career continues to be his mishandling of tones, how moments of heroism, friendship, family, serenity in a field, children being saved and inspired, alliances forged to save us all, are often deflated by his obsession with brutality, and blood splats, and severing of innocents, and civilians gunned down, and heroes saying "Fuck the world." Zack literally has Wonder Woman telling little girls they can be whoever they want to be while blood is dripping down the walls behind her from the men she killed. There's grit, then there's brutality. Zack wants there to be an honest edge to things, I get that. But he exaggerates that edge and never challenges his heroes to rise above it. This is a director who still refuses to understand why Batman shouldn't use a gun. Should Batman kill is a separate debate worth having and isn't a dealbreaker for me, but for someone so obsessed with mythic iconography, him not using a gun is a pretty huge fucking part of his iconography.
Other issues I have continue to be the lack of Martha and Lois, who needed much more development to add depth to their key points, which they absolutely had room for if they'd cut threads like the constant calls with DeSaad, or the troop carrier not working. I'm still pissed about the first Martian Manhunter reveal and how cheaply inconsiderate it was. The Knightcrawler is still unnecessary. The Knightmare fascinates Zack a hell of a lot more than it does me. And Steppenwolf continues to be a simple and uninvolving villain.
And yet, I did enjoy watching the film. Much like the Ultimate Edition of BvS, even if I disagree with a lot of the foundational ideas, there's something to be said for a more cohesive and coherent culmination of what was originally intended. It's overly drawn out, and there's still parts I'd cut or rearrange, but only rarely was I actively disliking things. I wasn't always swept away or emotionally moved, but it was fun, and I'm again glad that a lot of the best bits of humor from the theatrical cut I can now credit to Zack. There's also sequences like the backstory of Cyborg, the Age of Heroes, the Flashpoint run, which remain incredible examples of superhero filmmaking and show Zack at his absolute best. Also, we still get to see Aquaman shout "My man!", so I'm good.
REVISITING THE WHEDON CUT - 30 minutes in.
Within the span of three minutes, Joss manages to better convey the world morning Superman. He still uses all of Zack's shots - the broken monument, the draping "S", Lois waking up alone and visiting the tributes, Martha leaving the farm - but he adds to it, builds on the people wearing that "S", hanging it along the streets, leaving their own tributes at the memorial. Even the fears as the worst of us use this as an excuse to be awful. By making this the focus of the credits, it enters us into the world Superman left behind. Yes, even the video with the kids is charming. It's cloying, and holy fuck is the CGI lip effect bad, but I love that moment where he's asked what his favorite thing about Earth is, and he pauses, then smiles. We don't hear the answer, but instead of this being a Superman who would pensively stare and ponder at that question, he's one who has an answer.
Even the oft criticized Batman rooftop sequence is a nice touch building on that void as this one lone crook realizes his world is in for problems bigger than him. It start well, with nice classic Burton Batman staging, but I'll admit the execution does get awkward. There's times where Joss really tries to give things that Snyder sweep and almost pulls it off, and others where his more grounded tv-honed style stands out among the footage its been inserted into.
I also don't like the multiple added scenes introducing the mystery of the Mother Boxes. I get it, sewing the seeds and all, but it does make them more of a Chekov's MacGuffin that we know will come into play, whereas I prefer the way Zack did it, of introducing them during Superman's death cry, and only getting context when the Age of Heroes segment comes into play.
The recruiting of Arthur is largely the same, though with a few inserts and thankfully dropping the singing girl who creepily smells his sweater. Wonder Woman and the museum bombers is also largely Zack's footage, albeit tightened up. They don't drop them being terrorists, but the lack of blood pooling and splattering does genuinely mark a difference in the tone of how things play. What confuses me is cutting Wonder Woman's inspirational moment to the little girl, as the lightening of this cut should make that very type of scene play better.
I get that it's much tighter, but Barry's face scribble is nowhere near as great of an intro scene as Iris's car crash. It's cute, but no. As he visits his dad, I see one of the criticisms about the garish color scheme. In the insert shots, the colors pop in a really nice way that I appreciate, but any time they've recolored Zack's footage, it feels like they've cranked up the saturation of something filmed with the intent of being muted, so tones are weird, colors that blended well while soft now have a clash to them, with patches of bleed. There's times when it looks fine, but when you get those now harsh green walls of the prison set against Barry's red shirt, oof is it ugly.
I feel bad saying this knowing the controversy, but I like Ray Fisher's performance as Cyborg much better in the reshoots. We lose the grandiose backstory, the whole sequence showing him connecting to the networks of the world for the first time and learning both the scale and the responsibility of his power. I want all that back. But I like him having emotion, that instead of shutting off because he feels like a machine, he's instead furious because he sees his father as the real monster, and is locking the Mother Box away where it can't be used to hurt others. He's expressing, he's confronting, he's dragging his metal hand along the counter in a cool way. And I also like the added sense that his body is constantly evolving, that he's waking up each day to find out it can do something new. It adds so many more layers to the character which I enjoy, I just wish they hadn't thrown out so much when a great blend of the two versions could have been found.
I've been thinking about Tom Holkenborg's score a lot, and while it's nice and I'm often a fan of his work, I have to say that I prefer Elfman's score. Holkenborg's was all about ambience and emotion, which is why I think people are critical of the use of Wonder Woman's theme (which really only kicked in 3-4 times), because it's of such a different style that it stands out in contrast. With Elfman, he uses themes as their own form of mythic iconography. Superman's theme. Batman's theme. Wonder Woman's theme. Those are now a part of the mythos, and if your ultimate point with this project is to establish that mythos for the current generation, either they need new themes (which the other heroes get - I particularly like Flash's), or they pay tribute to the old ones.
The Amazon Island sequence is another case of the tones being eased down by the elimination of brutality. You still absolutely have Amazons being killed in their failed attempt to keep the Mother Box out of Steppenwolf's hands, but you don't have the bisecting and explosions of blood, and you don't have the entire chamber of Amazons perishing as they're sealed away and dropped off a cliff. Hell, when Steppenwolf cuts through the wall, you can still see the Amazons inside continuing the fight against the parademons, making the smaller tragedy of that one Amazon pinned under her horse ring much less hollow.
As for Steppenwolf, oof. His design is BAD. Like bizarre late 90s video game character bad with random plates of armor and a dinky little helmet. I can't tell if those are horns or decorative wings. That said, I'm hard pressed to say who gets Steppenwolf better. Zack has a better design, but makes him the sad yet loyal puppy of an abusive owner who only knows how to be mean. Joss's looks worse, but there's a joy to his cruelty, a bit of a smirk of personality, even as he's saying awful things to a wall of women like "You'll love me. You all will," which comes off so much worse in the context of things we now know about Joss. Either way, I still want Granny Goodness, dammit.
The scene with Lois and Martha is redone. I like that Martha is no longer a Martian Manhunter lie, and that Lois has started the process of moving on by returning to work, even if she's just doing puff pieces. But it's awkwardly staged, with that odd interruption from a coworker, the news story of the woman threatening to probe the aliens who kidnapped per husband, and the strange "thirst/hunger" slip. Zack's version of the scene was more emotional, more heartfelt and natural, even if it ended wrong. Joss is trying to break that emotion up with humor, which just makes the scene feel unfocused.
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