After years of waiting, Zack Snyder's Justice League is finally out in the world for fans to consume every little piece. The film is pure, unadulterated Snyder, and whether that's a good thing or not depends on your appreciation of his past films, but by and large, I think most can agree that it's miles above the theatrical cut of the film.
As the film is streaming on HBO Max, there was little need for Zack Snyder to rein in the violence, and although it can't compare to something like Amazon's The Boys, there's still more bloody violence than you would typically find in a mainstream superhero movie. While speaking with Variety, Zack Snyder said that he wanted to push the envelope and approached the film as if there were no ratings board. "It's a pure exercise in creative freedom," Snyder said. "Let's just do it the exact way we would if there was no ratings board. Let's not use any second guessing. Let's just do it the way we think is the coolest. That was the philosophical approach." Snyder also didn't want to shy away from what it would really be like to do battle with superheroes who had incredible powers.
I always feel that the consequence is important to me, that there’s real stakes. It still is abstract, you know. These are gods fighting men. Which is also part of the point. We can’t really fight them. Humans can’t really fight them… If you don’t address the actual violence as violence, to me, you’re lowering the stakes on all levels. If the superhero smashes the car, and the whole car explodes, and you just see the guy kind of crawl out of the wreckage, and you’re like, oh okay, it’s still PG-13, the fact you don’t show the blood is a technicality. The violence is still there. I want a true depiction of the violence. I don’t want to sugarcoat it.
Despite being a self-described "doubting thomas" about the whole Snyder Cut phenomenon, our own Chris Bumbray was as surprised as anyone when he walked away actually loving the film. "This is no bloated extended version," Bumbray wrote. "It’s an epic superhero team-up that’s startlingly original, hugely influenced by Jack Kirby’s The New Gods, and somewhat akin to a DC version of Lord of the Rings." You can check out the rest of Bumbray's review right here.
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