Why should we all support the release of the Snyder Cut ? by Theo Peron/TheoB0rg

 

Disillusion:

Disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.

 

11/17/17. A terrible date for Superman, for the Justice League, for the DCEU but most of all, a terrible date for fans who waited months for their possible new favorite movie, but got “stabbed” in the back instead. When Batman V Superman was announced back in 2013, we all knew it would just be the beginning, that this was a step to something bigger. And in 2014, when Justice League was announced, fans were closer than ever to their dream, to finally see a live action movie based on one of the greatest Superhero team. But the path was not as clear as planned, after Batman V Superman, lots of people were already disappointed and wanted to bury the universe. After Suicide Squad, we witnessed the first butchered DCEU movie, and common sense suggested that Warner Bros would not make the same mistake twice. After hiring a strong director with visions, they would let them make their movies, not interfere and possibly ruin them. And when Wonder Woman came out, we all thought the problems were behind, that the next movies would be at least as good as Wonder Woman. Yet, lots of us were disappointed while watching Justice League. Why? Because it was not the movie we were waiting, for a lot of reasons that I will tell you later. And that’s why we decided to do something, to show that we care and that we don’t want this to happen again, and to also show our respect for someone who always tried his best to give us something more.

 

Justice League, a Project

But before I tell you what’s wrong with the movie, let’s bring some context. The Justice League movie was announced in October 2014. For the DC extended/cinematic Universe, this movie is two things, first, it’s the third installment of the Superman trilogy, Superman’s first arc in this universe, and second, it’s THE movie of this universe, it’s the movie that will launch the entire franchise, after it, movies in this universe will duplicate, every member will have his solo movie, the League appear in sequels, other members will join etc… And for the fans, it’s something even more important, because after nearly 60 years, it’s the first ever Justice League live action movie, and it’s an obvious reason to ask for a decent movie. Justice League was directed by Zack Snyder, director of Man of Steel and Batman V Superman, his movies started the universe but at the same time, the audience has always been divided, when some think his approach is the best, some thinks he didn’t get the character and made terrible movies about them. Batman v Superman divided, that’s a fact, but it was a real success with approximately 870 million dollars at the Box-Office. However, the movie was a flop for some people, and Warner Bros executives decided to bring some “changes” to the next movies, which lead to series of important reshoot for Suicide Squad that disfigured the movie from what it should have been, by adding jokes, colors and removing the dark tone of the movie. By doing so, WB wants the DCEU movies to please more people, but the problem is that they made the movie simple and bland when it could have been something special for the genre. Wonder Woman found the perfect balance between the mature/ serious approach and a more “family friendly” approach, those who want to have a good time watching a superhero movie will have what they want, those who want depth and seriousness will also have what they want. And even if I don’t like everything about Wonder Woman, it works perfectly, and it should have been the same for Justice League, a lighter tone, with seriousness. But at some point, something went wrong, this moment probably started after Zack Snyder’s departure from the production after a family tragedy, and that Warner Bros hired Joss Whedon (director of Avengers) to direct the reshoots. From this point, the reshoots announced as minor changed the movie in many ways and butchered it.

 

What about the movie?

The movie itself is not bad, I watched it twice, and I like it yet there is something missing. If you look at it as a movie, just as Justice League, it’s an okay movie, it shows us what most of the people wants superhero movies to be. In Justice League we get a group of superheroes, with different motives, that must work together to stop a big bad guy, they first lose because they are not ready, there is something missing but in the end, they find this thing, they are ready to work together, and they win a great final battle. And that’s it, I summed up Justice League in just a few words, and you know what? You could sum up Avengers like this too. So yeah, as a movie, it’s okay, for those who wanted to watch a movie, they got it, 2 hours of entertainment with actions and jokes. For the fans, there is fanservice, cameos/ private jokes and hint for possible future movies (I’m not even talking about the post-credits scene). Justice League is an okay superhero movie, but it’s one superhero movie among others when it should have been a greater movie, a movie that would have pleased the disappointed and the fans.

 

Justice League is dead, long live the Snyder Cut

So, what is the problem with the movie? As is said it, the movie is okay, so why do lots of people, including me, want another cut? Well first, the movie is terrible in a few ways, everything feels rushed, we can feel by watching it that something is missing, that scenes are too fast, and that means we can’t appreciate them as we should, and I’m just going to take one example, Superman’s return, which was supposed to be the most important scene of the movie, is just a parody, it’s forgettable, it’s too fast, the evil Superman is just ridiculous. The scene is too short to make us feel anything about his return, and in the end of the movie, we are watching Superman as one character among others, not as the resurrected phoenix he should be. And that’s the same problem for most of the members, when we think about Victor Stone/ Cyborg, he was supposed to be important, before the release, he was considered as the heart of the movie, and in the movie we saw, most of his scenes were cut, some rumors even suggest he was supposed to die at the end. Another problem is the humor, forced, sometimes useless, most of the time terrible, and even sometimes unacceptable. Where is the sophistication? Why are there so many forced jokes instead of real humor, like in Batman V Superman, where most of the humor is really subtle but still works?

 

What do I want to see in this cut?

As a fan, and I’m not the only one, I’ve spent hours watching the trailers, to just find out that half of the images we saw in the different trailers, even those that came out less than a month before the release, were missing, sometimes it’s just a shot, sometimes it’s an entire sentence, and sometimes an entire scene, and that’s a huge problem, because, in some countries, it’s basically a crime, by showing us these images and not leaving them in the movie, they lied to the audience, and considering they already did the same thing for Suicide Squad (2016), it’s becoming a bit annoying. If you watch the movie and then watch the different trailers, you see that it’s different in lots of ways, colors, theme, tone… And that’s what we want, as people who waited for this movie for months, we want to see the movie we were supposed to see, not the thing they gave us. One thing we also want to see in this Cut is an improved version of the whole movie, not just the missing part. The actual movie is a deformed version of what Justice League was supposed to be, among the thing that was changed, the music, instead of the themes composed by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL, we got music from Danny Elfman. Some were created for the movie, when other themes were brought back from the first Superman/Batman movies, which makes no sense at all because these are two completely different universes, and putting these music bond them when there shouldn’t be any link. The Snyder Cut would bring the theme from Batman V Superman back and probably bring the themes for all the other members and some original ones, not 40 years old themes.

 

To conclude

If you just watched this movie like this, to just have a good time and you were not interested in it before, you might think this cut won’t change a lot, maybe you like the actual version, but for the same price, you could have something very different, a longer movie, with lots of improvement in many ways, from music to CGI. And don’t forget that if the Snyder Cut is released, you won’t be forced to watch it, if you bought the DVD for Batman V Superman, you can watch the theatrical cut and the Ultimate, the same will thing will probably be possible with Justice League, so even if you don’t like the Snyder Cut, you’ll be able to watch the version you like.

If you waited for this movie for years, and you were disappointed, the Snyder Cut might be a solution, a longer movie, to develop the story, the characters, a better villain, iconic scenes like we got in Man of Steel and Batman V Superman. A real sequel to the previous movies and the hope for an original DCEU, not a Marvelised DCEU.

Maybe you still don’t see the point, maybe you’re just thinking we might never get this cut, and that all this project is useless, but I’ll ask you this, what do you have to lose? When Batman V Superman came out, lots of people were disappointed, yet, when the ultimate cut came out, lots of people were surprised, it brought what was “missing” in the first cut, they were finally able to enjoy it, and like it, so who knows, why don’t you give it a try? Maybe you won’t like it, but you might love it. For us, the supporters, we decided to hope, and we also want to show our support and respect for someone who lost a lot but still managed to make all this possible: Zack Snyder. So, for this reason, and for all the other i told you about, I think it’s a good thing to ask for the #SnyderCut and to show that we want comic book movies to be more than just bland movies.