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Zack Snyder Will Release the 'Snyder Cut' of 'Justice League' on HBO Max (variety.com) 21

The mythical, unreleased version of the 2017 superhero film "Justice League" will finally see the light of day on Warner Media's HBO Max in 2021. From a report: After years of campaigning from talent and comic book fans, the studio behind the DC Films ensemble "Justice League" will offer original director Zach Snyder's cut of the film, which saw heroes Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg and Superman share the same screen. Director Zack Snyder announced the news on a live Q&A Wednesday, following a virtual screening of his Henry Cavill-led Superman film "Man of Steel." Snyder completed the majority of work on "Justice League" in 2016, but stepped away from post-production and editing in light of a family tragedy. Warner Bros. brought in "The Avengers" helmer Joss Whedon to finish the job, and the varying styles of both men led many fans to believe Snyder had envisioned a much darker take on the project.

Budgeted at a reported $300 million, the film grossed over $650 million worldwide and did not resonate with critics, sitting at 40% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The DC assemblage was largely perceived as a miss in comparison to the juggernaut of Marvel Studios, and led to a creative pivot away from a tightly connected cinematic universe in favor of a far more loosely assembled collection of comic book adaptations.

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Zack Snyder Will Release the 'Snyder Cut' of 'Justice League' on HBO Max

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  • by Lije Baley ( 88936 ) on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @04:24PM (#60083726)

    Yeah, sure, we need a darker version of a DC movie. Hell, give me money and I'll make the movie everyone wants: Two and a half hours of Christian Bale getting his finger nails very slowly torn off by Joaquin Phoenix.

  • The vast majority of CG work and visual effects had not been done when Snyder left. That stuff takes millions of dollars to do well. WB has been very clear about not willing to shell out more more on the Snyder-verse in favor of pivoting to the characters that actually landed well and had positive response to their solo movies, ie Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam!, and possibly, eventually, the Flash (he was in the CW Flashpoint miniseries). So either he didn't redo any scene with heavy VFX, he redid them poor
    • by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

      The original source article for this [hollywoodreporter.com] apparently makes it clear that you're right - this is not some mythical complete cut that's just been sitting on some Hollywood hard drive. Instead they're going to be spending between $20-30 million to complete some Snyder-version of the movie. They're apparently in contact with the actors and the post-production crew who worked on it, so there may be new lines of dialog recorded and will definitely be additional post-production work required. But the actual details on

      • Darn, Here I was hoping for it to actually contain a bunch of unfinished vfx, and half the film to be "Footage to be Shot" plates..

        - no, seriously. I bet that is exactly the state it was in when he left, and that's what the "Fan Boi's[sic]" deserve.

        - oh, oh, oh... don't forget to include Mr. Cavills mustache!

  • The footage had been destroyed?
    Perhaps I am wrong (well, obviously I suppose, given ZS's comments that it's being released) but I can't imagine it's in any finished form, audio, SFX, etc.

  • It doesn't matter how much money or how many recuts they do of the films, they're not going to be as good as the MCU product. I say this with a heavy heart because I consider the DC universe to be much richer with better characters than the Marvel Universe.

    The problem is their isn't the unifying vision for the DC films that Marvel has - In terms of the most iconic (ie "Justice League" characters): Superman has been simply terrible (since Superman II). Batman has had so many versions there is no one singular character. I can't believe how they screwed up the Green Lantern - Yes it's stupid the rings don't work on yellow objects (or wood, in the earlier versions) but there are hundreds of amazing stories about Hal Jordan. The Flash has been on TV for 'way too long which lowers the stature of the character, the same with Green Arrow. The only bright spots are the women, Wonder Woman has had a good (MCU worth) start and Harley Quinn is iconic simply because of Margo Robbie although there needs to be a great Catwoman and Black Canary.

    Along with not having a firm grasp of the characters, there needs to be a better understanding of how the DC universe has evolved over the past 80 years leading up to the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and beyond.

    So we get to see Zack Snyder's "Vision" for the Justice League - Great. How does that make me want to see any more Superman/Batman/etc. movies? What the Russo films had was a vision which guided actor and screenplay choices and a path leading up to "Infinity War" which generated interest in seeing the movies of the lessor heroes (ie Ant Man and Guardians of the Galaxy).

    I'm amazed that the suits at DC/Warner don't understand this and can't find somebody who loves the DCU and understands the heroes and villains the same way the Russo brothers loved the Marvel Universe.

    • By the time WB wanted to copy Marvel's money printing scheme it was too late. They never found the breathing space to plan sufficiently ahead.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      There are lots of good stories they could do but for some reason ignore. They just seem to be obsessed with using Superman and Batman and Harley Quinn to the point where other interesting characters are excluded or sidelined and we get boring stories.

      It would be nice to see characters like John Constantine, Raven and maybe a proper Lex Luthor movie. There was a Superman story where Lex became president, creating a bit of a crisis for the League, could be interesting although from memory the ending needed so

    • It doesn't matter how much money or how many recuts they do of the films, they're not going to be as good as the MCU product. I say this with a heavy heart because I consider the DC universe to be much richer with better characters than the Marvel Universe.

      Much richer better characters? Are we talking about the same DC? DC Comics characters are terrible. With the lone exception of Batman, DC invariably pumps them up to god tier, at which point there's no plot they can write that has any stakes at all. When they started coopting Greek gods and bringing them in wholesale and they were the underpowered characters, you knew everything had gone off the rails. DC has been suffering a crippling case of Superman Syndrome for 80 years and the DCU hasn't made that

    • by E-Rock ( 84950 )

      Movie studios are driven by accountants who clearly failed to understand the MCU. They skipped all the setup and went for the payday. It flopped. Another (probably shitty) version isn't going to help. They have to go back and build up individual characters we like, then go ensemble.

  • I doesn't matter (Score:4, Insightful)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @05:11PM (#60083886)

    You can cut a horribly poorly written incoherent film with a crap bad guy with unknown motivations, a story forced entirely by a mcguffin box, and a massive cast most of whom you need to actually create a back story for, any way you want. It will still be a crap fest when it's done.

    The problem here isn't the directing, or the writing, or the cut. It was the concept and production from start to end.

  • I can't be the only one who thought the CGI was worse than many modern console games.

  • by stikves ( 127823 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @12:28AM (#60085364) Homepage

    There is a significant difference between MCU and these: the tone. Just look at the colors.

    Since Superman (Man of Steel) which everything is muted, darker, and "grittier". And it was supposed to signal "hope". And then look at the Endgame, which happens after a downer ending. There are colors. The main villain is purple! And the actors themselves are having real fun. "Shawarma" anyone? Yes they received no oscars, but who cares?

    There is a place for darker movies, but it is not the movie theater where you take your family. I want to escape realism, and have fun going to cinemas. Not brood for two hours.

    So, unless they actually make the movie enjoyable, Snyder Cut, or any other cut will not make these movies any better.

    • There's nothing wrong with dark tones. This idea came off the back of the great success of the dark knight series. There's no one thing that is wrong with the film, but the biggest problem ultimately is the writing. If you turned in the script to this movie for a highschool english class you should expect a solid C-. Passed on grammar and spelling, but full of rookie failures:

      - Generic villain with unknown motivations introduced by narration.
      - Completely senseless characters without any character developmen

      • by stikves ( 127823 )

        Okay, I should rephrase: pulling off a "dark" movie is extremely harder. Look at the top grossing movies list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls00... [imdb.com] . Most of them are fun, the other balance dark with light.

        And even the Dark Knight had Joker having fun all thru the movie. Without Heath Ledger's excellent performance, I don't think it would have received the same success.

        Look at the other DC movies: Aquaman, and Shazam. They were successful, and they were also full of color. Yes, they had dark scenes (the entire

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's Snyder, I don't know why DC keeps employing him. That muted, gritty, fake look is his signature. You can see it going all the way back to movies like 300.

      The non-Snyder movies like Wonder Woman were far better. Even Aqua Man and Shazam were fun.

  • Martha's Boys is a crap movie, and it is going to be crap regardless of who cut it.

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