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Justice League: From Incoherently to Coherently Boring
My belated assessment of Zack Synder’s fan-pleasing superhero epic
I’ve had lots of people ask me what I think of Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League. To be honest, it wasn’t high on my list of viewing priorities. I am not a fan of Snyder’s films, having been irked by both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman in particular. Yes, Justice League was taken out of Snyder’s hands and largely reshot by Joss Whedon, with less than stellar results. But I wasn’t exactly begging to see Snyder’s version either. However, after an ardent lobbying campaign by Snyder fans, here we are. I determined to view this new, four-hour cut of Justice League with an open mind. Who knows? Perhaps the revised cut would transform incoherent rubbish into near-masterpiece, much like the longer cut of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven.
No such luck. Whilst the longer cut is technically an improvement, the film remains a thudding bore. Yes, the narrative is now coherent, but like all Snyder films, it’s a murky, dismal, art-directed-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life exercise in weightless CGI, smothered in an orgy of gratuitous slow-motion. Comic book films should be playful and fun, and this just feels like an interminably drawn-out and dull version of Avengers: Assemble. The plot — a boring alien after three boring…
