The Snyder Cut: An In-Depth Guide to What It Is and Why It’s Awesome

I. The Snyder Cut

The Watchmen Graphic Novel is the ultimate masterclass in understanding what makes superheroes, antiheroes, and villains. Their necessary motivations, strengths, and flaws. A movie adaptation of Watchmen was considered ”unfilmable” but director Zack Snyder didn’t take notice and successfully brought it to the big screen. Watchmen is a sort-of-pastiche social commentary about a team of superheroes resembling, at first, the Justice Society and later, the Justice League. So, who else better suited, if not Zack Snyder, to create an actual Justice League movie?

We now have two Justice League movies. Zack Snyder couldn’t finish the movie in 2017 and had to leave the production. Long story short, director Joss Whedon (The Avengers, 2012) took over. He bumped up the color saturation, polished down the grittiness, and added new scenes to lighten the overall tone. This version is known as The Josstice League. And Warner Bros. see it (for the moment) as the canon version in their movie-verse.

Rumors soon followed the release of the 2017 version that Zack Snyder had, in fact, finished filming his version before leaving the project. And there may be a Zack Snyder version of the movie locked up in the Warner Bros’ Water Tower. The fans called the hypothetical movie „The Snyder Cut”. They started an online campaign and, by word-of-twitter, the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign gained never-before-seen online momentum. Even the stars started using the hashtag and Snyder himself teased images his cut, confirming it exists. In 2020 the expected result unexpectedly happened, and it’s nothing short of a miracle. 18 March 2021, The Snyder Cut is released HBO Max.

II. Irishman more than Iron Man

Before seeing The Irishman, you may have expected a fast-paced, action filled mafia movie. Instead, you get a slow, semi-experimental, three and a half hours, masterfully crafted modern classic. The same happens with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. You expect a fast-paced action filled superhero movie. Instead, you get… well…

First thing’s first: Zack Snyder doesn’t make fan fiction. He makes fiction for the fans. He’s an author and a cinema provocateur. He breaks rules and gives the audience his take of the superhero mythos, unapologetically reenvisioning well-established comic book stories, like The Dark Knight Returns and Injustice: Gods Among Us. This movie ignores superhero blockbuster conventions and creates a surprisingly intimate and contemplative cinematic experience, closer to the character-driven epiceness of Kurosawa movies.

There’s no real reason, besides curiosity and fun, to compare this movie to the Whedon version. The truth is, it’s not better or worse. It’s the movie as it was supposed to be. Every bit of awkwardness, unfinishedness and clumsiness that the audience and critics pointed towards in the previous movie is now gone. Snyder’s version is air-tight. And it’s great to hear that Lois doesn’t tell Clark, recently dug-up and bathed in stale ship juice, that he smells good.

Left: The 2021 version Right: The 2017 version, possibly a Whedon reshoot

As expected from Zack Snyder, the movie is visually impeccable. You can take a screenshot of any frame and it would make an awesome wallpaper. The aspect ratio is now 4:3 and it brings an old-timey feeling of cinematic honesty. It’s like taking off the horse-blinders that directors usually put on the audience in order to guide them towards very specific things. And by doing so, those directors render useless 90% of the on-screen information. The 4:3 aspect ratio creates an experience similar to looking through a window. And to make the movie even more reminiscent early cinema, Zack Snyder also released a desaturated version of the movie called Justice League: Justice is Gray.

Left: Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Justice is Gray (2021) Right: Buster Keaton’s The Navigator (1924)

One interesting choice in this movie, that differs and from most action movies (and movies in general) is that establishing shots, detail shots and reaction shots are shown in their full length. These moments, that are usually imperceptible in blockbuster movies, and serve a purely informative role, become unexpectedly poetic and gain symbolical depth, especially when shown in slow motion.

Queen Hippolyta mournfully gazing at the crumbling temple that symbolize their ancient culture possibly ending.

The prolonged shots offer time to see how much work went into every scene and how beautiful the cinematography is. It’s a nice feeling to know that everything on screen wants to be seen. This movie lacks “let’s hide that clumsy but narratively-imperative secondary camera footage with quick cuts” tricks.

A frame from the movie and the Zack Snyder Storyboard Drawing

Zack Snyder hand draws his storyboards and that shows. The blocking and composition choices are reminiscent of storytelling rules more common in comic book panels. One example is Flash’s pet shop introduction. It’s maybe the best example that this movie takes visual inspiration from comic book storytelling rules. Exaggerated facial expressions and eye-catching details like a huge hyper-realistic sesame seed would make very cool comic tiles. We even get speech bubbles later in the movie. The Atlanteans literally create speech bubbles so they can talk underwater. I’m joking. Well, half-joking, they do make bubbles.

Because this movie is so visual, there is very little dialogue. You can watch it without sound and it will still work properly. But it would be a shame because you would miss the new Junkie XL score. He recomposed the entire soundtrack for this movie because he wanted to give the Snyder Cut his current best, feeling that he learned a lot since 2017. It’s a grandiose soundtrack, 54 songs with 3 hours and 54 minutes total length. It brings a dimension of freedom to the movie, like an all-night improvisation session, grounded by recurring motifs.

III. They live in a society

Before they come together, they have to be apart. Zack Snyder takes the time to properly establish every member of the Justice League and the world they live in. The vast knowledge of the DC lore is felt throughout the movie. And it’s very rewarding to see how much attention went into the historical continuity of this movie both in relation to its interior universe and the other Snyderverse movies.

As mentioned, because this movie has long establishing shots, you get a chance to gaze around. Zack Snyder doesn’t shy away from showing the places his characters inhabit. Because there isn’t any text to accompany such shots, there’s also a challenge in figuring out what the places are. And that results in noticing finer details.

The historical battle narrated by Gal Gadot, with the unusually tall and muscular Greek gods is nothing short of amazing. Because of it, it’s easier now to imagine Zeus actually molding baby Diana from clay with his electrically transparent arms. It’s also cool to see Ares, Wonder Woman’s felt-more-than-seen antagonist from her solo movie, in his physical form. The Atlantean culture also gains fathoms of historical depth, seeing them in the past, with their former King alive and in battle, who is only a statue in the present day.

The movie also has some documentary-like clumsy moments. Like when Diana is hanging out with Alfred, Batman’s boss. Such moments make their world feel more relatable and real. It makes it feel like other characters may also talking nonsense somewhere off screen. Maybe Barry is asking Bruce where the trash can (bat can?) is, so he can throw away his pizza box.

Some changes to the previous version of the movie should be mentioned. The Spider Man – Iron Man dynamic is gone and The Flash is no more an entry level naïve sidekick with Bruce serving as his mentor. He is a time traveling, fast healing, gorilla-sign-language-speaking hero. He is also a hard-working guy named Barry, holding three dead end jobs (and looking for more), ultimately trying to help his dad.

Another change from the previous version is that Aquaman now has the presence, authority and heart of a king. You can see him ruling from an underwater throne. And needless to say, a king doesn’t accidentally sit on lassos of truth. He is both a solitary guy, torn on the inside by an imposed destiny and an acapella-folk-song-evoking deity. He can be equally angry and scary as Batman.

The most important change comes to Cyborg. He basically has a movie inside this movie that shows his transformation from an athlete who wants his family together more often, to carrying more tragedy than Batman and Superman combined. But despite having to grow up 50 years in what may be a few weeks, he is as wise and strong in spirit as the 5000-year-old members of the team.

And if there wasn’t enough Jared Leto Joker before this movie, there certainly isn’t enough now. The intimate Batman and Joker hand-held ending brings narrative coherence to their universe and asks for nothing less than for the studio to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse.

P.S. Isn’t that right, Batman?

Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne

They say you can see a man’s true character in moments of crisis. Imagine waking up from an apocalyptic nightmare and you are visited by a new caped and flying alien that brings even more apocalyptic news. If you’re Bruce Wayne, you face the new alien calmly, in your pajamas. Not because you’re brave, but because you surrendered to the unknown, to the fact that the universe suddenly extended beyond what you know as certain.

Batman is the most vulnerable he has ever been on screen. He was at home in the dark, crawling up ceilings, bat-branding humans. In Batman v. Superman, he got the first sign that his world is changing and gave his best to stop that change. In Justice League, he learns acceptance.

Richness, his superpower, can only buy time. The Batmobile and Knightcrawler, despite their inherent coolness, only last minutes in battles. The only thing he can do is make enemies chase him and not the team. After the Justice League revive Superman and he fights them back, Batman survives only by luck. No contingency plan, kryptonite spear or green smoke. Only faith.

But why does Bruce have faith?

Because he, like Diana, Arthur, Victor, and Barry, no matter how they feel or what they are going through, they selflessly show up for the greater good and help other people. Why? Because they are heroes. The best of the best.