Holy throwback to a much simpler time, Batman! It’s Thursday, so you know what that means!
Hello, internet! (Trying to be more general because the last time I was actively posting I always mentioned “Steemians”, and we all know how that went…) Welcome to another installment of Thought Bubble Thursdays! This is actually the 20th entry to this epic saga, but since it’s been more than two years since I last posted the previous issue, allow me to refresh everyone’s memory, old and new. Huzzah!
Thought Bubble Thursdays (otherwise known as TBT) was a series of posts designed to discuss overarching themes between comics and comic book-related adaptations. As the series went on, it became more of the latter, but if I’m fortunate enough to gain some traction this time around, I’m planning to focus more on the underlying themes of the stories.
Basically, it’s my love letter to the media that helped tide me through to adulthood. Of which, I have a ton of backlog to get to, so I’ll try my best to make this a weekly thing once again so I can catch up.
Since the acronym for this series is TBT, what better way to mark its (official) first entry to the Hive blockchain than to run it back to the very first post of this series. Also, because of the rise of streaming platforms, what better time to post reviews of things that came out months ago?
SPOILERS ABOUND FOR ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE!
Oh, Justice League. Whatever criticisms that comes its way, you have to hand it to them. It’s a franchise that doesn’t know when to quit, which is good or bad depending on what side you’re on.
Recently, DC release the director’s cut version of the film. Affectionately called The Snyder Cut by many and officially called Zack Snyder’s Justice League by corporate suits, it’s a four-hour epic that fancies itself as the purest form of the Justice League film that was first released way back in 2017.
Since this post is basically the Snyder Cut version of the very first TBT post, I advise you to read that first (linked before the spoiler tag) so that I won’t have to write a novel for this one. I mainly want to focus on writing about the differences and the relevance of the Snyder Cut this time around. What I’m trying to say is, don’t expect a long post.
Who Made the Cut
Zack Snyder’s Justice League was made by the eponymous Zack of House Snyder. He was the man responsible for such hits as 300, Watchmen and most of the original Justice League film. I mean, he was still credited for it even if Joss Whedon (Buffy, Avengers) was ~made to look as the fall guy for all of the film’s negative traits~ responsible for wrapping things up. Zack had to pull out because of the untimely passing of his daughter, for which the Snyder Cut was dedicated. No jokes there.
The cast remain roughly the same, so that saves me the time of reintroducing everyone. This comes as no surprise, since the principal characters are pretty much a lock from a narrative standpoint.
What Made the Cut
When you have a movie that’s two hours long and you stretch it out to a little over four hours, you’re not going to have a lot of cuts. If anything, you’d have to add a bunch more stuff to fill the time, even the stuff that made the cutting room floor the first time around.
Of course they were able to flesh out The Flash and Cyborg’s backstories more since they have a lot more room to play with. They added more scenes with Darkseid and his goons, and they even had the space to introduce Martian Manhunter (a pretty big comic book character) who was apparently hiding under our noses this entire time.
With all of the new additions came a lot of problematic questions. Why didn’t Martian Manhunter help during any of the previous movies problems especially since his human form was a big part of Man of Steel? Was he okay with the Kyrptonians terraforming his adopted home? Along with a ton of other questions that I won’t bother going through.
TLDR: It’s a four hour movie, everything (and their grandma) made the cut. Well... except for one thing. Sadly, Henry Cavill's mustache still didn't make the cut.
Why Make the Cut
Money, I guess? Redemption, probably? A sense of accomplishment, maybe? Ultimately, what it boils down to is… I don’t really know why the fuck they bothered to release this. I’m sorry, but that’s the honest truth.
But, you know, I get it. Fans were clamoring for this for years, and it was talked about as if it’s going to rewrite how comic book movies are made for decades to come. It was going to be Snyder’s return to form, a saving grace if you will, especially with a string of duds ever since he took charge of guiding the DCU to the promised land. This was the film that was going to make you forget all about the MCU and launch DC back to its rightful place atop the echelon.
I was certainly curious enough to watch a rehash of a movie I watched four years ago, so I sacrificed an afternoon to take it all in. More importantly, I kept an open mind. As much as I enjoy the MCU and all of its offerings, it needs to have competition so that it would avoid complacency.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely… not.
This is the part where I should tell people that haven’t watched the redux to reserve judgment for themselves, but I strongly feel that it would be irresponsible of me to do so. If you watched the original and you enjoyed it, maybe you’d want to give this one a go for old time’s sake. But, if you were indifferent or hated it the first time, then this won’t change your mind. I implore you to not waste any of your time on this. Use the time to play with your children or tend to your plants instead.
Don’t listen to the hype about this being a way better version. The people who say that are either hopeless optimists or people who are detached from reality. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with those people, I’m just saying that I’m happy that they enjoyed the film but I hope they don’t lead people astray.
Furthermore, this is a director's cut. A director's cut. By definition, everything should've been already filmed and the film was just edited the way the director wanted it, and not do countless of reshoots years after the initial film has been released.
It's like everyone's giving them a free pass to copy other people's exams, and for what? Just so they can catch up? They had years to improve based on the criticism and feedback, and even what other comic book films have done.
What did they do? They just threw all those chances away.
Sure, they were able to flesh out The Flash and Cyborg a bit more, but what did that ultimately contribute to the overall story? Nothing substantial. In the end, the whole conflict could’ve still been resolved by Superman alone. And, don’t give me that crap about the whole revised team-up thing in the end. They could’ve done without it, and you know it.
God I wish I can take those fours back.
I wish I can take the time it took to write this post back. Heck, I wish I can take the time it took for you to read this post back and give it back to you. But, feel free to leave a vote, if you’re so inclined ;)
I promise this isn’t what a normal TBT looks like. This film just infuriates me whenever I think about it.
Enough about me, how about you? What did you think about The Snyder Cut? If you haven’t watched it, have I persuaded you to not do so? Let me know in the comments down below!
No post credits scene for this one, let’s just cut to black.
Do you keep local copies of these to remember the number or just look back through your blog XD I suppose the second one would be the more sensible option x_x
Yay TBT!
Did you know we have communities now, these will probably fit in one of the many film ones :)
Given that superheroes are really not my thing I'm really glad I didn't get roped/conned into this one x_x
Haha! I actually do both! I have a dropbox for all of my STEEM posts from before, complete with all the local images and markdown I used haha! But for this one, I had to browse my blog because it was just faster.
Yeah, I saw the communities when I wrote my comeback post. I don't know if I'll thrive in those things. I'm not really a joiner 😅 But, I'm happy to see all of my Steem friends reaping its benefits. It's kinda hard to earn now without being a part of them, huh?
I was able to carve out some time to plot my next posts and I've settled on a theme per week type of arrangement, so I hope that works well. I've already written initial drafts for about ten posts, so we'll see if it's worth it.
It's never too late to get in to superheroes 😉 I'm thinking Gorc would be a prime candidate to dive deep into it.
You joined here didn't you XD
Yes and no. It's still possible to keep doing things the oldschool way and participate in conversations on your posts and other people's posts and go through the tags and whatever else you were doing before. Communities is just a quicker way to find people with similar interests/have people with similar interests find you.
And I've also found it much easier to manage my feeds as I can follow people I really want to keep tabs on and usually get through it in a normal day, and then branch out into the community feeds when I have time (which hasn't been much lately x_x).
Sounds like you have quite a bit of material coming :D
Well... that sucks, at least for old school guys like me. I'll try to mingle, but I doubt I would go far haha!
Just a few stuff here and there to test the waters before I either move on to the more ambitious stuff I have planned or I ultimately move on from the hive. I don't remember taking this long to make posts 😅
Well ike I said it's fine to do things oldschool, communities just makes finding and connecting with people quicker. You can mingle as much or as little and as real time or delayed as you like XD
Aww I'll miss you if you move on from hive, but that's the way life rolls sometimes right :) Meanwhile I'll just look forward to stuff for as long as the stuff will come for :)
We'll see how it goes. I mean, it's only been a week or so since I came back. I was looking forward to the comeback, too. Especially with your urging, checkmate!
What it'll boil down to is cost-benefit, I guess. I feel like a stranger in a strange lang right now, and I don't know if interaction will pick up.
Niiiice, glad to see you back!
I actually loved the Snyder cut and was surprised I didn't keep checking my watch, which happens with almost every movie or series. Yup, I loved, so much so I would have downvoted you if I hadn't upvoted before reading the post... I don't think I'm supposed to reveal that. Lol
The fact that Martian Manhunter didn't help, impersonated ~Mother~ Martha, and then came offering his help or whatever really bothered me too though. The fact that Superman is too op too, they should think about nerfing him a bit.
(Spoilers, not really.)But then again, the whole point is that if they had Zack's run to continue, Clark was gonna lose Lois and their baby and then go dark.
This lead to an alliance with Darkseid and they'd then fight against the Justice League. Now tell me you wouldn't have loved to see that. I'm sure the JL would have to have gone through hell and back to even have a chance.
As for what they contributed with the length , well. One of the things I generally hate with specifically the recent
as someone self diagnosed with ADHD those quick cuts don't help. I barely start actually paying attention to a scene and bam! It's cut! It pisses me off, and as soon as I start calming down and try to follow, the next scene is, abrupt, no time to let the soundtrack do it's thing. Rinse, repeat.
My point is, The Synder Cut lets scenes breath(though sometimes a bit too much, like the slo mo of Lois and her coffee.) and that shit made get so immersed I was l glued to the screen.
And common, nothing, really ? How about the action sequences, like when the Amazonianz are protecting the motherbox, the heart they put in as they are sacrificing themselves. Or that finale against, steppedonWolf, dude, for like 20 minutes there I was losing it!
Also, just in case you were wondering I wasn't Synder fan until after. Hadn't been particularly excited for his cut as I had hated the first one. I just downloaded it, put it on hold for a few days as it's length scared me but when I finally put it on, well....
So after I went to check his filmography, there was 300(had already see, loved), alsoSucker Punch (hated it), also Watchmen. Hadn't seen Watchmen, watched it, loved, and that's when I became Snyder fan. Lol
Maybe one day when I rewatch it I'll feel slightly differently but until then, it rocked.
On an unrelated note have watched Invincible?
Yo, yo, yo, yo! What goes on? I'm glad I'm not just some distant memory here haha!
Oh hey, good for you then! This wasn't really meant to bash the film, just my own opinion about it, so I'm glad that someone has a different view. All in all, I'm just happy that there are people who had a positive experience with it. I'm all for everyone just enjoying.
I get Martian Manhunter hiding in plain sight and all, but he didn't even bother to help with the Zod crisis before? That's stone cold. It feels like he was just shoehorned because there were a lot of fan theories that were claiming that character was Martian Manhunter.
Yeah, I've read about the potential sequels, with Clark's kid being the new Batman eventually. Is that what you were referring to?
Frankly, I didn't like how they all piled it on in one movie. They're playing catch up and it showed. The studio assumed that people are already familiar with their characters, so they didn't really need to introduce everyone again, but really though these are different characters from what we've known in past iterations.
At this point, I don't really care about Darkseid (and most of the characters in the DCEU). We haven't really been given a chance to care about them, or even just know them.
The quick cuts wouldn't have been necessary if they were all given the chance to shine in their own outings. DC had the time in the world to do so, but they became very complacent.
The action sequences are good, but it's just too CGI-heavy for me. I guess it's all about preference. I would rather have a cunning villain that's meh in terms of power level than a powerhouse villain that has very thin motivation.
We're different in terms of our Snyder fandom haha! I liked his style in his earlier films. Dawn of the Dead was probably my favorite entry in that series. 300 blazed a trail and I liked how Watchmen was faithful to the source material (way ahead of its time, in my opinion).
As the years went on, my admiration for him waned. That's not a fault of anyone, I guess my preference just veered away from his style.
Ohoho! I'm writing the TBT to Invincible as I type! Let's discuss about that further then. Let's just say that I'm way more a fan of that haha!
I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, man! This is a fun discussion.
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Thank you kindly!
You're welcome @jedau, thanks for your support! 😊👍