by Jacob Smith, Staff Writer

Die-hard Zack Snyder fans have finally received the legendary “Snyder Cut” of Justice League. I won’t fully go into the complex history of this movie, but Joss Whedon, known for his light and fun films such as the very popular Aveng… (out of fairness, I’ll try not to mention the competition), was chosen as a replacement for Snyder after a family tragedy. 

The film was released in 2017 to poor reception, and fans desperately prayed to one day see Snyder’s original vision. That day is here. 

The plot of the film is largely the same as the original. All the same plot points happen, just with slightly different dialogue. 

All of Whedon’s little quips are gone, and the overall tone works much better. The characters are much more developed — especially Cyborg, who reportedly did not get along with Whedon. Many scenes depicting Cyborg’s backstory and relationship with his scientist dad have been added back in, along with scenes further developing the Flash and Aquaman.

Most of the extra runtime — this version is four hours long compared to the original two hours — consists of these scenes, and the audience is definitely able to sympathize with the characters better than in the theatre-released version. 

Cyborg and Flash are the emotional centers of this movie, whereas the original Cyborg felt extremely dull and the Flash was purely comic relief. 

Of course, this extra runtime wouldn’t be necessary if DC made solo Flash and Cyborg movies first before the big team-up film, like what Marv… (nope, focus on DC).

The biggest improvement is the climatic fight, which loses the ugly red CGI background of the original and gives every character a moment to shine. All of these scenes make Justice League much more of an ensemble film, as opposed to a Batman or Wonder Woman film containing cameos of other popular characters. 

However, many of the worst parts of Justice League still exist in this version, including the terrible villains. 

They added thousands of shiny spikes to Steppenwolf’s body, but it isn’t enough to distract from his one-dimensionally evil character. 

Darkseid makes a few appearances in the film, but he isn’t able to establish himself as anything more complex than a scary alien. Neither one of these CGI bad guys comes close to being as compelling as Thano… (damn, this is hard).

The highlight of the film is still Gal Gadot, who makes Wonder Woman a badass from the beginning. The R-rated violence of this version makes sure you know that those bank robbers she tossed against the wall got worse than a concussion. 

It is clear that Snyder squeezed in a few extra cameos just to add hype. Spoiler alert: one scene in particular features a seemingly-sincere conversation between Lois Lane and Martha, only to reveal at the end that one of them was a shapeshifting alien the whole time. Couldn’t Martian Manhunter wait for the epilogue? 

Speaking of that, the epilogue features a ridiculously confusing scene, set in the future where half of the heroes are dead and another hero has become evil. 

This scene appears to be Snyder taunting us with plans for a sequel that will probably never happen. 

If you’re willing to give up 240 minutes of your life, you’ll find that this version improves on the original. However it still doesn’t do these iconic comic book characters justice.