Movie Review: Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

This review could be long… could be short…I might do a spoiler talk but we’ll see how I feel by time I get to the end. But, I was not hype for this movie like that. I was just interested in seeing what Zack Snyder’s vision would have been. I remember seeing the 2017 version in the theaters, you can read that review here. But, I remember liking it while I was watching it but the more I thought about it afterwards, I was liking it less and less. So, without further ado, here is my review of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

I watched it twice and took notes the second time.

Pros:

Cast and Characters. There are a ton of characters in this movie, but I’ll just focus on the main six. However, shoutout to everyone who worked on this movie and who worked hard to embody these character for a “theatrical release”.

• Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A wealthy socialite and owner of Wayne Enterprises who also dresses up like a bat and protects Gotham City from criminals. He is a highly trained, a masked vigilante equipped with a lot of tools and weapons. Thankfully, that weird scene with the criminal at the beginning was taken out and instead Bruce is determined to get a team together because of the nonsense that Lex Luthor was saying about a major villain coming to eff up their world. He spends a majority of the movie just trying to get this team together and then being adamant about bringing Superman back. I overall think he was useless after bringing the team together but Bruce is Bruce and Batman is Batman, just with a little more hope. I think Ben Affleck is a good choice for both versions of the same person. It’s just funny that he’s weirdly optimistic. He has nice chemistry with everyone but after initially recruiting and meeting Arthur and Barry, he doesn’t quite interact with them that much. He’s fine.
• Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman: Diana is a antiquities dealer, an immortal Amazonian warrior and the crown princess of Themyscira. She has superhuman abilities and is awesome when she fights. Diana is very different from the Diana we saw in her solo movie, which makes sense as it’s been years, though she’s still mourning Steve *rolls eyes* but she’s willing to work with Bruce to get this team together. She could have been meh on the whole thing but she wasn’t. She was very much on Bruce’s side when it came to reviving Supes. She understands a lot of what’s going on, which is thanks to her finding that cave. I like Gal Gadot as Diana, she’s likable and she always looks like she’s just enjoying playing this role, which I think shows through someone’s authenticity of playing a role. However, I did notice she does this thing where she delivers lines really slow like she naturally talks fast and is intentionally trying to talk slowly lol.
• Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / Flash: In this film, I believe Barry is probably about 20 as he’s a University student. When we first meet him, he’s rushing to an interview he’s late for (lol), he’s awkward and uses jokes sometimes as a means to alleviate the tension but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a funny joke. He’s also clearly the youngest of the group. I liked him in the 2017 version but I liked him a lot more here. He’s a bit more toned down and serious but still has that light-heartedness that doesn’t come off as “try hard”. He’s smart and is able to contribute more than just being the young one who is awkward and cracks jokes. I liked that he stretches because that makes sense lol. I’m not sure how smart Barry is but he’s in school for Criminal Justice, but he seems to know a lot about other stuff too. I’ve always like Ezra Miller since I was introduced to them in Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I think they’re good. I know people compare them a lot to Grant Gustin’s Barry on CW’s The Flash, but they’re so different (they also had a scene together on the show lol). I think Ezra holds their own. I would be interested in seeing more from them as Barry in the future.
• Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman: He is a meta-human with aquatic abilities and superhuman physical attributes due to his Atlantean physiology. He’s been a Good Samaritan to the people in a small town that lives on the water. He likes his alcohol and he’s super cool with all of his tattoos (good use of Momoa’s personal tattoos honestly) and it’s easy to tell that he’s distrustful of most people he doesn’t know. He shows up in the nick of time and is part of the team and while he’s unsure about certain things they do, he doesn’t leave. He still helps. I think he has one of the best lines in the film, after something happens, he sees the way Victor reacts to it and the line he says to Diana is a great, emotionally charged line. He has a chip on his shoulder from his own personal issues but he’s still likable and he’s fun. I found myself always finding him whenever they all were on screen, he does pull focus. I don’t like the blue eyes, which I think they changed in the Aquaman movie, thank goodness. He’s fun lol, I like him.
• Ray Fisher as Victor Stone / Cyborg: A former college athlete, and a genius who gets into a car accident that nearly kills him. His father uses technology to reconstruct his body giving him abilities that allow him to fly, turn his arms into cannons and manipulate technology. Victor has to deal a lot with his struggle of his humanity and if he is still a human even though he’s mostly machine. I like that he has to deal with that throughout the movie before having to decide whether or not he comes to term with it. Since this time around he has way more to do, I like and appreciated him so much more. He’s honestly the heart of the team. A lot of stuff gets done because he’s on their team, without him, psht lol. One of the most emotional moments goes to him after the sequence of them fighting Supes after his revival. I felt that. He did a great job. I’m still shocked at how much was cut out in the 2017 version. Like, it’s crazy to me. Ray Fisher was great, he has a great voice and he’s so handsome.
• Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman. He is a Kryptonian, who saved the world in BvS by sacrificing himself by killing Doomsday. So, it’s really his death that sets everything in this movie in motion. It’s because of his pained scream that causes the first mother box to awaken, which causes Steppenwolf to appear. It’s because of his death that Bruce and Diana go out of their way to recruit Arthur, Barry and Victor. He joins the movie halfway through and he doesn’t seem to know who he is when he’s brought back. He fights our new heroes and he kicks their butt lol but then recognizes Lois and flees with her. They have some moments as he comes back to himself. When he decides to help the newly formed team, he dons his black suit. I’m not sure if it has a significant meaning but he looks damn good in it. To me, him choosing the black suit, outside of being like a “rebirth” made me think of him choosing something that was the antithesis of his normal suit being as that suit holds a lot of history. I wouldn’t be surprised that IF we ever saw another version of Superman with Cavill, that he’s still wearing that black suit. But he came in the clutch and he worked well with the team even if he didn’t get the chance to really interact with any of them. Henry Cavill is a good Clark/Supes and he seemed to have a bit more fun.

Supporting Characters. In the first go around, I didn’t find any of the supporting characters that important to the overall point of the plot but some of them get a bit more to do. Mostly Jeremy Iron’s Alfred, he was around a lot more, he was helping provide information, being sassy in the background and fuss at Diana about making tea lol. Amy Adams is Lois, she’s fine. I’ve always liked her but I’ll talk about her more later. Diana Lane returns as Martha Kent and she’s not there very long but her reunion with Clark was sweet. Lastly, Joe Morton as Silas Stone has waaaay more to do in this version. He’s so important and he has a great moment after Superman’s revival. Did it need to happen? I don’t know but it was a great moment for him and Victor.

Character Development. Thank goodness, this movie helps to rectify some of the issues from the 2017 version that affected the characters and their development. Particularly in Victor, Barry and Steppenwolf. We even get a little more for Arthur but he turned around and received an entire movie, so while I’ll allow it, I’m not going to include him here. Except, now that we have his movie, the conversation between him and Mera is weird, she says his mother took her in when BOTH her parents died in a war but in Aquaman, Dolph Lundgren plays her father…someone made a mistake somewhere lol.

• Victor Stone/Cyborg. In the 2017 version, almost his entire storyline was cut out. Watching ZSJL really shows you how egregious that was. He really is at the center of this movie and I’m glad for it. Just like in the 2017 version, he has a connection to the mother boxes because he was revived and his metal body made from them. We also have the emotional strain between him and his father. However, we see so much more of it here. We get to see his flashbacks, that I expected to see, of him in college, the car accident he’d gotten into that basically killed him. We see him learning about his abilities and other things he can do, particularly with the internet and how the world is his oyster because of technology. We get to see what kind of person he is when he watches a woman’s struggle with staying afloat financially. We get glimpses into his mind, with what he sees when he’s doing certain technology based things. It’s really cool. Not to mention, we get more between him and his father. There’s something that happens later that shocked me. I don’t think it happened in the 2017 version, I’ll rewatch at some point to compare, but I was shocked. I don’t know what kind of problems was going on behind the scenes but someone was hating on Ray Fisher to do this to his character. He really could and should get a solo film but who knows now.
• Steppenwolf. In my old review, I labeled him a generic villain because he was. However, he gets fleshed out more here. He gets more to do and his motivations are explained and understood. He’s doing this to regain favor, he made a mistake and is now trying to fix it and will do everything and anything he can. It’s nothing new but at least it’s something more than “oh, he’s a bad guy trying to do something for some unseen leader”. He even gets a whole vision scene.
• Barry Allen/The Flash. I liked him in the 2017 version, probably one of the few. I think Ezra Miller is casted fine in the role. I don’t know what’s happening these days that deals with his solo movie, but I liked him more in this. We first meet him being late to a job interview, which is hilarious because in the CW show, Barry is always late lol, so maybe that’s a running joke for this character. He’s being awkward, then has a scene where he gets to do some saving. I remembered seeing a trailer of him interacting/saving Iris West and we finally get to see that scene. It was longer than it needed to be but it was cute. We get the scene with his dad again, (which was nice but the way the CW’s The Flash handled Barry and his dad, was exemplary, I don’t think it’ll be topped anytime soon). They changed up a little when Bruce recruited him, they got rid of that god awful “brunch” tirade. But I did miss the line where Barry talks about not being able to figure out people and then sighing and saying “they move too slow”. The biggest thing for him, at least to me, is that he has to make his own future, not let his life get tangled up in the past and not moving past it and allow himself to move on. We don’t get a lot of moments where that’s called back BUT he does have a moment where he talks about pushing past his limits as a speedster. But then there is a fantastic scene with him during the final battle that is probably one of my favorite scenes in the film. He takes what his dad said and uses it as motivation to accomplish his mission. Great scene.

Character Chemistry/Interactions. Our main group have great chemistry together. Bruce and Diana have really nice chemistry, they have a scene that was cute where they both got flustered. But they spend a majority of the time together, so it works. Arthur and Diana have a moment in the van at the cemetery and it was really nice because in their history, Amazons and Atlanteans don’t get along. They don’t interact a whole lot on their own but they do fight together in the final battle, him coming to help her really brought their conversation full circle. Bruce and Barry had their moment when he was recruited but that was kind of it. I really liked Barry and Victor’s interactions. They really worked well together because a lot of stuff needed to happened, Victor would get into place and Barry had to start. It was nice. I actually would love for them to show up in each other’s movies… but ya know lol.

Action Sequences. Y’all, there are some great action sequences in this film. I’m going to talk about my favorite moments.

• WW Museum fight was really cool. I like her theme and Diana’s awesome. She was killing people though lol. I don’t know if she does that or not but I was like well dang. But also, maybe someone who is well versed in Wonder Woman’s lore but is she that fast? Faster than a speeding bullet? Multiples of them? Also, want to mention the shot of her throwing that briefcase into the sky, was a great shot. I also liked when that little girl, still shaken at what just happens, asks Diana, who was being so kind to the people, if she could be like her one day? In my head I said “No” lol but Diana says “She can be anything she wants to be”, which is true… except be Wonder Woman because you’re not a Demi-God, Amazonian immortal but you’re super sweet Diana. This is actually a reoccurring thing of people being super kind in this movie. That’s great honestly.
• Amazons vs Steppenwolf is probably my favorite action sequence. When Steppenwolf showed up and said “I will feast on your fear” or something like that, Queen Hippolyta said “Daughters of Themyscira, show him your fear!” and they shouted back “WE HAVE NO FEAR” I felt that! Then, those Amazons knocking down those pillars, just their muscles and abs! And when those two at the end held that slab up so the Queen could slide under… my goodness! Then them trying to run from Steppenwolf on horseback and those ladies were doing everything they could to keep it away. My goodness it was so good. Well choreographed!
• The Flashback scene while Diana is narrating (part of me didn’t care for the narration but I’ll allow it), was super cool! Seeing earth’s heroes fighting against Darkseid and his parademons! We also got to see a Lantern. It was cool seeing so many different powers and fighting styles.
• My other favorite fight scene is when Superman is revived and how they all try to subdue him. I loved when Supes had Victor, Diana and Arthur at bay and Barry tried to run around him and Clark’s eye turns to look at him! It was my favorite in the 2017 version and I still loved it here. I also cackled when Diana tries to do her arm X smash thing but he catches her arms and head butts her. She takes it like a champ, gives him a look and immediately head butts him back and his expression is pure shock, but then he raises up and head butts her into the ground. That makes me laugh so much because he was like “oh nah, you gotta go down” lol.
• Lastly, the final battle was cool. They had a hero shot where they all get a slow motion shot lol. Arthur surfed on a parademon, I still love that lol. Diana fighting Steppenwolf was cool, Arthur and Victor using their abilities together was cool. Barry’s involvement was cool, I mean that scene had me yelling at the television it was great and I’m glad he wasn’t regulated to saving that stupid family (they’re not in it). Superman’s involvement was also really cool too.

The Endings. Without spoiling… there are three endings, I guess technically four. One of them is an actual ending which I think would have ended the movie nicely. It’s the first one we see. That ending left our characters in good places. It felt very triumphant and determined and I loved seeing each of them accepting their futures. Supes being with his family. Diana holding that arrow and looking like she might be going back home. Arthur going to see his father. Victor accepting who he is and Barry running with his arms outstretched behind him after telling his dad some good news? That was amazing. I don’t really remember what Bruce was doing but I’m sure it was something brooding. The third ending*, was really nice. I was super interested in it and it is a scene with Jared Leto, who I like as The Joker. I like him in general but I thought his take in that scene was really different compared to his outing in Suicide Squad and I think he’s very dynamic to watch on screen. It’s not a long scene but I liked it.

• Set up for Future Movies. I’m not sure what’s going on with “Flashpoint” or if Ray Fisher is even interested in making a Cyborg movie with Warner Bros at this point but the movie ending allows for that. Not to mention, the scene between Arthur and Vulko and Arthur and Mera, we learn information that really leads right into Aquaman. What happens with Barry at the end, really allows for a “Flashpoint” tie and there’s plenty they could do with Cyborg but *shrugs*.

Cons:

The Pacing. Yes, the movie pretty much clocks in at 4 hours including the credits and there are plenty of times where it totally feels like it. I like long movies, especially ones I can pause if I want/need too. It’s definitely a plus that this movie was released on a streaming platform but the movie does at points feel like a slog. I’ve watched it twice now and the second time around, I found myself checking out during certain scenes. I think I read that Zack Snyder wanted to have a two part Justice League film but I’m not sure if that means, this particular story would get two parts or if he just wanted them to have two movies. But if, if he wanted this to be split into two movies, meh lol. The 6 parts feel like parts. They feel episodic which does not help the pacing of the movie, in fact, it makes it feel disjointed. I remember having some issues with the editing in terms of transitions in the 2017 version and I feel a lot of that here as well. The natural flow of events wasn’t handled that well. This actually goes quite well into my next part.

Some Scenes should have been rearranged, this isn’t too much of a con but it affected the flow of the movie to me. What I mean by this is there are some scenes that we either saw too early or too late in my opinion. The two scenes in particular I felt this way, we saw in the 2017 version so it’s not a spoiler.

• We meet Wonder Woman early, she’s perched atop what I think is a justice statue and then it’s the whole museum fight. HOWEVER, that scene SHOULD have come after the Steppenwolf vs. Amazons fight, Queen Hippolyta tells them to light the sacred flame or whatever and one of the Amazons says “But the men won’t know what it means” and the Queen says “She will,” and instead of cutting to Diana, it cuts to Steppenwolf boom tubing to his secret base. MISSED opportunity. It should have cut to Diana on the statue and basically let her first scene play out the same. It felt out of order.
• The second scene is with Arthur. So, the first time we meet him is when Bruce is going to find him in Iceland (I think?) and it’s a whole thing which is fine, but I really liked the scene where he saves that sailor from the storm. It was shot really well and it was really badass looking and I think having that be Arthur’s introduction, having the moment where he takes the rest of the whiskey and then lets the waves engulf him! Man! That could have been an earlier scene. I don’t know lol but I think it would have worked better.

Some Plot Questions. I saw someone say something along the lines, that Zack Snyder knows story elements but doesn’t understand how to put them together or that he doesn’t know how to make everything flow and be cohesive all the way through. No movie is perfect but there at times feels like, how does this character know this? Or why are they doing that? So below, are just some moments in particular that stuck out to me on both viewings.

• Lois Lane. They really don’t know what to do with her. Sure, she’s “the key” to helping snap Clark back into place but it just feels so useless to see her at any point until then. There are moments that are useful for future moments but anytime she showed up, I was like “oh yeah, she is in this movie”.
• Batman is ultimately useless. There are a lot of moments where I was like “why is Batman here?” Yeah he brought the team together but after that… if he wasn’t there, nothing would really change. For example, why didn’t they all just ride on the ship with Batman into the shield? There was no reason for them to hop off the ship for him to go through when they could have just gone through with him.
  • SPOILERS NEXT. I guess.
• Spoilers: Did Darkseid forget where the anti-life equation was? Like, you’re trying to destroy worlds and what not and you discovered it the first time? Did you not know you were on earth? How you gonna try and take over a world and not what it is? So when Steppenwolf finds out that it’s on earth and tells Darkseid, did he forget? I feel like, he should have been like “I know that! Just get me back there”. lol

The Music Choices. I don’t remember the score from 2017 at all to compare but my bone to pick with this sore is that choices of the music in certain scenes. I don’t have a problem with songs that have sung lyrics but sometimes I feel like the instrumental of that song works better than actual words. For example, during the storm scene, there’s a song playing called “There is a kingdom” and it’s a nice song but I really liked the lead up before the singer started to sing. I think it could have just been instrumental honestly. The words did fit Arthur so I guess that helps. Now, my biggest gripe about the music is that DAMN ANCIENT LAMENTATION song. So, I watch everything with subtitles, regardless, so the names of the songs come up. There was this “ehhhehehehhehehe” warble thing that would literally play EVERY TIME WW showed up to do ANYTHING. I mean, it literally anything. It was okay the first time because when she burst through the doors at the museum, that led into her WW theme, which is a good theme. But EVERY TIME. I would start to laugh each time it played because my friend was making fun of it. Watching it a second time, that really annoyed me. I will probably mute it whenever I decide to watch again.

Slow Motion Overkill. I know Zack Snyder has a style, this is evident from his other films I have seen, which isn’t everything. But oh my goodness there is a TON of slow motion in this movie. In some areas it’s fine and I guess if I’m thinking about it now, may only happen around The Flash, but it just felt like a lot. Even though Barry is so fast everything else is basically stalled, doesn’t mean we have to always see it. Sometimes it just felt like “it’s my style” as opposed to “it’s necessary”.

Standing Around. I noticed this the first time but really paid attention the second time and wrote it down but there are a LOT of times where characters are just standing around watching stuff happen and not reacting when they have the ability to react. The scenes I’m going to mention are in the 2017 version, so not spoilers for ZSJL if you’ve seen the 2017 one.

• During the Steppenwolf invades Themyscira scene, Queen Hippolyta literally watches her Amazons try and hold Steppenwolf back from grabbing the mother box when she could have many times lassoed that thing out of his reach. I was like “uh ma’am”. Also, I guess because she’s a loving Queen, when she and another Amazon get knocked from their horse, INSTEAD of grabbing the mother box and taking off, she leaves it and goes to her fallen Amazon. What made that girl special compared to all the other ones he just knocked around? I guess it’s nice but I thought it was still strange. She did tell that one Amazon “guard it with your life” but she literally left it. Sure, she held him off with some arrows for a little while but you still left the mother box out there for him to grab.
• When our team goes into the underground tunnels, Diana is fighting Steppenwolf and he knocks her around a little. Then Batman shows up with his Nightcrawler and the metal bridge she’s standing on starts to fall, she turns to look at her sword, looks back at Steppenwolf and then COULD have lunged for her sword, but this woman waits until the bridge starts to fall before she decides to lunge after it. I do like the fact that Barry came in and just touched it with his fingertip to send back to her, which is fine, she still could have fallen for this moment to happen but she should have immediately gone for it. Batman was there, you weren’t in any danger in that moment for you to wait 50 years to grab your sword.
  • In this same sequence, Arthur shows up to hold back the water that Steppenwolf let into the tunnel and while he’s straining to hold back the water, Diana is staring at him instead of moving to the Nightcrawler so they could get out of there. Arthur is straining! Get on the damn nightcrawler! The Flash and Batman were making their way because Flash had gotten hurt but ma’am, what are you doing? You can’t help him, so go! There’s no reason why Cyborg should have been like “DIANA!” GIRL!
• After they revived Superman, all the superpowered heroes showed up to see what Supes was about to do. It was like a picket line of Arthur, Diana, Barry and Victor… but where’s Batman? I’m aware he only has a grappling hook lol, so he can’t move as fast as the others, but if you are meandering behind the others, why didn’t you go secure the mother box? This way, the sacrifice that happened, didn’t necessarily have to happen because Batman could have been privy to the plan since he wasn’t even there to try and get through to Supes anyway. Instead, here he comes 50 years later, traipsing from behind those tanks lol.

The Endings. Without spoiling, there are three ending, well I guess technically four. One of them is an actual ending, which I praised in the “pros”. The second one, we’ve seen before in the 2017 version, it was a credit scene where Lex Luthor talks to Deathstroke. It should have stayed a credit scene because it added nothing to the movie, it actually took away from the ending that the movie actually received. The third one, is a sequence we saw a little bit of in Batman v Superman and I really liked what we saw, however, my problem is that it’s included as part of this movie. It felt like a completely new movie, like it didn’t belong. It felt like, a preview for a future episode. It did not belong. I don’t think it should have been in the movie AT all but maybe like a special or something… I don’t know. It didn’t work as part of this movie. Lastly, the “fourth” ending, is a direct continuation of the third ending and we meet a character, we saw in the middle of the movie, which made me excited but it also felt tacked on, it should have been a credit scene! OR just have that character in that earlier scene and keep it moving. Obviously, Zack Snyder had a plan to do more but whether or not that’s happening, I don’t know but since this film exists as it is, that scene should have been left out… OR he could have put it at the end.

Stupidity…. so I have Questions. Might be some spoilers… but a lot of this is the same from the 2017 or in trailers.

• Why was Iris just staring at Barry like that? You wouldn’t have gotten into that accident if you weren’t.
• Batman was useless really in that final battle, is that why they had him go on that mission to get inside the force field and take down that tower?
  • Why couldn’t the others just go with him? They’d already be inside?
• I don’t think Superman needed to go to see Alfred. How did he know how to find him anyway? By that logic, he could have easily found the others.
• Why did he cut back to Alfred during the big battle? I like Alfred, he’s great but that’s not important right now.
• Why didn’t Bruce help save the farm before? Why did he wait for Clark to be revived? You feel bad, help his mom! You could argue “well Martha didn’t tell anyone” but I feel like with Bruce’s resources, he would have found out regardless because ya know, you feel indebted to Clark AND his mother’s name is the reason why you stopped fighting. I would have been so nosy if I felt that way.
• Why didn’t more Lanterns help in the original fight? Apparently there were two of them, I must have missed the second one, but why didn’t the Lanterns take a box??
• Why is Diana calling Clark “Kal-El” like she knew him like that? Girl, you barely knew him. She literally always called him that. His name is Clark.
• Why was Barry the ONLY one who looked like he’d been in a fight in every fight? This man got hurt TWICE. Everyone else never looked like they’d been in a fight. They didn’t get hurt, or look winded or be a little dirty or anything. No one else ever got hurt or it was just a mild inconvenience. This actually one of the problems I’ve always had with DC heroes, I like them, but the stakes never seem to be that big because they hardly get hurt. They didn’t feel like a struggle OUTSIDE of Barry trying to main that speed was doing in the end.
  • The first time the League took on Steppenwolf, they weren’t having that hard of a time to be honest to really need Superman but then in the final battle, it seemed like he was giving them the business. It’s not like he’d gotten physically stronger or anything. Then Superman showed up and just gave Steppenwolf the business lol.

Overall, I really enjoyed Zack Snyder’s Justice League. It exceeded my expectations which weren’t that high to begin with. I praised the cast and most of the characters before but I can really praise them here because they weren’t subjected to obvious reshoots and they felt like they were having fun. I definitely have to shout out Ray Fisher for his role. Victor goes through so much in the movie, is responsible for so much and he really is great on screen. The character development was handled well, particularly with Victor, Barry and Arthur. I think Diana and Bruce were the same throughout which is fine, they’re still fine. The interactions between the characters felt genuine, the actors had great chemistry with each other and there were particular scenes that stood out to me with that, that was the cemetery scene between Barry/Victor and Diana/Arthur. Bruce and Diana also had some great scenes. I love character moments and while I think there could have been more, I appreciate the ones we got. The action sequences were great, they had my attention. I get chills whenever I think of the “WE HAVE NO FEAR” line in the Amazon vs Steppenwolf sequence. Now, on the other hand, the pacing for this movie SUCKS. It’s so long and while that’s fine, it feels like it and when a long movie starts to feel long, that’s a problem. The fact that it’s in 6 parts definitely makes it feel episodic instead of like a flowing movie. If it was a 6 part show then that might have been better. It felt like a lot of dead space and air, a lot of characters standing around when things are happening that make them look silly. I just… I can’t get over that. Stop the slow motion Zack!I know it’s his style but it happens too damn much! Also, I better not hear that Ancient Lamentation ANYMORE. Do not put that in the next movie… whatever it might be. The endings while interesting did not need to actually be in the movie. Weird choice and I have a lot of questions about choices that were being made by characters and just overall. But in the end, I enjoyed Zack Snyder’s Justice League. It was much better than the 2017 version that I remember and it’s nice to see that these characters had more to do and were more of a team this time around. Good job.

Rating: 3.85 out of 5 stars.

There will be spoilers here… so proceed at your own peril. You’ve been warned.

Barry Rewinds Time. So, during the final battle, instead of having him focus on saving people or that ONE FAMILY like in the other one, he has to build up enough charge to help propel Victor into the mother boxes while they’re in the process of synchronization. So, after the task of sending Captain useless to knock down the tower (like they all just can’t go with him *rolls eyes*), they fight through the parademons and have some cool moments, like Arthur surfing on a parademon lol but Barry takes off to run around the area to build up charge, it’s taking a lot of out of him because Steppenwolf keeps getting in the way of Victor connecting to the boxes. So, Barry is trying to maintain but having a hard time and a parademon manages to knock him out of his stride with a canon and he gets injured and has to catch his breath. But before he could heal enough to try again, the boxes unify, opens a portal to Darkseid and starts to destroy the world but Barry reacts and he sees the destruction of the world, finishes healing and then pushes himself past the limit, into the speed force to rewind time. He has an emotional moment where he’s talking aloud to his dad about “his son being one of the best of the best, and that he made his own future” and I was so excited for him. It was an emotional moment. He probably thought he might die at the end but he didn’t so whoo! While he was running, the world was rolling backwards and we even saw people who got destroyed get recreated. It was awesome.

The Endings. Okay, these two in particular.

• Nightmare Sequence. So, for context, Victor saw a vision when they were about to revive Supes, where Wonder Woman had died, as she was on a funeral pyre. Darkseid killed Aquaman in Atlantis, but this was in the future because Arthur was king. Superman was crying (Henry Cavill cries beautifully, the flutter of his eyelids in that scene was so beautiful) and holding, I’m assuming the body of Lois Lane but it was super charred. Darkseid, touches his shoulder and basically turns him to his side. We then see Supes holding a helmet/cowl and it looked like Batman’s but he was alive so I’m not sure. So anyway, we basically see this future at the end, it’s basically a bit more of what we saw in BvS during his nightmare if Supes turned bad (I think, it’s been a while). Anyway, Deathstroke, Batman, Flash (in that awesome automatic helmet/cowl), Mera, Victor and The Joker are hiding from Superman. Mera is ready to fight for what was done to Arthur but they’re not trying to be found. Barry literally has no lines in this scene. But Batman tells Mera to calm down and she’s all like “what do you know about love? You’ve probably never loved anyone” all righteous and Joker is heard laughing. We get a back and forth between Batman and Joker after he has a monologue about loss. He offers a truce, makes a comment about sending a kid to a man’s job, mentions “boy wonder” and we did see a Robin suit in BvS, which indicates that a Robin was murdered which in the comics, I know Jason Todd (Red Hood) gets murdered by The Joker, which means that Dick Grayson exists somewhere (*excitement*)… getting off track here, but Batman says “When I held a dying Harley Quinn in my arms, she told me that when I kill you, I kill you slow” or something like that but it shook Joker up. I like Jared Leto as The Joker, probably one of the few, but I definitely preferred him in this nightmare scene, he’s great when he’s playing a subdued weirdo even though he had fun playing a crazy weirdo in Suicide Squad lol. Deathstroke asks Batman if it was smart to bring Joker but Batman says they need to but then Superman finds them and they’re all ready to fight. Also, Superman is wearing his normal suit, not the black suit in this scene. Then Bruce wakes up. So, once again it was a nightmare. Good and interesting scene but shouldn’t be in the movie. It’s too long to be anywhere else, so it should have been a credit scene or been a special edition feature or something. It just feels weird in the film regardless.
  • This scene reminds me of Injustice and how things were after Joker and Harley Quinn gassed Superman and made him think he was fighting a returned Doomsday but it was really Lois and he ended up killing her and their unborn son which put him into a rage. When Lois died, it set up a bomb which decimated Metropolis. This set Superman in motion, he ends up killing Joker, which was wild and goes on this rampage of trying to enforce peace on the world. He, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Flash, Green Lantern, Robin (Damian Wayne, little jerk) and I think Cyborg, were all on Superman’s side. It was crazy. Batman of course was trying to take him down with Harley Quinn, Green Arrow, and others. But this scene reminded me of Injustice which is a great series.
• Martian Manhunter. After Bruce wakes up, he walks out and J’onn J’onzz flies over to him. They have a chat about having a stake in this world and if they need help in the future, then he would find them again to help out. We saw him earlier, he posed as Martha Kent to talk Lois into going back to work and to not let her mourning stop her from living her life (we also saw a pregnancy kit in her drawer) and he’s also the General from Man of Steel. It was a nice addition since I like this character, I really like him in the CW’s Supergirl, but I feel like they could have affected his voice a little, sounded too normal since he was in his Martian form. But another scene that we didn’t need, we could have just had that nice reveal from earlier after he left Lois.

But! That’s all I got. Thanks for reading my review of Zack Snyder’s Justice League! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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