I can’t call myself a Zack Snyder‘s stan. The first time I even heard of him was in 2006 when 300 came out. Since then I went to see Watchmen (2009), which I liked; Sucker Punch, that I loved – I don’t care I like it -; Man of Steel, which was awesome, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is my least favorite of the bunch – shocking I know. All of that to say that I’m not part of Zack’s army or whatever his stans’ name is but I’ve always admired some of his creative choices, whether it is in casting or visuals, I’ve always found them interesting and out of the box. Some kind of signature that you recognize right away, just like when you listen to music produced by artist with a particular style (e.g. Missy Elliott & Timbaland). I watched the 2017 Justice League and at the time the I thought it was jarring but ok, if you don’t think too much about it.

Premise: After the death of Superman, Steppenwolf, an evil and powerful alien returns to Earth with his parademons to retrieve the Mother Boxes left long ago by his master Darkseid. Inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his new-found ally, Diana Prince to face this new enemy. Together Batman and Wonder Woman seek the help of a team of super powered beings to stand against this new threat.

Review: For some reason I wasn’t dreading the four hour length of this movie. I don’t know if I normally would have since I’ve binged eight to ten hour shows. Nevertheless, giving how long this movie is, I should have been antsy, paused it multiple times but I didn’t, I was captivated. I did rewind a few scenes but for the most part I just watch. If you’ve seen the 2017 Justice League there are chunks of this movie that you’ll obviously would have seen. This might give you some trepidation, because depending of how scaring the stupid bits of the 2017 movie were to you, you can’t help but wonder if you’ve signed up for another serving those. So yes I was anxious at the beginning but the more the movie made some kind of sense the lower my apprehension got.

The story here makes more sense, I mean a lot more sense, it’s not perfect, but given what we got in 2017 it’s close to masterpiece. It also clearly looks like it is old film footage, I mean at least 95% of this movie if not more was shot in 2015-2016 or whenever they shot the original movie. This mean that with all this footage that already existed Warner Bros give us Justice League (2017) how? The best bits of that film is, it seems, from the original movie. This reminds me of SAS: Red Notice that I saw days ago, it’s an ok movie but it pales in comparison to what it could have been. In that case, everything they needed to make a better movie was in the book the movie is based on. But I guess someone wanted to make it their own so they messed it up by changing what didn’t need to be changed. Here I feel like the same happened, they had everything they needed, it was shot, in the can, but somehow they still messed it up.

The characters look better, I’m not talking brightness or color of costumes but of intelligence and competence. The Flash doesn’t seem as weird, well he’s weird but not…dumbed down. He seems like an excited rookie with a lot of power and only scratched the surface of his potential; someone who’s a bit socially awkward. And his runs look better. Cyborg is very well introduced here, he has so many layers this movie sets up Cyborg first and then introduce us to The Flash and Aquaman. The way Cyborg is portrayed here makes the 2017 movie problematic but I have a theory about that. Aquaman shines in the quiet moments. Wonder Woman is badass goddess warrior who has a big heart and it shows. She moves like superhero, and a competent one at that. In this movie she is almost on part with Superman, not just a juiced up chick. She’s brutal or compassionate when she needs to be. Here in this movie It makes Wonder Woman 1984 look worse. Steppenwolf looks like an alien, he’s ruthless and has a solid arc, he makes sense. I understands his motivations. Superman is barely there but used effectively. He bookends the movie, giving how powerful this character is, this movie would been wrapped up real quick if he showed up early. He’s a weapon, a big threat.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is not a perfect movie, the score and soundtrack is a bit off for me, maybe not used very well. However, it tells a story, the plot makes sense, the characters have arcs and are used with intelligence. It has great action sequences, it is darker, and simply works. The epilogue and post credit scenes are like a f you and I love it.