It has been a bumpy ride for the DC Extended Universe in their bid to catch up with Marvel’s throne as the number one comic-based movie franchise. Even the most die-hard DC Comics fans, like me, have a hard time making a point for DC when it comes to this particular sector of DC-Marvel rivalry. Ever since the Dark Knight trilogy was concluded, DC Comics movie releases have been tipped to be a flop rather than expecting them to reach for greatness.
What DC fans fail to realise at times was that the Dark Knight trilogy was a dramatic masterpiece. Christopher Nolan was against the idea of directing a stereotypical superhero movie but wanted to frame it as a crime drama instead. Thus, the accompanied grittiness and “darkness” of the movies fit right in. Unfortunately, when DC decided to begin a journey into an extended universe of movies, similar to Marvel, most of their movies were a swing-and-a-miss. Man of Steel gave the franchise a good start but the anti-climactic nature of Batman vs Superman resulted in more memes than praises.
The Wonder Woman movie smashed the Rotten Tomatoes ratings but it still fell short of getting worldwide acclaim from viewers like some of the Marvel masterpieces like Captain America: The Winter Soldier. DC then became mocked for making their movies unnecessarily dark and dingy, while every Marvel movie was light and easy on the eyes. The grand finale to this unsuccessful run was in the release of the much-awaited Justice League movie during Fall 2017. Zack Snyder, the man behind all the movies until now, had to step down due to personal reasons towards the end of the production. The mantle was then passed on to Joss Whedon for post-production edits and more.
Whedon would then go on to scrap multiple scenes, redo certain parts and condense the previously 3-hour long movie to 120 minutes. He is also credited with adding the lighter tone to the movie, with multiple quips and one-liners sprinkled here and there to hopefully render the same reaction the public had formed towards Marvel. With an estimated budget of 300 million dollars, the movie went on to bomb at the box-office and set back Warner Bro’s a good sum. The failure of this was then pinned on the fact that Snyder was unable to complete his vision and all the work that he had put into the previous movies before this in storytelling was thrown to the wolves when Whedon stepped in.
The failure then marked the campaign we now know as “Release The Snyder Cut”. With the campaign even having a website of its own – www.snydercut.com. Fans and members of the cast began voicing their support for the release of the Justice League movie as Zack Snyder intended it to be. After much campaigning, it finally got its green light in February 2020 and will be aired on HBO Max with a September 2021 release decided upon.
It is set to be released as mini-series named Zack Snyder’s Justice League and will be 4 episodes long, each running approximately for an hour. Finally, 4 years after the release of the poorly assembled Justice League movie of 2017, DC fans can now be excited once more to feast their eyes on a long-overdue epic.
Hollywood is a wasteland with many careers left to rot after poor mistakes. Zack Snyder on the other hand has been given a second chance, something that is unheard of in this part of town. The mini-series is tipped to tie up multiple loose ends, like how Aquaman got his armour and quindent as well as retell a key Batman Vs Superman scene.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t the story format the fans deserve, but it is the one we NEED right now. It will not be the movie we hoped for that would put up a fight against the Avengers movies, but the mini-series aims to be the cinematic masterpiece that can hopefully repair some of the damage that DC movie disasters, most recently Shazam, have left on the hopes of the fanbase.
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