The streaming wars caused HBO to release the new version of a movie that crashed at the box office - and this time it's the original director's version, Zack Snyder
Listen to Snyder fans.
"Justice League"
The new version of "Justice League", which aired this weekend on HBO-max (and which is available on HOT VOD), is dedicated to Autumn - the 20-year-old daughter of director Zack Snyder, who ended her life in March 2017.
When the tragedy occurred, Snyder was in the middle of a fight with Warner Bros. Studios over the previous version of "Justice League," the highly anticipated superhero movie that was supposed to unite DC's flagship heroes - Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Aqua Man, Cyborg And Flash - and to be an appropriate box office answer to the "Avengers" of rival Marvel Studios.
The producers, who were beginning to lose faith in their director, insisted that Snyder let go a bit of the gloomy, heavy tone that hurt the revenue of the previous part of the saga - "Batman vs. Superman".
They also required him to submit to them a film no longer than two hours long.
Meanwhile, Snyder realized that the studio had begun consulting with another director behind his back, and it soon became clear that this man was none other than Joss Whedon - who wrote and directed the first two films in the Avengers series, and who played a major role in turning Marvel Studios into a crazy hit factory .
In the end it is not entirely clear whether Snyder was fired or resigned, but what is clear is that he had no intention of continuing to fight the bosses at Warner or cooperate with Widon.
A press release said that Snyder and his wife Debbie (who serves as the producer of his films) are retiring from the venture to mourn their daughter.
The sequel is well known: Widon took over the film, filmed lots of new material, added silly jokes, shortened the film to two hours as requested, and more or less threw Snyder's original plan in the trash.
Creating "The Snyder Cut"
But many of Snyder's fans did not like it, and almost immediately they began demanding on social media that he be given a chance to complete his version (dubbed "The Snyder Cut").
No one thought anyone would listen to them, because the terrible hybrid version of "Justice League", which Wydon completed on time, crashed at the box office and was killed by critics when it came out in 2017.
But then the streaming wars began, and suddenly Snyder's version of "Justice League" no longer sounded like such a bad idea.
Suddenly it sounded like a great way to entice new subscribers to join Warner's new streaming service, HBO max.
So here it is in front of you: "Justice League: Snyder Version."
A full four hours of unstoppable maximalist bombing (with lots of slow gears), which is expected to provide fanatical fans with exactly what they want: a superhero opera.
Snyder erased any trace of Widon's presence from the film.
Among other things, he made sure to give the characters back their original plot lines (so that there is a full balance between all the protagonists), thicken the plot of the villain Stephenwolf, bring back entire sequences cut in editing, lay the foundations for two (!) Sequels (probably never produced) , And add many scenes that highlight the mythological and ceremonial dimensions of the work.
The story may remain the same (Wonder Woman and Batman enlist Aqua Man, Flash, and Cyborg to prevent Stephen Wolf from collecting three "mother boxes" that will bring humanity to an end), and so do the overall outlines of the script, but this is a completely different film, and much more successful.
On the one hand, the viewing experience reminded me of watching the longer versions of "Lord of the Rings."
On the other hand, at times I felt like I was bingeing on the first season of a new (and not bad) series called "Justice League".
The current version does not have the power to make "Justice League" a really good movie, and not all of its additions are essential (some even boring), but it does allow Snyder to realize his most exaggerated and extreme artistic impulses on the biggest canvases there is, and this yields a disturbed epic , Exaggerated, ridiculous, full of pathos, childish and quite fascinating, overall.
It can be said that justice has been done.
