With the recent (long-awaited) release of Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” (2021) now on HBO Max and 4K Blu Ray, we now have the fully realized vision that first started in 2013’s “Man of Steel”, and continued with 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”! Considering this is essentially the third chapter of a trilogy, it only feels right to revisit the first two acts of this epic superhero saga before diving into this new (and very different) version of 2017’s “Justice League”…

(Click for Part One: “Man of Steel” and Part Two: “Batman v Superman”)

Part Three: Zack Snyder’s JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)

When Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” was first announced, my initial thought was ‘Good, we can finally see a finished version of the movie’, but I wouldn’t say I was necessarily excited. That’s not to say that I completely hated the original Joss Whedon version, but it wasn’t a good movie. My primary complaint was that it just felt rushed and incomplete, even the CG looked like it wasn’t fully rendered at times. And as I mentioned on the previous review, BvS left a lot to be desired, even if the Ultimate Cut was an improvement. It felt like they had a misstep, and then overcorrected so hard that they created a whole new set of problems.

Now that I’ve seen the final movie however, I gotta say, I’m extremely impressed. Sure there’s a few things about the Whedon version that I actually liked (certain tracks from the Danny Elfman score, the overall brighter and more vibrant look of the movie, as well as some light, jokey banter absent from this cut), but overall, I’m happy to report, the Snyder cut is far superior!

“Justice League” stars: Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash, Ray Fisher as Victor Stone aka ‘Cyborg’, Jason Mamoa as Aquaman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone, Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, Peter Guinness as DeSaad, David Thewlis as Ares – the God of War, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jared Leto as The Joker, and Ray Porter as Darkseid!?

A Tale of Two Visions

When #ReleaseTheSnyderCut first started trending, I was all for it, because director’s cuts are typically way better than what the studios tend to cut down for the theatrical release. I didn’t think anything would ever come of it, but I figured this would be like an interesting Superman II / Donner Cut type situation where we get a slightly different version of the same movie with some cool tweaks for a better overall tone. Like pretty much everyone else, I had no idea just how much they completely changed the theatrical cut of this movie.

One of the most striking differences was the correction of one of the worst aspects of the theatrical version: Steppenwolf. Now Steppenwolf was never meant to be the ultimate big bad of the DC universe, he’s just a superpowered henchman for Darkseid, and he’s not exactly a deep character in either version. That said, the theatrical cut’s version of the character is *horrible* looking. It’s so clear that WB rushed this movie out, because it’s main villain looks like a poorly rendered CG character from a PS2 game cut scene. That is not at all the case with Snyder’s Steppenwolf.

This guy is a beast! The creature design is incredible, the CG on this guy is amazing, his voice sounds booming and intimidating, and his dialogue is vastly superior. And what’s more, we actually get a pay off on all the references to Apokolips and his master, Darkseid! (more on that later)

As we’ll get to, I was absolutely shocked at just how much was changed for Whedon’s theatrical cut. The entire tone of the movie is different. Whedon traded the heartfelt and emotional beats of Snyder’s original vision for one liners and a laugh track. While I didn’t entirely dislike some of those moments in the theatrical cut (the race between Supes and Flash at the end was cool and the part where Aquaman gets his leg stuck on Diana’s lasso was funny), it really feels so hollow in retrospect, especially when you realize that entire character arcs were completely ripped out in exchange for some cheap jokes.

With the Snyder Cut, Barry Allen goes from being just the comic relief to having one of the most moving arcs in the story, Aquaman isn’t just regulated to a surfer bro with a chip on his shoulder, he’s instead given a lot of nuance and his own personal struggle, Wonder Woman isn’t there to be Bruce’s love interest, or ‘the girl on the team’, she’s shown to actually be the core of the MVP of the team, and while the Joss Whedon version went for a lighter, cheesier take with Bat-fleck, this one really pays off the emotional arc that was set up in the previous movie, and doubles down on what makes him a total badass.

The most noticeable change however is Cyborg – arguably the central character of movie, literally the heart of the Justice League, was regulated to a bit part by Whedon! And to make matters so much worse, when you hear about all the hardships that the cast had to deal with under Joss Whedon, especially Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot, and when you realize how his version treated their characters specifically, it’s honestly infuriating. So in a very real sense, in a weird way, this movie really is about “justice” – justice for the cast and crew who worked so hard on this trilogy, and for the fans who supported it.

And while I did like the way Danny Elfman’s music had nods to the Tim Burton Batman theme and even John Williams’s ‘Superman’ theme in Joss Whedon’s version, the score in Snyder’s JL (by Junkie XL) is undoubtedly better. The music starts out slow and somber, but really begins to ramp up every time another member joins the league.

I knew this would probably be a better movie, but I had absolutely no idea just how much better this movie would be. In fact, the Snyder cut is so much better than the clearly frankensteined Whedon version that I get viscerally angry every time I think about it, but I’ll do my best to just focus on Snyder cut to judge it on it’s own merits, since the theatrical version never should have been released in the first place.

All of that is a long way of saying, this isn’t just a stylistic change to the same movie, this is a whole different film.

A Quick Note on the Format

Before we really dive into it, there’s a few criticisms I want to address right away…

A lot of people were really thrown off by the movie’s aspect ratio – instead of the normal wide-screen format that we’re used to, we’re given the originally intended Imax format. While I was initially surprised, I quickly stopped noticing about 5 minutes in. After listening to Snyder talk about why he chose this format in the behind the scenes features, it made even more sense though – he was going for a sense of verticality, which totally makes sense if you really pay attention. We as an audience are used to wide screen cinematography because characters are often restrained to a horizontal plane, but in Snyder’s superhero films, so much of the action involves characters who can fly, so the format actually really helps to emphasize that.

Now if you’re reading this and haven’t seen the Snyder Cut yet, I imagine you’re a little hesitant because of the sheer length of the film, but I’m here to tell you: it’s worth it – even if you don’t watch it one sitting. Unlike the 3-hour cut of “Dawn of Justice”, Zack Snyder’s 4-hour version of “Justice League” absolutely earns it’s length! And luckily, the movie is split into six chapters, so that it almost feels like a (really expensive) mini-series.

You can absolutely binge it all in one sitting, but you can also take your time with it. In fact, over the last several months since it first came out, I’ve watched it about 5 times and I think only one of those times was in a single sitting. Even though I have HBO Max, I actually bought the 4K Blu Ray, and would absolutely be willing to go see it in Imax if WB ever decided to give it a proper theatrical release. Yes, it really is that good.

Once again, there’s A LOT to cover here – so let’s go ahead and start at the beginning…

The Death of Superman – Redux (This time in slow-mo!)

Instead of a cheesy flashback with Superman (with a bad CGI upper lip) talking to a kid about Truth and Justice, or an even cheesier out of place scene showing Batman using a criminal as bait for a para-demon, the movie picks up with the immediate aftermath of Superman’s death during the end of “Batman v Superman” (similar to how BvS started with the end of “Man of Steel”), where we see Kal-El, impaled by Doomsday, with the Kryptonite javelin in hand, in slow motion. He cries out and his scream echoes around the world – we see Lex Luthor from the end of BvS on the Kryptonian ship, standing before a metallic hologram of Steppenwolf and three mysterious cubes…

We’re then shown the location of these three cubes, which we’ll soon learn are known as “the Mother Boxes” (weird name, but hey, it’s from the comics) – one is somewhere under the ocean, being guarded by Atlanteans, one is on the mythical island of Themyscira, under the protection of Amazon warriors, and the final one is in Gotham City, in Victor Stone’s apartment – which becomes so much more significant when we learn that Cyborg was created when his father harnessed the power of the device to save his son’s life. All of which really sets the stage for what’s to follow: we’re introduced to all the major players from Gotham and Metropolis to Atlantis and the Amazons, and now that Superman has fallen, something dark is coming.

For all it’s faults, BvS did at least set the stage for this storyline, so instead of a lot of exposition and build up, we’re able to just jump right into the meat of the story.

CHAPTER 1: “Don’t Count On It, Batman”

We’re introduced to Bruce Wayne on his quest to recruit other heroes after Lex Luthor’s ominous warning at the end of BvS. First up: Arthur Curry aka “the Aquaman”. This exchange between the two is really interesting and kind of tense. We’ve got Batman who is notorious for being a lone wolf asking for help from another lone wolf type, who, just like him, is more of an urban legend than a known hero.

Although the pacing is a little slow at the start, it really helps these character moments breath and (unlike the Whedon version) we really get a sense of who these characters are and what their motivations are. We see the desperation and vulnerability in Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne and while Jason Mamoa’s Arthur puts on a devil may care attitude, you can tell there’s a lot of conflict going on beneath the surface.

We do get a weird scene where an Icelandic young woman starts singing for no reason before sniffing Aquaman’s sweater that feels like it goes on for longer than it should, but I just figure that’s Zack Snyder really leaning into his Snyder-isms just because he can.

We also get reintroduced to Wonder Woman kicking ass in London, in one of the single coolest action sequences since the “no man’s land” scene in the first WW movie. She saves an entire field of students from a nihilistic terrorist with a machine gun and a suitcase nuke before obliterating him with her gauntlets!

It’s spectacular.

If that’s not enough, we then get another one of the most epic action scenes in the DCEU, when Steppenwolf shows up in Themyscira to steal the first Mother box. Steppenwolf is forced to face off against an entire army of Amazons! The scene is intense and brutal, it establishes the urgency of the plot, but it also conveys what a wrecking ball Steppenwolf really is!

At one point he flexes and just breaks all the arrows off, it’s nuts!

This section ends with Hippolyta lighting “the ancient fire”, assuring the other Amazons that although the world of man won’t understand it, Diana will know what it means…

CHAPTER 2: “The Age of Heroes”

Steppenwolf and his army of para-demons head to what looks like Chernobyl where they plan to power up the three MacGuffins Mother Boxes. We also learn that the reason Steppenwolf was summoned by the Mother Boxes was because the death of the last Kryptonian, with “no Lanterns”, or Gods left, the Earth was vulnerable to attack.

We’re introduced to Dr. Silas Stone, Victor’s dad, who works for STAR labs in Metropolis, where they’re analyzing the crashed Kryptonian ship. We get a really cool Indiana Jones style tomb raiding sequence where Diana discovers an ancient mural warning of Darkseid’s impending invasion of Earth.

Meanwhile, Arthur Curry continues to ignore his destiny as the true heir to the throne of Atlantis, instead preferring to drink and drift from coast to coast, rescuing a random fisherman along the way. Vulko (Willem Dafoe) implores Arthur to take up his mother’s trident and defend against the incoming invaders, but he instead prefers to brood in slow motion on a dock while a storm blows through.

When Diana shows up at Bruce’s warehouse (where he’s working on a new experimental aircraft), we get one of the most epic flashbacks in movie history. She explains that long ago Darkseid’s forces tried to conquer Earth in search of the Anti-Life equation. The Mother Boxes are so advanced that they’re basically magic. Using the three Mother Boxes to form “the Unity”, they would be able to cleanse the planet with fire and terraform it into a replica of Apokolips and transform it’s population into Parademons.

Last time Darkseid attempted to invade Earth, he was faced with the united forces of Atlantis, the Amazons, and the armies of men, led by the Old Gods: Ares (the God of War), Artemis, and Zeus (Diana’s father)! This scene alone is worth the price of admission…

This time however, each of those factions have been isolated from one another and the Gods have long since passed on. We learn that the three boxes left behind were entrusted to the Amazons, the Atlanteans and the humans for safekeeping. Diana warns Bruce that Darkseid’s minions are here once again and they need to recruit the others if they have any hope at survival.

We also get an amazing moment where Alfred mansplains the “proper” way to make tea to Diana.

CHAPTER 3: “Beloved Mother, Beloved Son”

While the movie is already wildly different from the previous version, this whole chapter is almost completely new material. This whole segment stands on it’s own as an amazing piece of cinema and it’s baffling that Joss Whedon chose not to include it in his version. We get introduced to both Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen and Ray Fisher’s Victor Stone in two of the coolest sequences in the movie.

We flashback to Cyborg’s tragic origin story – where he loses his mom in a car crash and nearly dies himself, but his father refuses to give up, and decides to risk activating the Mother Box to bring him back to life, reconstructing him with alien nano-technology!

Victor listens to a tape recording his father left behind, where he basically explains Cyborg’s capabilities, but what’s really amazing about this sequence is that we’re not just told what he can do, we’re shown! We get this really inventive sequence from Cyborg’s POV where we get a visual representation of just how powerful he is: he can manipulate the stock market, he has the world’s nuclear arsenals at his fingertips, and all of man’s data at his fingertips. Silas tells his son, “It is the burden of this responsibility that will define you and who you choose to be.”

It’s during this scene that we see a destitute, struggling single mother, recently evicted from her home on the streets, and we watch as Cyborg decides to hack the ATM and make her a lottery winner. It’s an incredibly moving sequence, and really sets Cyborg up as the emotional core of this movie.

Then there’s Barry Allen aka “The Flash”! He saves Iris West from a freak car accident and it’s love at first sight in less than a nano-second as he carefully redirects her and gently sets her down on the street, but not before vaporizing his shoes, turning a window into liquid, grabbing a hotdog for later, and securing his job at a pet store!

We also learn that his father is in prison for the alleged murder of his mother, and that Barry is working on trying to pay for a criminal law degree so that he can take up the case himself and prove his dad’s innocence.

Soon after, Bruce Wayne meets Barry Allen. Bruce shows up at Barry’s secret hideout to recruit him for the team, in *the only* scene that’s mostly the same from the theatrical cut, where Barry catches one of Bruce’s batarangs. They immediately figure out each other’s secret identities and The Flash joins the team before Bruce can even pitch it. Barry then asks him what his superpowers are and Batman just says “I’m rich.”

We also get another amazing action sequence where Steppenwolf steals the second Mother Box from the Atlantean guard, but not before he gets his ass handed to him by Mera who nearly rips all the blood from his body with her water-bending powers!

Meanwhile, Wonder Woman seeks out Victor and attempts to convince him to join their cause…

CHAPTER 4: “Change Machine”

In this section we finally get to see the League teaming up to do something! Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg all meet up on top of GCPD to give Gordon a heart attack before making their first move against Steppenwolf. As I mentioned on the last one, J.K. Simmons is a great choice for Gordon, but it’s so baffling because he’s barely in the movie. Still, it was a really cool scene.

Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and The Flash make their way into the sewers below Gotham harbor where the para-demons have been taking scientists prisoner, including Cyborg’s father! We get an extremely fun scene where the four heroes attempt to work together to keep the Mother Box out of Steppenwolf’s hands. At one point, Cyborg takes over Batman’s “Nightcrawler” from Alfred, and the Flash helps Diana by redirecting her sword in mid-air! During the chaos, Steppenwolf floods the subway in his escape and Aquaman shows up in the nick of time, with his trident in tow, to save our heroes and join the fight!

The five JL members regroup at Bruce’s warehouse base where Cyborg explains that the Mother Boxes are change engines, they rewrite matter at the molecular level, and they can be used for good or evil. Victor reveals that he was created by one of them when his father used one of them to save his life after a car accident. We also get a really cool flashback sequence that shows what happened to the third box, which disappeared until it was recovered during World War II in Nazi Germany and eventually ended up at STAR labs, where Dr. Stone got ahold of it.

Batman, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Aquaman all come to the same conclusion at about the same time: they can use the Mother Box to resurrect Superman…

CHAPTER 5: “All the King’s Horses”

We get that awesome Hans Zimmer ‘Man of Steel’ theme as the fledgling Justice League members prepare to raise the late Clark Kent from the dead. Cyborg deduces that using the power of the third Mother Box with the Kryptonian ship’s Genesis Chamber and an energy kickstart from The Flash’s lightning, they should be able to reanimate Kal-El’s body, but they need to time it perfectly.

Right as Cyborg gets ready to drop the box, he suddenly gets a haunting premonition of a dark alternate future in which they fail: we see Diana’s funeral in Themyscira, Darkseid killing Arthur with his own trident, using his omega beams on the Atlanteans, a distraught Superman in the Bat Cave with the charred remains of Lois in his arms and Darkseid standing over him, and then finally an ominous shot of an evil Superman floating above the wreckage of the Hall of Justice…

Cyborg panics and Flash mis-times his start, but he starts running so fast that as he’s tapping into the speed force, time starts to reverse! As a result, it works, sorta…

Clark bursts through the Kryptonian ship and hovers down in front of the shattered monument from his battle with Doomsday. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash cautiously approach, but it quickly becomes apparent that he’s not quite himself. Cyborg’s weapons systems kick in and Kal-El, operating on pure instinct sees it as a threat!

A massive fight ensues between Superman and the rest of the league. At one point, Wonder Woman ensnares Superman with her lasso, but the combined force of Diana, Arthur, Victor, and Barry isn’t enough to stop him. It’s not until Lois shows up that he comes to and stops trying to incinerate Batman with his heat vision. Lois and Clark fly off to the Kent farm in Smallville where he’s reunited with Martha in a heartwarming scene as he remembers who he is. It’s also really nice to see after Lois has spent all of her scenes throughout the movie mourning his loss.

Meanwhile, back in Metropolis, the League regroups at STAR labs after Dr. Silas Stone recovers the Third Mother Box and is persued by Steppenwolf. Cyborg shows up to stop him, but he’s no match on his own. Silas sacrifices himself to save the day, using a laser to superheat the cube so that Cyborg can track it, but disintegrating himself in the process. It’s a heart wrenching scene and really adds a lot to Victor’s arc as he had never really had the chance to bridge the gap with his father since the accident.

And once again, I’m shocked this didn’t make it into the theatrical cut.

CHAPTER 6: “Something Darker”

Before the League suits up to fly off to Russia and stop Steppenwolf from uniting the three boxes, Bruce reveals to Diana that he had a vision of Barry warning him about something, “something darker”, which is a nice nod to the “Knightmare” sequence from BvS in which he was told Lois Lane is “the key”.

While Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and The Flash suit up and fly off in Bruce’s carrier, we get this incredible scene where Clark returns to the Kryptonian ship and we hear the voices of both his fathers, Jor-El and Jonathan Kent, as he fully embraces his destiny, and accepting both sides of himself. We also get to see a variety of Kryptonian super suits in his armory. Clark ultimately opts for a badass black solar suit to help him recharge quicker, instead of his normal red and blue.

The final battle between the Justice League and Steppenwolf’s army is intense to say the least. We get an epic hero shot of Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and the Flash racing into battle alongside the Batmobile. Each of the heroes gets to shine, all of them bringing something to the table, and we get to see them work as a team under Batman’s guidance.

Wonder Woman and Aquaman hold their own against Steppenwolf, while Cyborg attempts to separate the unity and Barry tries to pick up speed to charge him. As Cyborg is working to stop the unity, Steppenwolf gets ready to swing his axe down on him, but then at the last second, Superman returns blocking the massive axe with his neck before freezing and shattering the weapon with ease before pummeling the interdimensional despot and lasering off one of his horns!

Unfortunately the Flash got shot by a parademon while running and wasn’t fast enough to stop the unity and our heroes lose as the entire planet is obliterated in a blinding flash! Seriously. Except Barry slows down time and realizes that he has to run faster than he ever has before to change the past! Leading to another one of the coolest sequences I’ve ever seen where we see a cosmic explosion in reverse, with the ground reforming under Barry’s feet as he runs!

The Flash reverses time and gives Cyborg the spark he needs for him to separate the Unity with Superman’s help. Just then, a boom tube opens revealing Darkseid on Apokolips! Superman sends Steppenwolf flying through the portal and Diana decapitates him in mid-air just to send a message. The Justice League defiantly stares back at Darkseid, united.

The Epilogue(s)

The movie ends with an epic montage of each of our heroes going their seperate ways (nor now), Bruce talks about converting the ruins of Wayne Manor into the Hall of Justice, Diana stares off towards the horizon longingly (teeing up the third WW movie?), we hear a heartwarming pump up speech from Dr. Stone to his son, and Barry runs through Central City before disappearing in a flash…

Then we get an awesome scene of Lex Luthor on a yacht, having escaped Arkham Asylum, where he hires Deathstroke to kill the Batman, and reveals his identity as Bruce Wayne! Now this would’ve been a great place to cut to credits, but we instead cut to another eerie Knightmare sequence. Now as awesome as this scene is, it does feel like it would have been more effective as a mid-credits stinger, but I imagine it was put here before the credits so that no one would miss it.

This scene is extremely intriguing on a number of levels. We’re still not clear if this is an alternate future where they failed to stop the unity, or another universe entirely (I’m personally on team parallel universe myself), but either way it’s a great set up for a follow up that I desperately hope we get one day. In this post-apocalyptic hellscape, we see Batman, Mera (with Arthur’s trident!), The Flash (in armor like we saw before in the flash-forward in BvS), an upgraded Cyborg, Deathstroke(?), and The Joker?!

That’s right we get the return of Suicide Squad’s Jared Leto “Joker” and this time he’s creepier than ever! He has the visage of a shark, with red war paint smeared like blood around his lips and dark, lifeless eyes. We get the first and only (?) scene between Ben Affleck’s Batman and Jared Leto’s Joker and it’s maybe the single best on screen Batman / Joker interaction that we’ve seen yet where Joker tells Batman to “Never send a Boy Wonder to do a man’s job.” He also says “I’m your best friend, Bruce” in a very different voice, which really adds more fuel to the Jason Todd, Robin / Joker theory (once again, why would a murderous Batman keep the Joker of all people alive?). This incredible scene is cut short when an evil Superman shows up, which we then realize leads to the Knightmare scenes in BvS where Batman is captured and killed by the Man of Steel after he was corrupted by Darkseid.

And then we get another scene which would have worked way better as a post-credits scene where Bruce randomly meets Martian Manhunter who for some reason feels the need to name drop his incredibly cheesy moniker from the comics before flying off. I could have done without that last scene, but the Martian Manhunter scenes are really the only weak point in the movie, because everything else felt integral to the overall story, whereas Martian Manhunter showing up at the tail end, when they really could have used his help earlier, just feels kinda like a cheap Easter egg. That said, the Batman / Joker scene was icing on top of the cake and a really awesome way to end this movie.

Final Thoughts

Justice League is a big step up from BvS, it’s easily the best entry in Snyder’s trilogy, and is arguably one of the best DC movies ever made. It absolutely delivered on the promise of what a Justice League movie could be. The visuals are insane and it has several of the coolest fight scenes in superhero movie history.

It took itself seriously, but it wasn’t too dark and it wasn’t afraid to embrace the comic book elements of these iconic characters. None of them are short changed and they each have their own arcs and motivations. The fact that it’s divided into chapters is clever, because it really emphasizes the feeling that this is a comic book movie, it’s structured like a six part comic book event, complete with an Issue Zero and an ‘Aftermath’ story teasing future titles. It absolutely feels like a culmination of what Snyder set up in “Man of Steel” and I’m curious to see what happens next with the DCEU.

As a trilogy, it’s maybe not as strong as Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, but it undoubtedly ends on a much stronger note. Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (the ultimate cut), and Zack Snyder’s Justice League clock in at around 9 hours and some change, so like watching the extended cuts of “Lord of the Rings”, it’s definitely a commitment, but I do think regardless of some flaws, the three films flow together pretty well as a cohesive whole. You can certainly binge them all in one sitting, but I would recommend skipping a good chunk of BvS and just getting to that third act for the epic fisticuffs between the two.

A lot of people have criticized Zack Snyder’s take on the DC characters, but I’d argue that a lot of that is misinterpretation out of context. Yes, there’s a lot of Randian influence throughout BvS, and without the context of the other two movies it can feel very cynical and nihilistic, it’s all about these characters doubting and questioning, but if you look at the trilogy as a whole, Snyder is taking these characters deconstructing them, but then building them back up again. Ultimately Justice League flips all of that on it’s head and ends with each of the heroes reaching their full potential and working together as a team. Aside from the dark cliffhanger, it’s a rather positive and hopeful ending.

That said, I think the biggest detractor of Snyder’s trilogy is that for a story that starts out about Superman, he gets less and less screen time as it goes on, and considering Cavill might be the best on screen Superman to date, he feels wholly under-utilized in the DCEU. I’m just glad that he’ll at least be back for the Black Adam movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, while Ben Affleck is returning (along with Michael Keaton) as Batman in the upcoming “The Flash” film, which this movie totally sets up. Now let’s just hope we get to see more of Ray Fisher’s Cyborg!

All in all, Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t just one of the best DC movies ever made, it might be one of the best superhero movies ever put to film, and as a DC fan, it really is a dream come true.

Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” is now on HBO Max and 4K Blu Ray!