[Movies] The DC Cinematic Universe - The David Zazlav Dumpster Fire.

figmentPez

Staff member
One of my good friends was surprised with Gal Gadot on Zoom as part of WW84 marketing:



I'm so happy she got to have that experience. Kaleena is one of the most amazing people I know, and I'm looking forward to when I can say "I knew her back when..."
 
Snyder cut is better than theatrical cut.

Snyder cut is still awful.

I have no idea what brain poison people are on to think this is a good movie. I feel like the drought of the last year have left a lot of folk desperate to be excited about something but Jesus Christ.

Feel like this may end up a 'hot take'
 
Yeah, I'm not spending 4 hours of my life on something I know I won't enjoy. Especially when I haven't seen BvS, either. So that would be like 7+ hours of that garbage. Noooooo thank you.
 
BvS is so God damn bad.

I swear to God, 15 minutes of the movie is devoted to setting up and paying off a jar of piss.

Confession also, I didn't finish the Snyder cut. 4 hours? Fuck off.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I’ll never understand how clinging to a format that was created due to technical limitations of the past is an artistic choice.
It took me a long time to put up with the 16:10/16:9 aspect ratio, because for the first year or so after 4:3 fell out of vogue, the quick slapdash way they made games "widescreen compatible" was literally to just chop off the top and bottom of the 4:3 render window. And it blew. It engendered a bias against widescreen that persisted in me for years.
 
It took me a long time to put up with the 16:10/16:9 aspect ratio, because for the first year or so after 4:3 fell out of vogue, the quick slapdash way they made games "widescreen compatible" was literally to just chop off the top and bottom of the 4:3 render window. And it blew. It engendered a bias against widescreen that persisted in me for years.
Right, but that’s essentially what he did. He took a movie that was most likely shot in digital 16:9 and chopped it up to 4:3 because of “artistic” reasons. I understand if he framed it that way in his head, but it was still planned and shot in 16:9.
 
I watched it all the way through. An hour could have been chopped off and nothing would be lost. It’s better because it dives in to the why and how of what the hell is happening, but it still suffers from trying to do too much in one movie. I don’t think it’s worth watching if you watched the original, but if you haven’t and had to decide which to watch, this one would be the one.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I’ll never understand how clinging to a format that was created due to technical limitations of the past is an artistic choice.
Even 16:9 was created as a compromise. It's the midway point between 4:3 and the ~2.35:1 that a lot of movies use. 16:9 was chosen so that analog TV and big screen movies would both end up with approximately the same amount of blank screen.
 
Even 16:9 was created as a compromise. It's the midway point between 4:3 and the ~2.35:1 that a lot of movies use. 16:9 was chosen so that analog TV and big screen movies would both end up with approximately the same amount of blank screen.
I guess it’s all created as a technical limitation. It’s the decision to alter your work to a more limited standard because of nostalgia that bugs me.
 
I would say it definitely depends on what kind of story you are trying to tell. Young Frankenstein is definitely a better movie for it's use of black and white, as it allows it to even better ape and parody the kinds of horror movies it was poking fun at. Film Noir films generally benefit from black and white (if set in the past) or excessively bright colors (if set in the future), because these features are making a blanket statement about the story itself. Found Footage movies wouldn't work without the graininess and fake production errors of home video recording; it just adds to the realism.
 
Watched the Snyder cut. JFC, does Snyder love slo-mo. My husband and I joked that if he'd used slo-mo only for Flash's scenes (where it's appropriate), the movie would be only 3 hours long.

Definitely better than Whedon's version character-wise. This is truly a team movie, and everyone gets some focus. As much as Snyder loves the GrimDark, Barry still gets to bring some lighthearted humor to the team. Victor gets an actual character arc as he comes to accept being Cyborg. Diana and the Amazons felt way more bad ass in this one.

I think the only scene I miss from the first movie is from their first team-up, when Barry is anxious about doing something other than 'running fast and pushing things', and Bats tells him to save just one person. I liked that pep talk, because it was kind of a 'why superheroes do what they do' in a nutshell.

Didn't even notice the 4:3, it was a non-issue.

This movie was in desperate need of editing. Lots and lots of fluff that could have been cut. The intro of the movie dragged on too long. It had more endings than Lord of the Rings. And the apocalypse thing with Joker was dumb and unnecessary and confusing (my husband had no idea what was going on there, because he'd missed Bruce's mention of his dream earlier). Also, I just despise Leto's Joker. He's a terrible Joker.

This was also a movie that assumed you know the DC Universe, because I had to explain a lot of things to my husband about the New Gods, the Anti-Life Equation, and the cameos. For a DC newbie, I think they'd be better off watching the other version of this movie.

They definitely seemed to be setting up another JL movie (which most likely won't happen now).
Ryan Choi. There were heavy hints of Atom showing up if there was another movie, what with Ryan being in charge of nanotech at Star Labs.

J'onn! I had a minor excited freak-out when the Martian Manhunter first showed up (in an incredibly odd scene, but...ok), because I love J'onn. Also had a set-up for him joining the team if there was another JL movie.

We get to see more of the New Gods, mostly Desaad doing Apokaliptic Zoom calls with Steppenwolf. Darkseid gets some screen time. And, oh, hey, there's Granny Goodness lurking in the background.
It was too long with bad pacing, but not terrible. If there's a fan edit that trims it down (and cuts out that stupid Joker apocalypse scene), it would probably be a better movie.
 
So I got really high last night and watched the whole thing, texting with my brother back and forth throughout.That apocalypse Joker shit at the end was really, really terrible. From the Lawnmower man Cyborg CG in it right up to Jared Leto's trash level Joker.I also decided that Zack Snyder dislikes the Flash almost as much as Brian Singer disliked Cyclops. There's no other reason he'd make him that lame and useless and then go with that completely unearned hero moment at the end where he disregards that RUUULE he only casually mentions earlier like it will be a big deal to anyone.I ended up liking most of the new stuff and honestly, I would have rather watched a Cyborg movie (where his design wasn't Transformers levels of awful). Ray Fisher got fucked so hard by Whedon both in front of and behind the scenes, no wonder he went fucking scorched Earth on Whedon and WB. Zack Snyder may be a sexist weird objectivist, but he probably isn't racist....except when he makes movies like 300 where he's definitely racist.

I'm going to copy and paste some of my text back and forths because they made me laugh.

Oh Aquaman music video now

You sent Yesterday at 9:54 PM
Subtle as a brick to the teeth

You sent Yesterday at 9:55 PM
He swims like he's flying. He's not even wiggle swimming

Steppenwolf just made a silly frown and I guffawed

You sent Yesterday at 10:00 PM
Like actual hilarious cg. Let me screen shot it.

You sent Yesterday at 10:01 PM
I do like that they're showing off the other Apokalips characters

You sent Yesterday at 10:17 PM
"Can I come home?" "No! Not until you conquer 50000 more worlds."
SAD FACE

1616266118537.png


Whoa, the Flash is even more annoying in this movie than he was in the other.

Batman= literally let Superman's mom lose her home
Cyborg= gets powers, immediately transfers money from a bank to the first poor family he sees

You sent Yesterday at 10:57 PM
Aka fuck Batman

Whoa this Steppenwolf fight suuuuucks.

You sent Yesterday at 11:16 PM
Jim Gordon: Fuck this.

You sent Yesterday at 11:21 PM

Fuck the Flash sucks

You sent Yesterday at 11:22 PM
Batman voice is making me crack up

You sent Yesterday at 11:23 PM
This stupid vehicle is 100% my kind of dumb Batman bullshit

You sent Yesterday at 11:26 PM
Zack Snyder hates the Flash like Brian Singer hated Cyclops

You sent Yesterday at 11:36 PM
Oh my God this flashback. Snyder you fucking hack

You sent Yesterday at 11:38 PM
I'd be mad if I were shit CG too Cyborg.

You sent Yesterday at 11:38 PM
Jesus Flash sucks so bad


You sent Yesterday at 11:45 PM
Whoa this Flash Cyborg scene wasn't Joss Whedon? Holy moly. I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that this dumb ass grave digging scene wasn't a Joss Whedon thing.

You sent Today at 12:06 AM
Holy shit, 'Kal El noooo!' Is this movie's Greedo shoots first

You sent Today at 12:08 AM
Batman: I'm here tooo.

You sent Today at 12:10 AM
Oh yeah this movie sucks too

You sent Today at 12:11 AM
You almost tricked me with some of the additions but you're just spreading nice mustard on this shit sandwich.

You sent Today at 12:18 AM
PS 60s and still owing payments on the farm you've owned your whole lives. Fuck Bruce Wayne so hard.

You sent Today at 12:28 AM
Every man. Woman. ...and child let one huge donkey fart that night.

You sent Today at 12:31 AM
Oh my fucking God this is so lame.

You sent Today at 12:37 AM
I'm legit laughing if these invincible alien invaders job this hard to Batman's car.

You sent Today at 12:40 AM
Zack Snyder: what if Batman was Master Chief

You sent Today at 12:43 AM
This is some PS2 cutscene shit

You sent Today at 12:45 AM
Suit is awful

You sent Today at 12:50 AM
There's never been a less earned dipshit moment in a movie more than this Flash scene.

You sent Today at 12:50 AM
The gall

You sent Today at 12:53 AM
Oh no this looks bad

You sent Today at 1:13 AM
Oh nooooi

You sent Today at 1:13 AM
Cyborg noooo
 

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I though it was fine. In fact I would say I liked it, with the exception of the epilogue, which was super silly and unnecessary.
 
I acquired the Snyder Cut.

Firstly, full disclosure, I rather liked the original Justice League. The Snyder Cut is, on the whole, a better movie I think, but I think I might like it less.

This film is absolutely Zack Snyder at his most self-indulgent. There's so much slow-mo, the colors are so de-saturated you oftentimes can't see shit, there are far too many endings (some of them nonsensical), and a lot of the fanservice was either pointless or just bad. Martian Manhunter was utterly superfluous, but worse than that, he actually damaged the story when he showed up. You have this heartfelt scene with Martha and Lois helping each other come to terms with their shared grief, the only two people in the world who know what it's like to mourn both Superman and Clark Kent, and for some reason you turn one of them into Martian Manhunter? Just why? Why undermine this scene with this pointless cameo? And that final scene just raises more questions than it answers. What, Martian Manhunter didn't feel the need to contribute when Zod attacked? When Doomsday was on the loose? When Steppenwolf was on the verge of wiping out all life on Earth? Now he feels the need to show up? Also Martian Manhunter looked terrible.

Also, I know the ancient lamentation music has become something of a meme now, but seriously, it was terrible. In fact, I wasn't a fan of the music overall, either the song choices or the background music. A lot of the iconic themes (like Wonder Woman's electric cello theme, Superman's theme, etc) got diluted or disappeared entirely.

On the other hand, there are some things that the Snyder Cut did better. Cyborg and Flash got more complete story arcs, and ultimately they were the ones to save the day. This nicely subverts the original expectation that Superman would show up and he'll handle everything. Steppenwolf's story was also expanded so that his motivations are more understandable, instead of the previous "rawr I conquer worlds". Also, while the slow-mo was egregious at times, sometimes it did give the audience time to absorb the impact of what they're seeing. For example, there's a scene where Hippolyta is staring at the structure that housed the Mother Box, as she wrestles with her decision to seal her Amazons in there to die against Steppenwolf. Another example would be when you can glimpse Arthur in the water right before he stops the torrent from drowning the others, which means he doesn't just appear out of nowhere like in the original version.

The tone of the movie was also more consistent overall. I know it's sort of the MCU's thing to insert jokes into even the grimmest situations, and you could see Whedon doing that in the original cut. Admittedly, I found a lot of the original version's humor to be quite funny (Aquaman's rant while sitting on the lasso being my favorite), but I have to admit that oftentimes the jokes didn't really work. Some examples include Flash faceplanting on Wonder Woman's boobs, "something's definitely bleeding", Flash's brunch rant, etc.

Anyway, overall the Snyder Cut is more complete, tonally more consistent, and fleshes out more of the characters. However, it also has a lot of Zack Snyder doing Zack Snyder things, which isn't always a good thing.

A few final thoughts:
Why did Cyborg bury the Mother Box at what appeared to be his mother's grave? Was he trying to bring her back to life too? That just sort of went nowhere.
What's with the Atlanteans talking like dolphins? And what was up with Mera's accent?
The narrow aspect ratio did the movie no favors.
Wonder Woman is hot, Lois Lane is hot, Mera is hot, Hippolyta and all the other Amazons are hot, Martha is hot, and Aquaman is hot.
 
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