Opinion Piece/ Review; Zack Snyder's Justice League: Should we #RestoreTheSnyderVerse?

 With the Snyder Cut out, it's safe to say that DC is right now enjoying a lot of time in the spotlight now. I'm sure a lot of people here are at least somewhat familiar with the story. Zack Snyder was removed from directing the Justice League film due to tragic events that happened to his family. Joss Whedon was brought in to get the movie to a releasable state; that version was a disaster due to conflicting tones and visions, leading to a campaign to get Zacks version finished. AT&T heard that, though it would make great content for HBO Max, and so it was done, giving the public a four-hour movie. If all you're looking for is a review comparing the two, well, there is no comparison as objectively, Snyder's version is better. But is the Snyder Cut a good movie on its own merit?

The big thing of note for Snyder's version of the movie is that it's far longer by necessity. They've added in many scenes that help fix the pacing issues of the theatrical cut and give characters like Cyborg a more critical role. There are also inclusions that, as it currently stands with the fate of this take on the characters in limbo, forced in for the sake of building up later movies that might not happen. There are two scenes with the Martian Manhunter that can be summed up as him telling Lois "stop being depressed" and another asking Batman after the final battle "hey, you mind if I join in next time?". Darkseid is brought in for more buildup, which feels redundant due to his presence in the movie, thanks to Steppenwolf.

Why are you in this movie?

 

In contrast, another part of it is frustrating: the continuing focus on the nightmare future from Dawn of Justice (but I'll get back to that later). I think they could have easily cut over half an hour off the movie by trimming down these rather pointless inclusions (when looking at the story itself, taking out the director's desire to direct a scene with these characters). It's just padding out the run time, setting up sequels that will only really happen if AT&T get involved again, which they may not even do!

Remember this picture for after this coming paragraph...

One other issue that I have when it comes to how the movie was released is that the film was rendered and released in IMax resolution, which doesn't work on a streaming service release. Most people have 16:9 Wide Screen TVs, projectors and Monitors. There is a lot of dead space on either side of the screen because of this. When you combine that with the fact that the movie has a very cold, dark pallet with a lot of harsh shadows, night time shots, and not a lot of brightly lit shots in general, it makes the movie look a lot darker than it is when you have two very distracting black borders on the left and right of the screen. 

This is how distracting the black boarders can be.

Though I'm not sold on some of the designs, Cyborg reminds me a bit too much of Michael Bay Transformers for my liking; the CGI and effects in the movie are well done, with moments like the final battle looking a lot better with the lighting the costumes were designed for. That, and the scenes added to help expand on rushed moments from the theatrical cut, is why I'm not saying much about the actual movie itself here. As I said at the very start of the review, this is the best version of the film to watch, even if there are decisions that don't make much sense given the context for release and current standing on upcoming movies. The big question about the film isn't "Is it good", it's "should we go back to this style of DC movies?". I don't think we should.

I don't think it would be a big shock to say, "I'm a fan of the Marvel Movies". I think the fact that I've talked about every movie released so far and have done yearly Marvel reviews now for the last few years goes to show how much I enjoy them. They have problems, don't get me wrong, but the quality of the movies overall has kept me invested in them. When the worst movies in the MCU can be described as "Ehh, it ok." you're doing something right. Two of the big reasons for their success and the two things DC need to get right are the characters and the pacing. Looking at the three Snyder movies, Man of Steel, Dawn of Justice and Justice League, none of the characters feel faithful to the material because "deconstruction storytelling" has been baked into them from the start. That's not necessarily bad, but it does mean that none of these characters feels like the source material due to the conflicting ideas going into them. Introducing characters, deconstructing characters, modernizing characters, subverting expectations. I don't know who any of these people are. Can we start with introductions, please?! At no point in the three movies have I felt like I've gotten the character, something that I've done with every Marvel movie, and the versions of these very same characters in the DCAU. The only character in the DCEU that I can safely say, "ok, I get what this character is like, what their personality is, I get why they're a hero", is Wonder Woman, thanks to her standalone movie.

Really? You're doing a Flashpoint this early?

This takes me to my next point. Why are we here, at this point that we're at by the end of movie three with Snyder's films, four if we're going to count Wonder Woman (and no, I'm not counting Suicide Squad because that feels bolted on at this point)? We've got a four-hour movie trying to introduce three new heroes, revive a fourth that shouldn't be dead in the first place, getting them all together while also trying to introduce the madness that is the New Gods before establishing the Old Gods. It's the fourth movie directly focusing on members of the Justice League. One of the biggest reasons the MCU has succeeded is pacing character introductions, letting people get to know characters in their movies before they start mashing them together. Batman and Superman shouldn't have fought in Movie 2; they should have fought/ worked together after a Man of Steel 2 and a Batman movie introducing people to this new version of Bruce Wayne. Superman should not have died in Movie 2 (that shouldn't have happened for several years) to give the Justice League time to establish itself properly. Superman shouldn't have been immediately revived either because that kills the moment entirely! This version of Justice League (minus resurrecting Superman) should have happened after Flash and Aquaman had standalone movies. The DCEU shouldn't be building up to an Injustice movie, and you people want more of this? You want more of WB's corporate meddling, rushing to get crossovers to happen, forcing iconic characters to suffer as a result?

Why are you in this movie?

I want more DC movies too. I would love for a shared DC Cinematic Universe to rival Marvel's, to give them a run for their money as both companies are at their best when they're building off each other. But I want more movies like Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman, movies that keep to the spirit of the character, with the movie's tone complimenting the character. Movies that show the world why these characters have fans, not trying to contort them to "the sensibilities of the movie going audience". The answer to beating Marvel isn't to make a grim, dark, cold series of movies where the idea of a smile is a rarity because "older people don't like smiling!", it's showing why DC's characters are beloved by fans by showing the good, the bad, the silly, and everything in between. There's a reason why WB Animation frequently mocks Snyder's movies because of how dark and edgy they are; that should show you that we shouldn't want more; we should want better. 

Why are you in this movie? And why the hell didn't you help earlier?!

As nice as it is to finally see a version of Snyder's Justice League, for as good as the movie is, anything would be better than the theatrical cut, and this should not absolve all the previous movies problems. This doesn't change the fact that Man of Steel tried to make an idealistic hero realistic, defeating the point of the character. This doesn't change the fact that the version of Batman we were introduced to was so far removed from what Batman should be that the final "look, he's Batman again!" moment feels cheap. This doesn't change how bad Joker was in Suicide Squad, how bad Killer Croc looked in Suicide Squad, and how bad the course correction from Dawn of Justice was because of how botched the theatrical cut was to try and cut down the run time. If the reason you want more of this was so that you could have something with a tone completely different from the MCU, you need to rethink your priorities.

Binge (Streaming Service): "Ever heard of the phrase "don't compete with yourself"?

Before I get to my review of the release of Justice League, entirely directed by Zack Snyder, I have to cover something first as it will impact my view on the movie. The streaming service I watched it on. See, here in Australia, we don't have HBO Max. Our equivalent of Cable TV, Foxtel, has the distribution rights to HBO Max content for the next few years, including putting the content on it's streaming services. Binge was the version I chose to view it on. If people outside of Australia are looking to pay for Binge, I can tell you right now, don't waste your time. Even assuming they enable VPN's to work, the service is less to be desired.

 
Like my review of Disney+ back in December 2019, this review primarily focuses on the service itself, not the content on it. However, I will be referring to content on the service in examples of positives and negatives. A lot of the review focuses on the web browser version Binge. However, I've also looked at the Android app version for minor differences. I'll start with the main home screen. While it's not bad, clearly drawing inspiration from other Streaming platforms by grouping similar shows and movies together, the content presented is a bit skewed in terms of preference. Binge primarily markets itself as a home for more mature content, so while there is Kids Content on the service, it takes more digging to get to it than something like Disney+, where the Home Page has a mix of content at different age groups. Because of this, and the fact that Binge hasn't got any clearly defined way to set up content restrictions, I wouldn't recommend it for parents straight away if they want to turn it on, give their kids the remote and tell them "watch what you want while I work."

Finding content on the service is also more frustrating, then it needs to be. The Search Bar doesn't work logically. To give an example, in an attempt to find content supposedly on the service, Batman The Animated Series. I could search for "Batman" and get 36 results. But suppose I searched "Batman The Animated Series". In that case, I get 250 results, with content that supposedly fit the criteria, including Mr Bean, Green Lantern, Sex and the City, Animals, Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies and Cover-ups, and To Catch a Serial Killer. If nothing matches the criteria, most search results would say "nothing matches the criteria", why would your search bar bring up random bits of content instead? With the lack of parental locks, this is a pretty serious issue.

 
"Timmy! Why are you watching Sex and the City?!"
"Binge told me it had Batman in it!"

Even the limited search of just "Batman" has oddities in it. Not to the same extent as the full title search, but I'm pretty sure if I'm searching Batman, I don't want to watch Scooby-Doo, Pawn Stars, or Shipping Wars. 

Parental controls aren't the only thing missing from settings. The only thing there is if you want Closed Captions for content, which I do at least appreciate for accessibility. However, some settings are desperately needed, such as a more refined picture quality setting (Youtube's picture quality settings, for example). The main reason for this is that from personal experience, when using the service on my computer, when Binge bounces the picture quality from HD to SD, it locks it as SD for the rest of the video. This issue was highly frustrating during the Snyder Cut, as the lower quality meant that a lot of scenes became hard to watch. What made it even more frustrating was that at around the two and a half hour mark of watching the movie, I saw that Binge was using up a lot of my computer's memory trying to view the film. No other streaming service has this issue on my laptop, no other video platform has this issue on my laptop, and every other video platform knows that if I want to watch something in HD, I want to watch it in HD. The picture quality drop wasn't as big of an issue on my phone, as the video quality didn't noticeably drop when watching The Loony Toons Show. It looks to be an issue with the way the web browser version is designed and optimized.

Technical issues aside, how is the overall content? It's alright for the most part. The content is more in favour of lifestyle and drama entertainment. For someone like myself, it is nice to see a good chunk of Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon content on there. Still, there are some cases, such as Codename Kids Next Door, where only a few seasons are up, even though Foxtel has the distribution rights in Australia. One of the biggest reasons for this comes back to what I said in the opening paragraph. "Our equivalent of Cable TV, Foxtel, has the distribution rights to HBO Max content for the next few years, including putting the content on it's streaming services." The keyword there being services. Foxtel has four streaming services going here in Australia. Foxtel Go, Foxtel Now, Binge and Kayo Sports. Binge and Kayo Sports are the more traditional Streaming Services, with prices roughly in the range of other platforms like Netflix, Stan and Disney+ to match this. Foxtel Go is a service you can only get if you have a Foxtel subscription, which usually costs $139 a month for the whole package. Foxtel Now looks to be a "we want to have our cake and eat it too" with a subscription model that acts like their regular Subscription (where you pay for a base pack and then opt into extras). Still, it's a mainly digital service with an optional box to plug into your TV if it's not internet compatible. Without the box, it's $104 a month for everything. I wouldn't be surprised if Binge was a hodgepodge of all of Foxtel Now's bundles cut down to the bare minimum to try and get people to purchase Foxtel proper. 

Because of all of this, do I recommend Binge? No, I don't. If you're looking for a cheap Foxtel, then I guess this is good value for money, thanks to the fact that it comes the closest to competing with other Streaming Services. But because Foxtel wants to keep people paying for its set-top boxes, keep paying for Cable, it doesn't have a chance in the long term, especially if or when HBO does decide to bring HBO Max properly to Australia. Foxtel, you can't have it both ways if you want to compete with the other services. Stop competing with yourself and commit one way or the other with how you want to distribute the content you have the rights too.

Animaniacs (2020): Just what the Hello Nurse ordered?

Yes, it has all gone mad since you went away.

 

Unless something drastic happens, such as what has happened this year, you don't really notice how much change happens in day to day life. Changes to yourself, your friends, family, the world as a whole, you become oblivious to it. So when something comes out and points out and make fun of just how much has changed in, say, 22 years, it comes as a massive shock. Considering what this year has been, it's safe to say that many could go for something comedic, something zany. And, well, who does zany better then the Warners? "They're baaaaack"

 

Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion, The Crown Tundra: Trading one grind for another.

Though I wasn't expecting the Sword and Shield Expansion Passes to fix the main issues I had with Sword and Shield, it has become clear in hindsight they've chosen to double down problems that feel like they've been plaguing Pokemon since Generation 6. While Isle of Armor was ok for what it was, it didn't make me excited for the second half of the Expansion Pass, the Crown Tundra. 

Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion, Isle of Armor: How is SwSh 6 months later?

What was intended to be a short, simple review of a pretty short expansion turned out to be something a lot longer then I thought. Maybe I have been playing the series for too long... Well, before Min Min joins Smash and gives me another excuse to dump even more time into Smash's Spirits Mode (not that it needed more reasons to be the game I've put the most amount of time into on my Switch)

Detective Pikachu (Movie): Gen 1 pandering done right?

Pokemon brought into live-action, brought into the real world in a way that made them look like they belonged, not just using their original designs for merchandise and parading armies. I won't lie, I was sceptical at the news. Ignoring the fact that video game movies have a reputation for being really bad, thanks to many, many examples from the past (take your pick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_video_games#Hollywood_(live-action) ), what really made me cautious was the fact that there has been concept art of real-life Pokemon put up in the past made by one of the people who helped work on the designs used in the movie, and others following the trend. Nothing against RJ Palmer, I won't deny his talent as an artist, but the more dinosaur esque approach to the designs did not look good, and with other pokemon like many of the bug type Pokemon, object pokemon like Jigglypuff, even some like the Eeveelutions, it wasn't hard to find versions of these live-action interpretations that looked like they were at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley. To me, the normal design but with more detail was what I could see as real-life Pokemon, it's why stuff like this (https://www.deviantart.com/badafra/art/real-live-pokemon-Blaziken-303463061) interested me more than Palmer's work (though that picture of Groudon is somewhat terrifying.

Frozen 2: At least they kinda broke the trend of sequals sucking?

Remember when the idea of Disney making sequels was code for "this is going to suck, don't buy it!"? These things were seen as absolute disasters, cheap cash grabs that only exist to capitalize on direct to home media. While they've certainly improved on this, my guess is that the Frozen Shorts were akin to the traditional Disney Sequels, acting as placeholders until this movie came out, and got rushed to Disney+ when the DVD and Blu-Ray sales were going to tank due to the lockdown. Was the 6 year wait worth it though?

MAYvel Phase 3: Spiderman Far From Home: "We felt the need to remind you that Iron Man is dead."

And so Marvel's Phase 3, and the Infinity Saga comes to a close. 11 years, 23 movies, and with the next batch of content looking to be even bigger thanks to the Fox acquisition, it seems like the only thing that's going to stop Marvel is a Pandemic. Let's see how well that actually works out, because... actually probably better I don't finish this joke... With this being the last movie of Phase 3, I thought it was fitting to end MAYvel Phase 3 here, the original plans of reviewing the 90's Spiderman and X Men cartoons will happen at another time.

MAYvel Phase 3; Avengers Endgame: See, they're only mostly dead...

So... where do you go after Infinity War? Most of the characters people know are dead, and those that are alive are either stuck in a different dimension, stuck in space, or stuck on Earth with no idea what the hell to do. The answer? Time Travel, that also conveniently sets up Disney+ shows that are still apparently coming for characters that are actually dead, not mostly dead. So... sucks for Vision I guess? Oh, wait he's in Wandavision... As you can probably tell, I was struggling to come up with an intro to this, so frag it, here's my review of Avengers Endgame.

MAYvel Phase 3; Captain Marvel: "Oh boy, another movie no one can agree on and one where every opinion is hated!"

Because those are always fun to cover, and in no way at all nerve-racking, even if I cover media after they're done in the spotlight.

I was not looking forward to MAYvel Phase 3 this year purely because of this movie. Not because I hated it, I was honestly pretty impartial to it when I first saw it, but because it was another one of those movies that no one could agree on, where there was no middle ground in the discussion around the movie, you either loved everything about it or you hated it with everything you had because you're sexist. Yes, this movie is in the same camp as Ghostbusters 2016, in that it was held up as one of the greatest movies ever made because of female representation in the media and discussion surrounding the movie, and it was hard to discuss the positives and negatives of the movie without coming off as an apologist, or a sexist. Without going into details on the movie itself, I do think that kind of talk does a disservice to movies and media as a whole, as it not only brings to light the biases many people have about what they want in a movie, rather than the quality of a movie, and it also drags down positive representation of characters as people assume that it's bait for specific demographics, instead of being an interesting character and story to tell. That, combined with the increased pressure by automatic comparisons between this movie, the previous year's Black Panther and 2017's Wonder Woman, the release on International Woman's Day, and it felt like very little talk around Captain Marvel was actually about Captain Marvel. So, a year later, was it all worth it?