A “not that exciting” Gal Gadot as Diana Prince. Barney Rubble Couture. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Used By Permission.
Part 2 of 6. (Read Part 1 here)
Given the “Friday Night Choice” of which to play first, Zack Snyder’s Justice League Part 2 won over The Falcon and The Winter Soldier on Disney+.
We caught up with Sam and Bucky later in the evening. Two friends of mine, though you’ll have to guess which ones, have completed the film before me this time, after all, bets would have been on me to be the first. In fact, in a casual look at my timeline, most friends of mine have either not seen it or have enjoyed the full four-hour experience.
If I was watching this by myself I probably would be finished as well, but as my old college friend Märk once said, “it’s more fun to share a buzz”. Well said, and if the post-college years of my life were to be held up to any kind of scrutiny, they would see that I rarely left buzzes unaccompanied nor wasted sharing opportunities.
Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Used By Permission. Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone.
Part 2 gives us more Cyborg and his father Silas Stone’s Star Labs origin.
The kitchen ‘monster’ scene with Victor and Silas was one of my favorite in the original cut and there seems to be more here. This is a better version. Where was the location of the Mother Box in 2017? I need to rewatch the 2017 version or, more likely, lazily watch a YouTube video about the differences.
Diana follows the ancient warning fire from the TV news story and here is some great additional footage not used in the 2017 film. Diana goes below the flaming arrow’s temple and an ancient mural tells the story of Darkseid and the parademons. I do remember Diana telling Bruce the details but this footage explains a lot and would have been useful exposition in the previous version. Someone answer a question - are all Parademons in full armor? Also, are “Man” [read: “MEN!”'] the dumbest species? They buried thier Mother Box under like 2 feet of dirt. Hello….EROSION!
“ARROWED!” - Darkseid Is
We do get a redux of Diana breaking into the Batcave to reveal Batman’s Troop Carrier, a set-piece used a lot in the final battle. This Dark-Knight-Returns-esque older, wiser, richer, extravagant Bruce of course has a big helicarrier and he’s probably on his like 10th Batplane and has wrecked more Batmobiles than I have Batman t-shirts (that’s a lot, folks, and about 25% have Ben Affleck’s Batman from Justice League on them).
This quiet retelling of The Old Gods story to Bruce and the extended battle scenes were both great. The dark environment of the Batcave, the interaction between the two actors. It all works for me. Better than lake-side chats with a creeping Cyborg. The extended Darkseid War segment was awesome and full of action. The Mother Boxes & Unity, the Green Lantern, Zeus & Ares, the Amazonians, Man and The Atlanteans fighting the big fight was epic. It was great before, but now it is better.
Jason Momoa as Aquaman. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Used By Permission.
Aquaman’s sailor rescue happens here, and as Joss Whedon’s musical choices are overwritten, we get another sad song, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “There is a Kingdom” instead of the bombast bottle-breaking rock of The White Stripe’s “Icky Thump”. Danny Elfman’s Batman stingers are gone as well from this edit. Not a complaint and this is a grim and gritty movie, but so far I’ve counted three complaints from me, and they all have to do with sad songs.
Willem Defoe as Vulco In Aquaman, 2018. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Used By Permission.
“What is The Green Goblin doing in this movie?”
Stacey asked this formidable question, and the answer goes back to the original #ReleaseTheSnyderCut Campaign. Willem Dafoe’s Nuidis Vulko is here beneath the sea to advise Arthur on his upcoming battles. This was cut in 2017 for time constraints. Vulko is reinstated for 2018’s Aquaman and now in canon via the Snyder Cut. We love it when heroes and villains cross companies, don’t we?
DeSaad and Steppenwolf reinstate the original vision of Darkseid being the main villain in the Snyder Cut and there is a certain Guardians of the Galaxy Ronan The Accuser showdown via stone wall hologram. Or it’s kind of like Snoke in the movies that shall not be named. This was also a key to the story I think important for having in this cut. I know I’ve already complained about the length, but I also think I remember there being plans to release this Avengers: Endgame style in two parts initially.
I had a shower thought:
That’s not it.
The ‘shower thought’ was that this may be the perfect time for this version of Justice League to come out like this, in a four-hour extended cut. Time, for many of us, is now a flat circle. Release all the footage, make it long, for the people that have endured one year living in their homes, give them the long LOTR version of the thing. It will keep people safe, Snyder will get to spend his 70 million on new production costs, and this will be a loss leader for HBO in the true sense of the business practice. Some will remain HBO Max customers, there will be some churn, but overall, HBO is offering content on this superchannel we can now subscribe to.
Competing with Disney+ and more can’t be easy, and while Wonder Woman 84 just wasn’t that great, they are totally making it up with this one.
Who cares about the aspect ratio? I won’t care when they release this on IMAX in my dreams one day in the far-off future. But now, we’re at home and what else are we going to do? I still have yet to see but am tempted to while away my time awaiting my next Pfizer shot by watching the Hobbit trilogy for the first time.
So far, no Flash or Iris West, until next time, in Part 3, I would presume!*
*(Spoilers: I let it play in the background writing this, and there they are).
Stay Tuned!
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