Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Cast: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, and Gal Gadot 

Director: Zack Snyder 

242 minutes (15) 2021

Warner Bros. 4K Ultra HD 

Rating: 10/10

Review by Christopher Geary

Contrary to a well-known and often-quoted designer aesthetic, less is not more. More is actually often much better (unless you’re a weight-watcher on a crash-diet). Quality not quantity, is another highly relevant saying that might help form a thoughtful judgement of something’s value, but twice as much is assuredly going against a minimalist creative ethos. There is no escaping from a confrontational approach to any comparison between this version, the definitive edition of Snyder’s unfinished or abandoned picture, and the earlier movie ‘completed’ (supposedly) by Joss Whedon as contracted writer-director for hire. Whedon’s mercenary work on the essentially disappointing two-hour film Justice League (2017) could now be seen as Hollywood’s longest-ever trailer, a rather simplistic prelude for this magnificent new classic of superheroic movies. The most clear precedent for this kind of re-building a previously finished and released movie is (also from Warner Bros), Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006). Credited to Donner’s replacement, Richard Lester, Superman II was released in 1980, and its original director’s cut remained a fandom daydream, until the makers of Bryan Singer’s tribute movie Superman Returns found unused footage by Donner in the studio archives. Well, at least, for Justice League, we didn’t have to wait so long this time.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League picks up plot-threads from the climactic sequence of Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016), when the dying Superman’s yell echoes round the globe. Much more than another modestly enhanced, or just expanded edition (as seen in versions of Singer’s X-Men movies), this four-hour director’s cut unfolds into an expansive epic that almost outgrows the whole superheroes genre, never mind the DC films’ canon. Wrapped in the media’s cultural peak of science fiction, this supreme example of modern American mythology fields an unholy Unity of three mothers (in magical boxes), bringing apocalypse from the stars. Only the second coming of a space messiah, as crisis prompts resurrection, renews 21st century hope for the Age of Heroes. The big story-arc that Marvel accomplished for the Avengers in five adventures (including Captain America: Civil War), DC has now done with the Justice League in just two movies. 

This ‘Snyder cut’ includes clever segues, linking different scenes, as melancholy becomes a thing of universal experience, before a progressive resurgence of trust spins a society’s grief into a state where six meta-human outsiders might become civilisation’s defenders. ZSJL delivers on the promise of Man Of Steel and BVS by giving fans a greatly improved, captivating drama with vastly sophisticated sci-fi action chaptered for up-market appeal. More than another great super-team origin, the movie ushers genre showmanship into an emotionally resonant exercise of group dynamics and story-telling excellence. It’s broadly independent of pop-cult references, and other typically mediocre concerns, like Whedon’s colourful lighting set-ups, blatantly fetishistic sexism, and hyper-masculine fights, lacking a genuine style or poetic grace. Whedonisms of light-hearted and frivolous wit, dialogues often based on quips, and in-jokes, are weeded out, happily replaced with fresh lines that fully respect all characterisations with an in-depth veracity, instead of casually poking fun at DC’s premier line-up of thoroughly modernised heroes. It must be noted, though, that butler Alfred’s (entirely welcome) sarcasm, always at the expense of Bruce Wayne’s ego, is assuredly more prevalent, and effectively deflating, here. 

Although lots of scenes remain the same, significant editing, during the movie’s renewed post-production phase, means that even already familiar elements are freshly presented with gritty vigour and surprisingly richer ambition. The primary villain Steppenwolf is very much a case in point. Previously, the role relied on an actor’s distinctive voice to provide the obvious animations with a suitably life-like presence, but here this alien character’s portrayal depends far more on superior visual effects, including a constantly twitching ‘active’-armour suit. Many pivotal sequences are revised from Whedon’s frequently-contrived effort, and this work eliminates any superficial and irrational twists, to embrace convincing subtlety in characterisations, with responses to tragedy that embody objectives more positive than any form of vengeance. 

Now suitably frightening, death-cult terrorists in the Old Bailey are a grim foreshadowing of alien menace. Scenes that looked quite random choices in the earlier ‘Josstice League’ are now fully matured, and alive with a purpose, seemingly logical, or perhaps inevitable considering all the forces at work, connecting events, agendas, or often fateful decisions. The meeting of Barry Allen (alias, the Flash), and Iris West, during a car crash in a slow-motion sequence is elevated for wonderful visual poetry here by romantic ballad Song To The Siren, a well-chosen cover-version by British singer Rose Betts. If it’s remembered in years to come, for nothing else, ZSJL deserves critical attention for breathing astonishing new artistry into the cinematic cliché of love at first sight. A brief, yet sublime, encounter it’s one of those very rare but iconic combinations of images and music with spellbinding affect - a bewitching 'pop-video' experience that’s almost certain to link this movie to that song, forever.       

Spectacular effects and exceptional super-stunts accumulate into dazzling thrills. A vastly improved colour palette is only one of the upgrades deployed here with careful reverence for world-building elements and the back-story developments of varied characters. Of course, ZSJL also benefits from the hindsight of knowing what worked, flawlessly, or better than usual, in Avengers movies, Infinity War and Endgame, and so wounds are bloody here, and decapitation is a final solution. Despite his robotic appearance, the troubled hero Cyborg, short-changed as a newly-minted character by the 2017 version, is revealed as being far closer in aptitude or philosophy to Marvel’s android the Vision, so he’s not DC’s answer to hip genius Iron Man.

In several important moments, Darkseid appears as a monstrous being rather ghastly in aspect, and ultimately more menacing than overly-talkative Thanos in Avengers movies. Instead of being over too quickly, now the united League’s final battle is an extraordinary feat of cosmic justice. Its impact on the DC universe feels profound and looks awesome. The worthwhile multi-part epilogue offers plenty of scope for another sequel, although at time of writing, it seems unlikely. Perhaps if this movie proves hugely successful enough, the producers will think again. Like a 'Change Machine' in human form, Zack Snyder acquits his grandiose ambitions with tremendous ability. This UHD edition spans two discs with a four-chapter block (totalling 142 minutes), and two closing chapters on a second disc (adding 100 minutes). Disc one includes featurette extra: Road To Justice League (24 minutes).

A Glitch In The Matrix

Director: Rodney Ascher 

108 minutes (15) 2021

Dogwoof Blu-ray

Rating: 6/10

Review by Steven Hampton

One of the greatest philosophical questions that emerged from science fiction’s concerns and considerations about Virtual Reality is, basically: if nothing’s physically real in cyber-space, must we then simply abandon all morality? Where’s the harm in ‘torture’, slavery, and/ or ‘murder’ by termination if there’s no actual victim affected by apparent ‘crimes’? As if this crucial genre riddle wasn’t disturbing enough what if ‘nothing’ we know is ‘real’?

Is our Earthly reality just a simulation running on cosmic machinery of a super-advanced computer system? Kardashev’s theory of mega-civilisation types might suggest how it all could work. If there’s no practical difference between type IV (universe-spanning) and/ or type V (Ω) multi-verse scale civilisations, and our various notions of god, then (probably?) we cannot know for certain, anyway. This brain-smasher wraps itself in enigma and mystery. 

Seen here in archive clips, author Philip K. Dick’s popularisation of genre theories about a potential multi-verse of parallel worlds form a cornerstone of argument that’s rarely been questioned, although one seemingly-baffled man’s emergence from a (reportedly health-related) personal crisis with claims of cosmological visions now looks, in a cynical century decades later, like a headline-grabbing publicity-stunt. Neurotic reactions to intense déjà vu, and fervently grandiose delusions of devout faith, in organised or cult religions, ropes in other extreme possibilities, yet some of the commentators interviewed for this movie’s array of viewpoints appear to confuse possibility with probability. 

Although several Twilight Zone (1959-64 ’85-89/ 2002-3/ ’19-20) motifs are hardly even judged as relevant here, Wizard Of Oz (1939) is cited by a clip, while versions of Alice In Wonderland and Lewis’ Narnia books should have got a mention just for adding their own similarly hallucinatory contrivances, and blending blatant fantasy themes into genre lore. Reading such fairy tales while growing up is still a mind-expanding route to appreciations of adults’ genre literature, if not always lessons in worthy moralities and ethical thinking. A notable jumping-on point for V.R. in SF was Daniel Galouye’s 1963 novel Simulacron-3, adapted for German TV as Fassbinder’s World On A Wire (1977), and then filmed as The Thirteenth Floor (1999) by Josef Rusnak. The original Star Trek episode The Cage (1965) can nowadays be easily re-interpreted as a prison in dream-space, while McGoohan’s cult TV series The Prisoner (1967) - especially its ‘western’ styled episode Living In Harmony, offered a proto-VR, that led SF development in Crichton’s theme-park Westworld (1973), and Sasdy’s Welcome To Blood City (1977).

While Disney’s visual futurism in TRON (1982) opened the hidden curtains of cyberspace, Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1982), and his later eXistenZ (1999), exposed the new-fleshy layers of trickery. Trumbull’s Brainstorm (1983) demoed recordings of ecstasy and death, Verhoeven’s surreal spy-fi Total Recall (1990) plugged us into a pseudo-holiday machine. Later, forming a tidal-wave of duplicity or derangement, Bigelow’s millennial actioner Strange Days (1995), Leonard’s unboxed Virtuosity (1995), and Proyas’ nightmare-movie Dark City (1998), explored increasingly dystopian trends, while Carpenter’s witty comedy They Live (1998), expanded from Ray Nelson’s story Eight O’Clock In The Morning (1963, matching Galouye’s book - and completing a 'cyclical' timeline). Media fun, at the expense of ideas, took centre-stage for Weir’s The Truman Show (1998), before the Wachowskis’ The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003) re-articulated most of the SF texts and media that we’d got, so far, into an endlessly-debatable idealistic thriller of humanity unknowingly enslaved by A.I. 

When 21st century technology rarely does what it’s actually made to do (and never mind whatever users wish it could do), it’s simply no wonder that a century of SF cinema, plus a lifetime of genre TV shows, and the complexities of game-player media now undermine human (already limited) perceptions of reality. Sometimes when the unreliability of memory, anti-social boredom (factor in the side-effects of drink and drugs), results in a conspiracy theory of global scale (faked missions to the Moon, climate-change denial?), can so easily prompt depressive paranoia, and nihilistic responses, with down-spiral thinking only good for circling the Libertarian drains of social order. (See how easy it is to slip into a ranting mode?) The fascinating subgenre continued in very different ways like Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018), Finnegan’s horrific Vivarium (2019), and in TV remakes such as Westworld (since 2016).

A Glitch In The Matrix fields various escapist fantasies of isolated obsessive nerds, and social-maverick outsiders’ undiagnosed mental problems, as if assorted video-phoned-in contributions, about whimsical “OMG-U-guys” maybes, by sundry weirdoes, should really count for... well, something. Undeniably, there’s an entrancing alienation theme set free to run wild here, but as too many discordant or self-regarding, or masked for anonymity, voices pile-on with repetitions of rants as story-telling, a lot of this flashy documentary’s raving-mad narrative coherence evaporates, quite ironically. Anecdotes are presented as evidence with no scientific rationale, and so tall tales and ripping yarns lack any shreds of credibility. 

Peculiarities accumulate, alongside theoretical musings that date back to Plato, instead of studying the undoubted impacts on our consciousness of all these SF ideas from books or media (there are too many exemplars to list here), quite likely to have surprised readers, and stunned watchers, with phildickian concepts they’d never imagined. As previously, in Ascher’s feature-length debut Room 237 (2012), a critical assessment of Kubrick’s iconic horror The Shining (1980), the director’s approach is wholly inconsistent with any typical non-fiction. Digressions and diversions are strewn throughout, and so fairly logical trains of thought often derail into an unfortunate incomprehensibility. Still, this crazy ride to an entirely unreachable destination is worth its sensory-ticket for some remarkably abstract scenery.

Daughter Of The Wolf

Cast: Gina Carano, Brendan Fehr, and Richard Dreyfuss

Director: David Hackl

84 minutes (15) 2019

Dazzler DVD

Rating: 6/10

Review by Donald Morefield 

Something like “I’ve come for my boy” has become a clichéd line from revenge-westerns, but for this crime thriller of a kidnapping plot, its family-rescue drama turns into a brutal manhunt, as Daughter Of The Wolf concerns several gritty confrontations, between the mother and the kidnappers of her son, where basic humanity is eclipsed by animal rages. Vigilante heroine Clair (Gina Carano) meets the balaclava henchmen, to deliver a ransom payment, but this handover of cash is jinxed by their double-cross, so a car chase and an inevitable road crash are the result of a botched solution to the crisis.  

Stroppy teen son Charlie is rather more than simply a helpless pawn moving through this sinister game of one-upmanship. Not just another skinny blonde action star, former MMA champion Gina ‘Crush’ Carano successfully beats up bad-guys more convincingly than any of today’s athletes turned actresses. Her fighting opponents here include thug turned anti-hero Larsen (Brendan Fehr), and the rather more credibly dangerous Hobbs (Sydelle Noel). Primary antagonist Father (Hollywood superstar Richard Dreyfuss) delivers his brimstone rants with aplomb. 

Film-maker David Hackl is clearly no stranger to horror stories about humans or animals, since he made sequel Saw V (2008), in that popular genre franchise, and Into The Grizzly Maze (2015). This often spectacular movie skilfully conjures a malevolent atmosphere for location work on chilly mountainside terrain, especially in grisly scenes of typically poetic justice. These are cleverly structured to involve a pack of wolves in Clair’s hunting scenes and so frequent blood-in-the-snow images on widescreen landscapes punctuate this grim fairy-tale, shot with startling colour and motion, despite its general stillness in the frozen forests.

Although this picture never matches the dramatic intensities of Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River (2017), there are obviously lower-budget similarities here - as bitter and twisted, or bruised and battered, people explore human darkness in a world that’s mostly whiteness.