Film critics have given their verdicts on Zach Snyder’s reworked cut of Justice League, with most saying it is an improvement on the 2017 original.
The US director stood down from the DC Comics superhero movie due to a family tragedy. Joss Whedon took over, but his final edit was widely panned.
The plot sees Batman (Ben Affleck) and Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) assemble a team of superheroes to save the world.
Variety said Snyder’s restored version succeeds as a “majestic… new movie”.
The “grand, nimble, and immersive entertainment… is more than a vindication of Snyder’s original vision”, wrote Owen Gleiberman in his four-star review.
He said Snyder had managed to revive the DC universe’s “pop operatic grandeur” by adding “echoes of the sinister extravagance of the Avengers saga” – unlike Whedon’s “trimmed-down… hastily shot audience-friendly version”.
The Telegraph’s Robbie Colin agreed. “In a genre increasingly hidebound by formula, it stands as a monument to exceptionalism that itself feels exceptional,” he said in a five-star review.
Slate’s Karen Han wrote that while “ridiculous and excessive”, the reworking “makes me long to return to a multiplex – to see more movies that commit so completely to a vision”.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw also praised the refreshed feel of the new version, with its “new chiaroscuro look, new backstories, new minor characters and a new, disturbing ending”.
(Source: International Agencies)
