Reality check. The existence of Snyder cuts for films no one asked for is everything wrong with cinema today. The fact that fans lobbied for Zack Snyder to go back and finish Justice league, which led to not just additional reshoots, but the actual addition of actors, is the most ridiculous thing. He got to marinate on all the critical feedback, sit there and stare at what joss Whedon gave to the world, and then go back and do some massive near 4 hour version of Justice League that never was going to see the light of day, even in Snyder’s best.
He had already announced the existence of Directors Cuts for his Rebel moon franchise when the first one released last December. Normally, in years past, we got director’s cuts as a response to the films reception at the box office, versus whether or not a director even had Final Cut. Often, the directors cuts are just R-rated films that were told to make cuts to be more accessible. Sometimes, a director is given years to make a cut of their film, like a restoration anniversary release. Snyder was making a directors cut the whole time. This… is bullshit.
Netflix should be more concerned with releasing the best product first, and then building on that. The PG-13 versions of these films are not good. The R-rated films, at a minimum, trade scenes of character development in for the vocalized exposition the other films had. But, why? Neither of these are impossibly long films. Hell, the second one isn’t even three hours. Why would Netflix force Zack Snyder to make shitty versions of his film just for the sake of making them? This isn’t his first foray with Netflix. He previously directed Army Of The Dead for the streamer. Netflix doesn’t really need an MPAA ratings system, since they almost always do a barebones theatrical release. They weren’t looking for a box office hit here like other studios would be.
There is no actual reason this should exist. None. I’m sure someone will come up with some bullshit out of Netflix, but the truth is “it exists because their customers are suckers”. They assume Snyder fans are idiots, and they can milk an extra stream out of them. And for those of us who talk about or report on film, they’re right. I’ve now seen all four versions of a franchise I’d show to people I was keeping prisoner in a cage in an underground bunker. Just on repeat. Mix them up, the four films, over and over, and it will drive anyone to madness.
Zack Snyder may have wanted to do Star Wars, but he is also too invested in being a bro so the film just has a ton of way over the top violence and gore, and sex. It’s not like he actually wrote a Shakespearian plot. He just wants to bash some heads in, for an extra thirty minutes.
The audio description was great the first time. it’s still great. Nothing changed there. These two films just don’t need to exist. Are they better? yes. Marginally. yes. because almost every time you can substitute vocalized exposition for actual scenes of character development, you win. very few directors fuck that up. I think Netflix would be insane to continue to invest in this franchise, which he apparently wants to mirror Avatar with five films. They are likely expensive, and I would imagine they can spend that money differently.
If I follow up this post with a second post that is twice as long, can I call it the Snyder cut of my review, even though there is no rhyme or reason to it?
