So here it is, Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League. This version of the film is intended to be Snyder’s original vision, with the theatrical cut by Joss Whedon removing many elements or changing scenes following Snyder leaving the project after the death of his daughter.

After years of #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, a (somewhat toxic) campaign from fans that wished to see the director’s film as intended, HBO Max funded this project as one of the prospective original titles for the streaming service.

Was it worth the wait? Is it better than the theatrical cut? Let’s dive in with this non-spoiler review.

Immediately, I can say that this is indeed the superior cut of the movie. The theatrical version was marred by mandates by studio execs and a shift in tone compared to Snyder’s earlier offerings.

The plot of the movie is largely the same as the theatrical cut with some more context for scenes.

After the death of Superman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, one of three Mother Boxes is activated. These devices are sentient living machines that when merged together create The Unity, an event that terraforms the planet. The New God Steppenwolf sets out to collect these boxes, while Batman and Wonder Woman work to assemble a group of heroes to combat threats to the world now that Superman is gone.

Lets start positive. The way many scenes play out are far superior and more visually interesting than those in the theatrical cut.

The hero who came away from this cut with the most changes is without a doubt Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher). Cyborg gets a greater focus here as we see more of his backstory and the kindheartedness of the character before his transformation and give Fisher more to do in the role.

Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) also receives more background, focusing on his relationship with his incarcerated and wrongly accused father. The character also has more heart and proves more than mere comic relief as he was in the theatrical cut.

Superman comes off better in this cut and we no longer have shots of the bizarre digitally erased facial hair like in the theatrical cut (reshoots for the theatrical cut had to digitally erase Henry Cavill’s facial hair that he had grown for Mission Impossible: Fallout).

Now for the stuff that didn’t work.

First of all, four hours is way too long for a movie. Thankfully, the film is divided into different parts so that it can be watched in batches.

Steppenwolf remains a terrible villain. The character is incredibly generic and his redesign, while more interesting than the Whedon version, is still very uninteresting.

The score is rather forgettable, while it may have conflicted with the established tone, I miss the uses of the original Batman and Superman themes in the theatrical cut.

While there are many really inspired and cool visuals in the movie, it unfortunately is brought down by everything appearing gray and dull.

There are also elements of the film that I feel might come off as very confusing for those that aren’t up-to-date on their comics lore such as Superman wearing black and silver, as well as the appearance of a certain shapeshifting hero.

The big draw for me was to see Darkseid, the big bad and ultimate villain of the picture. Unfortunately Darkseid’s design suffers from some of the same problems as Steppenwolf, and the character lacks gravitas which serves to make him uninteresting.

The film is also presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, which was reportedly how the film was originally shot. This means that the film is pillar boxed with black bars on the sides of the screen, since the film was likely shot this way for IMAX.

On the whole, I went into this movie with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed watching this movie. It does have its problems, the runtime being one of those, but it is many magnitudes better than the theatrical cut.

It is an average movie, with some exceptionally fun moments.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League gets a 6/10.