By Nick Staniforth

Copyright slashfilm

The second round with the Justice League is more than anything a testament to the power of fandom. A hashtag ultimately brought Snyder’s true vision of the “Justice League” movie to life, arriving four years after the mismatched Whedon-helmed dumpster fire.

At this point, if you weren’t invested in the Snyderverse, then sitting through four more hours of it was not going to sway you. This was an accomplishment for the die-hards, plain and simple, with the director giving us his unfiltered vision of mythic-level comic book action. The story (drawn out as it was) feels far more cohesive and put together than the theatrical version we originally got, as do some of the characters that get a little more fleshed out. Steppenwolf is upgraded from boring CGI lackey to Darkseid’s evil excessively pointy exile on a mission, called into action following Superman’s death cry that kicks off the film, and sees him return in a fancy black suit, because this time he really means business.

And yet, for every narrative tweak that benefits the story, the director’s excessive use of slow-motion (which accounts for 10% of the film) adds grandeur to granular moments, but also slows it down. Additionally, questionable glimpses into a post-apocalyptic world, where Batman wore a duster and The Flash resembled a Transformer, were great, but it was a glimpse at a final chapter that shouldn’t have been teased. The four-hour meal we were sitting through had so much going on. Justice was served, but it didn’t need to be that big a dish.