Awful and Awesome letters: A brief history of Zack Snyder's Justice League

Dear Abhinandan and Rajyasree,

I hope you guys are safe and well. Thank you for being consistent with the content. It's been a respite in these times. Your content is a part of my routine now. Eagerly waiting for the apps to watch it on TV.

I gifted a subscription to my sister, alas I couldn't get her to watch it consistently. I am writing to you to contextualise Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Being a comic book era kid, everyone knows the gravitas of DC over Marvel. Although Marvel has rediscovered itself in the most amazing way possible, DC was always about cinematic moments and truly grey characters.

The story of ZSJL started with the end of Chris Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. WB Studios was so happy with Nolan that they wanted him to choose the next director for the DC extended universe. He chose Snyder. Even produced and wrote the Man Of Steel alongside Snyder.

Man Of Steel remains till date one of the best Superman movies ever. It redefined the fortress of solitude as a Kryptonian base on Earth, it gave Superman a personal touch. But Snyder had a very bold idea - of killing off Superman in the next installment - to which WB protested, since Superman was their poster boy.

But Zack had a vision. And it took a lot of effort to convince the studios. They sent Nolan to talk some sense into him. However, after listening to Zack's vision, Nolan was convinced that Zack had a beautiful arc planned for all the characters. Now, to compensate for this loss, the studio pressured Snyder to tease the Justice League in this next movie. Hence Batman vs Superman was created with a subtitle, "Dawn of Justice".

Batman vs Superman became one of the most hated movies in the DC extended universe. Not because Superman died but because it remained incoherent and rushed. However, that's the story of the theatrical cut.

Murmurs flew around about an ultimate edition which was 30 minutes longer. These 30 minutes were a crucial part of the story, which cemented the motivation behind what was happening. How Superman was being framed by Lex Luthor to fight Batman and how Batman was being tricked to kill Superman. It was all Lex Luthor.

When you go through the depth of Luthor's planning, you respect the villain's motivation that "power is not incorruptible". It showed Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent's intense pursuit of each other's alter egos. While both of them had a justification to hate each other, they both saw each other as criminals.

While we all saw two superheroes in an intense rib-smashing fight, the actual fight was ideological, summed up nicely in a Batman quote, "I bet your parents taught you that you mean something, that you're here for a reason. My parents taught me a different lesson, dying in the gutter for no reason at all...They taught me the world only makes sense if you force it to."

Batman didn't consider Superman a human, with human values. So when, at the most vulnerable moment, Superman yelled, "save Martha", Batman was not just reminded of his own mother, but he also realised that Superman was fighting him to save his mother. He was human after all.

Superman's "S" stood for hope. Batman was always pragmatic and sceptical about it. But when Superman concluded by making the ultimate sacrifice to save the planet, it instilled something else in Batman, "hope".

His sacrifice deeply motivated Batman to gather all strength available on Earth to form an alliance, to become more than just one person, to inculcate that hope in other superheroes. Which is vivid when Bruce said, "Alfred, for once, I’m operating strictly on faith, not on reason."

But Batman vs Superman released without those 30 minutes of context. We never got to know what was happening. Everything was happening so fast, nothing made sense. You couldn't connect the plot.

And it flopped.

Now the studio was angry. They appointed Geoff Johns and a writer to oversee what Snyder planned. In short, they changed the arc that Snyder had planned; they undermined and questioned each and every decision of his. They second-guessed every scene and ran it by a team for a second opinion. They invited people like Joss Whedon who rejected the idea completely.

Zack got pushed around a lot but he stuck around. He manoeuvred a workaround and shot the same scene twice: one in how the studio wanted it and the other with his vision. He designed Superman's suit to have an underlying sheen which he planned to turn black in post-production. He did everything the studio compelled him to do but in his own way.

Meanwhile, Batman vs Superman ultimate cut was released. It was rejoiced by fans who hated the studio for not releasing it as a theatrical cut.

Then, one day, Zack got a message. His daughter had passed away.

As huge and intense as the emotional whirlwind was for him and his wife, he still wanted to continue working on Justice League because it distracted him from the grief. But the studio announced that Zack was stepping down because of his daughter's death.

What a dick move, using the demise of a person to get what they want.

Now, Joss Whedon was invited to complete the movie. Mind you, Zack had shot the entire film apart from one scene with Martian Manhunter. But Joss came, tossed Zack's ideas, ruffled through the shots and scenes and rejected most of them. He rewrote some characters off, put a cheap Occam's razor, and abridged the movie to such an extent that it became a gross shell.

Nolan was invited for the screening. He watched the movie, called Zack, and told him, "Don't watch it. It's not yours."

Justice League released. Flopped. WB didn't just go into losses; also, the DC fans hated them.

Years later, Zack was working on other projects along with an NGO for mental health. Murmurs grew in the industry from those who worked on both the Justice Leagues; that there exists a cut where there is Darkseid and much more.

This gossip found its way to the fans, to podcasts, Twitter, etc. Fans had already witnessed what the studio did to Batman vs Superman so they knew Snyder must have had a deeper story. They vehemently protested to WB Studios to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.

And rest, as we know, is history.

To understand Zack Snyder's Justice League in its entirety, one has to have watch a movie called Flash Point Paradox.

I get your interpretation, the movie isn't exactly comprehensible without the context of each characters. It feels rushed. The film requires proper exploration of each characters. It's disappointing because WB wants as many characters out as possible because they are trying to catch up with Marvel.

However, for DC fans, it is everything they didn't get in 2016; it's five years worth of anger.

And more than that, it's justice for Snyder.

Regards,

Sourav

PS: I haven't justified the story of ZSJL, because that movie requires an article to explain the relevance and importance of each and every element.