I suppose there's a lot riding on it. I suppose it's not just a lark. I suppose it could change the whole direction of a studio's most profitable revenue stream, the superhero movie, for Warner Brothers.
But boy am I tired of hearing about it.
Here's a quick survey of headlines just from emails I receive from MovieWeb, which is not my only source of movie-related news, meaning this is only a slice of the news I've been exposed to. (I don't delete any of these because I'm hoarder, making this search a lot easier.) To be clear, I didn't actually click on the link to read more than one or two of these:
"Darkseid Officially Revealed in Justice League Snyder Cut" - 6/20/19 - This was before anyone was talking about re-releasing the movie, just more scraps of non-news from this site based on things like a director showing a piece of cutting floor footage.
"Zack Snyder Proves Snyder Cut Exists with New Evidence and Official Runtime?" - 12/7/19 - Starting to sound more official? No, this is still just MovieWeb blowing smoke. But hang on, we're getting there.
"Zack Snyder Cut of Justice League Officially Being Released in 2021" - 5/23/20 - Okay, finally some real news. And the six-month intervals so far are certainly acceptable. But wait, it starts to get more ridiculous. Just a few days later:
"Martian Manhunter Teased in New Synder Cut Justice League Photo" - 5/28/20 - Yeah, this is the bread and butter of this geek-focused entertainment news outlet. Whole articles about deep cut comic book characters most people have never heard of.
"Darkseid Arrives in Zack Snyder's Justice League First Look" - 5/30/20 - Just two days later, we're on Darkseid again. This email blast also included two separate stories about Henry Cavill that also had Justice League tie-ins.
"Zack Snyder's Justice League Cut is Making One Big VFX Change" - 6/10/20 - Oh, they waited ten days this time.
"First Darkseid Footage Revealed in Zack Snyder's Justice League Teaser" - 6/20/20 - WHAT IS IT WITH DARKSEID? Ten days again. That's five stories in less than a month.
"Zack Snyder's Justice League Transforms Superman into the DCEU's Greatest Hero" - 7/23/20 - Better than Wonder Woman? I doubt it. They gave me a month to breathe this time.
"Zack Snyder is Happy to Finish His Justice League Cut for Free" - 7/30/20 - At least this non-news is a story of a human being being decent.
"New Snyder Cut Footage Arrives, Full Justice League Trailer Drop this Saturday" - 8/22/20 - I suppose the release of a trailer qualifies as actual news.
"Zack Snyder Loves the Violent Vigilant Beatdown in The Batman Trailer" - 8/29/20 - Technically not about Justice League, but I'm including it because I like to shake my head about the stories that boil down to "People say stuff about other stuff." I've complained about this before.
"Zack Snyder Wanted Carla Gugino as Catwoman in the DCEU: - 11/14/20 - Ditto. (You can tell my search word was "snyder" rather than "justice," which would have brought up a million social justice emails.) But hey, they somehow took a three-month break here. My only conclusion is that I deleted those emails.
"Zack Snyder's Justice League Will Be Released in Early 2021, According to Warner Brothers" - 12/5/20 - Now we're back on track. But this is only a slight variation on the earlier release story.
"Zack Syder's Justice League May Get an R-Rated Theatrical Release" - 12/17/20 - Interesting enough. But you an see how this accumulation of headlines is starting to burrow into the annoyance center in my brain, can't you?
"Zack Snyder's Justice League is Officially R-Rated for Violence and Batman F-Bombs" - 2/6/21 - Again, interesting enough, but I'm done with this.
"Jared Leto Returns as Joker in Zack Snyder's Justice League First Photos" - 2/11/21 - Oh no, now a concrete reason not to look forward to it.
Fortunately, that was six days ago and there has not been another. Yet. (Though I did spare you a couple other "what Zack Snyder said, what he would like to say or do, what movie he would like to make" stories along the way.)
The movie comes out on March 18th, which likely means the stories will just intensify from here.
It's possible I could do this same kind of analysis for any big superhero or other geek-focused movie coming out. MovieWeb does not need an excuse to write about something, and might create their own news related to an upcoming movie if they thought it suited them. I could see them writing a story called "Fans Say They Would Like to See Zack Snyder's Justice League Cut Released" after themselves creating a poll asking this question.
But it sure is a lot of oxygen for a movie that stunk the first time and that I can't imagine people are all that excited about revisiting, except for the hype surrounding it.
Snyder got to make his own unfettered version of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and it was scarcely better liked than Justice League, if at all. Actually, it was not better liked, as the former received a mere 28% on Rotten Tomatoes' to the latter's 40%.
Still, I suspect the hype has worked and that fans will want to see this, if not in the theater (as it will surely be released here in Australia) then on HBOMax, where it will be very easy for them to pause as much as they want over the course of the (gasp) 240-minute running time.
I guess if there's a real reason to cheer this, it's not Snyder trying to correct the record on the movie Joss Whedon tried to salvage but probably ended up making worse. It's that the reason Snyder had to quit the movie before post-production was finished was because his daughter committed suicide. That's an awful thing that you would not wish on anyone, and definitely not on a person who is guilty of nothing more than being a glorified hack. (Though I do love Dawn of the Dead and Watchmen.)
If releasing a new cut of Justice League helps Snyder get over his grief, perhaps even providing closure on the darkest period of his life, then more power to him.
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