Earning a disappointing $96 million on its opening weekend, ‘Justice League’ was not the massive smash that Warner Brothers and fans expected. While critical reaction to the film was poor (31% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences seemed to like it, with a B+ CinemaScore and four out of five stars PostTrak ranking after Thursday night screenings. But not all fans seemed to enjoy this lighter-than-average DCEU film. A fan by the name of Roberto Mata has posted a Change.org petition to have the film restored to Zack Snyder’s original vision, complete with the Junkie XL score that was scrapped and replaced with one by Danny Elfman.
After completing initial production on ‘Justice League’, Snyder departed after a family tragedy. ‘Avengers” Joss Whedon took over post-production and reshoots, which added to the lighter tone of this film. It must be pointed out, though, that one of the reasons fans hated Snyder’s ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ so badly was the bleak tone. This resulted in WB scrambling to reshoot and edit ‘Suicide Squad’ to lighten its tone before its release.
A large chunk of Mata’s beef with the cinematic version of ‘Justice League’ is the two hour runtime, which he feels didn’t do (*ahem*) justice to six main characters– three of which, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash, were brand new. This left little in terms of actual plot and it’s true. Steppenwolf and his invasion plan were essentially a McGuffin– just an excuse to bring these heroes together.
There is also concern that ‘Justice League’ doesn’t fit tonally with ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Batman V Superman’, but considering the lambasting those two took, especially the latter, that may not be a bad thing. Mata’s petition argues that those two films centered on Superman’s journey to find his place in the world and that ‘Justice League’ doesn’t adequately address that, as Superman doesn’t play a major role in most of the story. That may be true, however, WB has since clearly said that ‘BvS’ isn’t a sequel to ‘Man of Steel’ and that that film would get a proper solo follow-up in the future.
It should be noted that we don’t know what Snyder shot. His deleted footage may not answer the demands of this petition. There’s no guarantee that seeing his unused material will make for a proper third chapter to the ‘MoS’/’BvS’ trilogy. And Ben Affleck and other cast members have attested that the finished product is in keeping with Snyder’s vision.
The petition is not asking to replace the theatrical cut. There’s no chance that would happen. But Mata and fellow fans would like to see Snyder’s original vision of the film on home video, which is a very reasonable request considering that both ‘BvS’ and ‘Suicide Squad’ got longer cuts on Blu-Ray. It may be a taller order to get the Junkie XL score restored, however.
If you would like to sign the petition to restore Snyder’s cut of the film, with Junkie XL’s score, head here.
Did you see ‘Justice League’ this weekend? What did you think? Is something missing that a director’s cut may restore?
Source: Cinema Blend
