Based on the campaign that dragged on for years, the massive viewing numbers on HBO Max, the movie’s constant domination of the social media discourse, and the fact it was voted by the public to be worthy of an honorary Academy Award, you’d have thought Zack Snyder’s Justice League could do no wrong in the eyes of the DCEU fandom.
As it turns out, though, things are quite as straightforward as that, with some staunch supporters of the Warner Bros. franchise putting forward their case as to why the four-hour streaming exclusive resolutely failed to live up to the hype. Sure, it’s often the cool thing to hate on a film or series that everybody loves, but fans over on Reddit have been explaining themselves in great detail, in among the obvious rebuttals that have seen things get plenty heated already.
Is the Snyder Cut better than the theatrical version of Justice League? Unequivocally, and it’s not even close. Is it the best installment in the DCEU? A lot of folks would say yes, but that one remains squarely up for debate. Either way, it’s nonetheless interesting to see that the reception to the epic retelling of the infamous critical and commercial dud hasn’t proven to be 100 percent unanimous close to 18 months after HBO Max finally gave the people what they wanted.
You can be sure that this debate will continue to rage for some time to come, especially when #RestoreTheSnyderVerse is never too far away from the forefront of the online conversation, so we’ll be very curious to see how it all shakes out in the long run.