Batman (Ben Affleck) und seine Mitstreiterinnen und Mitstreiter in „Zack Snyder’s Justice League“.
© UNIVERSAL
Innsbruck – “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is a hashtag film. But not #MeToo or #OscarsSoBlack permeate the almost four-hour film, but the petition of some fans under the diamond #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. Because actually “Justice League” came to the cinema in 2017, as a bit of a failure in every respect. Four years later, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” is now shedding light on an interesting debate about the relationship between Hollywood Studios and their paying fan base.
This relationship can take on toxic proportions, as the director Rian Johnson learned after the release of “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi”. The directors play the role of supposed authors and sometimes manage to bring a breath of fresh air to the group work under the leadership of the studio producers. On the other hand, there is the self-confident fan culture, which is becoming an increasingly important and louder factor, especially in the case of extremely expensive franchise series. While the Disney Group’s Marvel Studio is already in phase 4 of its “Marvel Cinematic Universe”, Warner Studios’ competitor DC has so far struggled to bring its superheroes – and their own bank account – a comparable run of success.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
“Justice League” was and is conceived as the fifth film in the “DC Extended Universe” as the first narrative climax and at the same time the prelude to the group phase of saving the world. Batman (Ben Affleck) is supposed to assemble a troop of supermen with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Miller) to face an alien invasion. Zack Snyder dropped out of the project during post-production after his daughter died. Joss Whedon took over, rewrote some things, had some things rewritten.
Now Snyder is allowed to bring his vision to the fans as a Director’s Cut via streaming, in an anachronistic 4: 3 image format and with a gloomy, DC-typical exaggerated tone. Divided into six chapters including flashbacks and epilogue, his “Justice League” is the first comic book adaptation that can tell its overflowing story without extreme time pressure. As a result, however, many script weaknesses and the inconsistent figure drawing emerge more clearly. But the project is still interesting, also for the uncertain future of blockbuster cinema after Corona. (maw)
