What Kind of Movies Will Come from the Current Anti-Racism Movement?
Given Hollywood's history of racism and financial motivations, how much progress can we expect? Plus: a list of excellent films by Black directors.
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Zack Snyder's 'Poetic Justice' League
“Is it real? Does it exist? Of course it does," read Snyder’s tweet about his cut of ‘Justice League’. Little did we know, not only does it exist, but it is enough to fill 4 full episodes, each an hour long.
“Is it real? Does it exist? Of course it does,” read Snyder’s tweet about his cut of ‘Justice League’. Little did we know, not only does it exist, but it is enough to fill 4 full episodes, each an hour long.
Just to clear a few things up, I know DC Fans aren’t really welcoming about articles and videos about Snyder Cut. They have a fair point; they could’ve used these articles to push Snyder Cut in 2018/19, but not many writers/creators helped them then. Because I live under a rock, I got to know about this whole ‘movement’ fairly recently and the revolutionary in me couldn’t help but write about it. You can also read the article about Snyder’s Cut by Nathanael Molnár, which was published in May.
Poetic Justice is when a person of virtue is rewarded, and when viciousness is punished. For all my homies who also live under a rock, I will give you a rundown on what happened around this film which makes its mere release ‘revolutionary’ per se.
- Snyder signed a 5 movie contract with DC, the first two of which were Man of Steel & Batman vs Superman.
- After the not-so-good welcome that Man of Steel received and the extremely bad reaction that Batman vs Superman got, Warner Brothers intervened.
- Not only were the 5 movies now trimmed to only 3 movies (two of which had already released), Snyder was also not given full creative freedom during the shoot of Justice League.
- He was told to keep the tone of this last movie of Snyderverse light and to keep the movie short.
All of this was kept from DC fans. Due to the untimely death of Snyder’s daughter, he left Justice League and was replaced by Joss Whedon, who was left with the task of editing the footage that Snyder had shot. It didn’t take long before insiders started talking about how Warner Bros did Snyder wrong and how he was alienated from his own movie before even leaving the project. All of this enraged the fans even more once they saw the horrendous product that Warner Bros sold in the name of Justice League, and once they got to know that Whedon did reshoots, which cost almost $25M and the film they were served was completely different from what Snyder wanted it to be. As most movements start (Wink! Wink!), this one also started with a Twitter campaign: #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.
Zack, we’ve got your back
You might ask why would DC fans want Snyder’s cut if he is a terrible filmmaker? Batman vs Superman was bad, wasn’t it? Well half of it is true- Batman vs Superman was bad, but Zack’s Batman vs Superman wasn’t. Zack is a filmmaker who has faced studio scrutiny multiple times in his career. When his film Watchmen was released, it also received a very bad reception from both critics and fans but he later released a director’s cut of the same movie. This cut was not only hailed as a masterpiece by many, it also had thousands of interpretations as to what signifies what. Something similar happened with Batman vs Superman: Warner Bros released an ‘Ultimate Edition’ of Batman vs Superman with 30 mins of additional footage which, though wasn’t flawless, but still was 100 times better than the original Batman vs Superman.
Rising From The (H)Ashes
A simple hashtag created a fan led movement:
- Fans started a crowd fundraiser to fuel this movement
- #ReleaseTheSnyderCut started trending everyday on Twitter with hundreds of thousands of tweets
- Fans started buying billboards (some even in the Times Square)
- They even arranged a plane (yup, a freakin plane) with the banner “WB #ReleaseTheSnyderCut of Justice League”
“First They Ignore You… And Then You Win“
DC officials always downplayed the movement. Throughout 2019, they said that they had no plans of releasing a new cut of Justice League. All the YouTubers and writers started saying that Snyder’s Cut was an improbable dream of fans and nothing more. In 2020, Zack invited a few lucky fans to the online screening of Man of Steel with his and Henry Cavill’s commentary.
Once the film finished, Zack and Cavill started talking about Snyder’s Cut and how they want to show it to them but couldn’t. Zack said:
I have it, its just that whether I could show it to you or not.
Just when fans lost hope, he said, “but I have this,” while showing them this poster:
Now that’s how you surprise fans! Now that’s Poetic Justice! Now that’s Justice League!
Ｈｉｓｔｏｒｉｃａｌ
O R
Ｈｙｓｔｅｒｉｃａｌ :
A lot of people get annoyed by fans getting excited before the release of superhero movies. As someone who has never been thrilled about any superhero movie whatsoever, such dedicated fandom amazes me. I have never seen any Star Wars or Lord of the Rings movies (no, I am not fun at parties), but never have I ever questioned people’s excitement when a new movie of these franchises is announced. We have all seen videos of fans crying just by seeing the trailer or teaser of a movie of their favorite franchise. I actually envy them; I wish something could give me as much happiness as these films give to their fans.
But this also begs the question; why? Why do DC fans still hope to get a good movie after Zack let them down once? Why do they still love DC when it’s executives ruined possibly the biggest crossover movie of the DC universe? Why did these people leave everything aside for 2 years just to help Zack get his due? Well, I thought a lot about why these movies have such a special place in their fan’s hearts, but I couldn’t come up with a conclusion. Then I came across a video from Justice Con and suddenly it clicked! The reason why fans find these movies beautiful is the same reason why we find life beautiful: Diversity.
These are stories about underdogs, these are stories about people from different walks of life, these are stories about people dealing with loss, these are stories about people fighting for everyone else but themselves. A princess of an Amazonian race helps humans to stop a war; a half-human, half-Atlantean protects the sea world, a guy who’s an illegal immigrant in the whole world sacrifices himself to defend it; a princess trying to adapt to a new world in order to help it; a guy trying to come to terms with the fact that his physical appearance is different from ‘normal’ people. These may be called superhero movies, but they’re about people struggling with problems that a lot of us struggle with.
Flawed they are, but they overcome every obstacle with kindness, which may be the only way to overcome these obstacles. People connect with these superheroes because they deal with problems which we face, while also kicking asses. People connect with these superheroes because while fighting their inner conflicts they also fight for others. And in a war where people fight for others, what prevails is justice.
Will People Watch A Movie They’ve Already Watched?
Well, Snyder’s Cut will be almost entirely different from the original Justice League. Most of the footage which made it to the final edit of Justice League was actually shot by Whedon, and many have proved that. Here are some differences between the two real quick:
Justice League VS Snyder’s Cut
• Lighter tone VS Darker tone
• Superman in blue suit VS Supeman in black suit
• No Darkseid VS Darkseid
• Flash doesn’t travel time VS Flash will travel time
- No Vulko VS Vulko
The Profusion Of High Expectations
There’s isn’t an iota of doubt that Snyder’s Cut would be better than Justice League, but will it be on par with the expectation of fans? Only time will tell the truth about that. At least for now we have been served with poetic justice. As a guy from Krypton once said:
I believe in truth, but I am also a big fan of justice.
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