Justice League: Snyder Cut
Directed by Zach Snyder
2021’s Justice League: The Snyder Cut is a 4 hour reshoot of 2017’s Justice League, but with Director Zach Snyder in full creative control. The 2017 version of the film was co-directed by Joss Whedon and Zach Snyder; however, to the disdain of Snyder, Whedon took over creative control of the film. He added and cut scenes for Snyder’s original plan. Warner Brothers allowed Whedon to take main control over the film because they knew of his past successes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Marvel’s The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, the opposite occurred with a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes and poor fan response. Since the Film’s debut in 2017, Snyder has been begging Warner Brothers to allow him to create the film he had envisioned from the start. Warner Brothers agreed but with one caveat: this would be the last film in the “Synderverse”.
For me, this 4-hour alternate cut of Justice League can be described with one sentence: “what could have been.” Snyder used his talents along with the original cast of Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Ezra Miller as the Flash and Ray Fisher as Cyborg. Ciarán Hinds returns as the main antagonist Steppenwolf; however, Snyder added the secondary villain Darkseid voiced by Ray Porter. The Snyder Cut is a vastly improved film on the visuals side as it allowed Snyder to use his signature style of slow motion to capture the enormity of the battle the Justice League is in.
With the vast improvements to the original Justice League film, the Snyder Cut leaves a possibility of future films, even though it is unlikely. With that said, the film isn’t perfect. The run time is on the long side with a total of 4 hours and 2 minutes. There are also a lot of good lead-ins to potential sequel films, but with Warner Brothers saying they have no interest in future films, they just feel like wasted opportunities. Overall, Zach Snyder poured his heart into this film and it shows, but unfortunately, fans are left with unanswered questions.
Nobody
Directed by Ilya Nashuller
Nobody is a star-studded, action-packed film full of revenge, violence and gore. It stars Bob Odenkirck as Hutch Mansell, who is a seemingly normal son, father and husband that has spent the past few years of his life holding in his anger. One night a group of thieves break into his home, and when coming face to face with them, he does nothing. It isn’t until later in the film when Mansell’s family is in peril that he lets out his rage and becomes the violent badass that he truly is. Mansell’s father, played by Christopher Lloyd, helps him to track down and save his family from a Russian Mobster Yulian Kuznetsov, played by Aleksei Serebryakov.
The main positive of the film is Odenkirck’s performance as Hutch Mansell. This film really marks the first time Odenkirck has portrayed the badass character in a movie and he plays that role fantastically. Also, the relationship between the characters feels as if it were real life and not a film. Where the film struggles are the similarities it shares with other films. The film itself feels a lot like a John Wick film, and a reason for that could be writer Derek Kolstad, who also was the writer for the previous trilogy of John Wick films. The villain, Yulian Kuznetsov feels bland, he really didn’t have any different motives from the stereotypical villains in action movies. Many people enjoyed the film and only time and the success at the Box Office will tell if there will be a sequel to the film.
Godzilla vs. Kong
Directed by Adam Wingard
Godzilla vs Kong, a battle between two apex titans is the first box office hit since the pandemic begun. This film marks the fourth installment in Warner Brothers and Legendary’s Monsterverse and is maybe the most visually stunning installment to begin with. There are three main groups that the audience follows during the film: Kong and his group, Godzilla and the Apex Corporation. While the main focus of the film is two 400-foot-tall monsters beating the crap out of each other, there is also a cast of human characters to follow.
In past films in the Monsterverse, human subplots have been the downfall of the film taking away time from the badass monsters. However, in this film, the human characters serve a nice tangent to combine the total story of Godzilla vs Kong especially the character of Jia (Kaylee Hottle) a native of Kong’s home island and the last of her people. Alexander Skarsgård’s character Nathan Lind believes that Kong is the only creature capable of stopping Godzilla’s rampage, so he travels to Skull Island to try and persuade Jia into having Kong help stop Godzilla, which he does. Adding this detail that Kong is able to communicate to humans with sign language is another attention to detail by Wingard because it resembles modern-day studies in which scientists are training apes to communicate via sign language.
Director Adam Wingard liked to incorporate inspiration from past movies, especially the original Toho films. While watching the film, there were several times I found myself with my jaw on the floor with how stunning some of the visuals are in this film. The most amazing visual of the film is when Godzilla and Kong have their final battle in Tokyo, where the film’s slogan, “one will fall,” comes into play. Wingard does a tremendous job at tying all of the past movies together in one climatic cinematic event, weather this film marks the final installment in the Monsterverse, only time will tell.