--Darkseid, Zack Snyder's Justice League
". . . like you, I've realized that I have a stake in this world, and it's time I started fighting for it."
--Martian Manhunter, Zack Snyder's Justice League
Zack Snyder's Justice League does for superhero films what The Lord of the Rings does for high fantasy, what Doctor Sleep does for horror, and what the original Terminator movies do for science fiction; it tells a story about broken people stumbling to discover what seems to be the best way to fulfill personal goals against a background of important philosophical issues and themes sincerely woven into the narrative. With a bedrock of strong characterization all around and stakes that eventually surpass those of Infinity War, Snyder vindicates his original plans for the DCEU in a way that makes the very mixed nature of Batman v Superman's theatrical cut worthwhile as a stepping stone to true excellence of a more consistent kind.
Snyder uses everything from multiple Knightmare sequences to Darkseid's plans to conquer Earth through the "old ways" to the teased future deaths of Wonder Woman and Aquaman to show just how much of a tyrant Darkseid truly is and how costly defeat can be. The final battle actually features a miniature, condensed version of the basic plot of Infinity War and Endgame--and the DCEU could have even shown this type of idea before the MCU! This is a world where the "gods" and "goddesses" people look to for strength are not guaranteed to outlive them, forcing them to come together in a non-shallow way to confront a truly apocalyptic holocaust for the multiverse. Everything from the diversity of the cast to the emotionality and artistic execution of Zack Snyder's Justice League is so natural that it deserves to be personally analyzed by lovers of quality entertainment--and now that my non-spoiler review is out of the way, it is time to dive into specifics!
Production Values
With fight sequences that sometimes last around half an hour, this epic has the grandest action of the DCEU by far--but the action can have very personal experiences for the characters. The final clash with Steppenwolf and his parademons before Aquaman, Superman, and Wonder Woman send his corpse through a portal to Darkseid is a masterful scene on the level of action and characterization. Only just before the death of Steppenwolf, Cyborg has a very visually clever vision of the three Mother Boxes before him appearing as almost demonic figures, prompting him to announce that he has finally accepted his nature as a hybrid being, and just before that the Flash had to go several moments back in time when the Unity is formed, and Steppenwolf literally succeeds in killing the members of the League close to the Mother Boxes, as he thinks about his father. None of this made it into the 2017 release of the film despite having a more cosmic and unique aesthetic in one general part of the movie than most other superhero franchises ever produce.
If the kinds of effects and character moments present in the final assault on Steppenwolf's forces were the only ones added, Zack Snyder's Justice League would already be one of the better superhero movies to be made. Thankfully, this same level of characterization depth is gradually introduced all over the story, and Ray Fisher's Cyborg finally becomes a truly developed individual thanks to some excellent acting. For instance, Fisher's facial expression just before the death of his mother displayed more intense emotion than some performers get to show across entire movies. As for Steppenwolf, the emotion manifesting itself in his facial animations as he tries to receive Darkseid's attention and favor is similarly blatant, and details like his futuristic armor receding as he bows before Darkseid after finally getting to speak with him also reveal so much of his personality and aspirations (I am fully aware that the contents of other minds cannot be known based on outward observation of their bodies; I only mean this in terms of how things appear).
DC's Trinity of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman all benefit from their additional scenes or altered scenes. There are many explicit and subtle hints as to where Snyder would take his sequels: Batman would try to fight Superman in a Knightmare Earth while eventually getting the chance to give his life for the world, Wonder Woman would die and potentially appear in an afterlife modeled after Greek mythology, and Superman would become so vulnerable after the eventual death of Lois Lane that he would submit to Darkseid's will. The Knightmare scene of Batman v Superman shows in part what this future would would be like, but Zack Snyder's Justice League shows parts of just how Darkseid would reduce Earth to a wasteland. Anyone who had difficulty understanding what the Knightmare scene of Batman v Superman foreshadowed can have a much easier time following what Snyder was setting up. The script here is the pinnacle of the DCEU's worldbuilding.
Story
At last, viewers get to see everything from a physical manifestation of the Anti-Life Equation to Steppenwolf's distant homeworld of Apokolips. His entire personal hope for his planned takeover of Earth is that he will use the victory--and his accidental discovery of the Anti-Life Equation--to persuade Darkseid to allow him to come back to his planet after a long and bitter exile. Steppenwolf and DeSaad never specify just how the former betrayed Darkseid, but there are multiple references to a multiverse brought up in connection with the tyrant's own goals, affirming that the ruling and military class of Apokolips are capable of using technology to travel between separate universes, as seen when Darkseid's portal opens before Steppenwolf succeeds and then is killed when the Flash goes back in time. Multiple Green Lanterns, living and dead, are also shown in scenes relevant to Darkseid's past and future, and the role of the Anti-Life Equation in this brutal ruler's pursuits is actually prominent and explained very well. DC has never had a richer live action portrayal of its lore.
Intellectual Content
The characters take clear prominence over the exploration of any particular philosophical concepts, but Snyder and the cast handle the characters so well that this does not even obstruct the genuine depth of the movie despite a few asinine comments about the nature of reality--or at least comments that are careless and misleading at best. There is not much to say here that I did not already place in this section of my non-spoiler review, so I will refer readers there if they wish to know what I wrote about the thematic side of the story.
Conclusion
Had Zack Snyder's Justice League released in 2017 with some of its runtime trimmed out for the sake of theatrical timeslots, the DCEU could have completely avoided its current drift into a random, loosely connected future with almost entirely reactionary plans made based on how audiences reacted to the last movie or two. Yes, Shazam! is great as an action comedy, and Birds of Prey has some of the best action in the DCEU, but the general narrative shift of the DCEU after the theatrical Justice League has not been for the best in terms of ultimate coherence and collective storytelling. Some of the plot elements Zack Snyder's Justice League hints at would help starkly distinguish the DCEU from the MCU and give more variety to the next iteration of superhero films. If the DCEU was to be given even a flexible plan from which spin-offs and multiverse tales could spring forth with their own self-contained focus, both Snyder's elaborate, dark plans for the franchise and the less structured, lighter approach of other recent DC films could even work together.
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