The beloved DC superheroes are back

Justice League is back, and has returned with a new origin and villains.

By Cesar Padilla, Staff Writer

“Justice League” is a stunning movie to see the adored superheroes from the comics, but this release has a twist as they look to defeat three foes.

Originally directed by Zack Snyder, but not released due to his early departure from the film, due to the loss of a family member. “Snyder announces he is stepping away from ‘Justice League’,”according an article in the Los Angeles Times “to be with his family after his daughter dies by suicide,”.

The film's story is nearly identical to the original release, but is expanded. It begins post death of Superman (Henry Cavill), an alien warrior named Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) who is in search of three Mother Boxes in order to conquer Earth. These boxes cause endless destruction and Batman (Ben Affleck) starts with recruiting Aquaman (Jason Mamoa) who wasn't too fond of Batman's plan at the beginning, but later joins. Recruiting all the superheroes he can find, but does find the help of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), the Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and a revived Superman.

The cinematography of Snyder's version is astonishing, and adds some spice to reveal the superheroes first appearance to the film. Whedon's version felt like it was rushed, with the use of excessive CGI, and a shortened plot where the heroes already knew the master plan from Steppenwolf. Snyder properly captured the essence of DC with the use of darkness, gore and bloody battles like the comics.

This is shown in Snyder’s depiction of the villain Steppenwolf, who received a makeover. In the original cut he was painted dull and had only his axe to look intimidating but in Snyder’s version he received a more evil look with razor sharp blades covering his whole body, and a demonic-deeper raspy voice much improved from the echoing voice in 2017. It felt like his goal was to have the viewers understand why Steppenwolf is a threat. In the film, there's much more clarity to how Wonder Woman discovered his plan to why it’s crucial that Cyborg has connections to the Mother Boxes.

Snyder’s goal was to fill out back-stories. Flash and Cyborg were introduced to much needed backstories introducing their origin, to the reason why the three Mother Boxes origin protected Men, Atlanteans, and Amazons. The film also introduces bigger threats such as DeSaad and Darkseid.

Zack Snyder, was the man behind the films “300,”, director of the “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” films and is no stranger to the superhero film industry. The movie is four hours long, and much of the plot was the same, however, the idea of adding two extra hours from the original version had the film become brand new, as the movie did not feel rushed and much of the story of why the Mother Boxes purpose became much more clearer.

Overall this movie deserves a 4.5/5. Not only was Superman's horrific upper lip CGI fixed in the Snyder Cut. The acting was amazing, visual effects, the dialog felt smooth, and with slo-mo and slo-mo montages this paints a picture of the DC universe.