Justice League Trailer: Triumph or Tragedy?

Today dropped the first major trailer for the Zack Snyder Justice League remake. The trailer left me with a weird feeling. The trailer starts off showing some amazing new footage. I grew as excited as if this were a brand new movie. Then the images and voice-overs from the original kick in and my response is ‘oh yeah, I’ve seen this before.’ While the overall film maybe a movie we’ve seen, the trailer shows us it will feel completely different, but will this new cut bring triumph or tragedy?

Justice League will be a first. No film has been remade to this extent. Sure, we get director’s cuts from time to time, but rarely do these new cuts rewrite a movie to the extent of Snyder’s cut. The one or two films that might approach this, were never the blockbusters Justice League was. The Lord of the Rings movies come to mind, but those scenes were shot for the movie and then edited out for time constraints at the theater. They refit seamlessly and added to the film. They did not rewrite the film.

Triumph or Tragedy – A Whole New Ballgame

A great deal of footage rewrites what we think we knew, and it looks much darker than the trash version we watched the first time. The one thing I like is the way Snyder plays off previous films. People hated the disaster caused in the Superman/Zod fight, yet it worked perfectly to set up the conflict between the two heroes in Batman V Superman.

In this new trailer, he kicks it off showing the ripples the death of Superman caused. While Lex Luthor babbled to Batman about ‘they know he’s dead’, we now see what happened. Perhaps the biggest question here comes when the trailer shows his ‘death ripple and then cuts to the palace on Themyscira falling into the ocean. Did Superman’s death cause this, or are we watching an editor’s trick cut?

The trailer then cuts to the familiar Batman dream sequence that screamed Darkseid, but that lead never materialized. We get a quick cut to Diana holding an arrow (possibly Themyscira?), and then the prophecy finally comes true – Darkseid!

Triumph or Tragedy – Darkseid’s Revelation

When Justice League focused on Steppenwolf as the villain, many fans felt cheated. The Omega symbol in Batman’s dream set up Darkseid. Steppenwolf leads Darkseid’s army, but in the end, we were left with no Darkseid!

The rendering we get now looks amazing. The short clip also sets up the relationship between Darkseid and Steppenwolf, which was missing from the original cut. We need to keep in mind Darseid’s appearance will most likely be brief. Fans can only hope the response to this recut becomes strong enough that the WB wants to do a Justice League 2 with the dark one. As of right now, Zack Snyder says there are no plans for a sequel as far as the studio goes. Unless he shows up in the Superman sequel, this will be all we get.

Triumph or Tragedy – Back To the Old

The next several clips bring us back to reality. They speak of and show Batman’s quest to unite the superpowers of Earth. These images still look amazing, but in some ways, they bring back the feelings of dread from the first cut. It carries on long enough that one starts to wonder will this be an awesome new film or the same garbage as before with a couple of new scenes?

The montage of each hero works well though. Each of the Justice League members gets a brief shot of them in an epic moment. Diana reaches for her sword. Flash saves a girl and so on. If the first film did not exist this trailer would be positively epic.

One-shot that sticks out shows Superman in the all-black outfit. It looks like the Snyder version will use this more than the Whedon cut. The black suit made such a huge statement when it debuted, the fact it was thrown away so lightly never sat well with most fans.

Let’s hope Batman was correct when he tells Diana the Age of Heroes will come again.

Triumph or Tragedy – That Final Shot

I hated Jared Leto as the Joker. He did nothing for the character and in many ways turned the Clown Prince of Crime into an average mob boss. How he fits into Justice League remains to be seen, but there he is. The most intriguing part comes from his outfit. He wears a SWAT vest and has a military rifle in his lap.

Then we get to the rest of him. A teaser pic released by Snyder hinted at the long hair, but now Joker sports the red smile – sorta. Instead of the red being his lips or lining his mouth, it looks almost like he got a little too aggressive eating the cherry pie. He wears a few more scars and all of the tattoos on his face are gone, but the looks till doesn’t cut it.

Joker goads Batman with the line “We live in a society where Honor is a distant memory.” What would Joker know of honor and why would he taunt Batman with that line? In some ways, it fits. Joker will never do the ‘honorable’ thing, but in some ways, there is an ‘honor amongst thieves’ mentality between Joker and Batman. The Joker may do anything at any time, but he always has a plan and his interactions with Batman usually follow a narrative. This scene, fully flushed out, could be big.

Triumph or Tragedy – How Will Fans React?

The excitement for this multimillion-dollar reshoot that will run for four hours is palpable. There can be no questions fans and viewers alike want to see this version and hope it does well, but fans are fickle beings.

When Zack Snyder started the DCU on the big screen, many fans complained about how dark his universe felt. His Superman did many things wrong in Man of Steel. Too many things were off with Batman V Superman. DC failed where Marvel succeeded. “Fans” ripped the Snyder DCU apart and caused the WB to question his take on things. Now, these same fans are hungry for what they hated before? Granted Whedon’s disaster can make most things look better, will this new Zack Snyder cut be good enough? Any chance if the new cut succeeds, could it awaken talks of Justice League 2?

What are your thoughts on the new trailer? Do you think Zack can redeem the name with his original version? Head on over to DC Fanatics and That Hashtag Show on Facebook and let us know what you expect. The Snyder Justice League cut drops on HBOMax on March 18th.