Zack Snyder's grayscale 'Justice League': Fun watch for DC fans, but definitely nothing special

With all the doubts that I had, I couldn't seem to dislike Zack Snyder's "Justice League: Justice Is Gray" — I mean, even the title gave me doubts.

There were a lot of things going against Snyder’s cut of the movie for me: the length, which clocked in at 4 hours 2 minutes, the fact that I didn't particularly hate Joss Whedon’s cut and the shading of the entire movie, which was quite literally all gray.

But, against all odds, Snyder actually managed to eke out a pretty dynamic, interesting movie, albeit one that happened to be all over the place and feature way too many computer-generated image villain scenes.

Disclaimer: I’m coming at my critique from the standpoint of someone who couldn't get through either “Man of Steel” or “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” They just, for some reason, didn't entertain me, and I constantly found myself falling asleep during them — which isn't because they were bad, but rather, that I’m not a humongous fan of the DC Universe.

The DC heroes themselves — Superman, especially — lacked depth as characters.

Nevertheless, I actually didn’t mind the first iteration of “Justice League," which was initially directed by Snyder until he had to step aside due to his daughter’s suicide (and was replaced by Whedon). Then again, it’s hard to support the film after all the controversies that came out with the studio’s treatment of Ray Fisher.

At the very least, for both Whedon’s and Snyder’s versions of the film, “Justice League” was fun due to the characters and the chemistry of all the heroes interacting with one another. Even with the perpetual grayscale that Snyder insists on adding to every one of his movies, this movie had a flavor to it that I think the Superman movies lacked.

“Justice League” follows the story of Batman, played by Ben Affleck, as he assembles a team of superheroes, including Aquaman, played by Jason Momoa, Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot, Flash, played by Ezra Miller and Cyborg, played by Fisher.

Throughout the film, they try to find a way to prevent the villain, Steppenwolf — literally still hazy on the details of this villain who genuinely makes no difference to the overall plot, but I digress — from taking over the planet using three sentient supercomputers.

I was under the impression that the first released version of “Justice League” was just really cheesy and fun, even with the slipshod writing. At the time, I thought that its only pitfall was, as is usually the case with too many directors, that the film itself was choppy, and the initial stories and intentions for the characters got lost amid the rewrites.

Then, my opinion drastically changed after watching Snyder’s cut — mostly because I realized just how much Whedon’s version left out and then assumed the audience would naturally be able to follow. Comparatively, Snyder truly represented these characters in a much better way than Whedon did.

Snyder’s cut didn’t have to take the time to present us with what felt like 50 scenes of everyone in the movie describing what the Mother Boxes were, but he also did a much better job of filling all us non-comic book readers in on what was happening.

Another genuinely well-done portion of this movie for me was Cyborg’s background. The reason “Justice League,” both iterations, will never be quite as satisfying for me as I think it could've been is because Warner Bros. kind of just sped through and skipped all the necessary steps, such as introducing a character in a solo movie — crazy, I know — before doing a huge crossover movie.

That's why I was pleasantly surprised when I watched Snyder’s cut and was given so much more backstory on Cyborg, whose family — more than even his character — was so instrumental to the plot of this movie and to Cyborg’s motivations.

It was like taking a breath of fresh air. Seeing Cyborg go through emotional turmoil and then accept that he might not be the same person he once was, but at least, he still has a life worth living. It was cathartic seeing a well-written arc in this movie.

Even the 4 hours were slightly more bearable because the second half of the movie, the last 2 hours, featured scenes like Flash turning back time and Superman donning the black suit, instead of returning from the dead in his ridiculous blue and red onesie.

Flash was no longer absolutely useless at the end of “Justice League,” and he, in fact, was an integral part of the climax, whereas Superman, rightly so, acknowledges that he's a different person after being resurrected. (Recall, he died at the end of “Batman v Superman”).

If you're not a superhero movie fan, then don’t expect to enjoy this movie any more than you would any other superhero film. It still contains the same references and superhero fan service that other films of this genre do.

But, if you watched Whedon’s cut or didn’t watch any other version of “Justice League,” then this film is a really cool way to introduce yourself to both the beginning and the end of the SnyderVerse “Justice League.”

Unfortunately, for everyone who genuinely thought “Justice League” was pretty good, all the sequels this film set up don't seem to have any future.

So, I end this review with a touch of irony: I truly think you should watch this movie if you're at all interested in the DC superheroes, but be forewarned: Don't get too attached. (If you're any type of DC fan, though, you probably already knew that since Warner Bros. doesn’t actually have that good of a track record in their movie consistency.)