The author of this article is a contributor @ Once a Thousand Princes
Cinema is the ideal city that is already far away
There's a joke in fan circles that Zach Schneider is a director who can't tell a bad story without three and a half hours.
But after watching the fragmented and deranged "Justice League" after Joss Whedon took over, I believe that all DC fans are chanting inwardly -
"We need Zach Schneider! We need three and a half hours of Justice League! ”
After soothing the pain of the family that lost his daughter, the man finally returned to his film world, and with the support of countless fans around the world, he brought the 242-minute, longest-running superhero movie in history, the director's cut version of "Justice League" after three years.
After the film was launched last week, it received a freshness rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and a Douban score of 9.0, which is much higher than the theatrical version (40% freshness, Douban 6.4), once again verifying his fate of "guiding and cutting miracles".
So, what is the difference between Zach Schneider's version of Justice League and the castrated version of the theater, and what is good to see? Let's take a quick look at it -
Let's talk about the difference between this movie and the theatrical version from a technical point of view.
The theatrical version uses a widescreen format of 1.78:1, while the format of the Za guide version is 1.33:1, which is the familiar traditional TV format of 4:3.
Then there is the color grading of the film, which, unlike the theatrical version, returns to the low-saturation color that Zach Schneider likes, and the overall tone is more bronze, and the audience who likes Zadder will definitely say that this is his tone.
Especially in the big battle at the end, Joss Whedon tampered with the original rough and cold black system with a seemingly brighter red system, and this time it returned to the original, and the tone of the picture was finally no longer so contradictory.
After making a distinction in audiovisual, and then looking at the overall narrative capacity and character portrayal, the version of the director is also better than the theatrical version.
The 242-minute film is divided into six chapters, each with a specific theme and narrative focus, which weakens the psychological burden of more than 4 hours of watching the film, and the audience will wonder how many new story lines the director will add.
The reason why the reputation of "Justice League" was seriously polarized at that time was that the fan base of DC movies in China at that time was far inferior to That of Marvel.
Marvel has built a universe with the "Avengers" series as the main axis by relying on adequate pre-planning and one single-player movie after another.
And the original DC was too eager to catch up with Marvel's pace, and without too many single-player movies, it arranged the appearance of Flash, Aquaman, and Steel Bone in "Justice League".
This time, Za Dao used as long as possible to enrich the character appearance of the three characters, adding more background explanations and character inner portrayals.
Two of the more outstanding lines are Steel Bone and The Flash. Steel Bone is a very talented college football player, his father is obsessed with the study of superhuman and alien technology, so he is less and more distant from his family, and the father-son relationship has been very distant since childhood.
A traffic accident almost killed Victor, and the father could only use the power of the mother box to transform the highly disabled Victor into a cyborg with super artificial intelligence, and the superhero steel bone was born.
But Steel Bone could not forgive his father, and struggled with his own identity, until his father marked the mother box in a way that sacrificed himself, Steel Bone let go of his past resentment and decided to do what he should do most.
The foreshadowing of this story makes the steel bone full.
Secondly, the Flash's preparation is also good, first of all, the flash's backstory and hazy love line are added, and he was going to go to the pet store for an interview when he tried to earn money to work, and he used his superpowers to save the beauty when the black girl he liked was in a car accident.
After saving people, The Flash mischievously hid in the dog, which also set the tone for The Flash's cute personality, and then he was also the "flavoring agent" among the Members of the Justice League.
At the end of the film, the Design of The Flash breaking the limits of his body, inspiring the ability to surpass the speed of light and reversing time to save the earth completes the construction of the entire character, and from him we can see the transformation of a funny boy into a real hero.
The design of the villain Steppenwolf has also changed, first of all, there is a big difference in styling from the previous theatrical version.
Compared with the "mild" shape of the theatrical version, the golden needle-like armor from beginning to end is domineering, and Zadao's portrayal of Steppenwolf is not a face-making villain, and his traitor identity and desire to go home are expressed.
In the theatrical version, the ultimate villain Darkseid was almost deleted, and Steppenwolf became the main villain, which was almost a joke that year.
In the cut version, Darkseid finally has a sense of existence, in the film he appears in two forms, and in the first mother box snatching war, the Darkseid who appears in the first mother box robbery is Darkseid in his heyday.
The one who can use the Omega effect later is the real Dark Lord, Darkseid.
Another "artifact" of Darkseid also appears, and the pattern similar to the crop circle appears in the film, which is the "anti-life equation", which can control the free will of all living beings.
Among the other positive characters, the most unexpected is the appearance of the Martian Manhunter, in which he transforms into Superman's mother to comfort Louise in pain.
In the comics, Martian Manhunter is one of the elders of the Justice League, his first appearance since the appearance of Man of Steel.
In addition, the character played by Zheng Kai is the fourth generation of atomic man Cai Ruian, in the comics, Cai Ruian was born in Hong Kong and is a student of the second generation of atomic man Ray Palmer.
The final appearance of Jared Leto's version of the Joker is a big Easter egg.
That crumbling, dim world is the "Knight Mare" nightmare world.
The content of the nightmare world of "KnightMare" is closer to the plot of the comic book "Injustice League", in which Superman is hit by the Joker's hallucinogen, the pregnant Louise is killed as a day of destruction, and the angry Superman directly kills the Joker, and blackens his own brutal rule.
But the clues given in the movie are different, first of all, that the Joker is not dead, and secondly, that Superman is holding a corpse, Darkseid appears next to Superman, and we know that Darkseid has the ability to control the mind.
Superman's expression was very sad, was it Louise who died?
So is it possible that Darkseid took advantage of superman's mental vulnerability to control him, and then let Superman help him build another Apocalypse Star Empire?
Recall that in Batman v Superman, the Flash travels back to warn Batman that Louise is the key.
We seem to understand that the so-called Louise here is the key, that is, Louise's death will become the starting point for changing the whole world.
Overall, Zach Schneider's edited version of Justice League is indeed superior to the previous theatrical version, respecting the original, respecting the audience, and continuing to give DC movies a unique dark wind.
But is this movie the future direction of Warner DC films, and is it the optimal solution for comic book movies?
To know that the comic film is a commercial film after all, it must meet the wishes of the producers and the market, the 242-minute "Justice League" is just an example, and may even be a lone book, and it is difficult for us to see such a volume of comic films in the future.
What fans need to do is thank Za dao again, of course, the fans' fan spirit is also indispensable.
Note: Some of the pictures in this article come from Douban and the Internet, if there is infringement, please take the initiative to contact us.