Ben Hibburd’s review published on Letterboxd:
So, I was going to write up a whole load of spiel about this film, but yesterday I was lucky enough to get my Covid jab, and whilst I feel fine, I have a slight headache and I'm too tired to go in depth with this film. Instead I'll answer a couple of quick questions.
1. Is this better than the Joss Whedon hodgepodge? Yes, absolutely in every conceivable way!
2. Is this a great or even good film? Well, it's complicated. The Snyder cut is an improvement over the studio release, but that's damming with faint praise. The flaws are still there, laid deep within the foundations of the story and no amount of money was ever going to fix that. However, I will say that Snyder did an admirable job of fixing what he could. He added context where needed (maybe even going slightly overboard), character development that was desperately needed and he turned down the "Looney Tunes" colour saturation. He basically reinforced the films support beams from collapsing in on itself.
Now whilst this is a marked improvement on the original release, this film is in no way a masterpiece that Snyder's cult-like simps would have you believe. It's overwrought, overlong and unfocused. However, on the flip side this is an ambitious, audacious undertaking that tries to push the comic book genre outside of it's genre constraints. It doesn't always work but I have a great deal of respect for the effort put in.
And on a final note whether you think that this film is a dumpster fire or a masterpiece we should all be happy that Zack Snyder got to make the film he envisioned after suffering a horrible personal tragedy, one that nobody should have to endure. Props to WB for giving him the time, money and freedom to finish what he started. That is something so rare that we should all celebrate that this version even exists.
And if that's not enough they finally FIXED Superman's lip. That's something we can all be thankful for!!
