Over the 2024 holiday season, I did a marathon of the early Zack Snyder DCEU movies, and that experience left me with nine big takeaways. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but with the upcoming soft reboot of James Gunn’s DCU looming, I decided to devote a portion of this past Christmas to an endeavor I’ve long desired to partake in – that being, a four-night marathon of all four movies.
To be clear, I’ve done marathons of the three films directed by Zack Snyder before, but for this exercise, I specifically wanted to include Wonder Woman to create the most comprehensive possible experience of the early DCEU movies (that also means that, with David Ayer’s well-known desire to see his original cut of 2016’s Suicide Squad released, the version of that movie, as it is currently available, would not be included in this experiment.) To really take a deep dive into the four early DCEU films collectively, I even effectively did the marathon twice, with the second time being during a New Year’s Eve charity stream on the YouTube channel I co-host, The Sci-Fi Center. Suffice it to say, revisiting Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League as a package reveals a lot about each of them individually, and as a whole. Here are the nine biggest takeaways from my epic four-movie holiday season DCEU marathon.
The DCEU’s First Wave Has Aged Incredibly Well, & Reveals Something Important About The Snyderverse
Watching Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League in such close proximity highlights just how well all four have aged. Nearly 12 years after its release, Man of Steel stands as the most visually polished and action-packed Superman movie ever made, while Batman v Superman only seems to feel more relevant on a political and societal level with each passing year. The more recent Wonder Woman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League share those same attributes with their two predecessors, but more importantly, a marathon of the four collectively highlights the point Snyder himself has always asserted about his plans for the DCEU – that it wasn’t meant to be another MCU, but a saga headed for an ending.
Amid the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign, it was revealed that Snyder had intended for his Superman story to be told over a five-film arc consisting of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and a trilogy of Justice League movies. While there would also be spin-offs like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Ben Affleck’s Batman movie, the foundation of the DCEU was Snyder’s five-part arc that would culminate in Batman sacrificing himself in the final battle against Darkseid and Apokolips in Justice League 3 (Snyder also made the whiteboards of his Justice League 2 and 3 story publicly available at an AT&T exhibit during the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.) Watching the first chapter of the DCEU in a marathon, it’s easier than ever to see the signals of its finite run and planned endpoint. The intro of Ben Affleck as a 20-veteran Batman, Henry Cavill’s Superman changing the course of human history by his very presence on Earth, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman being exiled from Themyscira when she venture’s into man’s world, the teases to the Knightmare future of Ray Porter’s Darkseid conquering Earth, and Batman’s plan to send Ezra Miller’s Flash back in time to undo it – all of these indicate a far more compact, packaged story with a clearly delineated ending than the MCU’s 17-year and counting run. In turn, that structure has only lent greater longevity to the DCEU’s first wave of movies, all of which play like individual issues in a collected graphic novel, and part of a larger (and, much more importantly, singular) story that has stood the test of time well.
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Zack Snyder’s Justice League Is The Happy Medium Of Man Of Steel & Batman v Superman
To this day, one of the thoughts I can still vividly remember having on my mind as I walked out from Man of Steel was “That is a REALLY fast-paced movie!”, and that was clearly part of Snyder’s mandate. 2006’s Superman Returns faced a lot of criticism for pacing issues and being too action-light, and suffice it to say, Snyder delivered enough action for three Superman movies and then some with Man of Steel. By the same token Batman v Superman has a considerably more reserved pace. While there’s still plenty of action in Batman v Superman, especially in its third act, it’s also much more of a character study and world building story in having Batman and Superman as dual leads being deconstructed, while also establishing a larger metahuman population in Wonder Woman’s role and the discovery of The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.
Moreover, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman are also two sides of the same coin in terms of tone, with the former a more triumphant, uplifting story of Superman’s introduction to the world, and the latter a far darker story bringing its titular heroes to their lowest points, and even ending on Superman’s death. What really jumps out in a DCEU marathon is how much Zack Snyder’s Justice League works as a middle ground between the two. The movie still deals with heavy themes with the world mourning Superman’s death and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg grappling with his technological transformation, along with his strained relationship with his father Silas (Joe Morton.) At the same time, there’s also a lighter tone with each of the heroes inspired by Superman in different ways, and the triumphant resurrection of the Man of Steel. I can’t even imagine how much the Earth would have shaken with theater applause around the world had Superman’s show-stopping “Not impressed” moment been seen by audiences in 2017, but the feeling of defeat in the ending of Batman v Superman is totally flipped into one of victory in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Additionally, Zack Snyder’s Justice League alsomatches both the depth of Batman v Superman’s character deconstruction and the epic superhero action of Man of Steel in a way that makes its four-hour run time zip by in a heartbeat.
Man Of Steel & Wonder Woman Are Very Similar In Terms Of Pacing & Style
2017’s Wonder Woman holds the distinction of being the first DCEU movie to get a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and in turn, that started the narrative of it being the first (and, at that point) only widely liked DCEU movie. However, including Wonder Woman in a DCEU marathon alongside Man of Steel actually highlights that they’re quite similar. Wonder Woman is as heavily action-packed as Man of Steel, and with the two having a virtually identical running time, they share the same DNA in terms of sheer pacing. Looking deeper, Wonder Woman actually sends Gal Gadot’s Diana on a journey parallel to that of Henry Cavill’s Kal-El.
Both Man of Steel and Wonder Woman focus on their protagonists emerging from hiding in different ways. Additionally, Diana’s bright-eyed optimism that she can simply slay the God of War Ares (David Thewlis) to end World War I takes her down a road of gradually learning that the nature of good and evil simply isn’t that binary, a journey reflected in Clark Kent coming to see that, for better or worse, there are indeed consequences to him acting as hero in public. To top it off, Man of Steel and Wonder Woman also see both Superman and Wonder Woman forced to choose humanity over their own people, and both doing so for the greater good. Marathoning the DCEU’s early chapters together, it’s surprising how much Man of Steel and Wonder Woman are cut from the same cloth, and how much audiences and critics collectively missed their commonality back in 2017.
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We Have Batman v Superman To Thank For How Great Batman Fight Scenes Have Become
Go back and watch the superhero movies from before the turn of the century, and aside from the Blade movies, their fight scenes largely varied in quality from okay to outright terrible. That started to change with the X-Men and Spider-Man movies of the early 2000s, and now, great superhero fight scenes are all but a given today. It must also be emphasized, in that regard, how much of a surge in fight scene finesse the Dark Knight’s warehouse brawl in Batman v Superman was. One has to assume Zack Snyder is fan of The Raid movies and wanted to create a Batman fight scene equivalent to placing the Caped Crusader into those cult Indonesian martial arts classics, as Batman v Superman fully delivers on that concept with a Batman fight scene that has yet to be topped.
That isn’t to say that subsequent Batman movies haven’t had great fight scenes, as there are indeed some superb Dark Knight smackdowns with Robert Pattinson and Michael Keaton’s Batmen in The Batman and The Flash respectively. However, I maintain that the quality of Batman fight scenes has only skyrocketed as much as it has because of the standards set by Batman’s warehouse beatdown showing that Batman fight scenes could be every bit as impactful, exhilarating, and polished as those of The Raid films or a Hong Kong action movie. Wherever Batman’s big-screen career takes him, superhero fans and general audiences will forever owe Batman v Superman a debt of gratitude in setting a bar for all future Batman fight sequences to meet.
Wonder Woman 1984 Is A Huge Step Down From Its Predecessor
Nearly eight years since its debut, Wonder Woman isn’t just the best superhero movie centered on a female protagonist, but also the only one to emerge as both a box office success and maintain a lasting subsequent cultural foothold. Whether revisited in isolation or as part of a Snyderverse marathon, it’s still impressive how great a superhero flick Wonder Woman is with phenomenal action sequences, a gripping war story, and the perfect casting and chemistry of Gal Gadot and Chris Pine as Diana and Steve Trevor.
And talk about a sequel dropping the ball with Wonder Woman 1984.
I confess, I had relatively positive feelings to Wonder Woman 1984 upon its holiday season release in 2020, but the peaceful, welcoming aura of the Christmas season can have that effect on a blockbuster one is fervently anticipating – and especially one that, if you saw it in theaters as opposed to HBO Max, was really was only game in town during the COVID era. Part of the initial charm of Wonder Woman 1984 is why I think of it now as a noble but ultimately failed experiment in applying the tone of the Christopher Reeve Superman films to an 80’s-set Wonder Woman movie. However, four years after its release, Wonder Woman 1984 simply pales in comparison to Wonder Woman. The latter’s epic sense of adventure and heroism in the face of a demoralizing war get tossed aside for campy humor, lackluster effects and action scenes, and, of course, Diana’s controversial romantic reunion with the resurrected Steve Trevor while he essentially possesses the body of another man. That isn’t to say Wonder Woman 1984 is beyond redemption. The ending of Diana convincing Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) and the rest of the world to renounce their wishes is one of the most powerful scenes in both Wonder Woman and Gal Gadot’s careers, with Hans Zimmer’s mournful score of “A Beautiful Lie” giving it some real pathos and impact. There are still elements of Wonder Woman 1984 that I think work, but as a whole, it simply can’t compare to the might of the original Wonder Woman.
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Martian Manhunter’s Snyder Cut Cameo Serves One Purpose That Green Lantern Wouldn’t Have
After the Snyder Cut was officially given the go-ahead, Zack Snyder filmed a handful of additional scenes shown in the movie’s epilogue. Snyder’s originally intended version of the movie’s final scene involved John Stewart a.k.a. Green Lantern (Wayne T. Carr) visiting Bruce Wayne at his doorstep and offering his services to help the League against Darkseid’s coming invasion. However, Warner Bros.’s claimed plans for the character – which the studio never subsequently put into motion – led Snyder to swap Green Lantern for Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix) and has itself opened a huge can of worms with fans dying to see the alternate Green Lantern scene, especially with the image of Carr is a full rendered, glorious CGI Green Lantern costume.
Admittedly, it is quite unfortunate that Snyder’s intended Green Lantern cameo was left out of the movie, but Martian Manhunter’s presence in the final scene also highlights one role he plays in Bruce’s arc that Green Lantern would not have been able to, which is showing the demise of Bruce’s anti-alien prejudice. In Batman v Superman, Bruce’s hostility to Superman and determination to pre-emptively eliminate him can easily be read as metaphor for racism and xenophobia, especially in the post-9/11 world. Batman realizes the error of his ways in witnessing Superman’s sacrifice and facilitating his resurrection, and the fact that Martian Manhunter is an alien like Superman brings Bruce’s arc full circle. Even in wielding the Power Ring and being a member of the alien-populated Green Lantern Corps, John Stewart himself is still very much human, and therefore, his presence in the ending of Zack Snyder’s Justice League wouldn’t be able to fill the same role. With Martian Manhunter, Bruce’s friendly greeting of “Can I help you?” contrasted against his early outlook on Superman presents Bruce like a man who has overcome a previously held prejudice. Hopefully, the world gets to see Snyder’s intended Green Lantern scene one day, but with the ending of Zack Snyder’s Justice League as is, Martian Manhunter’s cameo compliments Batman’s arc and relationship with Superman in a big way.
Marvel’s Biggest Criticism Is Its Hit & Miss Villains – The DCEU Never Had That Problem
The first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe produced an unheard of winning streak of box office success and audience adoration, but even then, the MCU wasn’t quite batting 1000. The most common criticism of the early MCU is the franchise’s non-Loki villains frequently being lackluster, forgettable, or disposable. The MCU finally moved past that issue with the one-two punch of Killmonger and Thanos in 2018, but it’s also a problem that the DCEU never had any comparable difficulties with. Beginning with Man of Steel, Michael Shannon delivered one of the greatest villain performances in comic book movie history as the ruthless yet selfless General Zod, a strength matched by his tough-as-nails lieutenant, Faora-Ul (Antje Traue).
Batman v Superman took a lot of flak for Jesse Eisenberg’s divisive Lex Luthor and General Zod’s transformation into Doomsday, but time has been kind to Eisenberg’s Lex as a Machiavellian tech billionaire pulling the strings and placing Superman into a seemingly no-win situation (in my book, Superman’s rooftop scene with Lex leapfrogs over the Joker interrogation scene in The Dark Knight.) That’s in addition to Lex and Doomsday actually doing what no previous cinematic Superman villain had done before by actually killing the Man of Steel. Wonder Woman also presents a strong rendition of Ares as demi-god who thinks man’s inhumanity to man makes him irredeemable. And then there’s the epic reversal in reputation of Steppenwolf from his portrayal in Justice League to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with Steppenwolf a tragic indentured servant to Darkseid in the latter. Justice League’s generic, softened version of Steppenwolf frankly now comes across more like Steppenwolf’s grandfather compared to the Snyder Cut’s souped-up alien general in spikey, pulsating armor. Moreover, even with a supporting role, Darkseid is a foreboding menace and genuine threat in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with the movie’s Knightmare tease showing his ruthlessness in slaughtering Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and bringing Superman under his control with the Anti-Life Equation in the apocalyptic future.
Even tertiary DCEU villains like Jax-Ur (Mackenzie Gray), KGBeast (Callan Mullvey), and Dr. Poison (Elena Anaya) all manage to leave lasting impressions in their roles as supporting villains to the franchise’s primary antagonists. Moreover, however minor their roles in Zack Snyder’s Justice League may be, Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke and Jared Leto’s Joker both make unforgettable appearances, with the Batman-Joker alliance in the Knightmare epilogue one of the best scenes the two have shared in any movie. Looking back on the DCEU’s beginnings, all of its villains have not only aged fantastically, but it’s also clear that the DCEU never had the MCU’s cookie cutter villain issue.
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The Debacle Of Justice League 2017 Will Haunt Warner Bros. & DC For Years To Come
All of the above brings us to what has made the DCEU and the history of Justice League such a hot topic among audiences and DC fans – that being how much of a historic studio faceplant the theatrical cut of Justice League was. The history of Snyder’s removal from the movie under circumstances that could at best be frowned upon, Joss Whedon assuming control and butchering the movie while treating the cast and crew like garbage, and Warner Bros. management out-and-out lying about the movie’s behind-the-scenes situation for years has all been well-documented. What hasn’t received a comparable degree of commentary is how much a marathon of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League puts all of that in an even worse light than it already was because of how much it highlights DC on film as being in vastly greater stability and on a much firmer track than it has at any point since the Justice League reshoots.
Detractors can cite Batman v Superman’s second weekend drop all they want, but the fact of the matter is that the revamping of Justice League is a wound on DC as a cinematic IP that the it has still yet to recover from in the nearly eight years since (as evidenced by the fact that there’s any consternation at all about the performance of James Gunn’s upcoming Superman film.) What the early DCEU movies stand as an eternal reminder of is of Warner Bros. derailing a train that was chugging along just fine and would have already made it to the station years ago without the studio’s interference. Collectively, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League highlight a level of consistency, continuity, box office success, and point-A-to-point-B storytelling fluidity that simply hasn’t been seen in DC on film in years. With all four movies pointing the way to the franchise’s intended finale and with how well-known Justice League’s reworking and the chaos that DC has experienced since 2017 both are, well, that leads right into takeaway number nine…
Get Used To #RestoreTheSnyderVerse – There’s No Reality Where People Stop Asking WB & DC To Finish Snyder’s Justice League Story
Zack Snyder’s Justice League includes plenty of teases and set ups for both Snyder’s Justice League 2 and Justice League 3 along with Ben Affleck’s Batman solo movie (intended to take place between the first and second Justice League movies.) Obviously, these teases, along with Snyder’s whiteboard plans for the Justice League sequels, are the main driver for the continued advocacy among Snyder’s fanbase for the completion of his planned story, now well known by the hashtag #RestoreTheSnyderVerse (which exploded to massive levels of public support with a 1.5 million tweet surge on March 25, 2021, just after the Snyder Cut’s release.) What I didn’t release until embarking on this DCEU marathon is how much the added foundation of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Wonder Woman is bound to bolster that drive among fans to see Snyder finish what he started for the indefinite future.
Going back to the Justice League 2017 screw-up that such a DCEU marathon highlights, the early DCEU represents several things that DC movies once had, and which they briefly regained with the Snyder Cut’s release – consistency, dependability, certainty, and above all, simplicity. Outside of the usual fun of fan theories, DC fans never had to expend energy on guessing where DC was headed on the big-screen, what was considered canon, who was and was not still actively involved with the franchise, or how the multiverse might be put to use to line things up one way or another. In the era of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Wonder Woman, fans and general audiences didn’t have to do anything more taxing than simply show up when the movies were released. The release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League gave the fans who pushed so hard for it a powerful reminder of what that felt like, and being able to watch it on its own or with the DCEU movies preceding it makes that reminder a constant one.
Whether fans use the hashtag #RestoreTheSnyderVerse or the much-debated but not that unrealistic #SellSnyderVerseToNetflix, it’s not simply a desire to see Snyder’s arc completed, but also a plea to return to a time when going to see a DC movie didn’t require them to do anything but see it. Whatever plans James Gunn and DC Studios might be offering, the paper trail of how Gunn’s DCU has come about means that it fundamentally can’t offer that to fans, especially with Gunn retrofitting his own DCEU properties into the DCU with intentions for them that are open to interpretation, or the back-and-forth chatter of whether or not Robert Pattinson’s Batman will be retconned into Gunn’s DCU.
With the quartet of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League represent in perpetuity to so many fans is an unfinished (graphic) novel, in which they can read about three-quarters of the story it was written to tell. Coupled with the rollercoaster of DC cinematically since 2017, and the fact that the blueprint of Snyder’s planned finale being publicly available, it may be one of the hardest sells in human history to ask nerds to stop asking for the remainder of Zack Snyder’s DCEU story to be realized.
Having gone on a four-movie DCEU marathon over the holidays and reaching all of the conclusions above, all I can say to anyone trying to make that sales pitch – good luck.
