The long, expensive gestation of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”

IN 2012 MARVEL STUDIOS, a subsidiary of Disney, released “The Avengers”, a superhero team-up film which became one of the most lucrative blockbusters ever made. Naturally DC Entertainment, owned by Warner Bros., wanted to emulate that success and released “Justice League” five years later. Just as Marvel had brought together Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and Captain America, DC squeezed several of its best-known characters into one film: “Justice League” had Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) joining forces to save the world from a tediously generic alien demon, Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds).

“The Avengers” it wasn’t. Audiences stayed away, the film flopped, and most critics assumed that it would slip into obscurity faster than a speeding bullet. Instead, a “director’s cut” of “Justice League” has its premiere on HBO Max on March 18th. This isn’t the same film with a few tweaks here and there. Its director, Zack Snyder, was given $70m for a top-to-bottom overhaul, complete with reshoots, redesigned characters, new visual effects, new music and a running time that has expanded from two to four hours. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” must be the most expensive and extensive salvage job in cinema history.