It took four years before fans finally witnessed the reimagined version of 2017’s Justice League, a four-hour feature boasting a more inherently complete work and better visual effects – a testament to Zack Snyder’s true vision for the project.
Justice League served as the culmination of years of storytelling, bringing together a team of superheroes destined to defeat Steppenwolf, the otherworldly enemy who intends to conquer Earth. The so-called ‘Snyder Cut’ of the Justice League franchise premiered on March 2021, and it saw a lot of rigorous reshoots and visual effects editing to bring to life the original tone of the story.
VFX Artists Discuss Working On Zack Snyder’s Justice League Movie
Weta Digital, one of the most sought-after VFX studios that works on several blockbuster movies, was hired to revisit the project and do the necessary overhaul. Kevin Smith, Anders Langlands, and Simeon Duncombe of Weta Digital revealed the process, as well as experience, of reworking Justice League (via Digital Trends):
“It ended up being about half-and-half, with half of the shots being updates to existing sequences and adding new character designs to existing shots, and the other half of the work involved completely new sequences that had been worked on initially but didn’t make it into the 2017 movie.”
Smith noted that they provided thousands of shots for the Snyder Cut, and they have “lost count” because it was too many. The director said in an interview with Grace Randolph via Beyond The Trailer YouTube that the movie has more than 2,800 visual effects shots, which beats Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame with 2,500 visual effects shots.
Langlands, on the other hand, said that bringing an old film back to the surface was a nightmare:
“Just getting an old shot opened up so we can look at it and work with it can be a huge challenge… You have to restore it from the backup, which can take weeks. The idea of bringing an entire movie back online after it’s been archived is something that gives our data managers nightmares.”
Duncombe also revealed that there were some deleted shots from 2017 that they managed to bring back:
“A few of those shots existed in 2017 but were omitted from the film, so it was cool to see them come back. They were shots that we were excited about, so the fact that we got a second chance at them was pretty exciting.”
In regards to working with Snyder, they praised him for having a “very clear idea in his mind” and that he keeps an eye on every detail, which made the end product more coherent. Meanwhile, the director commended the entire visual effects team for doing an amazing job, calling it “a labor of love for all of us.”
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Was Made Possible By Fans
There is no doubt that fans’ support for the release of the Snyder Cut was one of the strongest campaigns that ever happened in the world of superhero movies. Justice League was only meant to be a unification of the famous DC heroes that fans loved for decades. However, following the tragedy concerning Snyder’s family that forced him to leave the project, the movie ended up becoming an irreparable disaster.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League was positively received by fans and critics, saying it has more comprehensive storytelling and improved graphics. The movie is now available to stream via HBO Max.
Sources: Digital Trends, YouTube
