The acclaimed director walked away from the movie after the tragic suicide of his daughter Autumn and Warner Bros brought in Avengers director Joss Whedon, from rival comic book house Marvel, to finish the project.Whedon’s version altered the characters, changed the story — and produced a muddled mess that outraged fans, irritated critics and earned less than half of what the Avengers movies took.Years of fan pressure — helped by the COVID-19 movie shutdown — has finally seen Warner Bros give Snyder the chance to restore his version.RELATED: Zack Snyder’s Justice League – the reviews are inThe resulting four-hour “Snyder Cut” is released worldwide today and can only be watched in Australia on Foxtel or on BINGE from 6pm tonight. A special screening hosted by BINGE in Melbourne last night saw leagues of superfans gathering in Cosplay costumes, delighted to finally see the long-awaited epic.Snyder never saw the 2017 version after his wife Deborah, who was a producer on the movie, told him he must never see it.“We had walked away and that was that,” Deborah said.“We did what we needed to do personally and for our family. So to go back and see something so radically different … it was difficult for me to watch, to see something that didn’t have the same DNA.“I knew it would be even more difficult for Zack, as a director who lives and breathes this, to see it.”She said the Snyders had spent 11 years working on his vision for the legendary DC heroes, starting with preparing and filming 2013’s Man Of Steel. If all had gone well, Justice League would have been followed by two more sequels.RELATED: Just how bad was Joss Whedon’s Justice League?For this film, Snyder threw away all the Whedon scenes, restored his own and has dedicated the new cut to his daughter Autumn, with a version of her favourite song, Hallelujah, playing through the credits.In many ways this movie is like a child of his, which made watching what had been done to it in 2017 just too difficult.“Have I ever had some interest in watching the (2017) movie?” Snyder said.“You know, not really … a little bit of course — what did they do, what happened to my thing?“They sewed an arm on the chest of the … I didn’t know what they did!“I did have some interest but after Chris (award-winning director and producer Christopher Nolan) and Deb sat me down and were like: ‘Don’t do that, don’t ever do that’, I was like: OK, I trust you guys’.”The good news is the Snyder Cut is a coherent story that makes far more of The Flash (Ezra Miller) and particularly Cyborg (Ray Fisher).Cyborg’s story of loss and finding new purpose through his friends is one that really resonates with Snyder, who said this character is his favourite superhero — beating out Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.“He has to go through this massive healing process and I think for us as a family and for this movie, it’s incredibly poignant,” he said.“(His story) really kind of tracks that kind of catharsis you experience after any kind of tragedy.”Although the Snyder Cut weighs in at four hours, it has six chapters and an epilogue that serve as natural breaks and so it is ideally suited to streaming. And while his characters may be superheroes, but Snyder recognises that his audience are mere mortals who may need breaks to “go to the bathroom or go and get your food”. “Around chapter three is a good time if you want to take a break. They are about 30 minutes each so it really depends on staying power,” he said, before adding a lighthearted challenge: “Or if you’re hard core — just go all the way. Why stop?”Zack Snyder’s Justice League releases worldwide today: Available only on BINGE or Foxtel from 6pm AEDT. Read Leigh Paatsch’s review in SMARTdaily
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