It’s here.

Five years on since the release of the original theatrical cut, Zack Snyder’s Justice League has arrived with full force on streaming services across the world, coming in at a staggering runtime of almost four hours. Following the fan-driven #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign, ZSJL has had an extraordinary journey to the screen, one which will surely be a talking point for the film industry for years to come.

I’m not going to talk about the film’s troubled path, rollercoaster period of development, campaigning and social media-focused speculation and passion which at times (and it should be stated only in a small number of instances) turned toxic. The internet is filled to the brim with commentary pieces and forum discussions which cover this aspect of its production history.

Instead, as a DC fan, Justice League fan and comic book fan, I’m just going to talk about the film itself.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League surpassed my expectations and hopes. It is a near-perfect screen adaptation of these characters and this world. But if you’re someone who doesn’t know their mother boxes from their boom tubes, ZSJL simply isn’t for you.

The film will most readily draw comparisons to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and particularly its various Avengers-centric superhero team offerings over the past decade. This is an obvious comparison to make, but one that does a disservice to the DC film, which back in 2017 was evidently designed to play catch-up with the MCU and the dozen or so films that had been released under that banner at that point in time. This is arguably why Joss Whedon’s much criticised version of the film fell flat. The various tonal shifts and re-shoots introduced by Whedon were evidently an attempt to condense an expansive narrative vision into a multiplex friendly cheat sheet to the DC universe which, in the event, only failed to both engage casual viewers or appease knowledgeable DC fans. It asked a lot of casual filmgoers who perhaps only had a passing knowledge of its big hitters (Superman, Batman) garnered from previous screen versions and individual outings, but gave too little in the way of deep-cut comic book easter eggs, nods and references towards a larger, almost century-spanning lore that Marvel, now twenty-two films and two television series in, can offer in spades without fear of alienating the general audience it has slowly but surely won over since 2008’s Iron Man.

Here in 2021, ZSJL, in contrast, goes all in for the hardcore DC fandom, a natural consequence of the campaigns and support that worked to resurrect the film in the first place. Allowed the four hour runtime provided by the exhibition setup of HBO Max and other streaming services, the film can afford a deep dive into the characterisation and backgrounds of its core cast of heroes, a benefit that was simply not possible or practical for its original theatrical release. Without this runtime, the film’s narrative would lose much of what defines Ezra Miller’s Flash, Ray Fisher’s Cyborg and Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman. Without these details, often echoing and building upon some of each respective characters’ most important comic book runs and backstories, these heroes would be mere sketches – shadows of a fully realised character – as is the case with Whedon’s cut.

These elements, combined with the rich world-building of the script which relies heavily upon critically acclaimed but comparatively more obscure comic book sources including Jack Kirby’s ‘Fourth World’ and Paul Levitz’s ‘Great Darkness Saga’, are given much needed room to breathe, and with that a more faithful and perhaps more enthralling realisation of long standing fan favourites. But this detail is a double-edged sword, knowingly risking the indifference or even confusion of the average film fan whose knowledge of these characters and world does not extend beyond, say, the Nolan, Donner or Burton screen iterations. To its target audience, Harry Lennix’s Martian Manhunter is a jaw-dropping revelation. To anyone else, the character is jarring and unexplained character who appears to be little more than a reject from Star Trek.

The actual plot of the film, an origin story for the titular Justice League, a team which in this iteration consists of Batman, Superman, the Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg, remains mostly intact from the 2017 theatrical cut. But its exploration of character detail and expanded cast of villains with a significantly more menacing Steppenwolf acting as subservient scout for the true ‘big bad’, Ray Porter’s Darkseid, offers a more compelling vision of this world and a grander sense of the stakes and scale of the conflict at the heart of the film. Gone are the Whedon-prompted detours with anonymous Russian families, puzzling camera phone interviews and Henry Cavill’s ridiculous CGI removed moustache and consequential uncanny-valley upper lip.

I wouldn’t be being honest with you if I didn’t admit that I did find flaws with some aspects of the film. Putting to one side one or two shots or images which were clearly the result of Synder having to work within the boundaries of what existing footage was present four years after production, ZSJL’s criminal under-utilisation of Amy Adams’ Lois Lane betrays and confirms a lack of interest in this character and Adams’ ability as a performer that arguably extends back to both Man and Steel and Batman V Superman. Similarly, I’ve never been particularly enthralled by Miller’s Flash, a very clear departure from the Barry Allen of the comics which, played as a socially inept introvert in this film and mostly for comic relief, dismisses much of the emotional trauma behind this character and the more wholesome and heartfelt aspects of the hero embodied so well by Grant Gustin in the CW’s The Flash series.

But given the film’s and indeed the director’s tumultuous history in getting this film to its audience, there’s really little more I could have asked for from Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Yes it has all the visual bombast and CGI-soaked spectacle one would expect from Snyder, something that you either love or hate. But in its quieter moments, this four-hour love letter to DC’s flagship superheroes offers a contemplative, sensitive and ultimately life-affirming treatise on the need to reach out and come together in times of hardship and pain. To see the billboard for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention presented front and centre in an early sequence; to hear the heart breaking lyrics of Nick Cave’s ‘Distant Sky’ (a song in which another artist wrestles with the unexpected death of their child); and to read the dedication that closes the film – ‘For Autumn’ – is to understand the true emotional core at the heart of this film, and why we continually turn to superheroes to see us through hard times.