Few cinematic failures have had as much scrutiny as Justice League. In the two years since it utterly failed to set the world alight, original director Zack Snyder has periodically shared images from material he shot for the film that was never used, each time spurring on the relentless #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign. The latest of these purportedly offers proof of the movie’s existence intended to silence skeptics.
Posted to Snyder’s Vero account, the image shows a rack of canisters labeled with the pic’s details, and an unequivocal declaration that his version of the film is something tangible and not simply existing in the minds of overly hopeful fans. In a response to a comment on the image, Snyder states he shared the photo due to being “tired of people saying it’s not real.”
Aside from issues over the cut’s existence, the biggest point of contention has been how complete or otherwise it actually is. Some believe it’s just sitting there as a final edit and releasing it can be pulled off with minimal effort, while others estimate up to $40 million dollars are required to finish incomplete visual effects.
On one hand, an unverified image is hardly conclusive evidence, but on the other, Snyder doesn’t have anything to gain from lying about it, as the whole movement is premised on the assumption that his cut of the film is complete, meaning there’s comparatively little alterations he would be able to make should Warner Bros. finally relent.
When it comes down to it, the only way this will ever be resolved is for Snyder’s Justice League to be completed, released and for people to actually watch it. Only then can they decide for themselves if they were vindicated in completely blaming Joss Whedon for the disappointing mediocrity of the finished product, if the man responsible for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice somehow managed to figure out what actually makes a good comic book team-up movie, and if the film itself can possibly live up to the vision of cinematic perfection that its champions have spent the last two years imagining.
