As the end of the year speeds towards us like a superhero to a citizen in need, many people are taking a moment to look back and think about the things they’ve loved this year. Currently, a viral trend is going around Twitter in which users name their top three films of the year, and one movie is appearing on these lists so much, it is trending in its own right: Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
The trend started when VERO published a Tweet asking, “Ok! Let’s do this. What are your top 3 films of the year?” Users quickly began to reply and quote retweet this tweet with their lists, and soon Twitter was awash with praise for the controversial movie.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League was a re-edit of the 2017 movie Justice League, designed to be the first large-scale cross-over movie for DC’s cinematic universe. While the film was meant to be directed by Zack Snyder, creative differences between him and Warner Bros. executives caused a lot of friction within the project. When Snyder’s daughter suddenly and tragically passed away, he stepped down from the project during post-production. Snyder was replaced by Joss Whedon.
The original Justice League bombed, getting terrible reviews from fans and critics alike. The movie’s underperformance begat a grassroots campaign to start on social media with fans begging Warner Bros. to allow Snyder to re-edit the film to fit his original vision. Under the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, fans of the director campaigned tirelessly to see Justice League as it had been envisioned by the famous director.
In May 2020, fans got excited when Snyder confirmed that his cut of the film would be getting released via HBO Max. When it landed on the service on March 18th, 2021, it quickly became a viral sensation, with thousands of people streaming and talking about the film. Many critics praised the cut, saying it fixed many of the original’s issues. So, it isn’t hard to see why so many on the internet are proud to place the movie in their top three.
Some are also using this trend to promote the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse campaign, an internet grassroots campaign to get Warner Bros. to allow Snyder to complete the DCCU as he originally envisioned it. However, Warner Bros. has not commented on this campaign at present.
One fascinating thing to note is how Snyder dominates many people’s lists. As Snyder’s other 2021 release, Army of the Dead is also in many people’s top three. While Snyder may be controversial, he has a loud and dedicated fanbase, and we can expect his films to be massive draws for years to come. For now, some justice has been restored.