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Justice League Snyder Cut Review: Overambitious, Strange, and Indulgent

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Justice League Snyder Cut Review: Overambitious, Strange, and Indulgent
Justice League Snyder Cut needs to — let’s face it — clear a very, very low bar. The original Justice League released in late 2017 in cinemas and it was a disaster for various reasons. It had a torturous production, with Warner Bros. shepherding the DC movie like a hawk, owing to negative fan reception for director Zack Snyder’s previous epic and its direct predecessor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And owing to studio demands (WB deemed Justice League had to be under two hours) and a death in the family, Snyder chose to depart deep into production, having lost the will to fight. The Avengers writer-director Joss Whedon, who had been brought on to do rewrites, then took over the film and spearheaded extensive and expensive reshoots — the final budget stood at $300 million (about Rs. 2,182 crores) — that would align it to studio wishes.

But Whedon failed to deliver. Justice League was a mess tonally, structurally, and narratively — virtually on every crucial front you can think of. Warner Bros. itself was to largely blame for the debacle. There was simply no way for any filmmaker to cram all of it — to introduce three new superheroes and expand on the ones we’ve known, follow a world-ending plot involving a hideous-looking big bad, and infuse humour into a grimdark tale of demigods and immortal beings — in 120 minutes. Justice League, essentially, was trying to do Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers all in one movie. That sounds impossible and stupid on paper — and that’s exactly what it was. No wonder Justice League failed both critically and commercially.

Now over three years later, thanks to a dedicated #ReleaseTheSnyderCut fan campaign, and a little-known HBO Max streaming service hungry for eyeballs, Snyder gets to present his original vision for the DC epic. As a result, Zack Snyder’s Justice League — as it’s officially called — is nearly four hours long (3 hours and 53 minutes, to be precise, without the credits). To call it overlong might be an understatement. It’s so long that some characters aren’t introduced until after the first hour, while others don’t show up until we pass the two-hour mark. It’s so long that the film’s epilogue takes half an hour, featuring multiple “endings” that seem to suggest Snyder put everything he had up on the wall. Justice League Snyder Cut is definitely indulgent. But Snyder knows that he has full creative freedom now, so he’s made exactly what he wanted with no inhibitions.

Everything You Need to Know About Justice League Snyder Cut

And that is why Snyder doesn’t bother excising parts that are entirely unnecessary now. Justice League Snyder Cut “introduces” us to Arthur Curry/ Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Atlantis as if we’ve never known them before. That was true when Snyder was originally making Justice League, but we’ve since gotten an Aquaman movie. An action sequence merely exists to showcase Diana Prince/ Wonder Woman’s (Gal Gadot) capabilities. Justice League Snyder Cut requires you to put yourself in a frame of mind from four years ago. Parts of it will only work if you can set aside everything that has happened in the DC Extended Universe since. For everyone else, there are a lot of extra bits that could have been done away with. The trouble is that these scenes don’t add something new to the characters we already know and love. Instead, they are re-treading ground we’ve covered.

That said, Justice League Snyder Cut’s four-hour runtime benefits Victor Stone/ Cyborg (Ray Fisher) the most. Cyborg was among the new heroes that Justice League had to introduce — but his origin story and family relationships were unfortunately squeezed to a breaking point. Here, we get to properly understand his troubles with his father Silas Stone (Joe Morton), and the psychological pain of being revived as a cyborg after a near-death experience. There’s an extended intro to Barry Allen/ The Flash (Ezra Miller), which functions much better than the aforementioned Wonder Woman scene because we haven’t gotten his solo movie yet — The Flash is currently due in November 2022. It also brings back his future love interest Iris West (Kiersey Clemons) who had been excised from Justice League due to runtime constraints.

And because it runs for four hours, Justice League Snyder Cut can afford to take its time with these moments. The slow pace is baked in from the beginning — the movie itself isn’t slow though, as it has a lot to show and tell — and it helps right off the bat. Scenes feel lived in and are organically built, and don’t come across as pitstops on a race to the finish line. The extra time allows us to learn a bit more about the antagonist and chief villain Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciarán Hinds) and why he’s on a mad dash to gather the three all-powerful MacGuffins (called Mother Boxes) that would give him total control over all life on Earth. Steppenwolf’s CGI-ed design has been vastly improved — his armour is made up of curved steel-coloured spikes jutting out, with purples hues running all across. The armour also makes him look like he has a dual-sided tail, which I found hilarious.

From Godzilla vs. Kong to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, What to Watch in March

Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf in Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Photo Credit: HBO Max/Warner Bros.

But Justice League Snyder Cut also loses some interesting bits. On Justice League, Whedon wrote in scenes that dealt with how Wonder Woman had been shirking responsibility, for the past century more or less. She didn’t want to be a leader, she told Bruce Wayne/ Batman (Ben Affleck), over fears of getting people killed, giving us insight into a character’s mind. But this is not present anywhere on Justice League Snyder Cut, because Snyder — working off the original script by Chris Terrio (Argo) — has been adamant about the fact that he won’t be using any of Whedon’s material. (Snyder doesn’t train a critical eye on his own failings though, with the skimpily-dressed Amazons retained.) Wonder Woman is an active participant in Justice League Snyder Cut’s plot, but she doesn’t have any journey of her own — just a bunch of majestic stunt sequences. It’s a wasted opportunity since this is a chapter of her life that comes after both her standalone movies, including the recent Wonder Woman 1984.

Speaking of action, Justice League Snyder Cut is at its most thrilling in what is roughly a 40-minute chapter dubbed Part 6, “Something Darker”. The movie is split into six chapters, complete with title cards. Justice League was so heavily rushed throughout that it lost you in its CGI-ed mess when it arrived upon its equally rushed conclusion. But here, because there’s no shortage of time, even the big final battle can take its time. Yes, it takes a long while to get us there — nearly three hours, which is admittedly a lot — but it’s thoroughly enjoyable. It gives every hero a showcase of their own. And Snyder gets to showcase how good he is at stylising action scenes. It doesn’t feel any less epic even though it’s technically constricted within a near-square aspect ratio. Yes, that means black bars on the side, all the more reason to not watch this on a phone or laptop.

But the rest of the action in Justice League Snyder Cut fails to live up to that standard. The sequences lack suspense or intrigue. They involve too much super slow motion. Snyder also makes use of too much VFX — he’s unwilling to film even a simple outdoor scene like Amazons riding horses across a grassland. And multiple scenes are used just to deliver exposition. There’s an extended flashback sequence in Justice League Snyder Cut that exists on a scale bigger than Avengers: Endgame. But forget being a moment earned or packing emotional impact, its only purpose is exposition. Wonder Woman explains what her lasso does, which is unnecessary in itself, and more so given we’ve seen her use it in two full movies already. Exposition is a constant problem for Justice League Snyder Cut, from villains talking to the audience to mumbo-jumbo for a sequel that will probably never happen.

Justice League Snyder Cut Ends on a ‘Massive Cliffhanger’: Zack Snyder

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Henry Cavill as Superman in Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Photo Credit: HBO Max/Warner Bros.

There is a lot of plot here, after all — and narratively, Justice League Snyder Cut can be plodding and feel overstretched. And structurally, it’s still the same movie as Justice League, which means it hits most of those same big beats that are far from anything special. Hence at times, watching Justice League Snyder Cut is like watching a longer version of a movie you’ve already seen. It’s now more manageable and easier to follow, thanks to its division into six chapters, which are a bit like episodes essentially. There’s the catch-up episode, the Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg episode, the Superman  (Clark Kent) resurrection episode, and the big battle episode. And that hits at the core of the problem for Justice League, be it the original or Snyder Cut. It’s packing in a lot more than it ought to. Justice League Snyder Cut is an overambitious strange beast of a movie, designed for a select audience.

It’s also the biggest proof yet of Snyder’s dedication. Snyder loves DC superheroes — he has always seen them as these mighty mythological tales of god-like beings cursed with powers, yearning to be human. It’s why humour tends to be very rare, as is the case on Justice League Snyder Cut. As Warner Bros. sought to pitch up a rival world that would go toe-to-toe with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was Snyder who envisioned the early days of the DCEU that were to include a Justice League trilogy. It was Snyder who picked Gadot to be Wonder Woman and believed Momoa could be Aquaman. But Snyder is not a great architect, as we’ve learned. Justice League Snyder Cut exists because of Netflix in a way. HBO Max needs subscribers, and its parent company WarnerMedia has latched onto a populist symbol hoping to generate some good faith out of it.

But it’s highly unlikely that this will lead to more Justice League movies, as Snyder himself has admitted, calling it “very hypothetical” and something “that you’ll never see”. Since the failure of Justice League, Warner Bros. has abandoned its hopes and dreams for a cohesive DC film universe. It’s now letting filmmakers tell individualised stories, from Joaquin Phoenix-led Joker, to Robert Pattinson in upcoming The Batman. In some ways, especially creatively, that’s beneficial. But Marvel’s financial success has eluded DC. Had Warner Bros., instead of poking its nose and making unreasonable demands the first time around, paired Snyder with a long-term visionary then Zack Snyder’s Justice League might not have ended up a giant one-off experiment, but contributed to Zack Snyder’s DCEU.

Justice League Snyder Cut is out March 18 worldwide. It’ll be available on HBO services and video-on-demand platforms. More details here.

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Microsoft Partners With Inworld to Bring AI Game Development Tools to Xbox

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Microsoft Partners With Inworld to Bring AI Game Development Tools to Xbox


Microsoft is teaming up with Inworld AI to create game development tools for Xbox, enabling developers to create characters, generate entire scripts and quests, and more. The multi-year deal brings an AI design copilot and an AI character runtime engine to the forefront, both of them being totally optional to use and to varying degrees. Of course, the use of AI in art has been criticised by many for simply lacking originality, in addition to running the risk of fewer jobs for artists — a growing fear among many considering the alarming number of layoffs seen at game studios this year in an attempt to cut costs.

“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”

The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.

Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.

Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.


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BSNL Offers Free 4G SIM Upgrade: Here’s How to Get It

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BSNL Offers Free 4G SIM Upgrade: Here’s How to Get It


BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) is a state-owned telecommunication company in India. Earlier this year in May, the government said that the firm started rolling out 4G services in the country. By December, the networks were said to be upgraded to 5G. However, at the India Mobile Congress, BSNL chairman P K Purwar said that the company will launch 4G services in December and then roll it across the country by June 2024. The chairman added that the 5G upgrades will take place after June next year.

In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.

To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.

Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.

The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.


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Realme GT 5 Pro Teased to Feature 3,000 Nits Display; More Details Revealed

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Realme GT 5 Pro Teased to Feature 3,000 Nits Display; More Details Revealed


Realme GT 5 Pro’s launch date is not far away. The Chinese smartphone brand on Tuesday (November 7) confirmed the arrival of the new GT series smartphone in its home country. The Realme GT 5 Pro is teased to come with a display with over 3000 nits of peak brightness. It is also confirmed to pack a larger heat dissipation area for thermal management. The handset will ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come as a successor to the Realme GT 5 that debuted in China in August.

Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.

The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.

For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.

The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.


The Motorola Edge 40 recently made its debut in the country as the successor to the Edge 30 that was launched last year. Should you buy this phone instead of the Nothing Phone 1 or the Realme Pro+? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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