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Zack Snyder’s Justice League comes to home media

Don: The success-minded folks at Warner Bros. want so desperately to announce that “the age of heroes is upon us” with the home media release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. All the hullabaloo that started with fan outrage that turned into reshoots has now made it to its final finish line. The redux blockbuster and HBO Max Original feature film arrived on store shelves this past Tuesday, September 7th, available in 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD formats on September 7.

I reviewed the full film when it dropped back on March 18th, so I’ll spare you the plot summary. Rest assured, the “epic” labels are suitable. Nearly six months later, the movie’s controversies and mystique remain.

To wildly different audience temperaments, Zack Snyder’s Justice League represented several different battles. For one crowd, it’s artistic reparations for embarrassing mistakes made four years ago. This new cut is, no doubt, a complete improvement from what was patched together by Joss Whedon. For another, it’s a victory for creative freedom. Much was made during the entire #RestoreTheSnyderCut trending waves that getting this movie right was a win for all directors who pine for true final say on their creations. Finally, for others, Zack Snyder’s Justice League lingers as a superfluous stunt. Rather than being released in theaters with its hat in hand begging for missing money, the four-hour movie was a vehicle meant to draw attention and subscribers to the HBO Max streaming service.

All of those reactionary judgments have merit. And now, according to the cultish mob that still congregates on Twitter, apparently those store shelves are empty already in the movie’s first week in stores. True to their pot-stirring and hype-amping social media personas, their labels of runaway success are inflating like hot-air balloons.

What are these stoked customers getting? The answer is not much. That counts as disappointing for those looking for more inside information about this tumultuous production history. However, this should not be surprising coming from a studio that showed so little confidence on this reclamation project in the first place.

Structurally on this disc, all the technical cogs and gears are there. This incarnation features a Dolby Atmos soundtrack remixed specifically for the home theater environment. The powerful sound is designed to work anywhere in the room, provided you have the properly-enabled A/V receiver and speakers or soundbar setup. Snyder’s heavy use of CGI effects play perfectly to the 4k resolution peaks as well.

That’s unfortunately where the bells and whistles end. There are no deleted scenes (obviously) and no commentary tracks. There aren’t even trailers or spots. The disc release for Zack Synder’s Justice League carries a single, lone featurette placed on a plain menu.

On the Ultra HD Blu-ray disc, you will find the 30-minute “Road to Justice League” mini-doc. That half-hour piece is a complete celebration of Zack Snyder and it digs through his entire trilogy of work across Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and now Justice League. The filmmaker is front and center to preach on his dedication and enthusiasm for this comic universe.

Snyder and his supporters speak strongly on promises that were kept and the shared singular investment that was this massive undertaking. Zack’s visual flair is unquestionably enormous. His signature touches were in every layer of his three movies, right down to the storyboards he drew himself.

The studio side is very quiet on this disc. Unlike other production diary-style featurettes seen for other movies where some bankrolling producer or corporare higher-up suit is glad to sit on camera and sing his/her hired person’s praises. As you can remember and imagine, that was not going to happen for this one.

Honestly, when you hear and watch Zack Snyder talk, you begin to think, wow, this guy lives and breathes with the energy of mythology and psychology. That’s heady stuff to love. With that loft, you squint to think for a moment that this guy gets the scope of these iconic heroes combined together. But then you see the overstuffed finished products, including this Justice League variant, and all the observations and questions on those ideals coming on too strong return. This movie was a unique restoration accomplishment. The disc for home is not.

Those are our recommendations this week! What are yours? Let us know in the comments!