Justice League (2017 Film)

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About

Justice League is a 2017 superhero film based on a comic book of the same name. The movie is the culmination of four other DC Extended Universe films, in which the characters Batman and Wonder Woman team up with other heroes.

History

After nearly a decade of attempts to start production on a Justice League film, Variety^[1] announced that Zach Snyder would direct the film as a sequel to his previous superhero movies Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on April 27th, 2014. The film would also serve as a sequel to the then-upcoming Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman films, building upon DC's cinematic universe, similar to Marvel's The Avengers.

On April 11th, 2016, production on Justice League began. The following month, The Hollywood Reporter^[2] stated that the negative reception of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice led to the formation of DC Films, which would be run by Jon Berg, DC's Vice President, and Geoff Johns, the company's chief creative content officer would produce, hoping to correct some of the tone and plot issues audiences and critics had with Dawn of Justice. Later that month, Zach Snyder stepped down from production after the sudden death of his daughter. DC quickly brought Joss Whedon (The Avengers) on to finish the film. In a statement,^[3] Zach Snyder wrote:

“In my mind, I thought it was a cathartic thing to go back to work, to just bury myself and see if that was the way through it. The demands of this job are pretty intense. It is all-consuming. And in the last two months, I’ve come to the realization … I’ve decided to take a step back from the movie to be with my family, be with my kids, who really need me. They are all having a hard time. I’m having a hard time.”

The film was released on November 17th, 2017.

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Zack Snyder's Justice League, commonly referred to as the Snyder Cut, is the 2021 director's cut of Justice League. Based on the DC comics superhero team of the same name, film follows the efforts of the Justice League as they oppose supervillains Darkseid and Steppenwolf.

The announcement and release of Zack Snyder's Justice League followed a massive fan campaign known as "Release the Snyder Cut".

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Reception (2017 Film)

Justice League received generally negative reviews from critics. The film review aggregators Rotten Tomatoes ^[4] and Metacrtic^[5] gave the film a grade of 40% rotten (based on 219 reviews) and a Metascore of 46 (based on 49 reviews). In their overall assessment, Rotten Tomatoes wrote, "Justice League leaps over a number of DC movies, but its single bound isn't enough to shed the murky aesthetic, thin characters, and chaotic action that continue to dog the franchise."

The film was generally well-regarded by audiences. The audience survey website Cinemascore^[12] reported that the film received a B+ rating, improving on the B rating of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. However, despite generating more than $96 million in box office returns, the film has been regarded as a financial disappointment. Justice League holds the smallest box office take of any of D.C.'s latest superhero films.^[13]

Snyder Cut Petition

On November 11th, 2017, Roberto Mata started a Change.org^[14] petition addressed to Warner Bros. to release a Zack Snyder cut of the film. The petition also included a plea to release the original score by Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL), which was replaced by composer Tim Burton ahead of release. Within one week, the petition had received more than 62,000 signatures of 75,000 signature goal.

Superman's Deleted Mustache

On July 24th, 2017, Variety^[6] reported that Warner Bros was planning on spending more than $25 million on reshoots, which include digitally removing Superman actor Henry Cavill's mustache for Justice League reshoots. Cavill had grown the mustache for a role in the film Mission: Impossible 6, which was filming simutanously with the reshoots. Because he was required in both films, he could not shave the facial hair.

After the report hit the internet, people online began posting photoshopped images of Cavill as Superman with a mustache (examples below).

Two days later, he posted a picture from the set of Mission: Impossible 6 to Instagram ^[7] the caption:

"Dear followers, it is time to finally set the record straight in this moustache fiasco. Pictured above, is not a set on MI6 but is in fact the latest in a series of weapons being designed by Warner Bros and Paramount Studios to combat the entity known as 'Henry Cavill's Moustache'. There has been no discussion over whether to shave or not to shave for the JL reshoots, simply a relentless campaign to put an end to the seemingly inexorable conquest of this despotic 'stache. It is not a question of IF I should shave – it is a question of how can we possibly be victorious against such a beast without bringing our own doom raining down upon us."

The post (shown below) received more than 125,000 likes in less than five months.

Ahead of the film's release, Cavill^[8] further explained:

"It’s nothing to cover it up. What we do is we try to put it back on the top lip as much as possible. So they kind of wax it up. And then I had dots all over my face. And they try to put dots, which are barely visible, sort of in the various points on the face where you would see them during normal… not face replacement, but whatever CGI aspect they may be applying to a face. And yeah. I was covered in dots, and had a big mustache. It was definitely a new look for Superman."

After the release of Justice League, some reacted negatively to the digital removal of Cavill's facial hair. On Twitter, people made jokes about the appearance of the digital shave (examples below).

Several media outlets covered the mustache controversy, including Games Radar,^[17] Vulture,^[9] Screen Rant,^[10] The Daily Dot^[11] and more.

Nothing But Respect for MY Justice League

On July 22nd, 2017, Twitter^[15] user @justhiceIeague retweeted the poster to the film with the caption "Nothing but respect for MY justice league," a parody of the Nothing But Respect for MY President meme (shown below).

Over the next few months, the phrase was generally tied to images of the cast of Justice League or previous iterations and interpretations of the characters. However, as the film was about to be released, people on Twitter began captioning photographs of other characters, including the character from SpongeBob SquarePants (shown below, right), Big Little Lies (shown below, center) and The Golden Girls (shown below, right).

On November 20th, Twitter^[16] published a Moments page, cataloguing some of the most popular variations of the meme.