 Well, Internet, you did it. For the first time that I can remember, fan support, with a little help from Mercedes, compelled a major studio to not only allow an ousted director to re-cut a movie that was already complete, but actually give it a massive re-release. Zack Snyder's Justice League is finally out, and you know what? It's actually pretty good. I don't normally do reviews on this series, but after such a tragic first attempt and prolonged battle to get this version made, I think that just this once, it's going to be worth explicitly talking about the film itself, in addition to the ideas we can draw out of it. And I'm pleased to say that even though the DC movies are usually about gods and monsters and problems that are so incredible in scale that it's hard to see how we could really learn anything from them, there are a few ideas I think we should talk about. Plus, let's be honest, it's one of the only big movies I've been really excited about in over a year. So today, I'm going to tell you my thoughts about the good and bad qualities of the new version of Justice League, while highlighting a few distinct storylines that get at the philosophical core of what it actually takes to be a hero. And I'll explain why I believe that people have to have a specific ethical framework in order to understand how to make truly good meaningful choices. Full disclosure, there will be plenty of spoilers for the new movie, so if you haven't yet found the four hours and two minutes it takes to get through the whole thing, you might want to go do that. I'll be here when you get back, and unlike Zack Snyder, I won't need nearly as much of your time for this amazing episode of Out of Frame. For a while, the notorious Snyder Cut was just a rumor, a myth. At first, Warner Bros. denied it was even a possibility. It didn't exist. It was too expensive. Besides, they were proud of what they already put out, right? But after the disjointed mess that was Batman v Superman and the incomprehensible disaster that was the theatrical release of Justice League, a movie that got finished by Joss Whedon and an army of studio executives when Zack Snyder had to step away midway through the shoot, fans kept demanding to see the film as it could have been. Normally, you'd think that having put out a major motion picture that seriously underperformed at the box office, the studio like Warner Brothers would just try to cut their losses and move on. But between desperately wanting to solidify the DCEU as a serious rival to Marvel and starting up a new streaming service with HBO Max, the fan reaction was enough to convince them to give Zack Snyder another shot, and they reportedly invested $70 million to bring his vision to life. And as much as I've been looking forward to seeing the infamous Snyder Cut, I wasn't sure what to expect. At best, I thought that this version might actually feel like it was the product of a singular creative voice, but that it still wouldn't come together very well. That's obviously not a very high bar, but even that seemed like it could be an insurmountable challenge given some of the other films from DC. But I'm pretty happy to say that I was wrong. Overall, I thought Zack Snyder's Justice League was a significant improvement over the theatrical version. On a technical level, its color grading and visual effects are a lot better, in part because they're more in line with all the screen tests and lighting that was done on set, instead of being radically altered to, everything is red now, in post. More importantly, this version of the story actually makes sense, instead of just jumping from scene to disconnected scene. A lot of the added action beats are also really cool and contribute to the plot at the same time. Its characters actually get fleshed out backstories and arcs that didn't exist before. Alfred's relationship with Bruce is more interesting and meaningful, and we get to see the value he brings to the team. We learn more about why Bruce's goals have changed so much since Batman v Superman. We also get to know more about Barry Allen, why he's alone, and why it matters to him to fight crime. And without Joss Whedon's constant jokes, Flash is not only less annoying, he's also closer to the endearing, upbeat character from the comics I really wanted to see. But it's not just Flash who finally gets to have a character this time around. Ray Fisher's cyborg goes from being almost an afterthought to being an integral part of the team who has a huge arc of his own. Snyder takes the time to show us why Victor rightly felt angry and broken from the loss of his mother and his body. It helps us better understand his relationship with his father Silas. It also establishes his powers, abilities, and knowledge in a way that adds tremendous value to the plot and to the story's themes, which I'll talk more about a little later. Superman's character is still a little morose, but his resurrection is vastly superior to the original. This version of the film not only corrects the embarrassing CG mustache, it gives Clark a lot more time to recover before joining the final battle with Steppenwolf. He reconnects with Lois with his mother and his childhood home. This re-establishes his emotional core and humanity. Then he returns to the fortress and has a moment to reflect on the values he inherited from his two fathers and the powers and abilities that come from his alien heritage, bringing him back to the world as Superman. And before he joins the fight, he visits Alfred, who is actually able to explain the situation and the plan to him, instead of having him just show up all Deus Ex Machina at the end without any way of knowing what was going on. These are just some of the numerous plot holes and huge gaps from the first movie that get resolved in the Snyder Cut. Unlike the original release, this one also takes the time to tell us what the mother boxes are and what they do, including why they might be able to bring Superman back to life. More importantly, this movie gives the main villain Steppenwolf a whole lot of character development and motivation that he just didn't have before. In the first version, he was about as generic a bad guy as you could get. He's there to conquer the world, just because. In this incarnation, he's a minion of Darkseid, an evil intergalactic dictator, and one of DC's most powerful characters. Steppenwolf is on earth because he's fallen out of favor with Darkseid and hopes to reclaim his position by retrieving the mother boxes they'd lost thousands of years earlier when Darkseid was defeated by the United Forces of Humanity, the Amazons, and the Atlanteans, with help from some of the old gods and even a Green Lantern. This backstory is important and gives Steppenwolf's character purpose while making him a more believable and dangerous threat. We also check in on him several times throughout the film, as he collects the mother boxes, builds the fortress he's going to need to bring them together, and tries to communicate his mission with one of Darkseid's gatekeepers, Desaad. By the time we get to the third act, with Steppenwolf on the verge of completing his mission, the stakes and the characters have been properly set up. So when Superman finally returns wearing his sun absorbing black suit with his powers juiced up from a trip to space, it's a much more exciting moment than we ever got in the original. And honestly, having now seen what Snyder wanted to do with Flash at the end, I'm shocked that the story was cut and altered as much as it was. All that said, Zack Snyder's Justice League isn't a perfect film, and there are a lot of ways I think it could have been even better. For one thing, the music choices are generally worse than in the original cut, and I suspect there's at least 20 minutes of unnecessary slow motion that actually detracts from the story. Plus, Snyder wastes a lot of time on stuff that really doesn't matter. In the invaluable words of David Mamet, every scene should be able to answer three questions. Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now? Once those questions have been resolved and once the characters have gotten, or not gotten, what they want, the scene is done. Part of the reason Zack Snyder's Justice League is over four hours long is because many scenes keep going well after they've ended, and a few of them never had a purpose to begin with. But I'll take a more coherent story that's too long over a two-hour movie that's all over the place any day of the week. And it's not just that the Snyder cut's added content and altered structure makes for a better story. It also solidifies a number of important themes that are almost entirely left out of the Joss Whedon version. For example, Aquaman's arc shows us a man who believes that his independence and individualism means he's better off by himself. I've read the stories. You're good deeds. You think no one sees? You'll join us. Strong man as strong as a lone. Have you ever heard that? Ever hear of Superman? He died fighting next to me. My point exactly. I believe we were stronger together. You owe it to him. I don't owe anyone anything. Aquaman, Arthur Curry, is right that he doesn't owe anyone anything, at least not in this context. But that doesn't mean that he'll never need anyone or that it's always better to work alone. It's no secret that I'm a big advocate of individualist philosophy. The essence of this idea is that it is the individual, as opposed to the collective group or the state, that is the primary and most important consideration, particularly in ethics, aesthetics, and politics, and that the individual is the fundamental unit of moral agency. Personally, I think this point of view is basically self-evident. Obvious, even. After all, it's only possible for people to have individual experiences. We have individual thoughts, individual values. Only individuals make choices and control their actions. Now, of course, we can always choose to act in concert with other people. We can even be persuaded or coerced into actions that other people would prefer. But we can also decide to go our own way. And in the end, it's always up to us as individuals. And the idea that any of us owes it to the world to give up our time and bodies to someone else's cause is a claim of slavery that we should all reject outright. The thing is, I know that the second I say this, some of you will hear it as proof of the common myth that individualists don't care about other people or that they believe they don't need anyone else. As if believing in the essential moral value of the individual requires anyone to reject human connection, shared culture, and purpose. It's just not true. If anything, I would argue that philosophical individualism is actually essential to our ability to truly value relationships and recognize the importance of other people. Unlike the collectivist who only sees people as part of a group and often ignores the individuals that group contains, or the totalitarians who see only themselves and their values as supreme, individualists recognize that every person has moral worth as an independent human being. We can not only see the individual as distinct from their group identity, we also better appreciate how everyone's unique ideas, values, skills, and knowledge can positively contribute to society as a whole. We also acknowledge that everyone has the right to choose whether or not to associate with other people and under what conditions. So when an individualist does join a group, it's not out of some tribal obligation or because we fear what would happen to us if we didn't, but because we actually believe that the people we're associating with and the causes we're working towards are worthy of our attention on their own merits. And when people join our groups, it's because they feel the same way about us. That's why when Aquaman joins up with Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Cyborg in the middle of Zack Snyder's Justice League, the team can trust that he's there to help. After all, he had a choice, continue to go it alone, or join with other powerful individuals in the fight against a totalitarian conqueror from outer space. It's not his obligation to do this. He doesn't owe it to his tribe, to the world, to Batman, or to anyone else to join the Justice League and fight Darkseid. And to his credit, Batman doesn't put a bomb in his head or threaten his family in order to force him to put his life on the line, even though he's certain that he'll need Aquaman's powers in the fight ahead. The threat is real, yes, but Arthur's freedom of choice still matters. His consent matters. And that's what individualism is actually about. Consent. It has nothing to do with whether or not it's good to have friends or whether or not there is strength in working together with other people for a common goal. It's certainly not about abandoning society. To the contrary, it's about making sure that all the people who participate in our groups and communities are allowed to make that choice voluntarily. And it's about recognizing that if we want someone to join our cause, we only have the right to persuade and entice, not the right to threaten or coerce. And that brings me to another important theme in Zack Snyder's Justice League. Cyborg's story and the moral implications of power. One of the best things about this version of the movie is that it gives us way more insight into Victor Stone's backstory, where his powers come from, and what he's actually capable of. One of Zack Snyder's strengths as a filmmaker is his ability to construct gorgeous montages. And it is through one of these sequences that we learn how powerful Cyborg truly is. In the world of ones and zeros, you are the absolute master. No firewall can stop you. No encryption can defy you. We're all at your mercy, Vic. The fate of the world will literally rest in your hands. It is these abilities that make Cyborg the key to the entire story. Without him, Superman would not have been resurrected. Without him, Batman's transport ship wouldn't have flown, leaving the team with no way to get through Steppenwolf's shields. And without him, the Justice League would not have had the means of separating the mother boxes and saving the world. But much like the other members of his team, his powers open the door to some massive ethical issues. The question, no, the challenge won't be doing it. It will be not doing, not seeing. It is the burden of this responsibility that will define you and who you choose to be. A lot of people, Hollywood writers frequently included, confuse the distinction between a character that is powerful and a character that is heroic. Historically, this has been one of the biggest problems with the DCEU. But no matter what powers you possess, being a good person starts with understanding the fundamental nature of ethics. Ethics is the branch of moral philosophy that helps us to discover the best ways of interacting with each other. There are many ways to think about this subject, and many people disagree on which ethical rules are right or wrong. But speaking from an individualist perspective, I'm especially interested in the concept of rights. People throw around this term a lot when they're actually demanding special privileges and free stuff, healthcare, food, housing, education, and so on. But a right is actually a set of expectations and related responsibilities that deal with how people should treat each other. If those expectations don't, or can't, apply to everybody all the time. If they're conditional and changed depending on the circumstances, then they're not universal. And if they're not universal, they're not really human rights, are they? Take the right to life, for example. The moral claim is that we should all have the rightful expectation to be free from murder and other types of physical attacks. At the same time, for that to be a truly human right, we also have to accept that we have a responsibility not to attack other people. Now, to be clear, that doesn't mean that no one will ever hurt each other, but when they do, we correctly recognize it as a violation of rights, and we reject it as unethical. And unlike the special privileges and claims to free goods and services I mentioned earlier, people's right to life never has to come into conflict with anyone else's, because it only requires inaction. All we have to do to avoid violating other people's rights is not hurt each other. In other words, the problem is if these principles mean anything, they can't just be casually tossed aside. And once we start thinking that certain individuals or groups have more rights than everyone else, we're undermining the validity of the very ethical concepts that need to be protected, like life, liberty and property. The only way to avoid this is if we uphold each other's rights as individuals, even when it's inconvenient. Violating people's rights is still wrong, even when we believe we're doing it for good reasons. This is a pretty common problem in superhero stories. When you have all the power in the world, it's easy to think that it's okay to use that power in deeply unethical ways in service of the greater good. I mean sure, it's pretty easy to justify raising Superman from the dead or turning back time 30 seconds in order to save the world from total annihilation. But in real life, having all the power in the world usually leads to nothing but corruption and abuse. Even if people weren't fundamentally self-interested, and they are, the fact is that this would happen simply because no one actually knows what's best for millions of other people. Again, only individuals have values and can act on them. What's more, those values are inherently subjective, change constantly, and are at best known only to the individuals themselves. And even that's not always the case. Most of us barely know what we want and need at any given moment, let alone what everyone else does at all times. So even if they wanted to do the right thing, when people get lots of power, they actually have no idea how to use it to benefit the world and its billions of individual inhabitants, all of whom have their own preferences. That's why concentrated power is so dangerous, even for superhuman cyborgs. Steppenwolf, and more importantly, his master Darkseid, are the perfect embodiment of this point. Darkseid is a direct counter to the essence of individualism. His goal is power and control. His parademons are the husks of the people from worlds he conquered. They used to have lives of their own, but now exist only to worship Darkseid and serve his needs. The whole reason he's interested in Earth is because somewhere on our planet, for some reason, is inscribed an equation that would allow him even more power to overwrite people's individuality. Before Mighty Darkseid came to the throne, he searched the universe for the ultimate weapon, the anti-life equation, the key to controlling all life and all will throughout the multiverse. I have found the primitive planet. It is Earth. The anti-life equation is carved into the surface of this world. Darkseid represents the rejection of individual rights in the most extreme sense. His ethical claim is that he gets to do whatever he wants. No one else's values or preferences mean anything. No one else's lives or property matter. Darkseid alone has power, and his power has no limits. That may seem ridiculous, but outside of the comic book world there's no shortage of people who would love to be Darkseid if they could. And although no one has his physical ability to destroy planets, thank goodness, there are plenty of despots around the world who use their political power for many of the same ends. The only thing we can do to prevent this is to set hard limits on how much power can be concentrated and how it can be used so that individual rights are protected as effectively as possible. And we have to constantly be on guard against people who would use their power to dominate and control. This guy's probably fought hundreds of thousands of other super beings on the other planets. He's destroyed, right? And we have to assume he's won. I don't care how many demons he's fought and how many hells. He's never fought us. Not us united. At this point you might be wondering why I like superhero stories at all, given how dangerous I think their powers are. But there is actually an answer. In their best incarnations, superheroes are our modern moral mythology. They help us see an idealized form of humanity and can inspire us to be better versions of ourselves, physically, mentally, and most importantly, philosophically. I talked about this at length in the episode I did on Superman. These stories are important because they allow us to think about some of the most meaningful questions in life, in an allegorical context that's fun to read or watch and easy to understand. Superheroes are supposed to be the antidote to tyrants like Steppenwolf and Darkseid. They're supposed to be models of righteousness for the worlds they inhabit. But it's not enough just to look cool, say the right things, and be on the right team. Their powers make them super, sure. But they have to actually uphold genuinely good values and do good things to earn the designation of hero. And that doesn't mean handing out free money, flexing their powers for show, or beating up unpopular people just because they can. It means respecting and protecting everyone's individual rights, no matter who they are. It means defending the world against those who believe that their power gives them the moral authority to hurt people and take what they want by force. And it means setting aside their fears and leading by example, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable risks. Zack Snyder's Justice League doesn't always get this right. It's sometimes confused about the difference between being powerful and doing good. But it is a much better film than the original, and I never thought I'd say this, but maybe there's still hope for improvement if they keep making more movies. In the meantime, it's worth seriously thinking about some of the themes I covered in this video. I hope you take the time to learn more about individualism, the nature of ethics, and how these ideas are the basis of true heroism. But most of all, I hope you understand that with great power comes great. You know the rest. Now go out there and try to be a hero. growing fast. We'd love to see you there. Also, definitely check out our Behind the Scenes podcast. The audio is available all over the place, but if you prefer a video version, we've set up a YouTube channel just for that. It comes out every Friday, but our Patreon and Subscribestar supporters get early access and special bonus content. Speaking of our supporters, I especially want to thank our Associate Producers. To Connor McGowan, Richard Lawrence, Matt Tabor, and Vegas Starlight, thank you. Find the links to support the show and everything else I talked about in today's episode in the description below. 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