Zack Snyder's Justice League in Home Video, the review
Zack Snyder's Justice League in Home Video
Zack Snyder's Justice League in Home Video is a great opportunity to relive the DC event (read our review at the time of the Italian streaming release) in all the beauty of high definition. It is really an event, more than a simple film, which marked the end of a personal and artistic journey by the volcanic as well as polarizing director Zack Snyder born from the ashes of the disappointing film version of 2017 supported by a social (media ) unprecedented action that united fans, supporters and enthusiasts in a movement that, going beyond the boundaries of the simple cine-comic, fought for the director to have the opportunity to complete the work sadly left incomplete.Zack Snyder's Justice League in Home Video, audio / video quality
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Italia kindly sent us a standard blu-ray version of Zack Snyder's Justice League. From the audio / video point of view, obviously the leap in quality compared to the streaming version is remarkable, although not flawless in this HDR encoding at 1080p 4 × 3 1.33: 1 especially when compared to the fact that the film is native 4K (you can buy the Zack Snyder's Justice League on Blu-ray + Bly-ray Ultra HD 4K on Amazon). First of all, the title is divided into two discs (the first 4 chapters on the first disc while the last two plus the epilogue are on the second disc) and this allows a more or less constant video stream even if the compression is not always optimal.In practice this translates into a homogeneous dynamism of the image that enhances the slow motion sequences of the film but inevitably shows off the few (fortunately) uncertainties of computer graphics. The blacks are very clear but not confused, and this is a good thing, since the general palette of the film tends towards cold colors or in any case a dark tone, while the contrast between elements in the foreground and elements in the background is not always impeccable. , with some less defined contours and some blurring of the environments, especially those in the open air (see the recruitment of Aquaman). Finally, the warmth of the analogue of some scenes is not adequately enhanced due to some evident grain that is reabsorbed when the close-ups are switched to medium or full shots and the camera movements are faster (see the scene in which Wonder Woman foils the terrorist attack).
The home video version maintains the peculiar aspect 1.33: 1 (similar, albeit incorrectly, to the old 4: 3 - in this article, Snyder's own statements on the matter) or a ratio which "simulates" the 70mm film that is the one used for projections on IMAX screens. It must be said that although the solution remains extremely unusual it also works well in blu-ray in the face of a previously mentioned GCI and special effects absolutely enhanced by high definition and a more constant video stream than streaming which makes, above all the action sequences and in the last act the return of Darkseid, extremely epic also visually.
Surprisingly, from a technical point of view, it is above all the audio that benefits from the home video edition. All the tracks present, including the Italian, are mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 accompanied by the Dolby Atmos TrueHD one only in English which however does not offer that wide range of sound effects that usually distinguishes cine-comics and more generally action movies or blockbusters. . Unlike other home video editions, however, here the difference between the two tracks is therefore less marked thanks to an excellent mixing work.
Specifically, it is not just a master volume perfectly set in terms of decibels (not there is almost never a need to raise or lower the volume while watching) but of an overall balance that highlights now the incredible soundtrack by Tom Holkenborg (extremely penalized in the streaming version) now the sound and environmental effects decidedly more prominent but always giving priority to dialogues that are never confused and always intelligible without the need to ideally listen.
Zack Snyder's Justice League in Home Video, the extras
Net of the troubled story behind the making of Justice League first and then Zack Snyder's Justice League, the home video version of the film is stingy with extra content. In fact, the first disc features the only extra of the home video version: a featurette of about 25 minutes entitled Road to Justice League. In this mini documentary, director Zack Snyder retraces the stages of what is in fact a trilogy that began with Man of Steel, continued with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and ended in fact, and not without difficulty, with Justice League. Snyder touches, unfortunately, without deepening them, a bit of all aspects of his work within the DC Cinematic Universe from his love for the original material, in search of the right interpreters, from his explosive style that starts from pre-production work in which the complete storyboarding phase of the film is fundamental up to the search for the right shot.During the viewing, however, it is evident that the featurette is a montage of behind-the-scenes images and recent statements with material evidently shot during the original shoot. What is striking, compared to the extras of the home video version of the film version of the film, however, is the more palpable and genuine enthusiasm of the protagonists. Their statements, however, suggest that, even if Snyder had completed the film in 2017, it would probably have been the end of a trilogy, leaving, as expected, the reins of these characters to other directors.
