Zack Snyder’s Justice League is 242 minutes long, but the story behind this contentious director’s cut is far longer. One other thing they have in common? Five years after the movie’s much-hyped release, neither the film nor the movement that birthed it has changed Hollywood in the ways many thought they would.

The road to Zack Snyder’s Justice League begins with a tragedy. In the aftermath of his daughter’s death by suicide, DC Extended Universe architect Zack Snyder relinquished his directing duties on the crossover tentpole. Warner Bros. tapped Avengers director Joss Whedon to finish the job; he delivered a glossy, quippy superhero movie that was a far cry from the moody, visually striking DCEU films that had preceded it. When Justice League debuted in 2017 to brutal reviews and a relatively modest box office haul, Snyder fans almost immediately began to demand a new version of the........

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