Zack Snyder

Why did DC give the keys to the most coveted intellectual properties in American media to THIS guy?

How did we go from "Why so serious?" to whatever this is

How did he even get away with it?

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His wife has ties in WB and he's one of the few guys who was willing to commit his time to the project.

>How did we go from "Why so serious?" to whatever this is
If by 'Why So Serious?' you mean TDK, that is precisely why DC is in the shape it's in. Batman TDK is the only superhero film from Warner Bros. that has been seen as a legitimate 'movie'. They just want to emulate that formula of 'dark' and 'cerebral' (yeah, I know, they don't do a very good job with that one) for each film now.

It doesn't matter if they make their movies "dark or cerebral", that's not the problem. They fucking suck is the problem.

Before posting this at least watch his movies retard.

Snyder is passionate about the medium, appreciative of the visual nature of comics, and is also described by many who've worked with him to have a silver tongue. It also helps that he's a very nice person.

Yeah, he has issues with tone. I don't care for Batman and Superman being killers. But he does and has put a lot of effort into this entire project. And it's taking a toll on him increasingly as people like you crucify him for trying to do something different and unapologetically comic book-y. Again, I don't care for 'different' meaning murder, but you would be complaining for different reasons if all he did was play it safe and use standard formula. Which is exactly what you will do for Justice League, which has been gnarled into Marvel fluff because of the extreme and honestly exaggerated hatred BvS got. JL looks absolutely void of substance but hey: they smile.

>inb4 Snyder defense force haha
I think he needs to have people say "no" to him more often, but honestly I don't really want anyone else behind the camera for these movies. He's a jock with an impulse for destruction and "cool shit", but he's thoughtful beyond that.

But I don't know why I'm bothering. You'll all just say bait bait bait and post the cycle of Snyder picture and call DCucks battered housewives, etc. And these threads will be made forever.

Part of the reason they suck is because that tone does not fit with 99% of their characters.

>They fucking suck is the problem
What do you mean?

Look simpleton, "dark" doesn't mean necessarily "bad". There have been relatively "dark" movies, which are masterpieces, like a certain Lord of the Rings.

MoS and BvS were also void of substance. At least smiles are easier to look at than grimaces.

>MoS and BvS were also void of substance
That's not true at all. Not even a little bit. I can understand if you don't like the movies for their tone, but making claims like that is embarrassing,

Empty speeches spouting entry-level philosophy don't pass for actual substance, Zack.

> but making claims like that is embarrassing,

Perceived substance and actual substance are two different things.

Just because a movie is telling me it's deep doesn't make it so, and that's the case with every Snyder film.

I have watched them. His DC movies, and his other abortions. All garbage.

No one said dark did mean bad. But some characters, like Superman, aren't meant to be 'dark' on the same level as Batman and that tonal shift makes for a bad movie.

From what I've pieced together, it was the perfect storm of bad timing.

After having gotten sued by Siegel&Shuster, DC/WB were forced to put a future Superman project into production as soon as possible if they didn't want a lot of the profit to go to Superman's creators.

On a fairly short notice, they couldn't wait for their best directors or persuade other good directors fast enough: Cuaron was working on Gravity, Nolan didn't want to do it, George Miller couldn't be convinced to work with WB again, Guillermo del Toro had a bunch of projects lined up already (including what was eventually Pacific Rim), etc.

The *only* guy they could get to do the job was Zack Snyder, who fit the role in other ways: he was known for going into production extremely quickly, he already had a comic book film under his belt, and he was known for making flashy movies, which with the right advertisement, could work well in foreign markets. The problem was that he frequently went overbudget, his movies usually don't perform well in the box office, and when you get right down to it, he's not a good director. But to an exec, these are things that could change if he were given the keys to a high profile project.

Still, they're not going to put ALL their faith behind the guy just yet, so they make sure Chris Nolan kinda/sorta gives his approval.

So, production/post-production are completed. Man of Steel is released....and it's not a massive bomb. It's not *good*, but taking into account the product placement in the movie, it didn't lose WB too much money.

It's now mid-2013, and WB are wondering what their next move should be. Should they finally tap into the good writers/directors they have on speed dial? Should they try to make these movies good?

Or should they stick with Snyder, rolling the dice that either a) his movies improve and he offers a good counter-vision to Marvel or b) a bad DCEU will lead to audience fatigue, crippling Disney in the process?

He obviously just doesn't "get" the characters.

What did he have the Kents say to Clark? "You don't owe these people anything"? Bullshit.

>He obviously just doesn't "get" the characters.
This. He doesn't know how to write a Superman so he just wrote Doctor Manhattan with a big S on his chest.

Snyder was the only one willing to go into production with David Goyer's faulty script to meet the studio's deadlines. Darren Aronofsky was really interested in directing "Man of Steel" and was reportedly in advanced talks to helm it, but he demanded two months to revise the script to his liking.

>Empty speeches spouting entry-level philosophy
Like what? And what the hell is 'entry-level' philosophy? What is 'advanced' philosophy by comparison?

>movie is telling me it's deep
When did that happen? I'm curious what you mean.

>You don't owe these people anything
What does he owe them? Superman is Superman because he is altruistic. There's nothing forcing him to be who he is. He chooses to be Superman for humanity, not the other way around.

He was consistently ostracized and made fun of for being mysterious and bizarre throughout his life, yet he chose to rise above all of it in spite of that. FOR them.

It was just a different approach on Superman. It could happens to all the characters. For example Adam West's Batman has very little in common with Burton's or Nolan's Batman, but all of them have their fans.

I'm pretty sure he did because his ghost dad told him to.

Maybe if you climb out of your own butthurt for ten seconds you'd realize that nobody is saying that dark movies are bad.

But SOME properties work better dark than others. Dark Batman? Good! Great idea! Dark Superman? Not so much.

It was a mistake to put this dudebro Ayn Rand fan in charge of Superman.

The Kents wouldn't say that though. They're good, kindhearted people who believe in helping others because it's the right thing to do.

>What does he owe them?
A home, a loving family, friends, at least two girlfriends with one eventually being his wife, team mates to share the burden, a livelihood.

All that shit Zack decided wasn't all that important because cynical alienation is "deep"

>For example Adam West's Batman has very little in common with Burton's or Nolan's Batman, but all of them have their fans.
Are they really all that different? Because aeshetics are just that, aesthetics. The underlying character is pretty damn consistent.

Not so much with Snyderman. Because Snyder completely left out Superman's charisma, which is like 70% of what makes him worthwhile.

You can get the characters perfectly fine and still want to do alternative unique things with the.

>Superman so he just wrote Doctor Manhattan with a big S on his chest.
Except that is not even faintly accurate.
Manhattan GENUINELY does not give a fuck about the human race besides Laurie.
The DCEU's Clark genuinely provably does want to fucking help people., just because he is overly conflicted & concerned about the consequences of doing such or has trouble dealing with the reactions of such does not lesson his desire to do such.

>What if a child dreamed of becoming something more than what society intended for him or her?
>We believe Krypton lost something...the element of choice
Clark could have just quietly walked up to Zod instead of proudly embracing his heritage and revealing himself to the world in a display of honesty and defiance.

You did not understand the post.

>Superman GENUINELY does not give a fuck about the human race besides Lois.

And being concerned about the big picture and the effects it could have on society and the needs of the many instead of the few doesn't lesson their kindheartedness.

Yes, that's why he becomes Superman and saves people. Because he genuinely doesn't give a shit.

No, I got the post just fine. You just don't get the character. Superman isn't the guy that rises above tragedy. What sets him apart from guys like Batman or Spider-man is that he DIDN'T have to be guilted by life or fate or destiny into doing the right thing. He's just a well adjusted guy.

He protects humanity not DESPITE his upbringing, but BECAUSE he learned to love it via his salt of the earth parents, his best friend Pete, and his high school girlfriend Lana. He has social ties, so he seeks to preserve those by being a hero.

Snyder went the complete opposite route from that. You love dickriding him and claiming that he humanized Clark when in reality he focused almost exclusively on Clark's kryptonian heritage and removed the humanist elements from his back story.

He made Watchmen for them and they were looking for someone who had experience of comic book movies to launch their new universe. Nolan didn't want to direct, and he was the only other guy they had.

"Most coveted" is overstating it, by the way; Man of Steel is probably about as successful as Superman II, but the three Superman movies between them were basically flops. It's a poison chalice - they had to promise him 10% of the gross to sign up.

Then when MoS made money, he was paid so much that he and his wife (who is a producer in her own right) invested it in developing the DCEU. Which, again, makes money - not MCU money, but it's not doing terribly, it's just a shitty, second-rate universe.

Because the movies are making money, and because they'll continue to make money for the studio as back-catalog (which is 60% of any major studio's annual income), there's no real reason to get rid of him. It's easy to say "another director would make classier movies" and it's possibly even true. But would those movies make money? It's not a charitable world, is it. Then again you might say they'd make more money - well, sure, you prove that and we've got a deal.

Thank you, Zack my boy! We could've never done it without your magisterial vision to hype the hell out of everybody just to throw their faces right into the dirt EVERY SINGLE TIME.

He's popular, he tells everyone he likes comics, WB is retarded at making decisions, and his wife has leverage.

His Ghost Dad thought him that he could be a god to humanity.

>he DIDN'T have to be guilted by life or fate or destiny into doing the right thing
When did I say this? I never said he became a hero because he felt guilted by anything.

It's also unfair of you to make assumptions that I "don't get the character". I love Superman but can also understand that Snyder's Superman is a different take on the character than the traditional one, which I also like and prefer. But even then, in comics Superman has many different incarnations as writers all have had different takes. It's fine if you don't care for Snyder's take. In fact, I totally understand. It took me a while before I came around on MoS.

also,
>You love dickriding him
Very mature. I acknowledge all of Snyder's faults and hold him responsible for all his missteps. But the fact that I can allow room for different versions of a character that has existed for over 75 years now somehow makes me a dickrider.

>You love dickriding him and claiming that he humanized Clark when in reality he focused almost exclusively on Clark's kryptonian heritage and removed the humanist elements from his back story.

That's a lie.

>>Superman GENUINELY does not give a fuck about the human race besides Lois.
Yes...
>He TOTALLY wasn't saving people prior to ever meeting Lois.
>He TOTALLY didn't save Lois for the first time without knowing anything about her.
>He TOTALLY wasn't smiling & enjoying saving the Mexican girl from the fire.
>He TOTALLY didn't hold on to Doomsday even after seeing the nuke coming.

No, it really isn't.

>he tells everyone he likes comics
Not in 2008 he didn't lol

That wouldn't be a problem if they weren't terrible.

It's the truth. Lines like
>On my planet it means hope
showcase a misunderstanding of the character. Earth is Clark's planet.
Hell, you know Byrnes Man of Steel? The one guy chucklefucks post all the goddamn time to justify that movie's ending? That went one step further with the whole birthing matrix thing to make Clark's first breath one on earth. Because Clark identifies with humanity.

Snyder's Superman is only a "different take on the character" in the same way that Injustice Superman is (only not as well executed). And we sure as fuck shouldn't be using Injustice as the basis of a universe of movies.

Lois is his world.
His own words.

But its not, making them serious & realistically cynical isn't a terrible creative choice and it wasn't executed badly in almost everyway besides the Tornado sequence being too drawn out and over dramatic.

That means she is the greatest aspect of his world to him, that doesn't mean the rest of the world isn't worth dying for also.

>and unapologetically comic book-y.
I don't even remotely get this tone from his movies.

Some of it is just that he was doing comic book movies before comic book movies were as big as they are now. So he got the reputation at Warners as a comic book movie expert (overlooking that his specialty was with a very different kind of comic book from Superman or Batman).

Something similar with David Goyer. A lot of his status as comic book movie expert may stem from the fact that he was writing comic book films before they were the in thing.

Studios hire you based on what you've done in the past, not what you're likely to be good at in the future.

You know what might've helped with that?
If Clark had friends or a life outside of Lois.
Except Snyder thought it was more important to shoot his only adult friend in the head.

It's because he shot 1:1 some comic book panels as scenes, probably. It's usually what defenders of the movie mean by "comic book-y", ignoring that the originals had better motivation, character arc and dialogue to go with said scenes.

Then go back to watching the Nolan trilogy again, I guess.

Nobody agrees with you. Deal with it already instead of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Yeah, probably.

Sad thing is, they're otherwise too concerned with having a gritty, realistic feel in all the wrong places and taking themselves far, far too seriously.

Like I couldn't help but watch BvS and just feel my heart sink knowing that the first Superman movie(s) we've been getting in years are practically some Call of Duty, dudebro shit.

I agree with him.

I liked seeing a broken Batman who was totally jaded and felt utterly impotent in his 20 years fighting crime, having lost everyone that ever meant anything to him to the point where he's barely hanging on and embarks on a suicide mission to do at least one thing that will matter and benefit the human race, regardless of if he even succeeds or not.

I don't see how Superman was cynical, unless by cynical you mean conflicted by his status as a Superman and the ramifications it has on humanity. Which isn't what cynical means. He wouldn't bother saving people or even being Superman if he were cynical.

>You guys... uh... gotta understand... the mythology!

what do you expect from hiring someone with a sub 100 IQ

Not having friends doesn't mean he doesn't care about people.
That is like assuming the guy who is has no friends at school is a potential school shooter.
Its idiotic.

>simpleton
>can't read English
>can't not project own insecurities on to other posts

The man is an amazing visual director, if there is anything that he can do right it's get a shot, anything else that directing involves might as well be lost on him. I think the problem is the WB figured in a comic book movie the visuals are the most important things, I mean, it's just comics, picture books, WB forgot that there are words to go with the pictures.

One of the clever things Feige has done at Marvel is to "cast" directors based more on what he thinks they can bring to the project than what they've done in the past. This often pays off artistically (the Russo brothers) and also means of course that the directors don't have the power to challenge him, because they're so grateful to him for the work.

I don't think that method would work for WB because they haven't had a strong producer overseeing things. Maybe Johns will try something similar but even if he does that won't guarantee it'll work.

And yet Lord of the Rings knows how to balance tone. It's not a dreary slogfest all the way to Mt. Doom. There's bits of levity, and bits of seriousness, depending on what the scene calls for. And at the end of it, it's an optimistic movie. You WANT the hobbits to win. With DC's movies you just want all these characters to go away because they're all so self-important and morose.

Because of Watchmen.

More proof that Watchmen is responsible for shit comics

How does this idiot even keep getting work yet alone be put in charge of fucking everything DC?

Even with all the nepotism in Hollywood someone somewhere must've tried to remove this shitstain.

Snyder's a Randian fucknut. There's no altruism in his movies.

>That is like assuming the guy who is has no friends at school is a potential school shooter.
They often are. The legal parlance is "no ties to the community"

>most coveted intellectual properties in American media
Snyder is making Star Wars?

I don't know why, but I know WB is idiots for doing it. Every interview with this guy makes me hate him more. All he seems to care about is the "standings" of the characters. Like how important they are, their "mythology", how badass they look. He doesn't seem to care about the actual characters or what they think and feel, just what image they give off.

Then WB throws all this money getting mostly great actors to fill these roles and they're completely squandered on shitty scripts, plots, directing, etc.

I guess WB is okay with total mediocrity if it makes a bit of money in the process.

>Snyder's a Randian fucknut. There's no altruism in his movies.

>Superman sacrifices himself to save the world
>statue that presents Superman as Atlas is defaced and then destroyed

Lol

He makes good movies. MoS and BvS were amazing.

Zack pls.

The directors are the most irrelevant players on Disney/Marvel. They're on the same tier of washed up old actors, they're hired for giving "prestige" to the movie

Dude there's no case to argue with those idiots, they can't be objective

>this bait thread again
>how did x give y the keys to their most valued/beloved ips
>blah blah bait blah
Do you simpletons honestly not see this shit

I think that's overstating it because the choice of director is important, it's just that Marvel doesn't hire directors for their star power. (Joss Whedon is a possible exception and even he was at a career low point when he was brought in.) The directors know the producer outranks them and gets to decide the final form of the movie. That's not very different from the way a lot of movies have been made. It's just that we think of the director as being the "auteur" when in a lot of movies it's the producer.

Feige is like the producers of the James Bond movies who until very recently never wanted to hire big-name directors, but went for guys they could control.

Theyre idiots.

These are the same people who thought Nu52 was a good idea, remember?

Difference between a Snyder movie and an ISIS video?
Snyder promises you a quality movies but instead spoon feeds you Planned Parenthood abortions.
ISIS promises you a beheading and ups the antenna by delivering acid baths instead.

>find this thread
>"Wow some actual good points and views here, when did Sup Forums get..."
>is actually Sup Forums

Well then

>and is also described by many who've worked with him to have a silver tongue.
I seriously doubt it.

youtube.com/watch?v=UD3byJxc9Vc

Retards go out and see his movies.

They pay money. The studios get this money. They pay Zack Snyder more money to make more retarded movies. It's the exact same principle behind Michael Bay or Uwe Boll.

Considering he said "can't have characters talking in masks for more than a few minutes or else it's just silly," I can't imagine it's true in any way but this sort of shallow shit: Making a comic book movie "unapologetically comic book-y" tales more than just recreating shots.

Ghost dad as in the holochron Kurt Russell? Or ghost dad as in the actual ghostly apparition of Pa Kent he talks to?

Superman has a surprising number of ghost dads.