An Open Letter to Zack Snyder: Please Stop.
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| Man of Steel (2013) |
Zack Snyder,
The first film I saw of yours was 300, and I feel as though I'm stating the obvious when I say it was decent; of course it was, it was the film which launched a thousand memes, and the visual style which accompanied it was unlike anything ever attempted before. It certainly wasn't one of my favorite movies, but I enjoyed it enough to consider it warranting a second or third viewing.
Next, I saw Watchmen. I now understand that my opinion is exceedingly unpopular among the majority of film and comic book fans, but I absolutely adored Watchmen. For years it was my favorite movie based off of a comic book (since then Guardians of the Galaxy has taken that space in my heart), I adored the darkness of it, the stunning gritty visuals (back when being gritty and dark was actually an original concept and hadn't been used in absolutely every other superhero movie ever), the choice of music, and the way that it so beautifully translated a wonderful graphic novel to the big screen without taking away the substance or meaning behind the original work. It's a fantastic film, and I still enjoy rewatching it and seeing a realistic portrayal of a group of very damaged and very real human beings struggling to be superheroes.
Then Sucker Punch happened and I was appalled. Now, I understand that you wrote and directed it, and I've seen many interviews in which you cockily dodge any sort of constructive criticism with the claims that it's sexist because this is a film which explores a group of strong empowered women, but I'm addressing this as a woman who likes to think that she's relatively fond of having equal rights to men, and I absolutely loathed this film. From beginning to end it felt more like watching somebody play a video game than it did actually watching a film; there was no opportunity to truly connect with its characters, the visuals were hideous, the women all took enough punches to remove all fears of injury because they seemed pretty much invincible, and it was horrendously boring. Still, I held true to the hope that you simply stumbled and made a mistake, I hoped that you were going to do better next time.
Now you're making DC movies and they're all absolutely terrible. For some reason you seem to still cling to the idea that all superhero movies need to be as gritty as Watchmen, you want to see Superman angry and murdering villains instead of being an almost Christ-like figure who will never lower himself to harming another human being out of rage, and it's absolutely terrible. Every superhero movie you're releasing is worse than the last, and you have more coming now that you've been signed on to direct Justice League and basically everything else DC is putting out. So, I just have one request, please stop.
Stop making superheroes dark and gritty when the villains are dark enough. Stop treating every superhero the way you did Watchmen when that completely ruins the magic and originality of how dark and gritty Watchmen was in the first place. While I understand this is the visual and tonal style you're used to working in, it pains me to see the convoluted and terrible mess you're making of DC movies while Marvel has their fantastic line of films all tied up in neat little ribbons and bows. So please, Zack Snyder, stop turning fantastic stories into absolute garbage.
The first film I saw of yours was 300, and I feel as though I'm stating the obvious when I say it was decent; of course it was, it was the film which launched a thousand memes, and the visual style which accompanied it was unlike anything ever attempted before. It certainly wasn't one of my favorite movies, but I enjoyed it enough to consider it warranting a second or third viewing.
Next, I saw Watchmen. I now understand that my opinion is exceedingly unpopular among the majority of film and comic book fans, but I absolutely adored Watchmen. For years it was my favorite movie based off of a comic book (since then Guardians of the Galaxy has taken that space in my heart), I adored the darkness of it, the stunning gritty visuals (back when being gritty and dark was actually an original concept and hadn't been used in absolutely every other superhero movie ever), the choice of music, and the way that it so beautifully translated a wonderful graphic novel to the big screen without taking away the substance or meaning behind the original work. It's a fantastic film, and I still enjoy rewatching it and seeing a realistic portrayal of a group of very damaged and very real human beings struggling to be superheroes.
Then Sucker Punch happened and I was appalled. Now, I understand that you wrote and directed it, and I've seen many interviews in which you cockily dodge any sort of constructive criticism with the claims that it's sexist because this is a film which explores a group of strong empowered women, but I'm addressing this as a woman who likes to think that she's relatively fond of having equal rights to men, and I absolutely loathed this film. From beginning to end it felt more like watching somebody play a video game than it did actually watching a film; there was no opportunity to truly connect with its characters, the visuals were hideous, the women all took enough punches to remove all fears of injury because they seemed pretty much invincible, and it was horrendously boring. Still, I held true to the hope that you simply stumbled and made a mistake, I hoped that you were going to do better next time.
Now you're making DC movies and they're all absolutely terrible. For some reason you seem to still cling to the idea that all superhero movies need to be as gritty as Watchmen, you want to see Superman angry and murdering villains instead of being an almost Christ-like figure who will never lower himself to harming another human being out of rage, and it's absolutely terrible. Every superhero movie you're releasing is worse than the last, and you have more coming now that you've been signed on to direct Justice League and basically everything else DC is putting out. So, I just have one request, please stop.
Stop making superheroes dark and gritty when the villains are dark enough. Stop treating every superhero the way you did Watchmen when that completely ruins the magic and originality of how dark and gritty Watchmen was in the first place. While I understand this is the visual and tonal style you're used to working in, it pains me to see the convoluted and terrible mess you're making of DC movies while Marvel has their fantastic line of films all tied up in neat little ribbons and bows. So please, Zack Snyder, stop turning fantastic stories into absolute garbage.
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