BLOG WARS: In Defence Of Mr. Snyder

A time came once when two terrible Titans, Karn Rao and Siddharth Shiva got into an argument. Soon they came to blows and the resulting destruction was so terrible that Change.org campaigns had to be started to fund relief for the fallout. The fight continued with no clear winner for decades. Planets fell, stars died and the Universe was lost in chaos. Realising that divine intervention was necessary, The Internet descended from its heavenly abode and stood between them. It said, "Look, why don't you guys just blog about it, just like everyone else is doing?". Seeing sense in this, the two Titans shook hands and pulled out their laptops. Furiously they typed. I, Siddharth Shiva, will tell you why Zack Snyder doesn't deserve the hate he gets. Karn will tell you something else, but he's full of shit. You'll see.  

Anyway. Zack Snyder. 
"Who's he?", Asks nobody. But I will tell you anyway. He's the guy who directed the now classic 300. He also made Watchmen, Suckerpunch and Man Of Steel and the remake of Dawn Of The Dead. He gets a lot of shit for screwing around with source material, and for directing movies that tend to value style over substance. He's also been accused of being too much of a gym bro to direct comicbook movies, and that he doesn't really get the source material at all. Before I defend these, let's talk about the good things people say about him. 

"But bro, Batman lifts too"

I'd like to start by saying that Zack Snyder hasn't made a single bad movie. He's made average ones, but they're outnumbered by the good ones. I haven't watched Legend Of The Guardians, so I am only talking about his live action efforts. He's been praised as a visionary director for the tones he incorporates into his movies' visuals in order to complement the things he's portraying. His movies are always stunning to watch, whether the plot holds you or not. But the thing is, his movies always have fresh plots. 

Dawn Of The Dead was well loved, Watchmen was very well loved, 300 was very very well loved, Suckerpunch and Man Of Steel, not so much.

Who wouldn't love this?

Suckerpunch, which featured his trademark stunning visuals and amazing fight sequences was panned for being too video-gamey, the story acting as an excuse of sorts to shoot cool action sequences. But it's cruel to judge this movie too harshly. Snyder had to cut several scenes quite crucial to the plot before the censor board would allow it a PG 13 rating that the studio wanted for it. Maybe we'll get a directors cut someday. Then we can judge the fuck out of the flick. 

Who wouldn't love THIS?

This leaves Man Of Steel. I really liked Man Of Steel as a movie. It had amazing action sequences, fantastic casting and was pretty great to look at. I will admit that I hated it as a Superman movie. My issues with the movie were mostly the characterisation of Pa Kent and Lois Lane and the infamous neck breaking scene. I was okay with the gritty nature of the movie, which is something most comicbook fans have a problem with. The past few decades have seen several gritty Superman stories. Heck, he actually HAS broken Zod's neck in the comicbooks. Granted, the fallout from that story was much larger (Man Of Steel had him making out with Lois in the next scene while the comicbook had the guilt drive him insane). Which I guess brings me to the first problem people tend to have with Zack Snyder movies-he butchers the source material. Not so. When Watchmen came out, people complained that it was far too faithful. 300 was again, a perfectly faithful adaptation of the graphic novel. Superman was the only time he deviated, and I say why not. New 52 was a major deviation, yet it was eventually well received. Marvel Studios has character deviations; romance between Hulk and Black Widow? That's just weird. Whatever happened to Beth Ross? Simple. Marvel Studios shows us things we want to see. Even "risky" properties like Guardians Of The Galaxy don't actually take any risks. But with Man Of Steel, Snyder has given us a person, who is Superman, but he's very new at it. It's too soon to really guess at what exactly he's going to be. The initial relief of defeating the General, might have disguised the guilt he may show in the next movie, for killing Zod, and for the destruction his fight caused to the city. I don't know this for sure, but neither do you know that he won't. All I'm saying is it's started something, and we have to wait and see what comes next. 

Me. I'm next.

To summarise. I think Zack Snyder is a good director with a great vision. To make a movie that's looks as artistic as its story is. He's made good movies, and I am confident that it's only a short time before he makes a great one. 

I WILL be great. Trust me.

Now go and read Karn's invalid opinion here.