27
May
Director Zack Snyder’s DC Extended Universe debut, 2013’s Man of Steel, may have delivered respectable global box office numbers ($668 million) in showcasing star Henry Cavill, but it wasn’t an acclaimed watershed pop culture moment that guaranteed Warner Bros. a money-printing, Marvel Cinematic Universe-style operation. Thus, 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice saw Snyder expedite an introduction to a new Batman—just four years after the end of Christopher Nolan’s beloved trilogy—on the stardom of Ben Affleck. However, Snyder’s revealed backup Batman proves that he was all in on the idea, Affleck notwithstanding. While Snyder has been doing a plethora…
25
May
Zack Snyder’s name remains prominently connected to the controversial topic of his recent lengthy redux of Justice League and its preceding DC Comics movies. However, the director took his first key genre step toward establishing that connection in 2009 with Watchmen, a DC comic-adapting movie that, despite its disconnect from the main DC Universe, bore a Batman-referencing scene that has long been the center of speculation. Interestingly enough, Snyder has just confirmed the premise of said speculation. In the process of promoting his recently-premiered Netflix gore-fest, Army of the Dead, Snyder takes viewers to “Snyder School” in an analytical video…
25
May
This article contains Army of the Dead spoilers. Read our spoiler-free review here. No one has ever accused Zack Snyder of being subtle. As the director who once had Henry Cavill’s Superman and the image of Jesus Christ in red and blue stained glass share the same frame, Snyder’s a filmmaker who likes his subtexts to be written across the screen whenever possible, preferably in neon. It’s an impulse that can lead to sometimes stunning visuals, such as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Doctor Manhattan filming the moon landing in Watchmen, and it sometimes can be as heavy-handed as Bruce…
22
May
This Army of the Dead article contains spoilers. The premise of Army of the Dead was originally intended for a Dawn of the Dead sequel. No, really. Director Zack Snyder is not shy about this point, mentioning to the press, including us, that he’s virtually had this concept in the back of his mind since time immemorial. “Just exploring Dawn, in doing that movie and taking it apart [was exciting],” Snyder recently told Den of Geek. And while the idea of doing a direct sequel to his 2004 remake of the George A. Romero classic fizzled in the years after…
21
May
Sucker Punch, Zack Snyder’s sexified 2011 action-fantasy mashup, hit shortly after the director had come off his ambitious (although reliably divisive) movie adaptation of Alan Moore’s groundbreaking Watchmen comic title. With the director having notably made waves behind the camera for 2004’s Dawn of the Dead and 2006’s 300, Snyder’s perceived genre gravitas—and imagery of scantily-clad women with swords and guns—was a clear selling point. While the film flopped, a recent reveal has, curiously, ignited fervor for a Sucker Punch Snyder Cut. Snyder’s attention at the moment clearly centers on the premiere of Netflix film Army of the Dead, which…
21
May
Zack Snyder has come home. After spending a large portion of the past decade immersed in the DC film universe—even more if you count the development and production of Watchmen, his third film, a few years before that—Snyder has returned to the genre that launched his career as a feature film director. That genre is horror, more specifically the subgenre of zombie movies, and the film is called Army of the Dead. Premiering on Netflix after a brief theatrical run, Army of the Dead is only the second movie of Snyder’s career not produced and distributed through Warner Bros. Pictures.…
20
May
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is far from the end of the story—but whether we ever see how that story ends is another matter. As you likely know by now, director Zack Snyder got a chance to finally complete his version of Justice League some four years after a terrible family tragedy led him to leave the project. The movie was subsequently turned over to Joss Whedon to finish, with a committee of studio execs calling the shots every step of the way and creating a weird Frankenstein’s monster of a film that was released in 2017. But Snyder restored his…
15
May
If Zack Snyder could sustain the same amount of energy and panache that he brings to the opening credits sequences of his films throughout the rest of their runtimes, he’d be an auteur worthy of the adoring, yet occasionally toxic fanbase that’s long tormented Warner Brothers Pictures. His latest project, Army of the Dead, is no different. Snyder, a master of shot composition and striking imagery, fills the title sequence of his latest zombie flick with arresting visuals, such as an elderly man being mauled while his jackpot winnings spew from a nearby slot like the blood from his wounds.…
11
May
Say what you will about Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but the director’s streaming superhero redux managed to branch the DC Extended Universe movies off into its own tangential timeline, which has since been dubbed the “SnyderVerse” by the fandom that now passionately hashtags for its restoration in the studio’s main continuity. While recent revelations about Snyder’s rough relationship with Warner make this restoration unlikely, the director isn’t entirely shutting the door on such a notion. We know that Snyder, once the driving creative force behind Warner’s DCEU, was already the odd man out with the studio by the time a…
11
May
Zack Snyder’s 2013 Man of Steel was always intended to kick off a shared universe of DC superhero movies. And watching it today, it still feels like a really solid foundation for exactly that. It’s a “first contact” film in many ways, effectively showcasing how humanity reacts to someone more than human arriving in their midst, and Snyder’s signature style is tempered somewhat by an almost Nolan-esque patience and approach to the worldbuilding around Superman. Unfortunately, Man of Steel was critically divisive, and “only” took in $668 million at the worldwide box office. A more than respectable blockbuster figure, but…
20
Apr
Since long before Zack Snyder or Army of the Dead, zombie movies have proven to be one of the most surprisingly versatile subgenres in film. George A. Romero pioneered the form with the incisive, socially conscious Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, and since then we’ve seen an ever-growing menagerie of zombies and zombie movies. More than a few times, the undead ghouls have been reinvented to frighten and fascinate audiences across the world. So it’s probably fair to wonder at this point whether we’ve just about seen it all when it comes to zombie flicks.…
14
Apr
The imminent arrival of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead will unleash an all-new film from the Justice League-restoring director, this one a return to the zombie wheelhouse that skyrocketed his career with 2004’s masterful Dawn of the Dead remake. While the upcoming film was always expected to manifest as a light-hearted madcap actioner—following a tactical team’s attempt to haul a fortune located within a zombie-overrun Las Vegas—the latest trailer spotlights the shocking intelligence of the film’s undead horde; intelligence that seems to include an organized hierarchy and, yes, zombie sex. Do we have your attention? “They’re not what you…
07
Apr
In addition to being a rare four-hour blockbuster, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a.k.a. the Snyder Cut, has been one of the most fascinating movie experiments in some time. Due in part to an unfailingly passionate fan campaign, Warner Brothers’ major DC superhero team-up got two bites at the apple, first with the studio-favored Justice League (2017), then with director Zack Snyder’s cut on HBO Max last month. The existence of the pair has provided an interesting case study in exactly what audiences really prefer. Based on fan response (and our own, albeit mixed, review), it would appear that a singular,…
20
Mar
This article contains spoilers for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. There’s a whole lot going on at the end of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. For fans of Zack Snyder who were always on board with his unique vision for the DC Universe, the movie is a four hour feast, a celebration, and a vindication…but it ends with a tease for a Justice League 2 that promises to be even more intense and weighty than the director’s existing DCEU trilogy that began with Man of Steel. The Justice League epilogue is perhaps the most buzzy and infamous part of the Snyder Cut.…
20
Mar
This article contains spoilers for Zack Snyder’s Justice League and other DC movies. The timeline of the DC Extended Universe began in a fairly clear manner, with most of the events of Man of Steel set in 2013. As more films were released, containing flashbacks, or lacking a clear chronological setting, things became increasingly complicated. And by the time we got to Birds of Prey film, its precise placement in the DCEU is downright murky. But there are contextual in-universe clues in the form of media, gravestones, mugshot photos, or throwaway lines of dialogue that provide some clarity. With the…
19
Mar
This article contains spoilers for zack snyder’s justice league. The long-awaited Snyder Cut is here at last. After nearly four years of rumors, innuendos, hints, allegations, online harassment, and everything else that’s good and bad about fandom, Zack Snyder’s Justice League has been willed into existence by the filmmaker and his legions of fans. Four hours long–one for each year you’ve had to endure the clamor of Snyder acolytes demanding the filmmaker’s vision be restored–Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the ultimate version of the movie that Snyder never completed in 2017. Instead the version of the film that reached theaters…
19
Mar
In the modern age of widescreen televisions and 4K ultra HD streaming, it likely took a few viewers by surprise. When you load up Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max, the streaming service offers the following notice: “This film is presented in a 4:3 format to preserve the integrity of Zack Snyder’s creative vision.” In other words, no, you cannot adjust your TV or HBO Max account to make the black bars on the side of the image go away. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was filmed in a square frame, and that’s the way Snyder wants you now to…
