Man of Steel and Batman V Superman came in for a lot of criticism for a variety of reasons, but some of the movies' biggest detractors simply couldn't get on board with Zack Snyder's bleaker tone and dark interpretations of the characters.
The filmmaker has been accused of taking his superhero movies way too seriously, and Warner Bros. clearly made an effort to lighten Justice League's tone after he departed the project, which has continued to varying degrees of success on the likes of Aquaman, Shazam! and Wonder Woman 1984.
Agree or disagree, Snyder has a very good reason for wanting to forge ahead with his vision for the DCEU.
During an interview with NY Times, Snyder acknowledges that he takes "these characters and their mythology really seriously," and wanted to offer an alternative to Marvel Studios' approach to superhero adaptations.
"I knew it before BvS, when we made Man of Steel," he says when asked if his DCEU movies were made in deliberate contrast to the MCU. "Marvel is doing something else. They’re doing, at the highest level, this popular action-comedy with a heart. And they have that nailed. An effort to duplicate that is insanity because they’re so good at it. What DC had was mythology at an epic level, and we were going to take them on this amazing journey. Frankly, I was the only one saying that."
The fact that neither MOS or BVS were massive box office draws would obviously indicate that Snyder's approach didn't resonate with the vast majority of moviegoers, but it sounds like the director would rather his films be divisive and discussed than successful and instantly forgettable.
"BvS, love it or hate it, it’s probably the most mentioned movie in hashtags and references," he continues. "It’s the closest thing to a cult film that could exist at this level of pop culture. Am I a provocateur? A little bit. Is my job to make some pop-culture piece of candy that you eat and forget about the next day? Nah. I would rather [expletive] you up in a movie than make it nice and pretty for everybody. Let’s be frank, there’s no cult of Aquaman. Jason is a force of nature, and by all means, I want there to be 100 Aquaman movies because he’s an awesome guy. But it’s not controversial. And I have purposely, because I love it, made the movies difficult."
What do you make of Snyder's comments? The director's cut of Justice League will premiere on HBO Max on March 18, but you can check back tomorrow for our review.