Among the infinite mysteries of life and the universe that mankind is still searching for answers for, there is one that remains among the most elusive of all – why do so many people hate Zack Snyder? There have been filmmakers with divisive or controversial reputations before, yet no other movie director working today can inspire such venom in his haters as one Zack Snyder.
The Paradox of Zack Snyder: Passionate Fans and Fierce Critics
Considering how hard-pressed one would be to find even a single person who’s ever worked on one of Snyder’s sets who doesn’t think the world of him, his ability to inspire such intense hate is quite perplexing. Additionally, Snyder is hardly a filmmaker without a passionate fanbase, either. Zack Snyder’s fanbase famously made history like few others have with the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign that unearthed Snyder’s version of Justice League from the vaults of Warner Bros. However, Snyder’s haters are a clear yin to his fan’s yang, seemingly wanting nothing less than for Snyder to never work again, let alone for his fan’s persistent calls of #RestoreTheSnyderVerse to ever be heeded.
But what can inspire such hatred towards a filmmaker whose movies his haters can easily just ignore? There are a few possibilities for why Zack Snyder draws so much hate, and some of the reasons may surprise you.
Zack Snyder’s Style Isn’t For Everyone & That’s Okay
As in any discussion of a polarizing storyteller’s work, a point that should be emphasized upfront is that it is okay to not like Zack Snyder movies. Another point that equally bears repeating is that Snyder’s own passionate fanbase, by and large, can live with that. Some might even argue that it is somewhat preferable to be a love-it-or-hate-it storyteller whose work people can’t stop debating than a producer of mainstream entertainment whose latest movie is all but forgotten within a year.
Snyder’s style as a filmmaker has plenty of well-known elements, from copious slow motion and speed-ramping to insanely large-scale action scenes, along with operatic stories and protagonists portrayed as mythic heroes. While Snyder’s filmmaking has undeniably resonated with many, there are others who don’t thrill to the wild, otherworldly imagery of 300, the world’s most ravenous zombies in Dawn of the Dead and Army of the Dead, or the godly reverence to the superheroes of Snyder’s DC films the same way that his fans do – a fact Snyder himself clearly understands, too. That being said, there is also another side of Zack Snyder’s filmography.
Snyder’s Movie Often Aren’t Fully Appreciated Until Years Later
One factor that likely contributes to Snyder’s divisive reputation is that many of his movies have been known to become much more well-liked over time. Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen is a major example of this, with the movie being arguably patient zero in Snyder’s work either being loved or loathed upon release, only for the reputation of the film to grow noticeably more positive since.
Snyder’s 2011 movie Sucker Punch is perhaps the most infamous example (save one obvious exception) of Snyder really becoming a pariah among his critics and many in entertainment journalism. Upon the release of Sucker Punch, Snyder came to be viewed as a raving misogynist for the movie’s depiction of scantily clad female warriors battling for their freedom in video game-style fantasy scenarios. However, time has been kind to Sucker Punch, with the movie since being re-evaluated as a subversive middle finger to female objectification in cinematic storytelling. While Snyder’s movies are known to accrue an unusual percentage of their love long after their debut, there’s also one big factor that places the hate Snyder has seen into greater context.
Zack Snyder Told Stories With The World’s Most Iconic Superheroes
Zack Snyder was certainly a well-known director in his early career, but graduating to the man tasked with bringing not only Superman back to the big-screen but also giving the entire Justice League their own celluloid debut made him a household name. Snyder’s deconstructionist approach to Watchmen certainly had its critics, but there’s no denying that Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is where Snyder became either the greatest or worst comic book movie storyteller, depending on who you talk to. And especially in the case of Batman v Superman, Snyder’s haters made sure their feelings were known about how much they really, REALLY hated the movie, from the intense debate over the mere idea of Batman taking lives to the eternal controversy over the Martha moment.
The backlash to Batman v Superman proved strong enough to give WB cold feet about Snyder’s vision for Justice League and the entirety of the DCEU. This led right to the studio’s decision to swap Snyder for Joss Whedon, with the latter completely reworking Justice League while Snyder dealt with a family tragedy. Of course, Snyder’s version of the movie was eventually released as Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021, and while the movie’s reception was the best of his three DCEU movies, it also highlights one of the biggest factors in the hate Snyder has received – the fact that he’s made DC movies at all.
The point has often been made that superheroes are the modern equivalent of ancient mythology, occupying a figurative Mount Olympus that generation after generation has bowed down to. Characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League roster, and the entire DC Universe carry decades of mythos and popularity, and any filmmaker bringing them to the big or small screens is voluntarily shouldering that weight, for better or worse. While Snyder’s fans see him as paying religious homage to such modern-day gods, his detractors see him as the ultimate heretic for his deconstruction of such iconic characters in stories they view as the nerd equivalent of blasphemy.
The Justice League may indeed be, in the words of Ben Affleck himself, fictional characters, but in this day and age, superheroes still hold the same reverence of any deity. However, moving past Snyder being labeled a DC iconoclast by his detractors, there may be another, more subtle reason behind the hate he’s gotten.
Does Zack Snyder Remind Nerds Of The Jocks Who Bullied Them?
While Zack Snyder often comes across as a giddy, overjoyed dork in interviews, he’s also one who, outwardly at least, more closely resembles a one-time high school jock. Even as he’s pushing 60, Snyder clearly keeps himself in the shape of a man half his age, as seen in images Snyder frequently posts to social media of himself doing squats and bench-pressing hundreds of pounds. Snyder’s own care for his physical temple also extends to the actors he casts, who regularly look like they could give Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime a run for his money (300 and Snyder’s DCEU films in particular really show their respective casts in peak physical condition.)
Meanwhile, it isn’t uncommon for terms like “self-indulgent” and “hyper-masculine” to be bandied about in reviews or online commentary critical of Snyder’s filmography. These may actually be a hint to something his critics really take issue with, that being the idea of Snyder embodying for them, on a subconscious level, the kinds of jocks and bullies who once pushed them around as kids. With the reputation of Snyder’s filmography as action-packed battles of demi-gods and immortals with impossibly ripped bodies, and Snyder himself embodying a decidedly jock-like exterior, many of his haters – both in the media and among lay fandom – might get some sense of vicarious revenge with Snyder as an avatar of the meat-headed bullies who tormented them as children.
Obviously, there’s a level of armchair psychologist being played in that theory, but with a common criticism of Snyder’s work being its perceived overload of masculinity and testosterone, there might be something to the idea that Zack Snyder’s detractors might unconsciously view him as a jock encroaching on nerd territory.
It’s Fine To Not Be A Snyder Fan, But The Negativity Towards Him (& His Fans) Needs To Cool Down
As previously stated, Zack Snyder isn’t everyone’s cup of tea as a filmmaker or a storyteller. If Snyder’s detractors simply left it at that, there would likely be far less online nastiness at the mere mention of his name. But to hear Snyder’s detractors describe it, he’s everything from a ruthless schemer who brought down Warner Bros., an iconoclast who has permanently stained all things DC, and the most misogynistic man to ever walk the Earth (an irony if ever there was one, given the post-Justice League reputation of Joss Whedon.) With respect to all who aren’t fans of Zack Snyder as a filmmaker, the hostility towards him has gone far beyond anything reasonable, and that also extends to Snyder’s own fanbase, well-known for their admiration for him but often labeled as a cauldron of toxicity.
Undeniably, there are Snyder fans who can and do go overboard with their advocacy on his behalf, but even that is quite arguably a byproduct of a decade plus of seeing a storyteller they admire not merely be criticized, but figuratively tarred and feathered. Imagine, for example, James Gunn being forced out of an ongoing superhero franchise with a devoted fanbase under bitter circumstances and the studio employing him kicking him to the curb, with Gunn even being branded a sexual deviant by his harshest critics. Gunn’s fans likely wouldn’t take too kindly to a storyteller they hold in such high regard being treated so horribly, and might even move heaven and Earth to get him his job back, and throw a ticker tape parade when they did.
Bearing in mind such a purely hypothetical scenario that will surely never befall James Gunn, it is fair to ask – is it not reasonable to expect that Zack Snyder fans might not react any better to a filmmaker they revere being tossed off his own superhero franchise in the wake of his daughter’s death, the studio outright lying about the nature of his departure and the existence of his version of the movie for years, and all of it arguably being act of appeasement on WB’s part towards the very detractors in the press and wider world who had been tearing Snyder to shreds for a decade?
Zack Snyder may make movies some of us didn’t like, but so too has every filmmaker in existence, and that isn’t a crime, a sin, or any other kind of offense. You can call his fans defensive and overzealous all you want, but they never would have gotten that way in the first place if the hate he’s gotten hadn’t been so overblown, ridiculous, and deeply personal. Whatever the reasons behind the disdain Zack Snyder’s detractors might have for him, it’s time to dial it back and let the man do his thing without constant calls for his career to go the way of the dinosaur.
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Tell us, do you hate Zack Snyder and his movies, and why?
