Zack Snyder may not be a great director, but creates memorable visual imagery like few others in Hollywood

Snyder had to leave the first DC team up live-action movie due to a family tragedy and Joss Whedon, who was already attached as a screenwriter, took over his duties. The released movie was said to be more Whedon than Snyder.

The Snyder Cut movement took off.

Also known for comic-book projects like 300, Watchmen, and Batman v Superman, Snyder appears to either inspire slavish devotion or utter scorn. For me, I did not think much of him despite liking his DC movies — for the most part. But my opinion changed considerably with Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which, while flawed, was a true-blue superhero epic of gargantuan proportions. The scale was akin to a pastiche of a classic mythological epic come alive.

Zack Snyder with Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck on the sets of Justice League. (Photo: Warner Bros)

Even at four hours, and a few indulgences and idiosyncrasies, it felt decently-paced. This time, the characters, particularly the minor ones like the Flash and Cyborg, had much more depth. Most of all, the transpiring events did not have that weightless feeling that was there in earlier DC movies by Snyder.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League told a familiar compelling story of godlike invaders from outer space fighting godlike heroes on earth, and had at its thematic underpinnings of loss and redemption, something Snyder clearly understood more than most after the tragedy that had forced him to abandon the project in the first place.

The film, it seemed, was not directed by somebody who made the macho, grimdark superheroes of Batman v Superman, but a man softened by a calamitous event in his life.

But it was mainly the visuals that sold the movie for even his detractors. The 2017 Justice League, now understood to be more a Whedon film than Snyder, was a mishmash of two, conflicting visions, and felt so. The final act, set in a Russian village, looked like an extended video-game cutscene with its garish hues and low-resolution visuals, except games look a lot better.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League was another story. Every frame of the film was so lovingly crafted that it was criminal for the studio not to allow the film a theatrical release. Forget set pieces, even scenes involving characters in conversation with each other had a heft, a cinematic feeling of being there, a credibility, that makes the film a cut above the rest.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is no fluke. Snyder has always had a distinct visual flair, and even if one doesn’t like the way his characters, story and dialogue are written, he has a knack for creating memorable images. He and fellow superhero filmmaker Chloe Zhao belong to the Terrence Malick school of art direction given their free-roaming use of camera and clever use of light.

A lot of Snyder’s shots stick in your mind long after you have seen the movie. Case in point: the Superman-Day of the Dead moment in BvS, in which the Man of Steel saves a girl from a burning building and is treated as Jesus’ Second Coming by the people standing around him. That image burns itself in your brain, and it takes great care and artistry in actualising such moments, something that is rare in Hollywood.

Another similarly unforgettable visual moment comes in the same movie when Wonder Woman arrives to assist Superman and Batman in their battle against Doomsday in Batman v Superman, which for my money is the best live-action superhero entrance ever. We do not not see what has stopped Doomsday’s X-Ray vision attack at first. Then, Diana’s shield slowly materialises, its metallic surface gleaming with ethereal light. The superhero rises from behind the shield, her hair blowing wildly in the wind, and burning debris all around her. Aided by Hans Zimmer’s Wonder Woman theme, it is an incredibly powerful moment, fit for somebody who is literally a Greek goddess.

Compare that to the Avengers movies and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite their massive success, how many visually interesting shots can MCU fans recall off the top of their head? Only a few movies like Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame have a unique visual identity. Most of the rest, at least in purely visual terms, look almost identical to each other.