Thoughts on the Snyder Cut

So normally I would update the site with a Weekly Gaming Update but this week has been particularly slow in regards to gaming news so I thought I'd do something a little different and talk about some major movie news instead.

The 2017 Justice League movie was a complete failure. No one will deny this. It reviewed terribly, it did terrible at the box office, it was an objective failure. Now the reasons for that failure are numerous but one of the biggest reasons was the switching of directors midway through production. Zack Snyder, who directed the previous movies in the DC Expanded Universe, was originally set to be the director but pulled out of the film following a personal tragedy and Josh Whedon took over directing duties. The two directors have very, very different styles and the resulting film is indicative of that. The film suffered from serious tonal shifts and Zack Snyder's original vision was lost as Whedon tried to piece what he had together. As a result the film was a complete mess.

Because of that, many fans were curious as to what Zack Snyder's original vision actually was. And thus the campaign #releasethesnydercut was born. With fans petitioning Warner Bros to release Zack Snyder's version of the film. Now I thought nothing would come out of this because, technically, the Snyder cut didn't exist. Zack Snyder left before finishing the film. So I didn't pay much mind to it. Then, just this past week, Warner Bros announced the Zack Snyder's version of Justice League would be released via HBO Max. Well, shit. I was actually wrong.

Now at the time of this writing we don't know the particulars of the release, the original plan was to make Justice League a two parter before executive meddling made it a single film. There have been rumours that the film will end up being a mini-series but nothing has been confirmed. What has been confirmed is that Warner Bros are throwing an extra 30-40 million dollars so Snyder can finish up his version of the movie, so they have convidence in the release making them money.

What do I think of this? Well, I don't think it will be a great movie. I'm not a big fan of Zack Snyder as a director and his previous DC movies, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, left a lot to be desired in my opinion. Back when this film was in development I wasn't that confident it's quality, especially given that it was trying to follow Avengers without any of the lead up movies to give context for the various characters. It felt like Warner Bros and DC were trying to rush into things and given that later DC movies would become more distant from the shared universe concept with much better results. We're now getting a new Batman movie that's completely different from the Batman Zack Snyder established, so I doubt the Snyder cut will do much to help the DC Expanded Universe, or be that good on it's own.

That being said, I am glad it's coming out. For two reasons. Firstly, after witnessing the Disney Star Wars trilogy crash and burn in glorious fashion, I now know the importance of a single, cohesive vision in a project. Even if Zack Snyder's vision is a trash fire, it's still his vision and it deserves to be seen. The second reason is that warner Bros, actually listened to the fans. Just like when Universal changed the design of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sonic movie due to fan backlash, ok to be fair it was universally despised but my point still stands, Warner Bros saw fans clamouring for the Snyder cut and said, “alright, let's give them what they want”. From a business perspective it makes sense, fans want the Snyder cut, Warner media want more subscriber to HBO Max, you do the math. It's nice when companies listen to fans because, they're the ones they make their money from. Not listening to them would be stupid.

But not everyone is happy about this. Like with every other instance of companies listening to fans, you get the same shrieking harpies in media crying foul and sure enough the minute this story broke you had the same dipshits parroting the same opinion. That opinion of course being, “This sets a dangerous precedent”. I'm not entirely sure how releasing a directors cut is setting a bad precedent but alright. I'm not going to spend much time on this because I don't want to give these people any more attention than they deserve and I think that's the problem here, these media sites are becoming increasingly irrelevent and that worries them. The fact that Warner Bros actually listened to the fans worries them because it means that the fans have more of an influence than they do.

Look I'm not gonna act like toxic fans don't exist, recently professional wrestler Hana Kumara took her own life over toxic fan abuse so I know full well that toxcicity exists in fandoms. Look at shippers for gods sake. But the whole narrative of “setting a bad precedent” or “giving in to fan entitlement” completely falls apart when you realise that it wasn't just the fans calling for the Snyder cut to be released, it was also Zack Snyder calling for the Snyder cut to be released. He wanted to make this movie the way he wanted and by god we should let him. So anytime you see someone use those arguments, call it what it is. A thinly veiled narrative with no basis in reality.

And that's all I have really. This was just something quic I threw together to get my thoughts out on the Snyder cut. I may not think it'll be any good but I am happy for Zack Snyder and I might watch it out of sheer curiosity if nothing else. Whatever happens I just hope it isn't a complete failure like it's original release, surely they couldn't fuck this up twice. Right? Until next time, remember to stay safe and have fun.