Zack Snyder's Visuals, Amazing or Trash?

[ManWithNoName18]

There was a discussion in the JL threads about the look of the visuals in the new JL trailer. Here are some screenshots as well.

From the trailer Flash's abilities look great, but i'm getting worried that the big climax's going to be a big CGI mess like the Doomsday fight. Also Steppenwolf's a little bland in design.

 

[Starcat]

He has his moments for sure, but overall, I'm not a huge fan of his superhero movies.

 

[Grootster]

From what I've seen, mostly trash. To me his visual style looks like a muddy concrete parking lot, if said parking lot was filmed with a monochrome filter and then oversaturated with blatant CGI laser and lightning effects...and lots of rain.

To be completely fair to the man, I'm sure he's done some good visuals here and there, but most of what I've seen out of him is just not a style that really appeals to me all that much.

 

[zlucamanz]

his visuals was amazing but always forget to insert moment what those heroes supposed to do.

 

[Kreem Pi]

Looks like he added menstrual red to teal and blue.

 

[The Joker]

He has his moments for sure, but overall, I'm not a huge fan of his superhero movies.

Nor am I, but his main problems are with story and characters, not with visuals.

 

[Superchan]

Nor am I, but his main problems are with story and characters, not with visuals.

Which sadly what storytelling is all about! For me visuals are an added bonus but don't even come close to making or breaking a movie.

 

[Kreem Pi]

Visuals should inform the story and characters. Sometimes his visuals work against it.

 

[I Am The Knight]

"He has his moments" leading the poll lol.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

I loved his visuals in Watchmen, but I haven't really liked them since...

 

[The Joker]

Which sadly what storytelling is all about! For me visuals are an added bonus but don't even come close to making or breaking a movie.

Same. Visuals can make a movie look pretty, but if you're falling short with the story and characters, then what you have is a pretty looking shallow movie.

 

[Grootster]

Which sadly what storytelling is all about! For me visuals are an added bonus but don't even come close to making or breaking a movie.

I agree, 100%.

 

[Samurai_Adam]

Amazing. Doesn't get any better.

For example, my least favorite Snyder film is Sucker Punch. I really don't care much for it overall, but I still purchased the film for the visuals and action sequences alone.

 

[FunkMiller]

Nor am I, but his main problems are with story and characters, not with visuals.

Yep. Without a doubt. His visuals may not appeal to some, but there's clearly some artistic talent there. Zack Snyder the cinematographer is a lot better than Zack Snyder the director.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

A lot of his visuals look great, but there's often a lack of balance or variety in the visuals over the course of a film.

 

[Max Eckhardt]

I don't really care for much of Synder's visuals. They often come across as overly fake. For example, the Batmobile chase in BvS is clearly CG, the car has no weight and doesn't behave according to real-world physics.
Batman taking out the guys in the warehouse was very cool though, until he started killing them...
His first appearance in the movie with him running across the ceiling like Dracula was terrible...

 

[The Joker]

Yep. Without a doubt. His visuals may not appeal to some, but there's clearly some artistic talent there. Zack Snyder the cinematographer is a lot better than Zack Snyder the director.

Well put. Sums it up perfectly. Especially the last line.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I think even as a so-called cinematographer, Zack Snyder is super-inconsistent. Inspiring shots are followed by ugly mediocrity. Impressive action beats - by slo-mo nonsense or a total indistinguishable mess. Really frustrating. Yes, he demonstrates consistency sometimes, but only when he's adapting cult graphic novels, where artists did almost everything for him.

 

[random_havoc]

Visuals are literally the only thing he's good at. AMD even then it has to be with subject matter that should be very dark and drab, because that's all he ever does

 

[The Joker]

Visuals are literally the only thing he's good at. AMD even then it has to be with subject matter that should be very dark and drab, because that's all he ever does

Even then his visuals, with a handful of exceptions, are on the whole nothing special.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Visuals-wise, Nolan and Burton blow Snyder away easily.

 

[hafizbat]

I think even as a so-called cinematographer, Zack Snyder is super-inconsistent. Inspiring shots are followed by ugly mediocrity. Impressive action beats - by slo-mo nonsense or a total indistinguishable mess. Really frustrating. Yes, he demonstrates consistency sometimes, but only when he's adapting cult graphic novels, where artists did almost everything for him.

Visuals-wise, Nolan and Burton blow Snyder away easily.

This. Even his visuals are overrated. I think BVS was the worst looking CBM ever until SS came out. MOS at least had its moments.

I'm a fan of 300, but the only thing that was exceptional about the visuals was Gerard Butler.

And I really hate his slow motion.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Suicide Squad is an ugly film, especially CGI crap and set design.

BvS is more complex in a sense, that I like what Snyder does with non-CGI stuff, but at the same time I strongly dislike his color grading, which turns impressive set and costume designs, as well as camera work, into something lifeless, artificial, drab and unpleasant. Faces look like faces of recently diseased people.

 

[The Joker]

Those horrible bright trippy colors they used in SS stand out as really ugly.

 

[DOBSON10]

He can be hit or miss at times but overall I think his visuals are really good most of the time. I was disappointed with alot of BvS however, particularly Doomsday, I was shocked at how generic it ended up being, really thought Snyder would nail that character but it looked like random monster #3 from whatever alien/monster movie you want to choose from.

I agree that he can go overboard sometimes, for example some the full CGI set pieces, I felt like he did that more with BvS than MoS and it suffered because of it. I thought Man of Steel was a great looking movie for the most part, where as Batman Vs. Superman was a step back from his usually very good visuals.

So yeah, overall I think he's really good, has had some visuals that are up there with the best I've ever seen but also has times where he goes overboard and some times where they just aren't very good. And I wish he would try to incorporate more practical visuals more often instead of relying on CGI.