Zack Snyder's Visuals, Amazing or Trash?

[idiot09]

Yep. All more than fair enough I totally understand your perspective, even if I don't agree with it.

I think - and i'm spitballing here - that maybe Snyder is a director who enjoys the symbolic, and it's how the audience member reacts to that symbolism that determines how they feel about his story telling. For some, the symbolism is powerful and an an excellent way to push a narrative forward - for others, the symbolic gets in the way of the story, rather than contributing to it. Neither position is any less or more valid than the either. It's just a matter of personal taste.

Ofcourse.

 

[King23DC]

To me Snyder is a Michael Bay who thinks he's better than a Michael Bay. The guy sees himself making art but in reality it's more like he's making very expensive videogame cutaway scenes, which is sad because he showed alot of potential in his earlier efforts like Dawn of the dead.

That's how I've always described him. A pretentious illiterate.

A condescending Michael Bay.

 

[Superchan]

That's how I've always described him. A pretentious illiterate.

A condescending Michael Bay.

I think illiterate is harsh but I agree on the pretentious and condescending parts.

 

[Wildcard]

I'd say Snyder has his moments. He's far from being an innovative filmmaker but he does manage to pull off some impressive visuals from time to time. Still, I tend to agree with the Michael Bay comparisons.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

II'm not sure which poll option to choose, because the first one's a little much, but the second one is d***ing with faint praise.

This exactly. I think his stuff looks excellent but there are other CBMs that I think look equally good.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Yep. All more than fair enough I totally understand your perspective, even if I don't agree with it.

I think - and i'm spitballing here - that maybe Snyder is a director who enjoys the symbolic, and it's how the audience member reacts to that symbolism that determines how they feel about his story telling. For some, the symbolism is powerful and an an excellent way to push a narrative forward - for others, the symbolic gets in the way of the story, rather than contributing to it. Neither position is any less or more valid than the either. It's just a matter of personal taste.

Very nicely put. I think that sums it up well

 

[halo10]

He has his moments, but the problem is he gets carried away with making everything look cool instead of allowing the audience to actually appreciate the action. He does these quick movements plus these ridiculous zooms which makes it difficult to see what's happening. This isn't a problem that's exclusive to him, the issue with a lot of modern action films is the over reliance on shaky camera work to convey action. Couple with bad and quick editing you're left with a shot that is essentially a blur. John Wick showed how you can do action without having the camera shake all the time, it's clean, crisps and beautiful because you can see the cheoreography.

I'm glad you mentioned the "shaky camera effects" - it's truly my pet peeve with a lot of these actions flicks and now it's made its way into Marvel films.
Probably the sole negative I had for Civil War. Particularly the first half.

as far Zack Snyder visuals, the Kevin Cosner- tornado scene in Man of Steel comes to mind as one of those just way too over the top and dorky Zach implemented. But otherwise I don't normally have issues with his CGI visuals. it's expected to have the over the top music-video visual look, (like Sucker Punch) it's really his lack of character development and story-write that I tend to have issues with. that's why I don't have the greatest expectations for the Justice League. I think it will just end of being a mere special effects movie only.

 

[Kane52630]

Honestly, I prefer Bay's visuals in his new Transformers movie over Snyder's Justice League.





Bay's got a better sense of scope than Snyder.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I have to say that I do too. And I think Bay sucks for the most part.

 

[Greens]

Bay uses a lot of practical locations and effects whereas Snyder likes to create environments from scratch.

 

[TeeKay]

To me Snyder is a Michael Bay who thinks he's better than a Michael Bay. The guy sees himself making art but in reality it's more like he's making very expensive videogame cutaway scenes, which is sad because he showed alot of potential in his earlier efforts like Dawn of the dead.

/thread.

 

[Kane52630]

Yeah that pretty much sums it up.

 

[STARMAN]

I've been surprisingly disappointed with the visuals. That was the one aspect I expected Snyder to succeed at. But I've been underwhelmed by the action sequences and visuals for the most part. There are some nice shots here and there throughout both films but I expected more.

 

[jmc]

I think Bay is the better director for that reason. Dude knows story isn't his strong suit so doesn't worry about it too much, just wants to make something look awesome. In a weird way I can respect that more than someone who can't see their own faults. I genuinely don't think Snyder understands why a lot of people don't like his films. I used to always put Snyder above him because at least he was trying to tell story, however BvS showed he's someone who doesn't want to actually improve himself and learn from past mistakes.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

I genuinely don't think Snyder understands why a lot of people don't like his films.

He compared the destruction at the end of MOS to space Nazis in Star Wars destroying planets as to why it's defensible. I think that paints the level of delusion we are working with in regards to Snyder here.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

One more thing, the look of Snyder's films have made me appreciate the cinematography of the Nolan films even more. I love how glossy and clear they look, while still being dark and moody. Nolan's films use a lot of shadows, earthy tones and rarely flaunts primary colors, but to stop the image from choking with dreariness, there is a lot of light and clarity to it.

Snyder's films are like a recipe for ugly. Heavy shadows, desaturated colors, cloudy skies, jaundiced skintones, heavy grain level and green screen out the ass.

 

[FunkMiller]

I think Bay is the better director for that reason. Dude knows story isn't his strong suit so doesn't worry about it too much, just wants to make something look awesome. In a weird way I can respect that more than someone who can't see their own faults. I genuinely don't think Snyder understands why a lot of people don't like his films. I used to always put Snyder above him because at least he was trying to tell story, however BvS showed he's someone who doesn't want to actually improve himself and learn from past mistakes.

I always felt that Bay and Snyder were very similar in terms of the way they go about their movie making. But as you say, it seems like Bay knows his limits, whereas I'm not sure Snyder thinks he has any...

 

[jmc]

I recently watched both Batman Begins and TDK for the first time in a few years recently. It's remarkable just how clear those films are.

 

[Timebomb]

Nolan knows how to use color or even when not to (Memento). His visuals never look muddy.

 

[Steamteck]

His visuals are amazing IMO.

 

[Batmannerism]

I think Bay is the better director for that reason. Dude knows story isn't his strong suit so doesn't worry about it too much, just wants to make something look awesome. In a weird way I can respect that more than someone who can't see their own faults. I genuinely don't think Snyder understands why a lot of people don't like his filngms. I used to always put Snyder above him because at least he was trying to tell story, however BvS showed he's someone who doesn't want to actually improve himself and learn from past mistakes.

If anything Snyder's gotten worse since Watchmen, and seems to make not just the same mistakes, but supersized versions of the same mistakes. Batman v Superman was pretty much 2 and half hours of everything that was wrong in Man of Steel, and about 5 minutes of the stuff that was actually good in Man of Steel.

I'd actually rather watch Age of Extinction than B v S, because Age of Ex is a couple of hours of unapologetic garbage, that knows it's garbage. B v S is garbage pretending to be something of substance.

 

[batfreakforever]

Snyder is the best at visuals in the comic movie world. Just pure comic book bliss.
He can really recreate a comic book panel to a tee on film. He is in a class of his own and cannot to be matched. He needs to be Zac Snyder. Meaning he isnt Bay. Nolan or close to being like any other Director. He needs to be Zac Snyder and not bend to other peoples traits or styles.
When I was watching his Watchmen I always thought that this guy needs to do a Batman film. My wish can true and for my luck I loved his Batman v Superman movie and welcome his JL.

 

[FunkMiller]

Snyder is the best at visuals in the comic movie world. Just pure comic book bliss.
He can really recreate a comic book panel to a tee on film. He is in a class of his own and cannot to be matched. He needs to be Zac Snyder. Meaning he isnt Bay. Nolan or close to being like any other Director. He needs to be Zac Snyder and not bend to other peoples traits or styles.
When I was watching his Watchmen I always thought that this guy needs to do a Batman film. My wish can true and for my luck I loved his Batman v Superman movie and welcome his JL.

Movies should not recreate comic panels. We have comic books for those.

Movies should interpret the comic book narrative in a way that suits the medium.

That way we get Superman saving people from a flood, rather than hovering over them like he's enjoying their suffering.

 

[Batmannerism]

Snyder is the best at visuals in the comic movie world. Just pure comic book bliss.
He can really recreate a comic book panel to a tee on film. He is in a class of his own and cannot to be matched. He needs to be Zac Snyder. Meaning he isnt Bay. Nolan or close to being like any other Director. He needs to be Zac Snyder and not bend to other peoples traits or styles.
When I was watching his Watchmen I always thought that this guy needs to do a Batman film. My wish can true and for my luck I loved his Batman v Superman movie and welcome his JL.

I agree that in that respect he is very gifted - the thing is, he doesn't seem to be able to make us engage with the characters or the story of his films in a meaningful way. 300 looks great, but the characters are all pretty one dimensional.

Movie is short for motion picture, and while he can capture a snapshot image better than anyone he needs to be able to do more than that.

However, if you loved B v S that's cool, respect your opinion.

For myself, I would have been happier though if the movie hadn't been as visually impressive, but had better characterisations of Batman and Superman.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Ability to re-create comic book panels is overrated. Nearly every big budget film has storyboards, which is essentially comic book panels.