[The Lone Ranger]

I read an interview with Zack Snyder yesterday about the upcoming Justice League movie. At one point, the interviewer asked if the negative reviews of Batman v. Superman would have any impact on Justice League.


Snyder's response was basically, 1.) the movie made a lot of money, which proves the naysayers wrong anyway, and 2.) anyone who didn't like it was just upset by the "deconstruction" of Batman and Superman; they'll come around in time and realize how brilliantly this was done.


Okay, first of all, neither Man of Steel nor Batman v. Superman was in any way a deconstruction of the characters of Batman or Superman. Snyder doesn't understand what "deconstruction" means, it seems to me. The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that the movies were reinterpretations of the characters -- but "deconstructions" they were not.

This is not to say that reinterpretations of beloved characters are necessarily a bad thing, nor is it to say that they can't work. Neither Man of Steel nor Batman v. Superman works, however, because the writers/director demonstrate no understanding of the characters and what makes them so well-liked. You can't very well craft a good deconstruction of characters when you have no understanding of them in the first place.


It seems to me that there are two likely possibilities here. Possibility #1 is that Snyder simply doesn't understand what makes Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman such beloved characters -- and thus, he doesn't understand why so many people were pissed off by Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman. That seems entirely possible, given that he's a self-proclaimed Ayn Rand fanboy. As such, his mindset may well be such that he simply can't comprehend why Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are such admired and respected characters.

Possibility #2 is related: maybe Snyder does understand why the characters are so beloved, but being a devotee of Rand's "selfishness is good; altruism is evil" philosophy, he thinks that people who revere characters because of the characters' selflessness, self-sacrifice, compassion for others, and idealism are idiots.


Sooner or later, somebody in charge has got to get the message that putting Snyder in charge of movies about characters whom he a.) doesn't seem to understand, and b.) whose ideals he apparently holds in contempt -- is not a good idea.


Regardless, my already-low expectations regarding the upcoming Justice League movie just fell even lower.