Why is Zack Snyder is so hated by critics?

His works are generally well received by the public but yet critics bash him every time. I watched BvS yesterday and in my opinion he didn't do a bad job.

Public doesnt like Snyder either, that they dont dislike him, doesnt mean they like him.

The guy is making huge blockbusters and still he has problems to make people go to see them.

So far the only big hits he has made are 300 and MoS, taking how huge MoS was, its safe to say people just dont care for him.

Most of people see him as another filmmaker, they see nothing special in the guy.

Not just the critics. I hate him now as well for how he portrayed Superman and Batman.

I tend to find my emotional investment in a property that he touches affects how I see his work. Sucker Punch, Legend of the Guardians, 300, were all films I was fine with because I took them for what they were rather than what I wanted them to be. I forgive Watchman because I think it is an incredibly challenging book to adapt to screen (the opening of that film was amazing) which leaves Man of Steel which didn't feel like the Superman I wanted.

Does that make it bad? Hard to say, but it did feel a lot more grim and bleak than what I associate with the character. I actually think Snyder working with Afflack could make a good Batman film because his style and tone could work there. I think Superman in Man of Steel and Dawn of Justice felt at odds with the Superman I liked growing up.

No one hates him. They're just sick and tired of this style over substance bender that he's on. I don't like him because he's arrogant and acts like a know-it-all about comics when he clearly doesn't know everything. Otherwise he'd get the characterisation right of certain characters.

Because critics judge his films based on the films themselves and the audiences judge his films based on the experience that they had watching them. His movies manage to be both entertaining and average or bad.

You should probably read their reviews and you'll get a better sense as to why he's disliked amongst critics.

To me, Zack Snyder is an ambitious director who unfortunately places an emphasis on visuals and special effects rather than an engaging story-line and well-developed characters. So as a result I often find myself bored while watching his films.

I'd say it's because what Snyder thinks his comicbook movies should be are just too different from what critics want them to be. And it's not just him, like if you look up Blade on Rotten Tomatoes you also get a 'rotten' score from the critics at 54%. Marvel on the other hand make comicbook movies of the kind critics want them to be; epic, kid-friendly and not terribly deep, so they get good scores, it's kinda like: "Do what you are good at, don't try to be different."

I suspect the reason why Nolan gets a free pass by critics is because he's done quite a few critic friendly movies asides the Dark Knight Trilogy and because his Dark Knight is more of a thriller feat. a guy in a cape than a superhero movie.

Nerds and critics are not the mainstream audience.

Exactly mate.

heard the movie was a big joke.

I can see Man of Steel and 300 getting low ratings, but how can ANYONE HATE WATCHMEN! Most comic fans call it one of the best CBMs ever!!!!

I like Suckerpunch... but that's about it.

Because he sucks. Why do YOU care what critics think of him and your precious movie so badly? I mean critics are sooo irrelevant right?

Please lets not pretend like there is anything actually deep about comicbook movies zack snyder has made. Any semblance of depth is ultimately just superficial once you actually look at the depth.

He cares more about whether his movies look cool then whether they have a well-crafted story and characters.

His best movie had a plot already written for him by history and a older film, and it was still mediocre and cheesy. Plus his films are very repetitive and focus too much on visuals

Zack Snyder is just another Michael Bay for the most part.

@rey_everdeen: id say Snyder puts more effort into his films than Bay (Snyder doesnt reuse the same clips from previus films like Transformers for instance), while they are both equally predictable, cheesy, and lack story and character development id say Snyder is better slightly.

Snyder is just more pretentious.

I didn't hate it, but I can tell you why I can understand people hating it with this example: I went to see it with a friend who had not read the books, and he had a shit ton of questions, after the movie. He had a bunch of "why did this happen?" and "What did they mean by...?" questions. I had to start the explanation with, "Well, one-third of the book was covered in the opening credits."

After watching BvS, another friend of mine had a bunch of questions, also. The questioning started with, "I have questions. I don't know a lot about DC, so what was...?"

If Snyder's movies do what they're supposed to do, then people don't have those questions when they walk out of the theater.

Cosign @BvS

I give Snyder credit for choosing great source material. The problem is what @youknowwhattodo said about story line and character development. Snyder used "The Death of Superman," New 52 JL origin story, and "The Dark Knight Returns". While he chose good plots, and attempted to execute the relevant themes, he simply did not bring it home through plot development and characterization.

i guess most people don't like his style or the fact that his movies are deep movies like Ridley Scott or David Fincher or Ryan Coogler.

If he took the effort to write better scripts, and not just play on people's shallow liove of cgi destruction porn, then maybe he would be a better director. But Man of steel had a ton of plot holes, which Man of Steel 2 should have a address instead you got BvS which had even more plot holes, horrible pacing. One of the biggest messes in Man of Steel was that Lois and Clark had no chemistry what so ever. BvS he's so in love with her, and all about her.... eh.... *i threw up a little in my mouth* Did anyone else see the Michael Bay vs. Zack Synder forum. Bay i believe last i checked was winning out, and that says a lot.

@warrior100: Why would people hate deep movies?

@BappyRonChantin: i don't know maybe they don't understand them like the sequels to the Matrix.

He shouldn't be.

@warrior100: I wouldn't question people's understanding skill when most of the time they show pretty valid reasons for disliking his movies

@BappyRonChantin: sometimes. i never understood what was so special about Lost in Translation.

@warrior100:First let us make it clear that we are talking about critics in particular, not people altogether

I haven't seen lost in transition but it's nothing new that bad movies get good reviews. It happens due to critics personal taste, preference and other factors. Actually I have seen more bad movies get good reviews than vice versa.

There are a lot of movies that get good ratings in RT which you have to admit have substantial storytelling with deep underlying meaning, so it's not the critics that should be in question here. Even entertainment weekly and times magazines gave BvS bad reviews, both of which are owned by WB, so marvel bias is not the problem here either. When you see all your movies get bad to mediocre reviews despite your best attempt you have to realize there is a problem somewhere. At least first Matrix movie got good reviews. Anything deep Snyder has to tell is either thrown into your face that you can't take it seriously anymore or he misses to deliver it himself.

@BappyRonChantin: i agree with your point about Zack Synder. is just the way it is. atlas Marvel has a good track record. i hope they can pull of Dr. Strange because i've always thought he was a interesting character and because i love Rachael McAdams, and i can't wait to see what she will do in the film. what are your thought about Dr. Strange movie ?

@warrior100: I'm surely excited, specially due to the cast. I am yet to learn a lot about that character.

@BappyRonChantin: i'm just waiting on a trailer now, to me pumped for the movie.i faith in the cast.

The thing is, is that I NEVER even knew about the Watchmen comics until the film, so I was just as new to the material as anyone else was. And I still thoroughly enjoyed and followed the plot. Just like with BvS, if you simply pay attention, you should be able to catch nearly everything.

The funny thing is look at all the user reviews for those films. Nothing spectacular, but they're ALL positive. Even the mediocre 300 got a 7.2. The fans love his films, critics hate them.

@petey_is_spidey: dude couldn't agree more!! WATCHMEN was considered "unfilmable" bc it was so complex and he did it. Successfully. That movie was exceptional! Opinion is one of the best comic movies ever.

He's not Christoper Nolan, Lex GanniesPeachespissAlcohol Luthor was weird as fuck, Critics also like jokes or one-liners while Zack Snyder's directing is humorless

@soldierofel: Jeez!! Arrogance is all of Hollywood isn't it? Anywho, I can get behind the style over substance thing. Just wish he could balance the two, but the films I like don't need very much substance anyway.

I disagree, there's no way the uninitiated would get the Darkseid references or the dream sequences.

I know I didn't mention it in this particular comment, but yes, in previous post I have admitted that those two instances would be confusing for non comic fans. However, everything else is RIGHT THERE. You just have to pay attention.

But those are the main wtf moments in the film that left audiences scratching their heads. They're also the foreshadowing links to the Justice League movie.

Those aren't however the only problems. There's also the pacing, the implausible plot points and the overall depressing and heavy handed tone.

@scorpio_cassadine: the implausible plot points

What are these "implausible plot points" that you speak of? 'Cause I only really see one.

the overall depressing and heavy handed tone.

That doesn't take away from the movie. That may have not been your personal taste in films, but in no way does it make a movie worse.

It made this movie worse. And that's not my personal taste, that's a major complaint from various professional film critics.

An implausible plot point was when all enmity between Bats and Superman ended with the knowledge their mothers shared the same name. Suddenly they're "friend"s, but it's not like the fight had to happen in the first place. All Clark had to say was, "Hey man Luthor's got my mom".

He doesnt bribe them as well as other directors do.

@scorpio_cassadine I agree with you. Most of my BvS review points touch on Snyder's inability to stylistically render both the context and sub-context in an adequate manner.

@scorpio_cassadine: It still does not take away from the movie. A critic's job is to OBJECTIVELY judge a movie off of what they give you. If a critic dislikes a movie because of it's tone, or it didn't represent a particular character a certain way, fine, but there job is to judge a movie objectively, and you cannot do so if you dislike the way a film presents itself.

You could give the same argument for Marvel films, that their goofy and childish nature takes away from the overall product.

An implausible plot point was when all enmity between Bats and Superman ended with the knowledge their mothers shared the same name. Suddenly they're "friend"s, but it's not like the fight had to happen in the first place. All Clark had to say was, "Hey man Luthor's got my mom".

Uhhh, he tried to, but because Batman was so fumed up with rage, anger, and blind hatred, he wasn't having none of it. Batman's number one goal in life at that particular moment was killing Superman, and at that moment NOTHING was going to stop him. He viewed Clark as this too powerful being that did not understand humanity at all and thus would eventually go bad. However, when Superman says Martha, that triggers an emotional reaction in Bruce (HIS mother's name), which finally causes him to listen. Its then and there that Batman realizes that Superman is some soulless god who doesn't understand Humanity, but he's just as human as anyone else. Also, seeing that HIS mother was named Martha, there was no way he was going to let another child see HIS Martha die.

It's not any less plausible than any of the other absurd, over the top plot points in 99% of other CBMs.

Yeah, that dream Batman had was pretty crazy.

So much hate lol. I think Snyder is a pretty solid director. I enjoyed Dawn of the Dead, 300, MoS, Watchmen and BvS. Pretty badass movies, but they're not critic friendly. But whatever.

i cant speak to his entire filmography but Man of Steel was good imo and BvS was decent and i think part of the critiques for those is the comparison to marvel and this sort of attachment to very specific versions of these characters that people might have had.