Why Zack Snyder's Wrong About Batman
Batman doesn't kill, and pretending otherwise isn't very clever.
Over the weekend, Man of Steel and Batman V Superman director Zack Snyder was asked by a fan at an event (via I09) what his thoughts were on Batman killing. Snyder, although not the first filmmaker to depict the Dark Knight murdering his foes, did preside over the one film that seemed to revel in that 'aspect' of the character, and so his response to that question shouldn't be all that surprising.
Replying, Snyder lamented that fans need to "wake the f**k up" and accept that Bruce Wayne murders, and murders all the time. Never mind the fact that Batman's famous 'one rule' has informed the character for literal decades. No, Snyder believes that anyone who holds onto the concept of a semi-benevolent Dark Knight is living in a "f**cking dream world". This came after he claimed that fans had "lost their virginity" to his movie, so maybe it turns out the man wasn't the best candidate to decide the future of DC on film after all.
"Once you’ve lost your virginity to this f**cking movie and then you come and say to me something about like ‘my superhero wouldn’t do that.’ I’m like ‘Are you serious?’ I’m like down the f**cking road on that.
It’s a cool point of view to be like ‘my heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn’t f**cking lie to America. My heroes didn’t embezzle money from their corporations. My heroes didn’t commit any atrocities.’ That’s cool. But you’re living in a f**cking dream world."
- Zack Snyder, apparently
Unsurprising though Snyder's comments may be, they do illustrate an important point: not that it is possible to be so catastrophically wrong that you feel emboldened enough to patronise years' worth of material that contradicts what you've just said - although that is worth reiterating - but rather because they show why Snyder's interpretation of the DC mythos failed as much as it did.
There's been a tendency for fans to dwell on the aesthetic tedium of Snyder's DC films, and while that's certainly worth pointing out, the root of the problem stems from the director's cynical approach to DC's comics. It just doesn't translate to the big screen, and while Snyder can happily slam fans for believing in a "fantasy world" (that's kind of the point anyway), his interpretation of Batman is just plain old incorrect.