Zack Snyder is one of the those directors whose work is so inconsistent that it's hard to work out whether or not he's actually any good or not. Generally speaking, though, his movies do tend to fall short: his best film, the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, is more than a decade old, whilst his more recent efforts - Watchmen, Sucker Punch, Man of Steel - have failed to deliver on their promises (although Watchmen is actually a rather brilliant failure as opposed to an outright disaster). He's somebody whose movies you want to like, but his shoddy output makes it increasingly difficult to do so. Not to mention that Snyder has such a hard-on for excessive, overblown moments of CGI awfulness that it makes George Lucas' obsession look like a "mild interest." The most frustrating thing about Zack Snyder is that he's clearly a talented guy, but is frequently guilty of putting spectacle over story. It happened with Man of Steel, the first official film in the DC Cinematic Universe, and there's a very good chance it will happen again with Batman v Superman. Granted, a terrific writer - Chris Terrio - has been hired in place of the inconsistent David S. Goyer, but that doesn't really guarantee anything. Snyder is the director, after all - it will be his vision that ultimately winds up on the big screen, no matter how good Terrio's script is. Not to forget that, thus far, Snyder is the overlord of the DC Cinematic Universe. He has helmed the first two flicks and so the rest must follow in his footsteps. If that's not something to get worried about, then what is?
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
