Zack Snyder explained his approach to Batman and it was something else

Before we get started, I do not hate Zack Snyder, nor am I a Snyder fanboy. Truth be told, I can never understand how directors have fanboys and fangirls or people who vehemently hate them. But that’s not the point.

In case you live under a rock, Zack Snyder recently held his special event The Director’s Cuts, where fans came to watch his cuts of Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

During a Q&A session at the convention, Snyder addressed the topic of Batman killing. Apparently, he’s had to address the topic on more than one occasion.

"Someone says to me like, ‘Oh, like, Batman killed a guy.’ I’m like, ‘[Expletive]. [Expletive]. Really?’"

(Sidenote: Snyder says the word “like” almost a dozen times in the course of this two-minute answer.)

Uh, yeah Zack, really. Isn’t that why you made your decision to have him kill someone in the first place? Because Batman is known for not killing anyone — no matter how maddening the situation.

It’s probably why you decided to release a trailer with Batman killing people. It turned out to be a dream sequence, but it definitely shocked anyone who knew a lick about Bruce Wayne.

Snyder has a message for fans still rattled by their beloved champion pulling the trigger.

"I’m like, ‘Wake the [expletive] up.’"

Alrighty then.

Christian Bale and Michael Keaton certainly killed more than one person in their time as the Dark Knight. Bale had some important ones in dire circumstances and Keaton, well, blew up a building. So Ben Affleck wasn’t the first big screen Batman kill.

But where Snyder changing things was putting an emphasis in the trailers that Batman will kill, pretty much without remorse. That’s the fundamental flaw with his idea of Batman. His restraint to not kill every scumbag is one of his defining characteristics.

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The being said, seeing Bruce Wayne go over the edge isn’t a terrible idea. There are all the evil Batmen (Batmans?) from DC’s Dark Knights: Metal, which Scott Snyder turned into a spinoff, which bred another one-off with the Grim Knight — very much a badass villain.

However, the Grim Knight and the Dark Knights are alternate Bruce’s. They’re not the protagonist, which makes a big difference.

(DC could do a series on the Grim Knight and I’d be in, for sure. But that’s fully accepting he’s not the real Bruce. He was messed up and twisted through the years, so he’s not the real Batman.)

Truthfully, I like Batman v Superman for what it is. Also, I think in some ways, Affleck’s Batman is softer than the prior, successful renditions, despite his willingness to kill.

This wasn’t the end of what Snyder had to say, though:

"So, like, I guess, like, that’s what I’m saying about, like, ya know, once you’ve, like, lost your virginity to this [expletive] movie and then you come and say to me something about, like, ‘Oh my superhero wouldn’t do that.’ I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’ I’m like, down the [expletive] road on that. You know what I mean?"

Are you serious? Part of the reason they’re super and not just heroes is they’re able to combat corruption and still get the job done.

Snyder continued:

"And it’s a cool point of view — look, I’m a hundred percent fine with  that, it’s a cool point of view to be like “My heroes are still innocent.’ Ya know? ‘My heroes didn’t [expletive], ya know, lie to America. My heroes didn’t embezzle money from their [corportations]. My heroes [expletive] didn’t commit any atrocities.’ I’m like, ‘That’s cool, but you’re living in a [expletive] dream world.’"

A dream world.

Does this guy think he’s solving world hunger with his work? You directed a remake of a zombie movie and you’re talking about grown men in tights fighting crime, villainy and space monsters.

Believe it or not, there’s more:

"And by the way, I love more than anything Superman and Batman, but in the same way, Alan Moore was fed up with [expletive], like, ‘OK, no. They do this. Clearly, this is a response.’ Like, where Watchmen — Watchmen talks about comic books in the same way that this movie talks about comic book movies. But it talked about comic books at their most — they had already, they were broken. So he was just addressing that. The thing with comic book movies and you know I’m a fan, like, I love — I go and see them and I love them…"

The video cuts off there. But Snyder left us with one last nugget, stating his DC movie “talks about comic book movies,” like Alan Moore’s classic Watchmen did with comics when they “were broken”.

Well, that’s all good and well, but none of Snyder’s DC movies came out when comic book movies were broken. So how was that a good idea on his part or a way of justifying things?

I’ll see other Snyder movies going forward. Directors are almost never the reason I’ll see a specific movie.

Seriously though, don’t let this guy direct another comic book movie. At least not one with pivotal characters. He can be a consultant or whatever, but his decision-making process does not seem to be in the right place.