Re: Zack Snyder's Justice League coming in 2021
Just saw this after I asked you to elaborate.
Okay, here's my opinion on this:
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Even good and great ideas. Execution is hard. That's what helps to make great art.
The subtext running through these films isn't exactly subtle but it doesn't need to be, that's not my issue. I think Snyder executed poorly. If it works for you, great, enjoy it.
I actually liked Man Of Steel for a lot of reasons, but for me it failed primarily on Pa Costner's manner of death, and secondarily on the drawn-out boring city-destroying battle that A LOT of superhero films fail with.
Although I read Superman comics from childhood to about the age of 15, I didn't have a big problem with him killing Zod in the film, just the way that fight played out.
And I also understand Snyder was taking risks, but the answer is in the word 'risk' -- sometimes you fail.
Man Of Steel isn't terrible but it's kind of mediocre for me with some high points thrown in.
Thanks for taking the time, and sorry for coming on so aggressively.
I agree with you on ideas vs. execution and clearly I prefer Snyder's execution (and the ideas he's exploring) more than the usual MCU fare, even though I agree that Snyder doesn't always execute his ideas in the best manner possible.
Take for example Iron Man. I think that movie is brilliant, easily among the MCU's best, because it explores a lot of interesting ideas about capitalism, the military-industrial complex and morality in a very overt way, and that makes the movie so much more interesting than, say, Thor: Ragnarok, where slavery and genocide are mostly played for laughs when there are some deep moral issues that could be explored.
Or, staying on the subject of Thor, look at how the MCU completely glosses over the fact of ancient gods being real and how that would have an effect on people's perception of the world, not to speak of extra-terrestrial life. There's not even a hint at that in any of the MCU movies, and I think they are the poorer for that. Again, look at Iron Man: it tackles deep, real world subjects and does it within the friendly MCU format.
Now, I'm not saying the MCU never explores deeper ideas, it does, like in TWS or CW, but they are explored so far removed from "the common man" that they become empty exercises played out in a sort of vacuum. Compare that to Snyder's exploration on what it means to be superhuman in MoS, or the impact it has on the world in BvS, or how constant vigilantism and brutality affects a man in BvS. Does Snyder sometimes go overboard with his bombastic and overly dramatic style? Of course he does, but that's his style, so I guess we're stuck with it
When the MCU takes a chance and decides to really explore deeper ideas, they do it great, like the first half of EG. I loved how the movie explores grief both on a world- and personal level. Unfortunately then it goes into a greatest hits montage but at least they took a serious look at life post-apocalypse for a while.
Anyway,
