As the relentless social media campaigns dating back years will firmly attest, Zack Snyder’s time at the helm of the DCEU has gained a hugely loyal and dedicated following, to the extent that you’d dare not speak ill of the SnyderVerse lest your timeline become bombarded with criticism. However, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that his trio of comic book blockbusters have proven divisive.
Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and HBO Max’s four-hour version of Justice League are all very much the singular vision of an ambitious filmmaker with a solid grasp on crafting a mythology, handling expansive worldbuilding and helming sprawling action sequences. That being said, storytelling has never been his greatest strength.
Batman v Superman is the most glaring example of that, and while the Ultimate Edition is a vastly superior movie, the theatrical cut leaves a lot to be desired. There’s simply far too much going on, with enough half-baked subplots and abandoned story threads to power three films never mind one, while the infamous Martha sequence was designed to be a grand moment but ended up as a meme instead, though at least Snyder has made his peace with it at long last.
No doubt thanks to the success of the Snyder Cut on HBO Max, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has rocketed up the global Netflix most-watched list this week, where it currently sits in seventeenth position, and it’s more than likely set to continue climbing higher over the weekend. Having already seized the top spot on one streaming service’s viewership charts, perhaps #RestoreTheSnyderVerse supporters can conquer Netflix as well as they continue to lobby Warner Bros. for those Justice League sequels.
