Whether it’s David Ayer for Suicide Squad or Zack Snyder for any movie except Man of Steel, Warner Brothers has all-too-often altered the finished product significantly in the name of making the film more marketable. It’s not in the name of creative differences or anything constructive, but for the purpose of having the movie be more audience-friendly and popular. And now, they’ve done the same with Justice League.
WB has made the claim that they’re “creator-friendly” when it comes to these pics, but they’ve yet to choose what the director envisions over what critics would complain about. Zack Snyder may have seen Batman V Superman as a well thought-out deconstruction of Batman and Superman as characters, but WB saw it as a movie that was 30 minutes too long and a less-marketable film than what their competitors were offering.
It’s not only the fans who have this complaint, either, as Suicide Squad star Margot Robbie also thinks that the DCEU has a problem with not trusting their directors’ vision.
“The most important thing as a producer is it’s your job when you pick your director to stand by your director,” the actress told Metro. “You can’t stand by your director and second guess everything. There are times when you step in and debate a certain situation. You don’t want to leave any stone unturned. In my opinion a good producer trusts their director, and their job is to enable that director’s vision. That’s it. That’s your job. If that’s your director’s vision you need to do everything in your power to make that possible. And I think that’s a wonderful thing.”
Continuing on, she said it’s up to the producer to make sure things stay on track.
“In the DC Universe, too, once you decide on who your director is, and they have a vision, you have to enable that vision and step in at moments to keep it on course if need be. I think that’s the way. I think that’s what a producer should do.”
Robbie’s comments here are sound and likely echo the thoughts of many DC fans. It’s no secret that Justice League suffers from a significant identity crisis at points and that’s because you’ve got the man with the original vision of the project away from the camera and a studio-embraced option (Joss Whedon) was given more power than he likely should’ve had. This was meant to be a culmination/celebration of the DCEU films released thus far, yet it felt the most out of place among the four other entries and that’s simply because WB didn’t trust Zack Snyder enough to follow his vision to the end.
Viewers can feel when a film is more factory based than creatively developed (so don’t try and hide it). In the end, it’s vital that WB just acknowledges the vision provided by the filmmakers they hired and embrace it best they can. You hired these talented people behind the camera for a reason guys, now it’s time to let them show off their (unfiltered) product.
