7 Times Auteurs Took On Superhero Movies

2) Zack Snyder – Watchmen

Love him or hate him, Zack Snyder has something most other oft-criticized directors don’t: a distinctive, personal style. You could argue he didn’t exactly bring this with him to his last superhero movie, Man of Steel (though that was a DCCU movie more than a Snyder movie, and it must be hard for a filmmaker to make something in his unique style when Chris Nolan, David S. Goyer, and the rest of the DC/Warner Bros. brain trust are pitching in), but his previous one felt like classic Snyder.

Whether that’s a good thing depends on personal taste. Watchmen was slated by some upon release, but it has its fans now, for the slickly artificial (and heavily green-screened) look, the gratuitous ultra-violence, the use of super slo-mo, and the music video-like segments soundtracked to pop/rock tunes, all hallmarks of Snyder’s oeuvre.

For such a faithful adaptation, the film still feels like Snyder’s own, hollowness, misogyny, and all.