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Zack Snyder Petition: Fans Want Director Removed From DC Comics Movies And ‘Justice League’

By Tony Smejek
Published on: 06:54 PST, Mar 29, 2016

It seems Zack Snyder isn’t getting much slack from some DC Comics and movie fans, as they have created a petition to remove the director from the entire DC Cinematic Universe, including the Justice League movie. In fact, two petitions have been drawn up — one that’s India-based and the other of the United States. The international version wants Snyder removed from the DCEU altogether, according to Cinema Blend.

Even Collider and Spreaker movie commentator John Campea are in the same camp, at least for the DC Comics team-up movie.

The Snyder petition at Change.org from the U.S. states that since this was his second attempt to adapt the characters for the big screen and had “produced middling results,” it would be inadvisable to bring him aboard to helm the Justice League movie.

“Zack Snyder is not the person to bring the Justice League to the big screen. He’s had two chances now to adapt DC characters and has produced middling results.”

It seems their justification was likely in regards to the divided opinions of fans and critics, which singled out Snyder. The audience/fans themselves liked it a lot, but not everyone was on the same page.

Rotten Tomatoes has categories when it comes to critic ratings and audience ratings. The critics Tomatometer as of this post is at a low 28 percent, which is not very good. The audience rating was considerably higher at 72 percent. Not impressively high, though.

Felix Vasquez Jr. of Cinema Craze gave his opinion on Rotten Tomatoes in regards to Zack Snyder doing the Justice League movie, citing Batman v. Superman as a “chore,” and not much confidence is given in regards to the comic book movie team-up.

“With the chore Batman v Superman inevitably becomes, I have little faith the actual Justice League film will be any better.”

Then Felix Hubble looked to address the unevenness of the movie.

“Discounting its unevenness, the film’s greatest flaw is its lack of tangible stakes, particularly given the subject matter.”

The common thought regarding Snyder’s Batman v Superman seems to point to its irregularity in the storytelling department. The India-based petition at Change.org cites something similar. They consider Zack’s special effects to be impressive but add that he doesn’t have the ability to “tell a story,” according to Cinema Blend.

Fans are hoping Warner Bros. can find a replacement director who has the ability to understand the characters and doesn’t cause them to “roam away from their mythos and balance the tone of the future movies,” according to Tech Times.

Another Rotten Tomatoes critique of Zack Snyder’s movie seems to supplement this adherence to the mythos by making a comparison to Christopher Nolan’s methods of staying true to the Batman character.

“While the superhero films of Christopher Nolan carefully established their own coherent world and remained faithful to it, Mr Snyder’s saga loses control of its various sub-plots early on and descends into chaos.”

Many of the Zack Snyder critics out there seem to have reached a consensus of sorts, which align with the justification for these petitions. Tech Times, however, mentions that the people who put together these petitions are hopeful about making an inkling of an influence in swaying the studios, although it may not be likely wind up with favorable results.

Is Zack Snyder here to stay for the long haul in the DCEU? Is this not the intention of Warner Bros. to provide this style to the DC Cinematic Universe? Is Snyder the one needed to provide the kind of grittiness throughout the franchise?

This isn’t the first time an extreme division between peoples’ opinions has occured in regards to movies. When Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back came out, it was interesting to see the very divided opinions regarding the movie between film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert of At The Movies and John Simon of The National Review. A report made on The Verge revisited this.

Simon had described the movie sequel as “malodorous awful” and even a reprint of his 1977 review of A New Hope, as reported by The Vulture, was quoted back then saying, “Star Wars will do very nicely indeed for those lucky enough to be children or unlucky enough to have never grown up.”

The division here lies in the “adult mentalities,” according to Simon, but with Siskel and Ebert, they found it amazing that it stimulates the imagination and keeps them young at heart. They seem to veer away from the rigid expectations in movies.

So Zack Snyder’s movie seems comparable to this vintage example. It seems that Siskel and Ebert mirror the fan mentality of today when it comes to differing viewpoints.

Divisiveness then versus now? Star Wars is a hit, and were there any fan petitions going around to have George Lucas removed?

Zack Snyder is still slated to helm the Justice League movies, which are set for release in November of 2017 and June of 2019.

[Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP]

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