The Zack Snyder Video

What I really wanna know . . . is whether Patrick intentionally dressed like medal ceremony Luke Skywalker (yellow jacket, black shirt, brown pants) for the “Say Something Nice About Zack Snyder” segments . . .

Bethany Laurel

Question: what is your opinion of the Watchman HBO tv series created by Lindelof and how do you compare it both to the movie and, of course, the comic book

Jaime Buelta

I really enjoy it when Snyder lets his eclectic interests find their way into his films (even Batman v Superman). I agree that the people on the extreme end of the argument read to much into his movies (most of which are written by other people, btw) but I've come to appreciate that level of personal eccentricities finding their way into blockbuster films. Question: what did you think of all the weird world building easter eggs in Army of the Dead (i.e. the two UFOs, the robot zombies and the time loop theory). It almost seems like he might be setting up his own unorthodox version of a cinematic universe (or at least creating a franchise with more fluidity than usual).

James Couche

The thing that it always confuses me about Zack Snyder is the fact that he seems to be a comic lover, but has like a really strange takes on the adaptations… You commented about that, but he has made most of his work adapting comic books with a strange understanding on them… Watchmen is a great example, but the character of Superman in his movies is really weird for me, at least, which considers myself as a fan of the character… It reminds me of the Annie Hall scene with Marshall McLuhan.. it would be great to make Alan Moore from behind a sign to explain some stuff. Perhaps he won’t be polite, though…

Jaime Buelta

Hey, Patrick. Great work, as always, but I would like to discuss your criticism of people critiquing "woke" movies and casting b/c I don't think you have a good grasp on what the actual complaint is, which is why you straw-man the argument so badly. To be clear, I do not seek to convince you of this view, I do not think I have that ability, I only wish to help you understand it and know that it does not come from a place of hate or racism. I am going to put some thought and effort into this, and I'm hoping that as a pretty long time patron, you'll be able to take a step back and look at the argument seriously instead of instantly hand-waving it away as some sort of Jim Crow-supporting racist worldview. "Woke" is a difficult term to define (and kinda fits into that 'you know it when you see it' category), but generally speaking, it's the modern version of political correctness that really started taking over at some point during Obama's second term and really exploded after Trump got elected. It's critical gender theory and critical race theory and all that wrapped up into a single worldview where identity is the most important thing about people, diversity is regarded as a purely good thing for its own sake (to a near-religious degree and often at the expense of merit), and it essentially reformulates class theory around oppressor groups and oppressed groups. Whites oppress blacks, men oppress women, straights oppress gays, etc. Another big aspect of it is its way it's constantly trying to change the language of how we're allowed to refer to people, almost as a way to weed out the people who aren't up-to-date on the latest iteration so that may be verbally bludgeoned as hateful so that any dissenting opinion can be safely disregarded. I would say that it is accurate to say that Snyder does not make "woke" movies b/c his messaging in his movies is not woke. If anything, it's probably more Randian but with a tenuous and shallow grasp on the objectivist philosophy. An example of a show or movie with "woke" messaging would be the recent She-Hulk show on Disney+, and a notable example of this would be when Jennifer Walters informs Bruce Banner that she has to control her anger infinitely more than Bruce simply due to being a woman. Another example would be when she is able to defeat Bruce in all of his training exercises for no apparent reason other than she's just naturally awesome. These two examples are pretty indicative of *modern* feminist writing in that they are shallow, kinda misandrist, and really just act as vessels for the writers to air their grievances. "Woke" casting is a little different than "woke" messaging, and what matters there is when and why a character is race-swapped. I don't know of anyone who's complained about any of Snyder's race-swaps b/c they were either to give talented actors to minor roles or b/c the swap served a purpose for the character. Aquaman has always been a bit of a joke in popular culture, and when they announced that Khal Drogo would be playing Aquaman, it was pretty clear that that was an inspired way to make Aquaman feel like a badass. Also, giving that role to someone who's a descendant of an islander people for a water-themed super hero does make sense (although the rest of the Atlanteans were all white and they explained this through Aquaman's parentage why he's not, but I personally would've preferred if all the Atlanteans looked like Pacific Islanders. but, w/e.). Another example of a race swap that made sense was Michael Clark Duncan as Kingpin. Kingpin is supposed to be an enormous, imposing figure, and how many actors in Hollywood (at the time) could fill that role quite as well as MCD? What makes a race swap "woke" is when the swap is done simply for the sake of doing it, particularly when it comes at the cost of the world-building. Rings of Power is particularly egregious in this case, where a world based on Medieval England is made to look like modern NYC or LA. The physical differences that exist between races (to the extent that races exist, since it's kind of a hazy concept anyway) come from geographic isolation from each other over a long period of time. You can also tell that it's woke casting because such a huge percentage of the promotion for the show focused on how diverse the cast is. A good way of integrating different races into your fantasy world can be seen in George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, where the Dothraki have brownish skin, the Summer Islanders have darker skin, etc. When a character in that series is of a non-white skin color, there is an explanation for it. There's even an explanation for why Westerosi are white, and it's b/c of a previous migration of a people. This is also why the race-swapping of the Velaryons is so annoying in the new House of the Dragon series. This was clearly done out of modern political sentiment at the expense of world-building. The Velaryons are meant to be close relatives of the Targaryens, yet they have completely different skin complexions, and when they mix their "pure" blood together, their children have a third, middle ground complexion. It's silly. You can argue that it helps the viewer tell the two families apart, but no such effort has ever been made to differentiate, say, various houses from the Reach or the North. The added stupidity of it is that bastard children are a big plot point, and the characters talk about hair color and facial features but completely ignore super obvious white skin of the bastards. But, this ends up being a minor complaint in the big picture for HotD, because the show has very good writing, and the messaging within the show is realistic to the time and world it claims to be in. Unlike Rings of Power, they're not sneaking modern sensibilities, messaging, and morality into a world where that makes no sense. Another big issue people take with "woke" casting and messaging is that so much of it is being done to pre-existing intellectual properties in what honestly feels like a "woke" colonizing of pre-existing material. It's as if the people peddling this stuff are incapable of creating their own art and instead seek to rewrite all existing art to fit their new worldview. If radical Westboro Baptist-style Christians had taken over the universities, Hollywood, the media, and every HR department at every major corporation and had decided that every existing property from Batman to Star Wars needed to be hackily rewritten to espouse their fundamentalist worldview, I assume you would A) take issue with that, and B) see it for the lazy, cheap writing that it is. You would be especially angry if subsequently any legitimate criticisms you had of this clearly political hack-job of all your favorite properties were instantly disregarded as Satanist and sinful. Some "anti-woke" YouTubers who do a good job explaining the issue with this style of writing and how it's really driven down the quality of modern popcorn movies are Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, and Eric July, and each of them have their own take on it. For example, Eric July, a black man, takes issue with race-swapping b/c he sees it as black people getting white people's sloppy seconds instead of getting their own characters. And, he's decided to do something about it by launching his own line of comics, the first of which is Isom, which stars a black man, and if you read the first issue (which was okay; it's a lot of set up), you'll see that there's nothing "anti-woke" about it, it's just that it's not "woke" at all. There's definitely a difference. Anyway, I know I'm not the best writer, but hopefully this at least makes some sense in how the people who complain about "woke" movies are not necessarily coming from a place of racism or hatred (although I'm sure a non-zero number are). Again, you don't have to agree with it; I just hope you'll to stop straw-manning it.

Kate and Andrew

Awesome. Excellent work as always, Patrick. I’ve had so many similar thoughts about Snyder’s body of work, but you articulate them so much better than I ever could, while also pointing out things that are new to me. For example, the whole Excalibur thing - bonkers. I too think he doesn’t “get” Superman, Batman, or Watchmen. But nonetheless, the line I typically use with him is, “I appreciate the effort”.

Aaron Morgan

I became a Patreon contributor after watching this. It was really great. Trenchant and entertaining. I genuflect in your general direction, good sir.

Mark Stellingworth

As someone who probably fits the bill for the opening disclaimer, this was pretty great. Also I've seen and own the owl movie. I've held that hope in my hands. Might watch it again later. Tonight I dine in Ga'Hoole!

Danilo Cordani

My takeaway is mostly, "Don't overthink his movies, because I can assure you that he never has."

Karel P Kerezman

Should I watch this before or after Black Adam? The hierarchy is changing after all.

Edgar Flores

Watching it tonight. I expect a lot of yelling and slow-mo, and at least a few accidentally fascist themes.

#releaseTheWillemsCut

Jaime Buelta