Zack Snyder Calls Superman ‘Broken,’ Disses ‘Thor’

‘Man of Steel’ director Zack Snyder called ‘Superman’ – the father of superheroes – a broken concept and dissed Marvel’s ‘Thor’. I guess we can go ahead and mark Snyder down as a DC Comics guy.



It seems Superman is a difficult character for creators to grasp, both in the world of comics and film. Hence the reason Bryan Singer made Superman Returns – it was so much easier to basically remake Richard Donner’s Superman (this time with Baby Superman!) than to branch out into uncharted cinematic territory.

Over the weekend, director Zack Snyder talked to our very own Roth Cornet about his approach to Superman: Man of Steel, a film he’s calling “the most realistic” he’s ever made – which isn’t saying much when you look at his filmography. Yesterday, Snyder talked to Hollywood Outbreak and referred to Superman as a broken concept, while managing to diss Marvel’s Thor in the process.

It should be noted that when Zack Snyder said, “Superman is broken and I think it needs to be fixed,” his wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, interjected with, “From a movie standpoint.” At which point Snyder repeated, “From a movie standpoint.” So Snyder isn’t calling the Superman of the comic books broken, even though many a comic book fan would have no problem saying just that.

Snyder continued to discuss Superman’s movie problem, going so far as to mock Thor by comparison:

“[Superman] is the freaking […] biggest superhero on the planet. He’s the father of every superhero. [Deborah and I] were just talking about this – I’m like, really? Thor? Thor has a movie? [Laughter.] Really? I mean, come on. And there’s no Superman movie? This is, like, the world’s out of balance. It’s like, we’ve lost our minds here, people, come on.”

Listen, there’s no doubt that, cinematically-speaking, Superman has a massive problem. The fact that there hasn’t been a truly successful Superman film since 1980 is both astounding and sad. That said, there’s no reason in the world to denigrate the Marvel version of Thor, who was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and perhaps the greatest comics creator of all time, Jack Kirby. Hell, at least Superman has had quality representation in film – twice over. The last time Thor was seen in a movie theater was The Adventures of Babysitting.



Zack Snyder also discussed the meeting he had with producers Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas before he took the directing job:

“When [Christopher and Emma] asked Deborah and I out to lunch [to tell us] what they wanted to do with [Man of Steel] – I’ve got to say, [beforehand] I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can [do Superman]. [Afterward], I was like, ‘This is right.’ […] I didn’t need to hear that much before I went, ‘Okay, that’s right, that’s the right way to do it.’ […] I’m a fan of the character. I want him to be awesome.”

Check out the full audio recording at Hollywood Outbreak.

While I agree with Zack Snyder that every Superman film since 1980 has been insignificant or just plain bad, I’m not sure the way toward creating the best possible Superman film is realism. After all, the best iteration of Superman in the past twenty years was Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman, which was all kinds of strange, ridiculous, and about as far away from realism as a story can get. In the end, realistic or not, Man of Steel’s quality will be determined not by its style, but by – well, everything else.

Superman: Man of Steel hits theaters December 2012.

detecto algo de miedo en que su producto no se venda o sea tan bueno :hmmn:

si me pagara WB/DC millones de dlls por trabajar para ellos, yo diria lo mismo...

y en vez de "trollear" otras peliculas, deberia preocuparse por volver a hacer buenos filmes, sucker punch es una coleccion de imagenes sin sentido que solo en su imaginacion podria considerarse cine.

esa pelicula es un asco la verdad, un vil sueño junkie.

Grand Admiral Thrawn escribió:esa pelicula es un asco la verdad, un vil sueño junkie.

ya la vi, yo le tenia fe... por increible que pareciera... finalmente 300, watchmen y hasta la de los buhos me habian gustado... pero la verdad sucker punch esta al nivel de la pelicula de "speed racer" y todavia speed racer esta mas emocionante! la historia no tiene absolutamente nada de sentido, y eso que quiere parecerse un poco a Inception... no creo que superman vaya a ser tan mala, finalmente no la escribe el , pero pues no tiene mucho sentido que despues de hacer una pelicula tan mala, apaleada por la prensa, que consiguio poca recuadacion de taquilla y que salio solo mes y medio antes que Thor , le tires a Thor... quien obviamente destrozara a Sucker Punch, y no porque espere mucho de Thor, sino porque no es complicado ser mejor pelicula que SP.

mi sentir exacto.

ese mae Zack no debería decir nada hasta ver que propone yo no he visto Thor estoy muy ansioso de verla pq los previews me ha llamado mucho la atención y por lo se ha visto de futura película de Superman que es muy poco pienso que es muy temprano para decir nada , debería dedicarse a hacer una buena producción que motive a los fans a creer en hollywood y no criticar en trabajo de otros