What’s the prevailing view of him among comic book fans? My guess is that his stuff has the same sort of standing as Family Guy: it’s popular and its audience includes a lot of comics geeks, but smarter comic geeks (or comic geeks who think they’re smart) look down on it.
I haven’t seen Snyder’s first two films, only Watchmen, and have seen only bits of a couple of Family Guy episodes. So I don’t claim that either Snyder or Family Guy ought to be run into the ground as a matter of principle. I’m just checking to see if my guess as to Snyder’s reputation is correct.
(A joke I saw in a Family Guy episode and have always loved: a talking dog in a bar says, “Hey, whose leg do you have to hump to get a drink around here?”)
I thought 300 was boring, Watchmen as well, but the first 10 minutes of that Dawn of the Dead flick were pretty great, and it had some good shit in the later parts as well. I don’t know how much he had to do with the casting for the flick, but Dawn had some really solid theater actors in it that usually end up in bit parts–it was nice having them front and center.
300 was one of the worst films ever made. Watchmen was better by comparison, but still pretty awful, esp. when compared with the source material.
Snyder seems to be a “comics geek” at heart, but one who is in it more for the violence and explosions than for anything “smarter.” He also seems to be a sexist…or to make incredibly sexist (and racist and homophobic, if 300 is any example) movies…and therefore, I would hope that “smarter” comics geeks would reject his work.
Family Guy has its humorous moments, but despite the differences I’m sure I’ll be deluged with (assuming anyone actually reads these comments), I see it still as a Simpsons knockoff. Not as funny…not as clever…and lacking the heart that the Simpsons still has. Of course, I watch neither with any regularity.
Snyder’s rep is still caught up in the momentum of the fact that he made Watchmen. 300 was good for what it was and Watchmen was a nice failure of an attempt. But he has a good visual action flair that makes his name come up for comic fans that care about action. Fans that like good drama rate him as mediocre because he’s only adapted other people’s work.
The Dawn remake was fantastic.
300 was utter tripe, but hey, look at the source material.
Watchmen had some huge flaws and errors that were directly due to Snyder’s dichotomous pandering/dumbing down.
I think he did pretty good with 300, but that book isn’t very deep, so an all-surface adaptation doesn’t miss much. It worked really well for Snyder’s sensibilities. The added subplot about the Queen whoring herself out for support was pretty awful though.
I would agree with Tucker about Dawn of the Dead; great beginning, but not much else. But it’s not every day you see Sarah Polley in a zombie movie. Oh, and there was that zombie baby; I liked that two seconds.
I would argue about Family Guy being a Simpsons knockoff, but I don’t really care enough about it to bother. It’s got its own identity and style, and it can be funny at times, but I generally find it pretty tiresome. Comparing it to Zack Snyder is probably pretty apt.
Well, I’m not comparing the two per se, just guessing that they get the same sort of reaction in the comic-geek world.