Got around to watching this. It passed the time just fine. Some visually interesting worlds and characters with a couple cool - if not particularly memorable - action beats peppered in. It’s definitely a big derivative hodgepodge of influences as has already been mentioned. Can’t fault it much for that because it wears those influences on its sleeve, but it also seemed too comfortable taking serious shortcuts with the world-building and character development because of the presumed familiarity with the tropes and themes. So while fun, it was a pretty passive, hollow experience for me and I don’t know that I’ll think about it much until the next one comes out.
I’ll be curious to see the Director’s Cut, although the timing and framing of that (not necessarily its existence in and of itself) still irritates me. It may be a business move that Snyder was on board with, but that doesn’t mean it gets to be waved away, free from criticism. Filmmaking at this level is always going to be a balance between business interests and artistic vision, and compromises made in either direction with re-calibrations to maintain that core vision are inherent to the process. For someone at Snyder’s level, if there was ever a studio that would reduce the number of compromises that needed to be made to put out your dream project and your best foot forward, it’s Netflix. If you’re releasing that next big project to a mix of overwhelmingly negative to mildly positive reviews, while simultaneously talking up an unseen superior version coming later, and the rationale for not releasing the best version out of the gate amounts to “this was the watered down version we made for families to maximize visibility and merchandising during the holidays!”…it’s not a great look.
I also don’t entirely buy it? It doesn’t seem like the mature rating matters nearly as much for the home streaming landscape as compared to theaters, particularly in a post-Game of Thrones world. It’s hard to believe this wouldn’t have ended up as the #1 movie regardless of the content. The movie is already firmly in the PG-13 realm, so the kids they’re aiming to reach must be far younger than I’m imagining based on the movie I watched, or the R version is a very substantial swing to hard hard R territory for it to creatively need that kind of overhaul and justification for a second big release. Could they have released the creator’s ideal version first, possibly to more favorable reviews and a better initial impression, and done a release of a more age-appropriate version later (or even simultaneously)? Certainly, but there wouldn’t be a reason to double dip for your views if the release order was in any other configuration than “worse version first”. That’s the business move.
Regardless, Snyder movies and their response continue to fascinate me. I feel like he just has some special sauce that provokes hyperbole? You’d think with the divisive, passionate responses people have it would be down to arguing a 1/10 vs. 10/10, but then everyone shows their hand and it’s actually like 5-6/10 vs. 7-8/10 lol.
I’ll be curious to see the Director’s Cut, although the timing and framing of that (not necessarily its existence in and of itself) still irritates me. It may be a business move that Snyder was on board with, but that doesn’t mean it gets to be waved away, free from criticism. Filmmaking at this level is always going to be a balance between business interests and artistic vision, and compromises made in either direction with re-calibrations to maintain that core vision are inherent to the process. For someone at Snyder’s level, if there was ever a studio that would reduce the number of compromises that needed to be made to put out your dream project and your best foot forward, it’s Netflix. If you’re releasing that next big project to a mix of overwhelmingly negative to mildly positive reviews, while simultaneously talking up an unseen superior version coming later, and the rationale for not releasing the best version out of the gate amounts to “this was the watered down version we made for families to maximize visibility and merchandising during the holidays!”…it’s not a great look.
I also don’t entirely buy it? It doesn’t seem like the mature rating matters nearly as much for the home streaming landscape as compared to theaters, particularly in a post-Game of Thrones world. It’s hard to believe this wouldn’t have ended up as the #1 movie regardless of the content. The movie is already firmly in the PG-13 realm, so the kids they’re aiming to reach must be far younger than I’m imagining based on the movie I watched, or the R version is a very substantial swing to hard hard R territory for it to creatively need that kind of overhaul and justification for a second big release. Could they have released the creator’s ideal version first, possibly to more favorable reviews and a better initial impression, and done a release of a more age-appropriate version later (or even simultaneously)? Certainly, but there wouldn’t be a reason to double dip for your views if the release order was in any other configuration than “worse version first”. That’s the business move.
Regardless, Snyder movies and their response continue to fascinate me. I feel like he just has some special sauce that provokes hyperbole? You’d think with the divisive, passionate responses people have it would be down to arguing a 1/10 vs. 10/10, but then everyone shows their hand and it’s actually like 5-6/10 vs. 7-8/10 lol.
