The Genre Transgression
Over the years, Zack Snyder has on one hand been praised as a pure cinematic auteur and a smug filmmaker on the other, a phony whose movies are gloating exercises of style over substance. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, but it’s a fact that Snyder’s visual aesthetic has heavily influenced Hollywood filmmaking in the past decade. With the exception of his debut (and most grounded and undervalued movie) Dawn of the Dead, his filmography is a rollercoaster of meticulously stylized scenes that largely work with the logic of a music video. And although he tried a different, more organic and down-to-earth approach in Man of Steel, he went full Zack Snyder mode on this one.
In terms of tone and style, BvS is diametrically opposite to Marvel movies. MCU’s colorful characters and their catchy one-liners have no place in Snyder’s dark and gritty DCEU (seriously, just google “dark and gritty” and the first results will be BvS screens). The ultra slow-motioned, desaturated visuals, the gloomy feel, the gothic iconography accompanied by a majestic score, provide the film with a grand, operatic feel.
The narrative construction of the film is uneven, largely composed of extended and seemingly disjointed dream sequences and scrappy plotlines – somewhat smoothened in the Ultimate Cut – that confused a huge part of the audience. Its adult tone is highly unusual for superhero films, the protagonists are deeply flawed and troubling, their morals are ambiguous (the murdering Batman dampened many fans) and comic relief is completely absent. This is clearly not the superhero flick to take your kid to.
All these are transgression elements that exceed superhero genre conventions and distinguish BvS from the dominant blockbuster canon, strengthening its cult status.