James Gunn VS Zack Snyder The One Thing That Sets Them Apart
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Storytelling is always king.
00:02 That's all that matters to us.
00:03 And I want to be true to those stories.
00:05 I want to be true to you guys
00:06 and really give you something different
00:08 than you've ever seen before.
00:10 (upbeat music)
00:12 - Hey, welcome back Screen Crush.
00:13 I'm Ryan Aery.
00:14 So James Gunn is about to reboot the DCU
00:16 and end the Snyderverse for good.
00:18 But what does that actually mean?
00:20 In this video, we're going to dive very deep
00:22 into these filmmakers, examine what makes them tick
00:24 and find out what actually separates
00:26 these two very different approaches
00:27 to DC's cinematic universe.
00:29 First, let's talk about James Gunn.
00:31 Gunn's characters embrace the lighthearted nature of comics
00:33 while still maintaining some sense of realism.
00:35 This creates relatable characters
00:37 who are easy to fall in love with, no matter how flawed,
00:39 which fit perfectly with the MCU.
00:41 Snyder, on the other hand, made a point
00:42 of differentiating himself from the MCU.
00:45 While the MCU story is centered mostly
00:47 around humans becoming gods,
00:48 Snyder's films were about gods becoming human.
00:51 From the little we know of and have seen,
00:53 we can already tell that Gunn's universe
00:54 is set to be vastly different than the Snyderverse,
00:57 which may be precisely what the reboot needs.
00:59 - Please, I really need this.
01:01 - And you know, one of Zack Snyder's best received movies
01:04 was his 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead,"
01:06 which was written by James Gunn.
01:08 - Call an ambulance.
01:09 (man screaming)
01:10 - It's interesting to see that these two filmmakers
01:12 were once so aligned with their substance and style,
01:14 but over the years, their artistry has floated
01:16 into very different directions.
01:18 - Hey, how'd your hair get so short?
01:19 - In some shots, my hair is shorter.
01:21 So let's talk about these two filmmakers,
01:23 their careers, and how we got here.
01:25 - Er, James Gunn versus Nack Snyder.
01:27 - Exactly.
01:28 - It's a cage death match.
01:29 Die, millionaires, die.
01:30 - That's enough, comrade.
01:31 So as we said earlier,
01:32 Snyder tried to differentiate his films from the MCU
01:35 by telling stories about gods becoming humans
01:38 versus the other way around,
01:39 which isn't a new concept in DC Comics.
01:41 In fact, the idea was actually best summarized
01:43 in "Kill Bill" volume two.
01:44 - Clark Kent is how Superman views us.
01:47 He's weak, he's unsure of himself, he's a coward.
01:51 - Now, while Clark Kent took a backseat
01:52 in most of Snyder's stories,
01:53 Cavill's version of Superman was more than just
01:55 an average citizen who stumbled into great power
01:58 and thus was burdened by great responsibility.
02:00 - With great power comes great-
02:01 - Don't you dare finish that sentence.
02:03 Don't do it.
02:04 - This Superman is a messianic figure
02:06 who stayed hidden until humanity truly needed him
02:08 despite feeling detached from the human race.
02:10 This was the concept explored in "Man of Steel."
02:12 - I thought you hated that movie.
02:14 - Well, personally, I didn't like Snyder's take
02:15 on this character, but it was a well-made movie,
02:17 just for me, wasn't a great Superman film.
02:19 But I can conceptually understand why Snyderverse fans
02:22 like this version of Superman.
02:23 Cavill's Superman was an outsider,
02:25 someone burdened by their own strength
02:26 and even shunned at an early age for helping people.
02:29 That, plus killing Zod in the end,
02:30 was a major departure from the big blue boy scout
02:33 that we typically think of in Superman films.
02:34 Although I wanna remind you that Richard Donner's
02:36 Superman 78 dealt with a lot of these same themes.
02:39 We had young Clark feeling like an outsider,
02:41 searching for his place in the world,
02:42 and even traveling to the Arctic to find a Kryptonian haven
02:46 where he could learn who he truly was.
02:48 So Snyder's take was filled with controversial decisions
02:50 on a beloved character, but it set the foundation
02:52 for the Snyder universe.
02:54 - That's not a foundation on which friendships are based.
02:56 - The Snyderverse dealt with intense emotional themes
02:59 and each chapter had consequences
03:00 that seemingly threatened the entire world,
03:02 threats that would have otherwise required
03:04 the Avengers and the MCU.
03:05 Since Snyder's stories were exclusively told
03:08 through Superman, the aspect of gods becoming men
03:10 became the Snyderverse's driving theme,
03:12 and that's a lot harder for an audience to relate to.
03:14 - I'm not a god.
03:15 - It's much easier to relate to Spider-Man
03:17 since he constantly fails in some of the most human ways,
03:20 but it's kinda hard to relate to Superman.
03:21 Like, none of you watching this video
03:23 have ever had a genetic codex
03:24 for an entire species imbued in your DNA.
03:26 It's hard to relate to the guy
03:27 who literally stares at Earth from space.
03:29 So this idea of gods becoming men
03:31 is also the most DC aspect of the films.
03:34 - What do you mean by the most DC?
03:36 - Well, you could argue that the idea of gods becoming men
03:38 is actually the thing that distinguishes DC
03:40 from Marvel in general.
03:41 Take characters like The Flash and Quicksilver.
03:43 Both are speedsters with similar powers on paper,
03:45 but Barry can literally turn back time
03:48 and is an actual conduit for the Speed Force,
03:50 which gives him godlike powers.
03:51 Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman,
03:53 all of them have nearly limitless powers,
03:55 whereas Marvel characters tend to have
03:57 more humanizing limitations.
03:58 Like, as awesome as Spider-Man is,
04:00 he'd have a hard time web-slinging
04:01 through the middle of Nebraska.
04:02 But actually, what defines Spider-Man
04:04 isn't the limitations of his powers,
04:05 it's the limitations of his humanity.
04:07 He's still a regular guy who struggles with his love life,
04:09 struggles to pay rent.
04:11 - Rent?
04:12 - Well, what about Thor or Batman?
04:13 They are the exceptions to this rule.
04:15 - Well, obviously, yeah, there's exceptions,
04:17 but even those examples you cited
04:18 still bear emblematic traits of their respective universes.
04:21 Thor may have been a god,
04:22 but he was probably the most relatable god
04:24 we've seen on screen.
04:25 In the comics, and in the first Thor movie,
04:27 the Thunder God is stripped of his powers
04:29 to learn humility as a normal man living in Midgard,
04:31 and the MCU has gradually turned Thor
04:33 into a big, earthling goofball.
04:35 - I'm gonna fly over to your house,
04:37 come down to that basement you're hiding in,
04:39 rip off your arms and shove them up your butt!
04:41 - Batman may not be a god,
04:42 but he certainly has a god complex.
04:44 He's the only man who's cocky enough
04:46 to take on a literal god himself,
04:47 plus his near-endless resources make him kind of godlike.
04:50 I mean, Batman's supposed to be like Odysseus,
04:52 a man skilled in all means of contending,
04:54 but over the years, he's evolved into a character
04:56 who's always so totally in control of every situation,
04:59 he might as well be godlike.
05:01 - What are your superpowers again?
05:03 - I'm rich.
05:04 - Additionally, to Snyder's credit,
05:05 his Batman is more of a side character.
05:07 He's the human challenger to the gods,
05:09 and in Batman v Superman,
05:11 Bruce's character arc is very straightforward.
05:13 He's there to recognize the humanity inside of Superman.
05:15 - Kill Martha!
05:18 - And then in the Justice League,
05:19 he has a one-note character arc.
05:20 To unite the Justice League.
05:22 - Haven't you heard?
05:23 - We're getting the band back together.
05:25 - In Snyder's full vision, Batman's also a prophet.
05:27 He was the only hero that was constantly plagued
05:29 by visions of Darkseid's apocalyptic future,
05:31 and he's the only Justice League member
05:33 that's visited by Barry in that one scene
05:35 that Snyder fans won't let go of.
05:36 So even though he's just a man,
05:38 he still fits a lot of these same godlike characteristics.
05:41 - This man is my god.
05:42 (audience laughing)
05:43 - Now with that said,
05:44 none of that really helped the character in these movies.
05:46 Batfleck had some kick-ass moments,
05:48 but he never really landed with general audiences.
05:51 So it's possible that Snyder's tunnel vision approach
05:53 to this one particular aspect of DC
05:55 really cost the Dark Knight a lot.
05:57 - You know how much I sacrifice?
05:59 - Now we did a video a couple years back
06:00 where we dove into Snyder's background
06:02 to ask why he seems to be pursuing these same themes
06:05 in all of his movies.
06:06 In works like 300, Watchmen, and the DCEU,
06:08 he's always telling stories about these godlike heroes
06:11 painted on these beautiful tapestries.
06:13 And when you explore his upbringing and favorite media,
06:15 we can see where this point of view evolved from.
06:17 His mother was a painter, so from a young age,
06:19 Snyder learned to appreciate the beauty of a frozen image.
06:22 - So you're like, "Can I see this scene before we make it?"
06:25 And he has beautiful drawings.
06:27 - His favorite book as a child
06:29 was called Jonathan Livingston's Seagull,
06:30 a story about a seagull who is punished by his father
06:33 for wanting to fly higher than the other birds.
06:35 Similar to how Snyder's Superman is persecuted by the world
06:38 for his powers, and even his dad tries to limit his godhood.
06:41 - Clark, you have to keep this side of yourself a secret.
06:44 - Snyder was also raised a Christian scientist.
06:46 Now, this is a sect of Christianity
06:48 that believes that the physical world is not real,
06:50 or at least that it's a shadow
06:51 of the true heavenly existence.
06:53 - Luminous beings, are we?
06:55 Not this crude matter.
06:56 - To quote Snyder, "Christian scientists believe
06:58 "that part of our journey is to transcend that reality
07:01 "through Christ-like living."
07:02 I hear that, and I think of Dr. Manhattan,
07:05 a man who literally transcended this world to become a god.
07:08 So Snyder's point of view of these heroes
07:09 and his desaturated look became so dominant
07:12 that most fans started to look at the DC
07:14 as just a darker, less funny version of Marvel.
07:16 But DC can be goofy.
07:18 Like, let's not forget that DC is still the home
07:20 of Batman Shark Repellent, Ascension Street,
07:22 and characters like Matter Eater Lad.
07:24 - Ever since I had to team up with Matter Eater Lad,
07:26 my sense of what's normal is a little (beep) up.
07:27 - In fact, I'd argue that at its core,
07:29 DC is way goofier than Marvel,
07:31 and maybe its film should be goofier too.
07:33 It would be incredibly hard to fit characters
07:34 like Plastic Man into Snyder's dark, gritty,
07:36 slow motion think pieces.
07:38 - Do you bleed?
07:39 - Oh, come on!
07:41 No finders, Fee?
07:43 - So if DC wants to bring their full roster of characters
07:46 into the DCU eventually, it's gonna get goofy.
07:48 - You wanna get nuts?
07:49 Let's get nuts.
07:50 - So while Snyder's vision may have been intriguing,
07:52 it's not necessarily the best fit for the franchise
07:55 as it's written on the page, which brings us to James Gunn.
07:57 Now to understand James Gunn's approach,
07:59 first let's do a quick accounting of where DC is right now.
08:02 After the flop of The Flash, and Shazam, and Black Adam,
08:04 and like a bunch of other movies before that,
08:06 it feels like things have gone completely
08:08 off the rails at Warner Brothers,
08:09 and fans are starting to lose faith
08:10 that we will ever see a DC universe that rivals the MCU.
08:13 And it was very ambiguous leading up to The Flash.
08:15 We weren't sure if we were getting
08:16 like a whole new rebooted universe,
08:18 or if like Ezra Miller was gonna be The Flash
08:20 in the DCU that Gunn was creating.
08:22 It was kept intentionally vague.
08:23 So The Flash's reception kinda gave the DCU a false start,
08:26 but that has not slowed Gunn's momentum at all.
08:29 He recently announced that his Superman is David Corrin Sweat,
08:32 a relatively new face to Hollywood,
08:33 alongside Marvelous Mrs. Maisel herself,
08:35 Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane.
08:37 He's announced a slew of other heroes,
08:39 including Hawkwoman, Metamorpho, Guy Gardner,
08:41 that will appear in the movie.
08:42 - Well, how can he expect us to get excited about that
08:44 when, you know, Flash was so bad?
08:46 Didn't he say that he liked that movie?
08:47 - A fantastic movie that I really love.
08:50 - It's so good.
08:52 - Yeah, but look, honestly,
08:53 I think he was just being a good soldier.
08:54 The language is kept ambiguous
08:56 about whether or not the post-Flash world
08:57 would be his DCU or not.
08:59 It turns out that Flash was just created a big multiverse
09:02 for Gunn's movies to exist within.
09:03 Now, it makes sense for Gunn
09:04 to not trash existing DC movies.
09:06 After all, there's still one DC movie yet to come out
09:09 that isn't part of his universe, Aquaman,
09:11 and he wants to keep fans invested in DC films.
09:13 - Stay with me, stay with me.
09:15 Stay with me, stay with me.
09:16 - Gunn has had amazing success with D-list characters.
09:19 The Guardians of the Galaxy were unheard of
09:21 before Gunn and Nicole Perlman
09:22 brought them to the big screen,
09:23 and that success has only snowballed
09:25 after The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.
09:27 - Dude, I didn't mean to put your father in prison.
09:30 - Then why'd you put him there?
09:31 - Because I couldn't think of anybody else.
09:33 - What about Ariana Grande or Drake?
09:35 - What?
09:36 - Seriously, the dude has not missed
09:37 when it comes to superhero films.
09:39 His movies are still firmly grounded in reality,
09:41 but they also embrace the fantastical.
09:43 I seriously doubt that Starro, a giant kaiju starfish,
09:46 was ever in the plans for the Snyderverse,
09:48 but it was the first villain out the gate from James Gunn
09:51 because it's inherently more James Gunn.
09:53 - Oh, what do you mean?
09:53 Like there's a lot of bad words
09:55 and jokes about human private parts
09:56 and in a human jail all the time?
09:58 - No.
09:59 - You want us to read the manual for you too, bro?
10:01 - Now what?
10:02 - Open the (beep) door.
10:03 - Fran Tarkington, Joe Montana, Joe Montania.
10:07 - What the (beep)
10:08 - Oh yeah, James Gunn does that a lot.
10:09 But James Gunn's movies,
10:10 going all the way back to the Scooby-Doo films he wrote,
10:12 are all about the importance of family and acceptance.
10:15 Rather than focusing on gods becoming human,
10:17 he likes stories about deeply flawed humans
10:19 who are sometimes grappling with superhuman abilities.
10:21 In "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,"
10:23 Peter Quill is given the powers of a god.
10:25 - You are a god.
10:26 - But he throws away that power
10:27 to save his extended family.
10:29 The ultimate lesson of that movie
10:30 is that he learns to appreciate his found family.
10:33 - He may have been your father, boy,
10:35 but he wasn't your daddy.
10:36 - I'm very popular.
10:38 - "Guardians 3" takes this even further
10:40 by focusing on Rocket.
10:41 Rocket believes that he is a monster, unlovable.
10:43 - If you were cobbled together by fat-fingered children,
10:47 how could you be part of a perfect species?
10:50 - And after he caused the deaths of his friends,
10:52 he believes that he is unworthy of love.
10:54 The "Guardians" films all take the characters on an arc
10:56 where they learn to appreciate each other as people
10:59 and not as objects.
11:00 Empathy is the driving theme of all three movies.
11:02 As Rocket finally learns to love himself,
11:04 he can accept the love of others.
11:05 The "Suicide Squad" is about people who are also irredeemable,
11:08 who exist at the fringes of society.
11:10 These are people that the system has decreed
11:11 have no place in decent society,
11:13 which is why Taika Waititi's scene
11:15 as Ratcatcher 1 hits so hard.
11:17 - Rats are the lowliest and most despised
11:19 of all creatures, my love.
11:21 If they have purpose, so do we all.
11:24 - So this is the point of view
11:25 that James Gunn sees the world through.
11:27 Unlike Snyder, he approaches all of his characters
11:29 through a fundamentally human lens.
11:31 So let's apply that to the new DCU.
11:33 We know that his "Superman Legacy" series
11:35 will be based on "All-Star Superman,"
11:36 which is a pretty unique pick.
11:37 - It is an excellent choice.
11:39 - Not only is Kal-El's identity as Clark Kent
11:41 a more prominent aspect of the story,
11:43 but the approach to Superman is much more human.
11:46 "All-Star Superman" is an incredible comic book
11:48 where Kal-El knows that he's dying
11:50 and he spends his last days making right certain wrongs.
11:52 That old question,
11:53 what would you do if you had a month to live?
11:55 This comic book answers
11:56 what would Superman do with a month to live,
11:58 and it cuts to the very core of who Superman is.
12:01 During an interview,
12:02 the writer of the "All-Star Superman" series, Grant Morrison,
12:04 talked about his approach to the character,
12:06 opting for a much more relaxed Superman.
12:08 In an interview with "Newsarama,"
12:09 Morrison described him as laid back and un-intense, saying,
12:12 "Superman wouldn't puff out his chest
12:14 "or posture heroically.
12:15 "He would be totally chilled.
12:16 "If nothing can hurt you, you can afford to be cool."
12:19 - Which is already very different
12:20 from Henry Cavill's Superman.
12:22 - Yeah, Henry Cavill's Superman seemed to constantly carry
12:24 around the burden of having to do good,
12:26 whereas "All-Star Superman" enjoys doing good.
12:29 Now, beyond that, we know the movie's going to feature
12:31 Lex Luthor, Lois Lane,
12:32 but we also have some characters
12:33 we've yet to see on the big screen,
12:34 such as Krypto the super dog.
12:36 - I'll have you know, he very much already made his debut
12:38 in "The Super Pets," which was a fantastic movie,
12:41 highly underrated, and criminally undercovered
12:43 by this channel.
12:44 - Yeah, it was truly an unsung masterpiece,
12:46 but see, the inclusion of elements like Krypto in this movie,
12:48 who's a literal super-powered dog,
12:50 plus the small samples of work that we've seen,
12:52 already suggest a major tonal shift
12:54 from what we've seen in the past,
12:55 and it resonated with fans.
12:57 People genuinely love "Peacemaker,"
12:58 despite the fact that it seemed
13:00 like the most extra thing ever.
13:01 Why do we need to know more about Peacemaker
13:03 after seeing him die in "The Suicide Squad?"
13:05 But in the end, we're glad that we got the show.
13:07 It was hilarious and absolutely fleshed out the character
13:10 and the DC world just a little bit more.
13:11 "Peacemaker" is another one of Gunn's flawed figures
13:14 with a haunted past,
13:15 who finds redemption through a found family.
13:17 He ends the series by killing the aliens
13:19 who would have fixed all the world's problems.
13:20 - To save your people and your world,
13:22 no matter how many lives it cost us.
13:24 - But he did it to protect the people he cared about.
13:27 In this ending, we also see another theme in Gunn's work,
13:30 the idea of rebelling against control.
13:32 For instance, in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1,"
13:34 it's not the Nova Corps who organized everyone
13:36 and saved the day.
13:37 It was the Guardians of the Galaxy,
13:39 a group of escaped fugitives
13:40 who had to tell the Nova Corps what to do.
13:42 So "Peacemaker" is a great example
13:44 of how Gunn's DC universe can be both funny and goofy
13:47 while still retaining a grounded approach
13:48 and dealing with serious issues.
13:50 - So what about the DCU's Batman?
13:51 - Well, Gunn has already announced
13:53 that "The Brave and the Bold"
13:54 will be his take on the Caped Crusader,
13:55 and it will also feature Damian Wayne as Robin.
13:57 - Who's Damian Wayne?
13:58 - He is the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul,
14:01 an assassin who works for the League of Shadows.
14:03 He was raised by them until he met his father
14:05 and became the first Robin with a katana.
14:06 - A katana must know all the blades.
14:10 - Damian is another character
14:11 who exists on the fringes of society.
14:13 He's a murderer trained to be an assassin.
14:15 He's somebody who's going to need redemption,
14:16 and having a dad Batman
14:18 is another defining feature of Gunn's DCU.
14:20 - It's raining dead.
14:22 - This is a Batman who has to deal with his trauma head on
14:24 in order to set an example for his son.
14:26 And for Bruce Wayne, there's nothing more difficult
14:29 than dealing with trauma.
14:30 ♪ Am I blue ♪
14:32 So this means that we're not going to get
14:34 this renegade God hunter from the Snyderverse,
14:36 but rather a more adult Batman.
14:38 It's really interesting to see the tools
14:39 that Gunn has chosen to play with in phase one of the DCU.
14:42 Supergirl, Swamp Thing, and the Authority
14:44 are all super excited in their own rights.
14:46 But after Peacemaker,
14:47 the projects that look truly interesting are the TV series.
14:49 We know that Amanda Waller is going to hit
14:51 because Viola Davis,
14:52 Paradise Lost seems to be a unique take
14:54 on Wonder Woman's world,
14:55 and HBO's Lanterns has the potential to finally redeem
14:57 one of the best comic book characters from that hit
14:59 and mostly miss Ryan Reynolds' film.
15:01 - Welcome to ring slinging 101,
15:03 or as I like to call it,
15:05 the worst day of your worthless life.
15:08 - The first phase or chapter of Gunn's universe
15:10 is called Gods and Monsters.
15:12 Whereas Snyder mostly focused on gods and man.
15:14 The monsters aspect of this is what intrigues me the most.
15:17 Swamp Thing is a monster who believes that he's human,
15:19 learns that he's not,
15:20 and then embraces a new form of humanity within himself.
15:23 Supergirl had to watch her planet and family die,
15:25 so she'll have survivor guilt,
15:26 kind of similar to rockets.
15:27 But even out of all that,
15:28 one of the announced TV series stands out as the most
15:30 James Gunn of them all,
15:31 and that is Booster Gold.
15:33 - Who's that?
15:34 Who's Booster Gold?
15:35 - He is a time traveler from the future
15:36 who uses future tech to be a hero in the modern age.
15:38 He's typically comedy relief and kind of a sellout,
15:40 which is exactly the kind of character
15:42 that Gunn would thrive with.
15:43 - Sounds like my kind of guy.
15:44 - Plus it gives Gunn a conduit
15:46 to tell a larger story about the universe.
15:48 - The prevention of a future catastrophe?
15:50 - Exactly, which is kind of Booster Gold's
15:52 whole thing anyways.
15:53 It's also a perfect example of Gunn's biggest advantage
15:55 when it comes to creating this new DCU, cohesion.
15:58 Gunn loves comic books,
15:59 and we can see just from the properties
16:01 that he's chosen to start with
16:02 that he's already setting the stage
16:03 for a much bigger story.
16:05 - But wait, Snyder's movies were connected too.
16:07 - Kinda.
16:08 While Wonder Woman and Aquaman were still very much
16:10 in the universe Snyder was building,
16:11 they had very different tones and feels.
16:13 - It's not the same.
16:15 - Then after Snyder was removed from the Justice League
16:17 and Whedon stepped in,
16:18 things really started to go off
16:19 in their own different directions.
16:21 There were just too many cooks in the kitchen.
16:22 - You didn't say corner.
16:24 You didn't say corner.
16:25 - Now while the MCU has had many directors,
16:27 they've developed their own way of connecting these stories
16:29 and giving them a similar look and feel,
16:31 so that audiences can honestly buy into the idea
16:33 that these characters all exist in the same universe.
16:35 - Is it working? - Moving.
16:36 - Is it working?
16:37 - Now not only has Gunn been a part
16:39 of developing that process in the early stages of phase one,
16:41 but he's also been given Feige-like powers
16:43 to oversee the DCU.
16:45 Also, if we're being blunt,
16:46 the Snyderverse movies had script problems.
16:49 There are so many lines in the Snyderverse films
16:51 that just fall short.
16:52 I mean, seriously, remember this?
16:53 - I would advise not getting killed by her.
16:56 Her sword traps the souls of its victims.
16:59 - Or probably the worst moment of all, this.
17:01 - Save Martha!
17:05 - Now there were some moments that shined,
17:06 such as this lasso of the truth seen in the flash.
17:08 - I developed this all-powerful persona
17:10 to compensate for my childhood trauma.
17:12 - Or even this.
17:13 - Do your bleed.
17:14 - But those moments are still sandwiched
17:16 between bad dialogue and over-dramatized plot points.
17:18 Luckily, the most well-written parts of the DC Universe
17:21 as it stands now have all come
17:22 from the horribly beautiful mind of James Gunn.
17:24 It's also important that Gunn shows a relatively new face
17:27 for his Superman, since the Snyderverse
17:29 had its fair share of controversy
17:30 when it came to its actors.
17:31 Ezra Miller terrorizing the people in Hawaii
17:33 definitely had a significant impact
17:35 on the Flash's box office,
17:36 which is a pretty bad sign for Aquaman too,
17:38 since it will feature Amber Heard as Mira,
17:40 who was a controversial figure
17:41 after her very public divorce trial.
17:43 Even Ben Affleck's casting was met
17:45 with strong pushback from fans.
17:46 And I really liked Ben Affleck as Batman.
17:48 I thought he was great.
17:48 Gunn picking a new face limits people
17:50 having big feelings about that face,
17:52 since they don't have much of a portfolio
17:54 to judge them on.
17:55 This way, Corn Sweat's Superman performance
17:56 can be judged simply by how well
17:58 he brings the character to life
17:59 and not the previous roles that he's played,
18:01 as long as they don't get into any trouble.
18:03 - You keep your nose clean, sunshine.
18:04 - Well, I will have my tiny toes crossed for them.
18:07 - But if you want some concrete examples
18:08 of ways I think these universes are gonna be different,
18:11 let's look at how they handled villains, right?
18:13 So in Snyder's Justice League,
18:14 Steppenwolf is the main villain,
18:16 but he's working for Darkseid.
18:17 And in the Snyder Cut,
18:18 Darkseid is this huge, untouchable threat.
18:20 He's so far from everything else.
18:22 He is godlike.
18:23 He is Satan.
18:24 He is the great evil that cannot even be seen,
18:26 let alone defeated.
18:27 Whereas, let's look at James Gunn's one DCEU movie,
18:30 and that's the Suicide Squad.
18:31 We think that all the way through that,
18:33 the main villain, Starro the Conqueror,
18:34 this alien that wants to conquer Earth.
18:36 But then we find out that the reason
18:38 Starro wants to conquer Earth
18:39 is because the people of Earth
18:41 have abused and tortured him.
18:43 Just like the antiheroes at the center of this story,
18:45 we end up sympathizing with the villain.
18:47 We see from their point of view.
18:49 We feel really bad for this giant alien starfish
18:51 and kind of want him to destroy all the humans.
18:53 Whereas the Zack Snyder movies
18:55 lack any kind of nuance in this way.
18:57 Zod, super evil Nazi from space
18:58 who wants to remake the world in his own image.
19:00 Luther, super evil human who would unleash a devil
19:03 just to kill a god out of spite.
19:04 And like I said,
19:05 Steppenwolf was basically a demon working for the devil.
19:08 Now, maybe in future Justice League films,
19:09 we would have gotten a little bit more nuanced
19:10 with Superman turning evil
19:12 and having to be brought back from the Darkseid,
19:13 but you know, we never got there.
19:14 So while the Snyderverse was great
19:16 at delivering the omnibus power behind these DC characters,
19:19 Gunn's universe and his track record shows
19:21 that his DCU could potentially be a cinematic universe
19:24 that embodies both the seriousness
19:25 and goofiness of the DC universe.
19:27 Which honestly, we should all be very excited about.
19:29 - Be such an exciting time for you.
19:31 It really will be.
19:32 - So do you think Gunn's DCU
19:33 will be better than the Snyderverse?
19:35 Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below
19:36 or at me on Twitter.
19:37 And if it's your first time here,
19:38 please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts.
19:39 For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Airy.
19:42 (upbeat music)
19:44 (upbeat music)
19:47 (upbeat music)
19:49 (upbeat music)
19:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:55 (upbeat music)