Why I'm not watching The Snyder Cut (2021)

 (SPOILER WARNING!!... maybe)

Back in 2017 after the release of "Justice League", many DC fanboys were crying out that the version that we got in theatre, which had been taken over by alleged abuser Joss Whedon, did not live up to expectations in regards to what the title and premise promised. By now, it's common knowledge that most people were not fans of the film, especially with how it was pretty obvious that Warner Bros/DC had interfered and overstepped during the production to the point of of demanding needless reshoots and virtually rewriting the entire script, which came off as disingenuous with later knowledge that Zack Snyder had left the project once filming had wrapped to cope with the loss of his daughter Autumn, who had tragically taken her own life circa March of 2017.

But with or without knowledge of the behind-the-scenes meddling, many were demanding that Zack be given another chance to create the version of the story that HE wanted to tell, rallying behind the Twitter hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. I will freely admit that when I first heard of this, I openly scoffed at the idea. I neither liked or hated "Justice League" due to lower expectations, even when I was fully aware of what made the film a cinematic mess. But I vocally refused to believe that either Warner Bros or DC would risk making another version of the film, as whatever they did could potentially make the end product worse than its predecessor. It happened with the "Ultimate Edition" of BvS (which I still say is worse than the theatrical cut), so I was fully expecting that to happen to "Justice League".

But lo and behold. Not only did they get Zack Snyder back to put together his version of the movie; not only were they giving him the full creative freedom that they took away after filming wrapped on the first version; and not only was it actually finished and put on HBO Max; but as of writing this, people with HBO Max who had seen it are thoroughly enjoying it, with many calling it an improvement over the original and exactly what they thought they were going to get in the first place. I am happy that they are enjoying it, and that their vocal support for Zack to release his own version had paid off. And if those reading this had seen and enjoyed it, good for you.

Now with that out of the way, please allow me list the reasons why I likely will never see it.

1. I live in the UK.

This is probably the simplest reason. I'm from England, and right now HBO Max is not available to us lot, so I wouldn't be able to watch it anyways. I know some friends over here who MIGHT be able to watch it by other means, but it's down to them if they want to watch it. If they do, more power to them. If not, then I could care less.

That's about it for this part. I can't watch it coz I'm Bri'ish, init?

2. The visual style.

One thing that I wan to make clear is that I don't hate Zack Snyder. A few dumb comments about his own movies and comic books aside, Zach seems like a legitimately nice guy. He's clearly passionate about the general art of filmmaking, and he's apparently pretty amiable if the word of the actors are to be believed. If nothing else, I can at least say that he clearly puts a lot of effort into his work.

But I've never understood the appeal of his style of direction, which normally leads to me not enjoying a lot of what he produces. This is not helped by how, more often than not in my opinion, he tends to focus on style over substance, and this in turn has lead to visually bold films with messy or derivative narratives and themes. The only real exceptions I can name are "300", which was already an excessive and overly dramatic work of fiction as a graphic novel written by Frank "Goddamn Batman" Miller, and "Watchmen", which I can personally credit to how it was a faithful retelling of the graphic novel in spite of a stupid ending that removes the weight and ambiguity of the source material. Otherwise, I end up not liking a lot of his movies due to the visual style being very monochromatic and lifeless, with most of the colour palette being either dark greys or garish browns. Add in the excessive amount of slow motion and the camera never being held still so that we can actually appreciate the cinematography, and you a method of filmmaking that simply doesn't appeal to me.

And with the first trailer of the Snyder Cut, I could tell that this would be the most that Zack Snyder had ever Synder'd. The visual style was exactly as I described, with a bleak tone telling of the end of the world and the characters being edgelord level serious and stoic. The main villain was given away in the very first shot of the trailer (and looked terrible, incidentally) and we were greeted to the second use of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in a Zack Snyder project, which I think made us laugh moreso than it made us cry. It would've been the funniest thing I had ever seen if it weren't for the fact that I don't like the visual style.

3. I'm done with DC movies.

A lot of the problems I've had with a lot of the DCEU movies can easily be pinpointed to one singular source: DC themselves. For the longest time, I could tell that most of the narrative or character choices for the films was a direct result of DC meddling with their own projects. As much as I don't enjoy Zack's visual style, I don't blame him for how "Man Of Steel" made Superman, the ultimate symbol of hope in the DC Universe, into a joyless robot who meanders around until an artificial conflict reveals itself. It wasn't Zack's fault nor was it Henry Cavill's fault; DC was clearly pushing for a dark and gritty retelling of one of the kindest and most compassionate superheroes of all time. And sadly, this kind of tonal disconnect from the character is the only real consistent element with "Batman V Superman", as well as parts of "Suicide Squad". Most of the characters are joyless, passionless entities with no real motivations or end goals beyond just dressing up in costumes and waiting for supervillains to turn up, which is literally true in the case of the plot to "Suicide Squad".

And it's because of this disconnect that I've begun to distance myself from DC's movies, even with the course correction that was shown in "Wonder Woman", "Aquaman" and "Shazam". As much as I enjoy those films, it was clear to me that they were still examples of DC having to do some serious damage control with how their other films had been miserable experiences at the cinema for those of us who simply want to see someone become a superhero and inspire hope in people.

As much as I don't want to compare them, it feels kind of inevitable that I discuss how DC handled their films versus how Marvel handles their films. With Marvel, they take the time to fully establish the characters and their universe, while also littering small hints throughout the important ones to other characters or possible threats that set-up the literal endgame to the ongoing storyline. Whereas with DC, I felt like they rushed doing Superman's origin story before jumping straight into the big crossover event that featured Batman, Wonder Woman, the "Death of Superman" storyline, the "Dark Knight Returns" storyline, and cameos from other Justice League members (and one Teen Titan) to hype up the next time we would see them all in the same film. They basically blew their load on the appeal of seeing these iconic characters together far too early, thus taking away the appeal of a "Justice League" movie. It's not Marvel started with "Iron Man" and then jumped straight into "Infinity War"; they took their time and give us the chance to enjoy the characters.

So it's primarily because of DC's constant interference with these movies that I've chosen to go cold turkey with their projects, and focused instead on watching the Disney + Marvel shows with "Falcon and The Winter Soldier" starting tomorrow as of writing this. And with the exception of Matt Reeve's "The Batman" and James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad", I honestly could care less about what DC is pushing out as none of it really grabs me and I constantly fear that they'll screw it up one way or the other. Call me a cynic if you want, but that's just what the execs at DC have unintentionally done to me.

4. Overexposure.

In spite of all of my rambling, a big reason for not watching the Snyder Cut has to do with the fact that I simply do not care. Almost every time I've checked out my Twitter feed in the past day or so, I've found someone talking about the Snyder Cut and how much they enjoyed it, or it'll show someone asking if their friends enjoyed it, or it'll even ask if any of us will bother seeing it at all. And because of this constant exposure to something that I genuinely could not give two shits about, I found myself wanting to see it less and less.

Once again, to reiterate; I'm glad people are enjoying it. I'm happy that the viewers are engaging with it and finding a version of the movie that satisfies their need for a massive superhero film that isn't owned by Marvel or Disney. More power to those people if they enjoy it.

But I'm sick to death of hearing about this bloody movie almost every time I go on Twitter. It's the same thing that happened when "Wonder Woman 1984" came out. I hadn't seen it, but people constantly talking about it and whether or not it's even good basically pushed me to never see it, even when it comes out on DVD. This isn't something that should happen for someone whose main hobby revolves around talking about movies and what they mean to me.

Conclusion.

If I must state this again. there is nothing wrong with you enjoying this movie if you had seen it. I fully encourage those to share their opinion of this movie while remaining open to what other people speak.

So please remain open when I say that my prior experience with this series of films has made me unwilling to check out the Snyder Cut of "Justice League", especially with further prior experience with seeing people go crazy over the idea of disliking or not seeing a DC movie. I really do hope that it IS good, or even better than the theatrical cut. I may even one day convince myself to devote an entire afternoon to sitting down and watching all four hours of it if it ever comes out on DVD. But as of right now, as someone will enjoys superhero movies and as a major film geek, I can't bring myself to even seek this out on torrents or seeing if someone has pirated it. I just don't have it in me to care about this project right now, especially with other shows and movies currently on my "to-watch" list.

But I think I've said my piece enough as it is. If you liked what you've read, please be sure to share this on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc), and leave a comment letting me know how you feel about the Snyder Cut. If you want to see my regular nerdy bullocks, be sure to follow me on Twitter; my handle is @MediaHood23. I'm also on Instagram, so check me out there; again, @mediahood23. And last but not least, I'd appreciate it if you subscribe to my YouTube channel "Media Hood Reviews". I'm becoming more active on video production, so any support at all is welcome.

But until next time, because there always will be one; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

Age Of Extinction Rewrite Part 2: The Villain Changes

 (SPOILER WARNING!! (kind of))

Welcome to part two of my rewrite of "Age Of Extinction". Here's part one if you need a refresh. Now that I've gone over my changes to the human cast and the Autobots, I think that it's fair that I start with the villains.

In the original film, we had the bounty hunter Lockdown, who was working with the humans to hunt down Optimus Prime in exchange for the Seed that turns entire cities into "transformium" (which is the dumbest name for a fictional element I have ever heard). In concept, I have nothing wrong with Lockdown as the main antagonist; he originally appeared in "Transformers: Animated" as a breakout character and most of the traits associated with him are carried through to the movie. My problem, however, is that the alliance he has with the humans is not interesting, as it basically robs him of any agency as the main robot antagonist.

As for Galvatron, he was pretty much completely wasted. He appears once or twice throughout the film before he suddenly just takes over KSI's surplus of drones and wants the Seed because he's evil. And just like what happened with Megatron in the previous films, he's completely brushed off to the side by literally everything else going on as to focus on the humans instead of the title characters. It wasn't even worth it having Frank Welker reprise the role as so little was actually done with him.

As such, after much consideration, I've decided to excise both Lockdown and Galvatron from the rewrite. Both of these characters deserve much more respect than what was shown in the film, as there isn't really enough room for both. We can just save them for future movies; Galvatron, as far as I'm concerned, should be saved for a story involving Unicron, whilst Lockdown can be a self-serving antagonist in a different story.

Still, do you remember how I said that the info that Blackrock uses to create the Dinobots came primarily from Sentinel's head with Starscream as a secondary source? This is where that comes into play as we ask a big question for this rewrite:

Who are the villains?

Something that has been sorely missing from these films is any sense of personality for the Decepticons. There are a few standouts, of course; Starscream being a snivelling coward and Soundwave being a merciless manipulator come to mind. But aside from that, most of them are either slobbering monsters or generic cannon fodder. The Decepticons in other Transformers stories usually have larger personalities than the Autobots, so we really could've done with a group of Decepticons who can be a challenging threat to the Autobots while having distinct identities.

As brought up before, Blackrock primarily created the Dinobots to be marketed towards the public; dinosaurs are super popular, so making a group of robots based on dinosaurs makes the most sense for popularity. But as I also established, Blackrock's company also has contracts with the military, thus mainly created drones that are more utilitarian in design and function. With Chumley being a CIA operative in my rewrite, most of his backing goes to these military drones so that they can be used to hunt down other Transformers. Blackrock has five prototype drones that transform into some type of military vehicle; the line-up includes a surface-to-air missile truck, an Apache helicopter, a fighter jet, an Abrams tank, and a standard military Humvee. Because of Chumley having a say in what they would be called, these drones are filed under "Project: Combatrons".

And instantly, this should tip off any Transformers fan as to who the villains are. I think the perfect antagonists to have for this movie should've been one of the original Decepticon sub-groups:

The Combaticons.

For those reading who have no idea who these guys are; the Combaticons debuted in the original cartoon series episode "Starscream's Brigade". After another failed attempt at leadership, Starscream ended up abandoned on an island that just happened to have a bunch of scrapped military vehicles, inspiring the traitor to create his own team of Decepticons, which he named the Combaticons, to take leadership from Megatron. It naturally backfired, but the Combaticons were eventually seized by Megatron after they tried tossing the Earth into the sun using a Space Bridge.

The group normally consists of these five characters:

Onslaught, team leader and tactician. He has a near unrivalled strategic mind, which is a contrast to how much of an easily offended perfectionist he is. The instant that his plans go wrong or someone on his team is not doing as ordered, he gets infuriated, which in turn makes him a tougher enemy to deal with.

Vortex, interrogator. He is a sociopath and a sadist, taking pleasure in seeing the people he tortures suffer before killing them once he has the information he's looking for. As far as he's concerned, everything exists to satisfy his own twisted needs.

Blast Off, surveillance and aerial combatant. He has a very high opinion of himself, looking down on literally everyone, even those on his own team. Otherwise, he tends to be apathetic to anyone who tries to bring him down to Earth (so to speak) and likes doing things by choice, as opposed to command.

He'll also be a fighter jet in this rewrite instead of a shuttle to fit into the military aesthetic of the Combaticons.

Brawl, heavy combat specialist. He's loud, violent, and stupid. The gears in his head may not all be in the right spot, but he is certainly a proficient fighter. All Onslaught has to do is point him in the right direction and Brawl will leave a trail of destruction in his path

Also; yes, I know that he was killed in the first movie. But we kept seeing his character model used in the other movies, so him coming back in my rewrite isn't a stretch. Besides, this can be addressed in the film by Blackrock saying that the board of directors really liked the name "Brawl" for the robot that turns into a tank, so that's the name they went with.

Swindle, munitions expert. As the name implies, he can't be trusted by anyone. If he wanted to, he could probably sell his teammates motherboards for a profit. And yet, despite his opportunistic nature, he has the charismatic silver tongue to trick anybody into buying the cheapest gear for the highest price.

I think having the Combaticons would make a good change of pace for the antagonists. Firstly, each one has their own distinct personality; I know I harp on this a lot in this rewrite, but one of the reasons that people enjoy the franchise so much is because the characters have unique identities that you wouldn't mistake for anyone else. You aren't exactly going to confuse the loud and destructive Brawl with the sly, cunning Swindle, are you? Secondly, this creates more visual variety; in almost every single film, the Decepticons are just big grey monsters who blow stuff up. If every Decepticon was like that in the original cartoon or any other incarnation, it's going to make the product go stale in the short run. It's one of the reasons why I appreciate Shatter and Dropkick as the main villains of "Bumblebee"; they are visually distinctive from each other as well as every other main antagonist in the movies.

As for the third reason, this also allows to build a rivalry between the Combaticons and the Dinobots. Unlike the Dinobots, who have a limited A.I to make them easier to control before they develop their own sentience in a manner similar to Robert Di Niro as Frankenstein's monster, the Combaticons are given military grade A.I as to make them more sophisticated. As part of their scheme, Onslaught can have Swindle trick the Dinobots into thinking that they don't belong or that the humans just see them as tools. Here's an exchange I've written between Swindle and Grimlock to give an idea:

S: If you ask me, Grim, these humans really deserve bots like you.

G: What you, Swindle, saying?

S: Better face facts, pal; this Blackrock guy, he's a businessman. And the main concern on ANY businessman's mind is how to use whatever asset they have to make a profit; they exploit anything they see to get higher in the proverbial food-chain.

G: You think him, Blackrock, is using Dinobots? But why? Blackrock nice to us, him give us Dinobots life.

S: Oh sure, it seems like he cares; but I know better, Grimlock. Blackrock, Chumley, those other humans? They talk smack about you behind your backs. They think you're just tools to be used. And the second a tool isn't useful to them, they throw it away for another one. They did it to the Autobots; they'll do it to you, next.

This, as a result, causes Grimlock to lose his cool and distrust the humans, and the Dinobots are loyal to Grimlock so they'll follow him when they break out. This break out can show Grimlock being hostile towards Blackrock, thinking that he sees his creations as just pawns on a chess board, and the inevitable escape will show the defence systems at the facility being completely destroyed. Onslaught, who is pretending to be in stasis lock (essentially a robot equivalent to a medically induced coma), will look on with intrigue, and we can then cut to his perspective as he then brings up a file named "Project: Scramble", which he was able to download from Blackrock's files thanks to the Dinobots providing the ample distraction needed. It was Onslaught who ordered Swindle to lie to Grimlock about Blackrock's intentions, as he had overheard Blackrock talking to his scientists about a secret project that Chumley had requested be made specifically for the Combaticons.

And for anyone familiar with the basic concept of "scramble" in the Transformers mythos, you probably have an idea of what exactly that secret project is. But this will be revealed another time.

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read both this and the first part of this rewrite. I apologise that it took so long, but I wanted to make sure that I had a clear idea of what direction I was taking it in. Secondly, I think I'll be able to wrap up this rewrite in at least two more parts, as I'm already working on what will happen. Those will probably be the longest of the parts primarily because that's where I'll delve more into how the story progresses, so please look forward to that.

But once again, thank you for reading. If you enjoyed, I would appreciate it if you shared this on social media; such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Speaking of, I'd also appreciate it if you follow me on Twitter; my handle is @MediaHood23. I've also made an Instagram account in-between the rewrites, so be sure to check me out on there as well; once again, the account is @mediahood23. And I'm also getting back into the groove of making videos, so be sure to check out Media Hood Reviews on YouTube. Maybe leave a like on the videos, or subscribe if you so wish. And of course, leave a comment on this post letting me know what you thought of the rewrite thus far; any and all feedback from you guys gives me more incentive to keep going with these as well as my reviews.

But until next time; this is Callum Lewis, the Media Hood, signing off!

(special credit to Simon Wong for the fan art on the Combaticons; his Twitter handle is @SimonWongArt and his Instagram account is @sw_illustration_)