Zack Snyder’s Latest Defense Feels Like Watching Him Rewatch "Man of Steel"

Variety published an article on Sept. 15, 2026—three weeks after The Last Photograph opened—that caught Zack Snyder mid-rant about "fascist" critics and the "gayest movie ever made." I'd assumed he'd retreat into silence like a director who once forgot to finish Justice League. He didn't.

He said it plainly: The film isn't fascist. Not even close. He listed his 2017 budget—$356 million—and called that "a number critics ignore." Then he pivoted, as if someone had texted him at 4 a.m., to claim the movie is deliberately queer because of a phone-camera shot of two characters kissing under fireworks. The line felt like something written by someone who once read a tweet about LGBTQ+ representation and decided to weaponize it.

The article's author noted Snyder framed the backlash as returning to his "artistic roots," which means treating critics like they're arguing over green screens from 2013. He mentioned how he'd "always been this way" before trailing off into a story about a coffee cup and a lost manuscript that The Dark Knight should've had time for.

Critics aren't buying it. The film scored 54% on Rotten Tomatoes as of Sept. 12, which means the last three weeks have been think pieces dissecting whether Snyder's style is a genre or an algorithm bug. One review called his direction "a camera that forgot to stop recording." Another accused him of using CGI like it was still 2007 and not the year The Batman came out.

He tried again, naming a scene with a phone-camera shot under fireworks where two characters kiss. "It's not just gay," he said in Variety. "It's deliberately queer." That line feels like it was written by someone who thinks queerness is a checklist item rather than something that needs to exist beyond a poorly rendered kiss and a green screen.

The article quoted him dismissing comparisons between his work and fascist propaganda, though he never named specific critics or arguments—just the "usual suspects" and vague references to "historical context." He said the film's ending was misunderstood because people didn't "get" his symbolism: a burning house that looks like 300 if someone forgot to remove the green screen.

I'd argue this is where Snyder goes wrong. His entire career has been about loud, obvious symbols—superheroes with more CGI than a Marvel movie in 2015, landscapes painted by someone who saw one photo of Iceland and thought "this is how it's done." The Last Photograph doesn't change that. It adds a new layer to the same problem: he's still making movies where nothing feels accidental.

The Variety piece highlighted his claim that the interview was "the most honest thing I've ever said," which makes sense when you're a director who once spent six months reshooting Man of Steel because the CGI wasn't "epic enough." He called critics' complaints about pacing a "misunderstanding" and claimed the film was rushed. That's funny coming from someone whose 2017 movie had to be split into two parts just to fit in more explosions.

He even said his work is "misinterpreted by people who think art has to be simple," which feels like a red flag written in all caps. Especially when you're the guy who spent years turning Justice League into an event that required two sequels just to fix its editing. The critics aren't arguing over CGI or pacing—they're questioning whether he's still making movies for people who want more than loud symbols and green screens.

The Variety article didn't mention box office numbers, but it's safe to assume they're lower than his 2017 budget. The backlash isn't just about The Last Photograph—it's about a director convinced he can keep making the same style for another decade without anyone noticing.

He claimed the film's "gayest" moment was deliberate, which feels like it was written by someone who thinks queerness is a checklist item rather than something that needs to exist beyond a scene with fireworks and a poorly rendered kiss. That line probably won't stop think pieces from analyzing whether he understands what he's saying.

The interview ends with him insisting The Last Photograph isn't fascist, which makes me wonder if he's read the same reviews as people who called his work "a cinematic equivalent of a loudspeaker." He might be right about one thing: critics are still overreacting to his style like it's 2013. But that doesn't mean they're wrong.

Variety's article gives him little else besides repeating the "gayest movie" line and talking about how he'll make more films with "the same vision." That feels like a warning sign, not just for critics but anyone who remembers the time he spent six months reshooting Man of Steel because the CGI wasn't "epic enough."

He might be right when he says The Last Photograph isn't fascist. But if his entire career has been about making movies that rely on loud symbols and green screens, then maybe the real problem isn't the critics—it's Zack Snyder still thinking he can keep doing this without anyone noticing the same thing everyone else does.