Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was a disappointment to say the least. The film suffered from a variety of flaws such as its overtly dark tone, lackluster screenplay and its god-awful villains (yes, both of them). One thing that some critics praised was its visual style that was quite reminiscent of Zack Snyder’s ‘good’ films such as 300 and Watchmen due in part to long time collaborator, Larry Fong’s stylistic cinematography. However, the barrage of insults and criticism directed towards the film has impacted the cinematographer.
Although, most of the insults and criticism surrounding the film does not have much to do with Fong’s work, with his cinematography being one of the few redeeming qualities of the film. Fong spoke on the ComicBook Debate Podcast on the matter and expressed his thoughts on much of the criticism surrounding the film. He said:
“You know, visually I feel like me and my crew killed it, so when you hear things about it, it kind of hurts. But, to be honest the weirdest thing — I’ve never really talked about this — but the weirdest thing, and this has happened a lot, I’ll have a stranger come up and say, ‘You know, Batman v Superman really sucked, but don’t worry, what you did was great. It looked really good. It wasn’t your fault.'”
I think it goes without saying that the creative decisions made by Snyder was one of the reasons Dawn of Justice wasn’t all to great. For the most part, the criticism and insults were directed towards the director but Fong was quick to defend him and wouldn’t accept the praise if it means his pal, Zack would still get chewed up. He continued:
“And I listened to that for a while and was like, ‘K, well thanks.’ But then the more I thought about it I thought I’m not going to accept that. Because everyone’s working towards a common goal, right? And Zack’s my brother, I’m not gonna go, ‘Oh yeah, you know, he did a horrible job, but I didn’t! I just did my job. That’s right!’ I don’t accept that. If you make a baby together you’re proud of that baby. And you can’t really divide it up.”
Can’t help but respect Fong for this as someone who would be willing to follow his leader to the depths of hell and back. Okay, maybe that’s a bit too dramatic but it’s good to see him sticking up for his director. His views on having the film being a collaborative effort by everyone involved is true to a certain degree but in regards to sharing the praise and criticism is something that subscribers of auteur theory might disagree with. The two have worked together in several films, some good, some bad but it’s safe to say that they all look great due to his contribution.
Source: ComicBook Debate Podcast
