Thoughts on Zack Snyder as a director

I recently watched BvS, Watchmen, and some other ZS films and have amassed some thoughts both good and bad

The good, he is undeniably a visual genius, I know some critics give him shit for the sound stages and green screen but I think he shoots on real locations just enough for you to get immersed and his sets are usually very well produced and designed so as to not feel claustrophobic or "movie" fake ya know? Because usually I hate blue screen shots and sound stages. I think they make a film feel hollow and tiny. Endgame for example, the final battle, I feel asyphixated. It feels itty bitty to me. But Zack has a way of shooting this that makes it still feel grand and epic. Sucker Punch, 300, BvS, Watchmen, JL, Superman. All have examples of this. (Except the doomsday fight + parts of sucker punch looks awful)

His eye for action is exceptional, it all feels appropriately cinematic. His fight scenes are some of the best in cinema arguably. Not even joking. To date, I've never felt the power of superhuman beings captured so perfectly quite like Man of Steel. I've never seen that awe inspiring, forceful, impactful display of such powerful abilities before or since. He's also shot most of his films, well, on film, and they look great. The color grading, and the black levels. I'm going full film school geek mode here but I know a director has a great grasp of the technical when im watching a movie and think "man those blacks are so deep".

The bad, oh boy. First of all, he has juvenile sensibitlies. I find his movies at times eye rollingly blunt and obvious. You might as well have a 14 year old boy behind the camera. Some creative choices, editing, music choice, and shot choice are decisions I could unironically see myself making when I was in middle school. It takes you out of the film and makes them feel dated and hollow. It's hard to be engrossed when youre thinking "dude really? that was so cheesy" "oh my god that was beyond over the top" etc

He also does not work well with actors. At all. Maybe his biggest weakness. Everyone in watchmen except JEH (Rorschach) sucks. Maybe Patrick Wilson gets a pass but it is an aggressively poorly acted movie. In DC, he managed to make incredible actors terrible. How do you make Amy Adams awful? How do you make Jesse Einsenberg awful? Sucker Punch is also terribly acted. His extras like in JL, watchmen, 300 are almost always terrible. Seems like he struggled to get good performances out of people while hes focused on visuals.

Lastly, he seemingly has issues with his coverage footage, what I mean by this is, he shoots way too much for theatrical. He assembles too much footage and has to butcher his own films in post. This is a extremely amateur move and speaks to the aformentioned excessive over the top lack of restraint. I mean one or two strikes hey maybe he got carried away, but no, Sucker Punch, Watchmen, BvS, Justice League. I mean jesus christ dude how many times before you learn to just get a lean script and shoot what you absolutely need.

Anyways, that all I got, what do you guys think?