Who Would be a Good Alternative Director for Justice League Movie?

So it’s official: Zack Snyder is going to be directing ‘Justice League of America’ (JLA) after he’s done with the Superman/Batman movie. This news is going to make some JLA fans explode with anger and disbelief, but to a vast majority this news doesn’t mean much.

Personally I’m not too thrilled;’ Man of Steel’ was a disappointment to me. It was a good super hero movie but the changes Snyder made to Superman didn’t work for me. The similarities between Superman and Nolan’s Batman were distinctly numerous. In order to make a more brooding version of Superman, he essentially recreated Batman’s persona except with superpowers and a lot less money. Having said that, Snyder does have a good record when it comes to action movies. He burst into Hollywood with his remake of the George A. Romero classic ‘Dawn of the Dead’, and followed that up with the visually exciting if historically inaccurate ‘300.’ He also directed another hotly debated superhero movie that I actually enjoyed: ’Watchmen’. Much like ‘Man of Steel’ Watchmen had its harsh critics; the movie wasn’t a box-office hit but it wasn’t a total bust either, although the fans didn’t receive his portrayal of Alan Moore’s critically acclaimed comic book very well. Zack Snyder is directing the Superman/Batman movie coming out next year so I’m going to reserve my final judgment on how I feel about him directing JLA until I see that movie. He’s a good director with a proven track record so I think we need to give him a chance (much like Ben Affleck as Batman).  

Although not much can be done now but if for whatever reason Zack Snyder is off the project here are few directors that I’d like to see at the helm of JLA:

Christopher Nolan is the most obvious name that comes to mind since he was attached to ‘Man of Steel’ as a producer. I mean come on, who better to do a JLA movie than the man who brought us the ‘Dark Knight’, right? Wrong, while he’s undoubtedly a great director I’d prefer JLA to be a much more upbeat and dazzling than the somber Batman trilogy. Nolan’s Batman was a very grim movie that was somewhat grounded in reality and dystopia. JLA is going to be a supernatural movie and although Nolan can deliver when it comes to sci-fi (Inception), I think we need to move away from his interpretation of Batman and the DC universe. 

Michael Bay: Now hear me out on this one before you reach for your shotguns, I know Bay virtually killed the animated heroes of our childhood but lets look closer at the Transformers Franchise. All 3 movies (however horrible they may be) were box-office juggernauts with movies earning $709,709,780, $836,303,693, and $1,123,794,079 respectively. When it comes to visuals and explosions, it’s hard to beat Mr. Bay. But then again looking at what he did to the ‘Transformers’ and what he’s going to do to ‘The Ninja Turtles’, I guess that’s not such a good idea. Actually forget I even said anything.

John Woo is a famous Hong Kong Director who made his name in Hollywood with movies like Face/Off and Broken Arrow but his crown jewel remains Mission Impossible 2. When it comes to unadulterated action, Woo can deliver and having a Chinese director at the helm of JLA means attracting the second largest movie viewing audience in the world after America.

Speaking of Chinese directors, how about Ang Lee? Lee won the Oscar for Best Director twice, first for ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and for his 3D visual master-piece ‘Life of Pi’. He also has an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. So he can deliver the complete package i.e. a story, action, and visuals. Now Lee did direct the universally hated Hulk  movie. It is rumored that CIA is considering replacing the equally heinous waterboarding techniques it has championed with Hulk movie. I’d argue though that Lee made amends for that disaster with the other movies mentioned above.  

Here’s my dark horse pick for the list, Gareth Evans. "Gareth who?" You may ask.  Well Evans is the mastermind behind the best martial arts action movies in my point of view, the Raid franchise. Gareth is a Welsh director who works out of Indonesia and shot to fame with the critically acclaimed Raid Redemption that got him a bigger budget so he could direct Raid 2 (a significant improvement over his first) and Raid 3 in the future. So just imagine what he can do with a multi-million dollar budget and Hollywood resources.

Guillermo del Toro is my best pick for the JLA movie. Del Toro is no stranger when it comes to superhero movies and delivering visual spectacles and mindless destruction. He directed Blade II and the Hellboy series, and is most famous for his Oscar nominated visual masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth . He was briefly attached to direct the Hobbit movies but due to delays caused in part by financial problems at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer he left the project, and Peter Jackson came back to finish the job. However, Del Toro is credited as the writer for the Hobbit movies. Most recently he directed Pacific Rim , a ginormous robots beating up on gargantuan unearthly monsters slugfest that was visually orgasmic and primeval even.

Speaking of Peter Jackson I think he should be directing everything, but knowing his record he’d send the JLA on an epic journey that somehow ties into Lord of The Rings mythos. Peter Jackson presents JLA: Fellowship of The Green Lanterns, an epic journey of Frodo and the JLA to destroy the Yellow Power Ring of Sinestro Corps.  Hey that actually sounds pretty cool!

Essentially, I say we wait till Superman/Batman before marching to Mr. Snyder’s house with pitchforks, fire torches and tons of Kryptonite but in the mean time lets sharpen our pitchforks and pray vehemently that we only be obligated to use them on Michael Bay.