Zack Snyder should be well used to his movies dividing opinion at this stage, but the director's latest film, passion project The Last Photograph, has proven to be particularly polarising.
Despite the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse faithful hoping to see Snyder step behind the camera for another DC Comics-based film, this grounded action drama marks quite a departure for the director behind the likes of Watchmen, 300, Dawn of the Dead, and Man of Steel.
The official synopsis reads:
“An ex-DEA operative must return to the mountains of South America in an effort to find his missing niece and nephew, following the brutal murders of their diplomat parents. Enlisting the help of a washed-up junkie war photographer, the only person to have seen the face of the killers, he sets out, determined to find the children and the truth, but soon learns he must also face the ghosts of his past. Their journey into the unknown takes them further and further away from civilization, bringing into question everything they believe, while slowly eroding the distinction between real and surreal.”
The film - which has yet to secure a distributor - had its world premiere at TIFF last night as an independent production and acquisition title, and based on the reactions/reviews, it's either Snyder's best work yet or a "calamitous misfire" (that's one of the nicer things that's been said about it).
“There’s no agenda to the movie," Snyder said during a recent interview with THR. "When you make a big studio movie, there’s a lot of things to consider about the product that you’re creating. Because it really is like a product much more than a thing that’s really a tone poem, you know what I mean?”
He continues, “Like, the stakes are lower, right? You’re not trying to sell the audience something. You’re just giving them an experience and that experience doesn’t necessarily have to end with a sequel. I’m not trying to get them to go to another movie or buy a toy. The why of the movie is completely different.”
The Last Photograph doesn't have a Rotten Tomatoes score (a page hasn't even been created for it), but you can check out some of the reviews and reactions below.