Before #DCFanDome debuts The Snyder Cut, I'd like to put it in context a little.

No: this is not a “pro” or “anti” Snyder post. The man’s a moviemaker who has been way over-mythologized by both sides. I just want to level the playing field a bit and talk about what it all means.

Movies are always a balance between art and business. The Snyder Cut situation is an extreme of both: a director given full reign over a movie that was "taken" from him and a studio licking its lips for the inevitably profitable reception from a hungry fanbase stuck at home.

But studios own movies, not directors. A 215-min film introducing these characters, MacGuffins, and big bads “properly" isn't really a "film" event.

It's more like a signing, concert, or comic con announcement. It doesn’t follow normal moviemaking methods. Is that good or bad?

A passionate director making the movie they wanted is great, in a vacuum. Studios should let them have freedom in the 1st place. We’ll get to see his talents and shortcomings exposed and argued about, I have no doubt, for years.

But the WAY this has happened makes it different.

Movies should not be remade/manipulated to suit what fans THINK they want. Giving a director freedom in the 1st place is great, but doing it retroactively has created a Snyder mythology where he's a human BRAND, getting more praise and blame than he deserves.

He's a COMMODITY.

WB knows this is profitable. It's not an argument for art so much as for profitable cow-towing vs the natural, flawed moviemaking process.

JJ Abrams abandoning Last Jedi or Ridley Scott giving in to Alien fans' desire for familiarity are examples of this thinking going wrong.

In THIS case, it'll result in a better Justice League. But obsessing over fans, changing films to suit them, and giving directors freedom NOT because the studio believes in their ability but their PROFITability is the issue.

Far greater directors are given far fewer benefits.

My point isn't that it's always good or bad or the Snyder Cut is "wrong." I just think it's worth thinking about in context because unchecked brand recognition is corrupting the theatrical filmmaking experience. This isn't the Snyder Cut's fault. But it's part of the puzzle.

No movie is made by one man. The pure auteur is an attractive myth, but a balance between freedom and restriction makes movies what they are. It prevents them from being wrongly changed AND from being unwatchably bloated.

My only argument is the argument for balance.