You know how Zack Snyder is known for directing hyper-stylized, green-screen and slo-mo heavy action films, most of which are based on comic books? Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s an identifiable aesthetic.
Well, YouTube user The Unusual Suspect has just re-cut the 2012 “The Avengers” trailer in the style of Snyder’s “Watchmen,” because the end result is surprisingly awesome. Unusual Suspect captured the look, feel and sound of a Snyder blockbuster perfectly, making “The Avengers” come across as a much darker, somber film intended as an, ahem, more mature viewing experience. Even if you hated “Watchmen,” we think props are due Unusual Suspect.
Fun side fact: The domestic box office numbers for Snyder’s three biggest graphic novel/comic book adaptations to date don’t quite add up to the U.S. returns on “The Avengers” alone. “Watchmen” netted just over $107M domestic and didn’t even crack $190M total worldwide. “300,” the film that defined Snyder’s aesthetic in a big way, pulled in $210M domestic two years earlier. 2013’s “Man of Steel” was Snyder’s best, opening at over $116M and closing out with slightly better than $291M. Put ’em all together, and you have about $609 mil in domestic totals; “The Avengers” boasts $623M.
Of course, this begs the question—would Snyder’s films have done better in theaters had they come from Marvel ‘s super hero source material, instead of DC’s? Hard to tell. At this point, “The Avengers” train is nearly unstoppable; only Chris Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy” has come close to producing the same results for the DC Universe.
Snyder is scheduled to do a whole lot more work for DC Comics and Warner Bros. in the next few years. He’s directing the 2016 “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” in which Ben Affleck plays the Dark Knight. His slate extends through 2019, with “The Justice League Part One” set for 2017 and “Part Two” due two years after that.
Watch the sweet “Watchmen”-esque “Avengers” trailer below. [via Uproxx]
