11 Best Zack Snyder Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

The two-hour theatrical release of Justice League was bad. The good news? That cut was never the cut Snyder wanted to make. In 2021, after years of fanfare and petitioning, Zack Snyder released a special directorial cut. The bad news? His cut wasn’t much better. 

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is four-hours long. Yes, you read that right. Four hours. Longer than Gone With the Wind, Once Upon A Time in America, and Lawrence of Arabia. That might lead you to believe a lot happens – but you’d be dead wrong. No amount of color grading, aspect ratios, or reworked CGI could save Justice League from the unbearable weight of its nonsense plot and wooden performances.

Best Zack Snyder Movies

10. Sucker Punch

Zack Snyder was on top of the movie-world during the development of Sucker Punch. His first three movies – Dawn of the Dead, 300, and Watchmen – were all moderately acclaimed and successful at the box-office. So, Warner Bros. agreed to distribute his new movie: Sucker Punch.

There’s a lot going on in Sucker Punch; a story of mental disarmament and those who fall victim to it. Emily Browning stars as Babydoll, a young woman who’s wrongfully sent to an insane asylum and set-up for a lobotomy. To escape, she must secure five items across dimensions. Is Sucker Punch a fetch-quest? Or a commentary on fetch-quests? There’s certainly a lot of trope-ish commentary – but it never adds up to anything truly subversive.

Movies Directed by Zack Snyder

9. Legend of the Guardians

Legend of the Guardians, or as it’s more formally known Legend of the Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole, belongs on the short list of animated movies that nobody knew were made by Hollywood titans. Fun facts: did you know that Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted was co-written by Noah Baumbach? Or that Happy Feet/Happy Feet 2 was written and directed by George Miller? Hollywood is truly full of surprises.

The Owls of Ga’Hoole is a kids movie through and through. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but in this case, it is. Although there’s nothing flagrantly wrong about an “owls save the world” movie, there’s nothing especially intriguing about it either. 

Best Zack Snyder movies 

8. Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver

After spending the entire first film assembling its heroes, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver finally delivers the battle it promised. Snyder leans fully into large-scale action, slow-motion combat (surprise!), and striking science-fiction imagery. Unfortunately, bigger action doesn't make for a better movie.

The Scargiver doubles down on nearly everything divisive about the first installment. While Sofia Boutella remains a committed lead and some of the action sequences impress, the epically thin character development and familiar storytelling keep the emotional stakes too distant for investment.

It's visually ambitious, but dramatically underwhelming, expanding on many of the same issues as the first movie. 

Zack Snyder Films List 

7. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleasantly surprised with the first half of a movie and so thoroughly disappointed with the second half of a movie as I was with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The first half of the movie is rife with socio-political commentary, religious allegory, and layered character drama. The second half of the movie is bad.

Like a kid smashing two action figures together bad.

When Snyder is on, he’s combining action, drama, and crazy visuals to create a cinematic cocktail. When Snyder is off, he’s forcing a concoction that simply doesn’t mix. Don’t believe me? Just watch Dawn of Justice.

Best Zack Snyder Movies

6. Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire

Netflix gave Zack Snyder the keys to build his own original science-fiction universe. The result is Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, a film that's undeniably ambitious but frustratingly derivative. You can spot influences from Star Wars, Seven Samurai, Dune, and just about every major space opera released over the last fifty years.

Still, Snyder knows how to compose a frame. The action sequences frequently look fantastic, even when the script struggles to make us care about its heroes. Rebel Moon never quite escapes the feeling that it's setting the table for a better movie later on—and unfortunately, that promise isn't fully realized either.

Best Zack Snyder Movies

5. Dawn of the Dead

Oh, early 2000s movies, how thee have aged horribly. I suppose it isn’t their fault. Burgeoning visual effects and camera technology caused many early 2000s movies to look washed out and faded; Dawn of the Dead is no exception. Visual filter aside, Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead is a fun and campy re-imagining of George Romero’s classic. 

Both Snyder’s version and Romero’s consistently rank in lists of the best zombie movies ever made. 

Zack Snyder Movies List

4. 300

How does one truly judge 300? As the movie it is? Or as the stylistic breakthrough it was? When 300 was released in 2007, people hadn’t seen anything like it. Intense color saturation. Extreme – and I mean extreme close-ups. Overcranking to 11. It was a movie that looked like no other.

I don’t want to discredit Snyder’s vision, but 300 really does seem comical by today’s standards. Perhaps it always was; we were just caught up in the revolution.

Zack Snyder Directed Movies

3. Army of the Dead

Here’s the pitch for Army of the Dead: bank heist in a city full of zombies. That’s literally it. And somehow it took 12 years of development hell to make it a reality.

Army of the Dead burst onto Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic, which certainly helped it become one of the most watched Netflix movies of all-time. The film was also surprisingly decent – with a big twist that set-up a sequel titled Planet of the Dead.

Best Zack Snyder Movies

2. Man of Steel

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel may not have been quite the successor to The Dark Knight Trilogy many were hoping it would be – but it was a moderately successful reboot for the son of Krypton.

Man of Steel was certainly a star-making turn for Henry Cavill, who admitted to missing Zack Snyder’s casting call due to a World of Warcraft dungeon. In all seriousness, Man of Steel may be Snyder’s most consistent effort from start to finish.

Zack Snyder’s Movies Ranked

1. Watchmen

Who watches the Watchmen? Well, as it turns out, a whole lot of people. Watchmen grossed a reported $185.3 million at the box-office and consistently ranks on lists of the best superhero movies. Watchmen, based on the DC Comics series of the same name, proved to be the dark and gritty superhero movie audiences wanted to see.

That said, Watchmen isn’t a perfect movie. Dialogue is sometimes rough. And the story is sometimes hard to follow. But through the looking glass, (that’s a Watchmen TV reference for you fans at home), you’ll see a movie that truly reveres its source material.