Zack Snyder’s New War Thriller Officially Sets All-Time Rotten Tomatoes Record

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Zack Snyder's new movie may become the biggest misfire of his career.

After investing much of his career in horror, science fiction, and the DC Universe, the filmmaker made a major shift by directing a new war thriller, The Last Photograph. The movie follows an ex-DEA operative who seeks the help of a war photograph to locate his missing niece and nephew after their parents were murdered. Snyder's passion project took nearly 15 years to make, and it finally debuted at TIFF this past week.

However, with 13 reviews, The Last Photograph is Snyder's third-lowest-rated movie ever, with a 23% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The war thriller is just slightly better than his Rebel Moon movies, The Scargiver (16%) and A Child of Fire (22%).

Unfortunately, the result echoes recent headlines that affirmed the brutally negative reception, as critics even called it one of Snyder's worst movies. Reviews of The Last Photograph emphasized the pretentious tone, gratuitous violence, messy storytelling, and unsatisfying ending. Although the only praise concerns the striking visuals, Snyder's overall direction and style are unfiltered and lack narrative purpose.

In a recent interview with Variety, Snyder spoke about the extremely poor reviews, as "the discourse is incredibly energized by this battle." While he doesn't want to call it "cool," "the amount of vitriol I find really incredible." He has seen accusations that he is "fascist," "homophobe," or "bisexual." When he was asked to clarify, the director responded: "I guess! It’s 'homoerotic' and 'transphobic' and 'fascist' and all these things."

Then, the subject was switched to the movie's treatment of women, in which the extreme violence against them ignited accusations of misogyny. He argued, "the violence toward women and men is equal and that nobody is spared," and then elaborated, "To try and superimpose morality over it and want the violence to mean something — the meaning is that violence doesn’t work and doesn’t get anything done."

Snyder's track record hasn't been impressive, especially with his last few movies. After a few mixed results with Warner Bros. and his involvement with the DC Extended Universe, the filmmaker had a slight rebound with Zack Snyder's Justice League and Netflix's Army of the Dead and its prequel. Continuing the partnership with Netflix, Snyder went on to create his space opera series, Rebel Moon, which was described as an R-rated version of Star Wars.

Unfortunately, his efforts to create a fantasy universe were futile, as critics and audiences alike panned both Netflix installments. In 2024, Snyder's frequent collaborator Johnstad told ScreenRant that the plan was for six movies. Although the director's cut improved reception, any future sequels in the Rebel Moon franchise remain on hold.

When the project was in development in 2011, Christian Bale and Sean Penn were in talks to star, and Niels Arden Oplev was directing. A few years later, Snyder took over the directing duties as his schedule opened up after the Justice League sequel was delayed. The stars were no longer attached. However, COVID-19 further delayed the project, and he ended up doing the Rebel Moon movies for Netflix.

Kurt Johnstad wrote the screenplay based on Snyder's own idea. The filmmaker also reunited with Rebel Moon stars Stuart Martin and Fra Free, who portray the main pair in the war thriller. Jackie Kay, Sergio Herrera, Marlon Moreno, Costanza Andrade, Gustavo Angarita Jr., and Carolina Henao are part of the supporting cast.

The Last Photograph doesn't have a theatrical release date yet.