Twilight of the Gods Review: Zack Snyder (Finally) Finds Valhalla
Is Zack Snyder a God? Judging by his statements since he settled down at Netflix, he doesn't seem far from imagining it. Reading the comments of his most extreme fans, some of whom we can certainly find here, they think so. Judging by his latest productions on the streaming platform, absolutely not. Whether it's his Army of the Dead or its various Rebel Moonthe filmmaker displayed a misplaced ambition in films that did not shine either in their writing or their originality. To the point where Netflix will have revised its copy regarding the future of ” franchises » Snyder in his future catalog. And here it is Twilight of the Gods comes to remind us that Zack Snyder can still be a God.
In development since 2019, Twilight of the Gods is a eight-episode animated series of about thirty minutes each, supervised by the father of 300, well accompanied by Jay Oliva and Eric Carrasco, both of whom are regulars in superheroes and animation. Snyder himself directs the first and last episodes (each written by Eric Carrasco), leaving the rest to a more than competent team: Jay Oliva, Andrew Tamandl, Tim Divar and Dave Hartman.
Freely inspired by the Norse mythologywe follow the quest for vengeance of Sigrid, a fierce warrior who saw her entire clan massacred by Thor on her wedding night. In the company of her future husband Leif and a motley crew, she will undertake a journey of a thousand dangers between the worlds in order to directly confront the Gods of Asgard. In the shadows, the mischievous Loki has his own goals.
God of War
It's a habit in a Snyder production, Twilight of the Gods has focused much of its promotion on what the filmmaker now considers even more essential than its use of digital imagery and slow motion: blood and sex. He lasted six months on just those two words about the famous Director's Cuts of Rebel Moon. Indeed, the series lacks neither, and this from the first episode.
A first episode that sets the tone and marks its difference in terms of the use that the show will make of these two tools. Blood and sex yes, but never gratuitously. Far from satisfying a primitive inclination or advertising around adult content, Twilight of the Gods tells its characters through these sequences. Sigrid's hatred of Thor as well as our own understanding of his quest – whether we agree with it or not – would not have had the same value if we had not witnessed the unleashing of violence from the God of Thunder. The extremism of the sequence is a founding pillar of the plot, in the same way that the carnal scenes allow us to gauge the characters' emotions.
More than blood and sex, these moments serve to confront the characters with their feelingstheir contradictions, their resolutions. Heroes constantly tossed between the desire to live and the death drive as bodies come closer and destroy each other. At a time when debates continue on the networks to judge the relevance or not of sexuality or hemoglobin in fiction, Twilight of the Gods is a nice answer.
Clash of the Titans
A fantastic series in its writing, it is also obviously in what it revisits of Norse mythology. By plunging us into the beginnings of Ragnarök, the show is particularly generous in the many elements of the lore that it summons, without us losing the thread. A rich universe that nevertheless takes the time to build itself, to tell us stories of men, but also of Gods. As such, we will salute episode 6 in the form of multiple tales where reality and imagination mergereconnecting with the religious dimension that everything is just a question of belief.
In his own way, Twilight of the Gods is not without recalling Clash of the Titans (the 1981 film, not the 2010 one) where we could see the Gods, Greek this time, playing with men like we play with dolls. This power of divine figures over mortals, the Netflix show highlights it as much by the apparent powerlessness of the latter over the former, but also in this way that the former use the latter.
Whether Thor sees them as blow-offs or Loki uses them as pawns, the status gap is never questioned, so Sigrid's revenge seems to only lead to her downfall. On the other hand, it is the vanity of the Gods that threatens their existence, they who are incapable of seeing the dissensions in their own camps. For eight episodes, the story is punctuated by the reminder of the odious acts of Asgardians who despise other races, believing themselves untouchable. However, they themselves are subject to very human emotions. Rage, sadness, fear of the future… The Gods are only men.
And this is where we find Zack Snyder's presence in the creation. He who has summoned the divine figure at leisure throughout his filmography, often to mock it, finds here a treasure box where he can have a field day, to the point of sometimes being particularly crude, it is true. What characterizes a God? Simply that he is one? Should he be venerated? Challenged? Questioned? Does God make man or is it man who makes God (on this subject, Loki's writing is particularly interesting)? If some still doubt Snyder's position on the subject, we recall that the title can be literally translated as ” Twilight of the Gods ” and that a giant has only one mantra: ” We fear no God “.
Obviously, we cannot put all the credit in the hands of the gentleman since the success of Twilight of the Gods comes from a collective. The team of scriptwriters who thought of a subject from beginning to end, giving each episode a soul of its own. The great work of the French animators from Xilam. And even Hans Zimmer participates in the soundtrack. A pure creative project that rehabilitates Snyder (in our eyes) and establishes Netflix's reputation for choosing its animated productions. Sunrise of the Gods.
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