At Comic-Con 2013, DC announced what many believe would be the sequel to Zack Snyder's controversial Man of Steel Superman movie. They instead dropped a major bombshell and announced that the next movie would be not only a Man of Steel sequel but also Batman vs. Superman(Working title). They announced it by reading aloud a section of The Dark Knight Returns, written by Frank Miller and arguably one of the best and most beloved Batman graphic novel ever released. In it an aging Batman takes on not only crime, but Superman himself as Superman has been ordered to take out Batman by the US government. It is here that Batman utters one of the most iconic statements in the DC multiverse:
- You're beginning to get the idea, Clark. We could have changed the world…now…look at us…I've become a political liability…and…you…you're a joke. I want you to remember, Clark…in all the years to come…in your most private moments…I want you to remember…my hand…at your throat…I want…you to remember…the one man who beat you.
DC also unveiled the logo for the new movie, featuring a brand new Bat-symbol. Initial excitement over the sequel has waned in recent months however after some interesting casting choices by DC. Ben Afleck being cast as Batman and Jesse Eisenberg cast as Lex Luthor have caused the DC faithful to have a minor heart attack. The newest casting announcements have added Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Ray Fisher as Cyborg which makes the project seem less like a Man of Steel sequel or even a Batman vs. Superman movie, but more like a full fledged Justice League movie.
My concerns are not with these casting choices but however with the story arc choices. DC in my opinion seems to be trying to catch up to the powerhouse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Marvel was laying the framework for their now impressive Cinematic Universe, DC was throwing all of their chips behind Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. Christopher Nolan's vision for Batman included clauses which blocked DC from creating any other live action film or TV project which included major Batman characters. This is what stopped the creation of the Flying Grayson's TV series which would have explored Dick Grayson's(Robin/Nightwing) origin story. DC did have two live action shows during the Trilogy time with Smallville and Arrow to help bring Superman and Green Arrow to live action. They also released a movie version of the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. Any other visual media concerning their superheroes were animated to include Teen Titans and Young Justice. DC threw everything behind Nolan's grounded and dark take on Batman. The Dark Knight Trilogy paid off immensely for DC by being three of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed superhero movies of all time. However, that time has past. Christopher Nolan stated that The Dark Knight Rises was his last chapter in his Batman Saga, which left DC with only one major motion picture, Man of Steel, and one TV show, Arrow, to contend against Marvel and their tidal waves of projects to include the Avengers, The Wolverine, The Amazing Spiderman, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spiderman 2, Agents of SHIELD, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America 3, and X-Men: Apocalypse. All of these Marvel projects have either been released or will be released in between Man of Steel in 2013 and Batman Vs. Superman in 2016 with Arrow, the Flash, and Gotham TV series left to contend against Marvel's numerous TV projects. In short, DC is fighting an uphill battle.
However, the correct strategy here is not to try to go toe to toe with Marvel in terms of churning movies out, DC doesn't have the same mainstream brand recognition as Marvel in terms of their B list superheroes. Thus DC is resorting to the only way they know how to compete with Marvel. They are trying to build a shared cinematic universe which will lead up to a Justice League movie. The Justice League is DC's version of the Avengers with heroes such as Superman, Batman, the Flash, Aquaman, the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hawk Girl, Martain Manhunter, and Green Arrow making up the most permanent roster. Here is where I believe DC is making a slight error. They have only announced Batman vs. Superman and the Justice League as their two upcoming movies in 2016 and 2017 respectively. This means that there are only two movies to introduce possibly up to 10 superheroes to a mainstream audience. They have already introduced us to this Cinematic Universe's Superman with Henry Cavil, but that has been it. The new Batman is a completely new take on Batman completely separate from the Batman audiences came to know in the Dark Knight Trilogy. It has also been stated that Ben Afleck will play an older more experienced Batman, possibly even older than Christian Bale's Batman at the end of Dark Knight Rises. Introducing audiences to a brand new, older Batman is going to be a tough ordeal. Audiences are going to expect him to act as they remember from the trilogy, which only ended in 2012. The truth is that this Batman has nothing to do with the past Trilogy so his fight for Gotham could have taken different turns. Comic book enthusiasts will understand this as a common trick by DC explained by their Multiverse, multiple different Earths which contain similar but slightly different versions of their heroes. However, the mainstream audiences will not understand this. Therefore Ben Afleck has to make this feel like an established Batman from scene one, and hope that audiences don't expect him to act like Christian Bale. The upside to an experienced, older Batman is that this is the only Batman who can help to form the Justice League. It is after many years of crime fighting in which Batman gains the wisdom and experience necessary to be a leader amongst the league. So DC's decision to pit a young Superman against an older Batman is the safest of their gambles with their attempt at a shared universe.
The bigger problem comes by including Wonder Woman and Cyborg, amongst rumors that Robin/Nightwing could also be in the movie. Thus now we have a movie where we have to get to know not only a new Batman, but Wonder Woman and Cyborg as well. These are two characters who have never seen Big or Small screen live action time in the modern superhero movie market (Post X-Men 1). They both have been represented in the Justice League and Teen Titan animated series however, so DC may be counting on fans of these TV shows to see the movie and already be familiar with the characters. The inclusion of these two extra heroes into the movie could cause the plot to fall into the same traps as Spider-Man 3, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, and possibly the Amazing Spiderman 2. There are just too many brand new high profile characters on screen for any significant character growth and attachment to be seen. Wonder Woman and Cyborg are not big enough characters for non comic book readers to instantly know who they are and in a movie where Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Lex Luthor are running around we could not get the amount of screen time needed with each character to actually care about them and feel any sort of connection to them. X-men movies have circumvented this trap by focusing the bulk of their movies on core mutants such as Mystique, Wolverine, Magneto, and Professor X and left the lesser mutants to glorified cameos. This way the audience got to feel attached and got to really know a core group who had most of the screen time, but also got to see other mutants at work. The Avengers also pulled this one off by giving Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor and Loki their own standalone movies with Nick Fury, Hawkeye, and the Black Widow getting cameos so that we would see all of the characters before their big team up in the Avengers. DC cannot do what X-Men did because the members of the Justice League especially Wonder Woman are too big to just introduce with a cameo and they have not allotted enough standalone movies to give each League member their fifteen minutes(Probably a result of a lackluster Green Lantern). Thus Batman vs. Superman has the potential to become a crowed mess where we don't give each character the amount of time they need to set up for an even bigger team up in a Justice League movie.
This sets up another potential problem, unless you have watched the TV shows or read the comics, you have no idea who are Hawk girl, Hawkman, Martain Manhunter, or Green Arrow. This is assuming DC sticks to a core Justice League roster and leaves out characters such as Shazam, Red Tornado, Icon, Zatarra, Black Canary, and Dr. Fate amongst other League members. DC now only has one movie to make people care about characters with very little brand recognition outside of Comic book fans. This equates to smaller origin stories or even no origin stories at all. Thus adding to another problem whereby DC has spent considerable onscreen time attempting to ground the DC universe in reality. Try to throw in people with hawk wings or green telepathic aliens into that mix and it could throw off the tone DC has established amongst their live action media. DC could stick to characters with external brand recognition such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Flash, hoping that people will generally understand who they are and not search for backstories to characters where there is no screen time to give it. Then again people have very little respect for Aquaman as a hero, mainly only thinking of his Super Friends portrayal where he could only talk to sea creatures. One way to take the pressure off would be if DC joined Arrow and The Flash TV shows into their cinematic universe. This would grant them access to established versions of Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Flash and the villains they have fought. Although this seems unlikely as Arrow seems very self contained with its own version of the League of Assassins and Deathstroke. However since Arrow and Flash will be linked TV series, throwing them into the Justice League makes a great deal of sense as it will make DC's universe that much wider pretty quickly. This would grant DC a wider audience with knowledge of their characters. However, it is entirely possible that DC is making Batman vs. Superman and Justice League for fanboys only and could simply stick the characters on screen and make you believe them. This is however unlikely as DC would want to replicate their success with the Dark Knight Trilogy and eat up some of Marvel's market share with movies that are tailored to the widest possible audience, such as Joss Whedon's Avengers.
Thus I am very concerned and interested to see how DC will pull off this new cinematic universe. Batman vs. Superman has a tall order to fill and the pressure is on now that it is opening on the same day as Captain America 3. Let us see then whether or not The Justice League can stand toe to toe with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. As a personal huge fan of Batman I would love to see Batman vs. Superman done right, but only if DC can avoid several major pitfalls. We will get more clues as Comic Con 2014 approaches and see where these colossal projects stand. Personally I am still hoping for a Live Action Batman Beyond movie, but one can only dream!
My concerns are not with these casting choices but however with the story arc choices. DC in my opinion seems to be trying to catch up to the powerhouse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Marvel was laying the framework for their now impressive Cinematic Universe, DC was throwing all of their chips behind Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. Christopher Nolan's vision for Batman included clauses which blocked DC from creating any other live action film or TV project which included major Batman characters. This is what stopped the creation of the Flying Grayson's TV series which would have explored Dick Grayson's(Robin/Nightwing) origin story. DC did have two live action shows during the Trilogy time with Smallville and Arrow to help bring Superman and Green Arrow to live action. They also released a movie version of the Hal Jordan Green Lantern. Any other visual media concerning their superheroes were animated to include Teen Titans and Young Justice. DC threw everything behind Nolan's grounded and dark take on Batman. The Dark Knight Trilogy paid off immensely for DC by being three of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed superhero movies of all time. However, that time has past. Christopher Nolan stated that The Dark Knight Rises was his last chapter in his Batman Saga, which left DC with only one major motion picture, Man of Steel, and one TV show, Arrow, to contend against Marvel and their tidal waves of projects to include the Avengers, The Wolverine, The Amazing Spiderman, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spiderman 2, Agents of SHIELD, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America 3, and X-Men: Apocalypse. All of these Marvel projects have either been released or will be released in between Man of Steel in 2013 and Batman Vs. Superman in 2016 with Arrow, the Flash, and Gotham TV series left to contend against Marvel's numerous TV projects. In short, DC is fighting an uphill battle.
However, the correct strategy here is not to try to go toe to toe with Marvel in terms of churning movies out, DC doesn't have the same mainstream brand recognition as Marvel in terms of their B list superheroes. Thus DC is resorting to the only way they know how to compete with Marvel. They are trying to build a shared cinematic universe which will lead up to a Justice League movie. The Justice League is DC's version of the Avengers with heroes such as Superman, Batman, the Flash, Aquaman, the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Hawk Girl, Martain Manhunter, and Green Arrow making up the most permanent roster. Here is where I believe DC is making a slight error. They have only announced Batman vs. Superman and the Justice League as their two upcoming movies in 2016 and 2017 respectively. This means that there are only two movies to introduce possibly up to 10 superheroes to a mainstream audience. They have already introduced us to this Cinematic Universe's Superman with Henry Cavil, but that has been it. The new Batman is a completely new take on Batman completely separate from the Batman audiences came to know in the Dark Knight Trilogy. It has also been stated that Ben Afleck will play an older more experienced Batman, possibly even older than Christian Bale's Batman at the end of Dark Knight Rises. Introducing audiences to a brand new, older Batman is going to be a tough ordeal. Audiences are going to expect him to act as they remember from the trilogy, which only ended in 2012. The truth is that this Batman has nothing to do with the past Trilogy so his fight for Gotham could have taken different turns. Comic book enthusiasts will understand this as a common trick by DC explained by their Multiverse, multiple different Earths which contain similar but slightly different versions of their heroes. However, the mainstream audiences will not understand this. Therefore Ben Afleck has to make this feel like an established Batman from scene one, and hope that audiences don't expect him to act like Christian Bale. The upside to an experienced, older Batman is that this is the only Batman who can help to form the Justice League. It is after many years of crime fighting in which Batman gains the wisdom and experience necessary to be a leader amongst the league. So DC's decision to pit a young Superman against an older Batman is the safest of their gambles with their attempt at a shared universe.
The bigger problem comes by including Wonder Woman and Cyborg, amongst rumors that Robin/Nightwing could also be in the movie. Thus now we have a movie where we have to get to know not only a new Batman, but Wonder Woman and Cyborg as well. These are two characters who have never seen Big or Small screen live action time in the modern superhero movie market (Post X-Men 1). They both have been represented in the Justice League and Teen Titan animated series however, so DC may be counting on fans of these TV shows to see the movie and already be familiar with the characters. The inclusion of these two extra heroes into the movie could cause the plot to fall into the same traps as Spider-Man 3, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, and possibly the Amazing Spiderman 2. There are just too many brand new high profile characters on screen for any significant character growth and attachment to be seen. Wonder Woman and Cyborg are not big enough characters for non comic book readers to instantly know who they are and in a movie where Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Lex Luthor are running around we could not get the amount of screen time needed with each character to actually care about them and feel any sort of connection to them. X-men movies have circumvented this trap by focusing the bulk of their movies on core mutants such as Mystique, Wolverine, Magneto, and Professor X and left the lesser mutants to glorified cameos. This way the audience got to feel attached and got to really know a core group who had most of the screen time, but also got to see other mutants at work. The Avengers also pulled this one off by giving Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor and Loki their own standalone movies with Nick Fury, Hawkeye, and the Black Widow getting cameos so that we would see all of the characters before their big team up in the Avengers. DC cannot do what X-Men did because the members of the Justice League especially Wonder Woman are too big to just introduce with a cameo and they have not allotted enough standalone movies to give each League member their fifteen minutes(Probably a result of a lackluster Green Lantern). Thus Batman vs. Superman has the potential to become a crowed mess where we don't give each character the amount of time they need to set up for an even bigger team up in a Justice League movie.
This sets up another potential problem, unless you have watched the TV shows or read the comics, you have no idea who are Hawk girl, Hawkman, Martain Manhunter, or Green Arrow. This is assuming DC sticks to a core Justice League roster and leaves out characters such as Shazam, Red Tornado, Icon, Zatarra, Black Canary, and Dr. Fate amongst other League members. DC now only has one movie to make people care about characters with very little brand recognition outside of Comic book fans. This equates to smaller origin stories or even no origin stories at all. Thus adding to another problem whereby DC has spent considerable onscreen time attempting to ground the DC universe in reality. Try to throw in people with hawk wings or green telepathic aliens into that mix and it could throw off the tone DC has established amongst their live action media. DC could stick to characters with external brand recognition such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Flash, hoping that people will generally understand who they are and not search for backstories to characters where there is no screen time to give it. Then again people have very little respect for Aquaman as a hero, mainly only thinking of his Super Friends portrayal where he could only talk to sea creatures. One way to take the pressure off would be if DC joined Arrow and The Flash TV shows into their cinematic universe. This would grant them access to established versions of Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Flash and the villains they have fought. Although this seems unlikely as Arrow seems very self contained with its own version of the League of Assassins and Deathstroke. However since Arrow and Flash will be linked TV series, throwing them into the Justice League makes a great deal of sense as it will make DC's universe that much wider pretty quickly. This would grant DC a wider audience with knowledge of their characters. However, it is entirely possible that DC is making Batman vs. Superman and Justice League for fanboys only and could simply stick the characters on screen and make you believe them. This is however unlikely as DC would want to replicate their success with the Dark Knight Trilogy and eat up some of Marvel's market share with movies that are tailored to the widest possible audience, such as Joss Whedon's Avengers.
Thus I am very concerned and interested to see how DC will pull off this new cinematic universe. Batman vs. Superman has a tall order to fill and the pressure is on now that it is opening on the same day as Captain America 3. Let us see then whether or not The Justice League can stand toe to toe with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. As a personal huge fan of Batman I would love to see Batman vs. Superman done right, but only if DC can avoid several major pitfalls. We will get more clues as Comic Con 2014 approaches and see where these colossal projects stand. Personally I am still hoping for a Live Action Batman Beyond movie, but one can only dream!
No comments:
Post a Comment