After the failure of BvS and Justice League (the Non-Snyder Cut!), DC and Warner Bros got back on track with Aquaman, Shazam, and Joker. Throw in the success of Wonder Woman before Justice League and they had 4 of 5 movies do pretty well. Then came Harley Prey or Birds of Quinn or whatever you want to call that stupid mess, though even that might get a pass because of COVID-19 affecting the international gross especially.
So after a bumpy start, things were looking up for the DC/Warner Bros partnership. Maybe too much up because just like after Man of Steel they're getting dollar signs in their eyes again. First came the news they were finally going to do a Snyder Cut of Justice League for the HBO Max service. Which I gave them a pass on as just a publicity stunt (a very costly one) to try to get recognition and subscribers for the brand. To a less expensive degree it's like when Disney announced a new season of Clone Wars to air on the new Disney+ service.
Then came news that they're trying to woo Michael Keaton back to play Batman in the long-gestating Flash movie. And that in turn would set up some whole multiverse situation. That's what set off the alarm bells for me. A "multiverse" is just another attempt at having a "cinematic universe" and if you pay attention Marvel has been toying with the multiverse concept in the last Spider-Man movie and the upcoming Doctor Strange movie, which is probably part of DC/WB's motivation. And also there's probably some motivation after the big "Crisis on Infinite Earths" thing on the CW that probably got a lot more viewers than their shows usually get, though how many of those viewers stuck around and how many (like me) were just watching to see the cameos?
And then Maurice Mitchell mentioned an unsubstantiated report that Ben Affleck might do some kind of Batman projects on HBO Max. Ugh. Why? You already have the Battinson movie filming. Why muddle the issue with another Batman, especially one that didn't perform at the box office?
A well-known and very true saying is that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Look, DC/WB, you had your biggest successes by doing solo movies only loosely connected to each other (except Joker). Why rock the boat? What happened the last time you went chasing after the white whale of Marvel-type numbers? Failure and mockery. Playing it safe is not sexy and often not fun, but it's, you know, safe. And after the failure of that Harley Quinn thing, you're not exactly playing with house money here.
And really I said a while back that a Flashpoint movie is a bad idea because you've barely established the character in the movies. It made more sense in the TV show because they'd already done 2 seasons, so they'd laid the groundwork for it. Rushing into a multiverse and time travel and a bunch of shit like that is the same kind of shit that led to the failure of the Snyderverse in the first place. And your Flash movie has already gone through a half-dozen directors and probably even more writers, so it's maybe not the property you want to roll out your big new thing with.
They of course won't listen to me and in a few years we'll find out who was right. (Probably me.)
7 comments:
They screwed the pooch right from the beginning trying to jump right into the "cinematic universe" thing that Marvel planned and set up well in advance. WB has a HORRIBLE track record of letting their execs dream of dollars while ruining valuable properties. I thought the Harley Quinn movie was ok enough...I'm curious to see how Wonder woman 2 will do when it finally gets released. I'm all for a Shazam 2, especially before the kid turns 40 and they have to recast the part lol. Cavill seems willing to do another Superman movie...as long as you don't copy Superman III (or IV lol) there could be traction there.
I agree a Flash movie is probably not the best one to start with.
At this point, I think they need to flush the whole idea of a "cinematic universe" and just tell some character stories. Build up the characters and their worlds and we can worry about crossovers and all that later.
DC needs to keep developing their own style, characters, etc, rather than copying. The multi-universe works for Marvel because their characters don't take themselves too seriously. They somehow have a certain chemistry and humor going on too that is hard to capture. DC/WB characters are mostly serious and in general darker. But no, DC won't listen to you. They just see $$$.
I agree with most of this, but my focus with DC has been in television and not necessarily the films. I wish that Wonder Woman would transition to the small screen on streaming so I could see her weekly. Ditto for all the other characters. I'm stoked to see the Green Lantern lantern in Stargirl, and I hope that GL makes an appearance soon (and the same for Doctor Fate). I don't know how many years I've waited to see Doctor Fate in action, and the fact that it may come about in Stargirl is a dream come true.
Aquaman and Shazam were as "fun" as most of Marvel's offerings and much more fun than the last two dreary Avengers movies.
I gave up on the CW shows but the ones originally for DC Universe look better, so I'd be more willing to try those.
Yeah they need to stop trying to hit the home run and just put some singles together.
I love the CW shows and really wish they’d decided to move them to the big screen. According to “those in the know” the Affleck thing is a big fat lie. Thank goodness. That said if they want to move Snyder’s content to a niche subscriber service more power to them. As long as the movies stay on track I’m fine with it. Besides BoP of course.
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