Some less exciting news from DC and Warner Bros. was lost amidst all the exciting news from a galaxy far, far away.
Earlier this week DC and Warner Bros. announced that they were moving ahead with a Justice League movie as a follow up to Batman vs. Superman. Zack Snyder is confirmed to direct the Justice League movie and may shoot it back-to-back with Batman vs. Superman.
I’m definitely a Marvel fanboy; I have been since I was 10. I spent my formative years reading Marvel comics and eschewing DC comics. That pattern has impacted my adult life. I treat every bit of news about Marvel’s Cinematic Universe with unbridled excitement. While I treat even the biggest news about DC’s movie universe with a dismissive shrug.
Marvel began its cinematic universe with a plan. Unique directors told unique stories in each Phase One movie. All of those movies built upon their predecessors, eventually leading to The Avengers, which isn’t the best super hero movie ever but definitely the most fun.
DC and Warner Bros. are trying to replicate Marvel’s success. Instead of building a long-term plan, though, DC and Warner Bros. are just building on the success of Man of Steel.
I love Man of Steel and it was financially successful. But instead of allowing Batman and Wonder Woman to find success on their own, they’re being shoehorned into Batman and Superman. And now it appears that other members of the Justice League will show up at the end of Batman and Superman to set up the Justice League movie.
I’d be much more interested in seeing different directors take on different members of the Justice League. Jon Favreau, Louis Leterrier, Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston and Joss Whedon all told different stories with their members of the Avengers. The Avengers’ individual backstories made their assembling much more impactful. By just throwing the Justice League together without individual backstories, DC and Warner Bros. are missing an important step. And we’re only going to see the artistic vision of Zack Snyder, as opposed to the work of five different directors.
I may just be a hater, which is definitely a possibility. But I really do want DC and Warner Bros. to succeed in their movie endeavors. More successful comic book movies, from either DC or Marvel, will mean more comic book movies in general. If Tim Burton’s Batman hadn’t been successful then we would have never seen the original X-Men, which means Christopher Nolan would have never made the Dark Knight Trilogy and the Avengers may have never assembled.
Successful nerd movies are good for every nerd. DC may not be my cup of tea, but if Batman vs. Superman and the Justice League move make a Metropolis-sized amounts of money, then Marvel will get to keep making movies until Kevin Feige’s successor’s replacement retires.
What do you want out of a Justice League movie?
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