Jump to content

DC Cinematic Universe


deanb
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 4 weeks later...

Dear Internet,

Tonight I watched a movie called Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. I watched the extended cut, which maybe wasn't the best call, holy fuck was it long.

Jesus, what a mess. Let's start with what I liked. Ben Affleck was cool as Batman. Good job Ben. Wonder Woman was rad too*. It was cool seeing Batman/Bruce Wayne and Supes/Clark Kent on screen together. Some of the action was pretty good. Um, shit that's it. Ok. Um. That's basically it.

They let Marvel win. They let Marvel win by changing to differentiate themselves from Marvel.

 

First of all, Superman doesn't act like Superman and he's not really likeable. Louis Lane is kind of weak too. These were issues with the first Man of Steel film and it's disappointing this wasn't fixed and the director was given another film after this one.

Second, there was multiple plot lines that even in this extended cut, were either pointless or convoluted. What was the point of Africa? Of blowing up congress? Killing Jimmy Olsen like that? Just fuck off Snyder. What was the point of the dream sequence with desert Batman?

*Earlier I said Wonder Woman was rad, I meant that in the action sequences. Everything with her before that probably could have been done in a more natural way.

Doomsday should have been its own separate film. This was way too early to play the Doomsday card. Why couldn't Lex have just resurrected Zod as like some robo zombie thing? Hey there's a more natural way to include your Cyborg tie in! He starts levelling Gotham and/or Metropolis (do they really need to be neighbour cities?) and Batman/Supes/Wonder Woman put aside their differences and team up to stop him. In the epilogue they realize they make a pretty good team "...or a league" suggests Bats ROLL CREDITS. Man, I just pitched a better movie than the one that got made. Lex Luthor is the bad guy, we don't need Doomsday on top that, not this early in.

The marketing really pisses me off too. Most of the best stuff from that film were given away in the trailers. Even things like the Robin suit. When you have ONE Robin reference in the entire movie and you put it in the trailer, it gives the impression there's going to be more than just that.

That brings me to my next point. Why are we starting the DCEU with Batman having been around for 20 years already? Wouldn't it be better to see Jason Todd get killed in the second stand alone Batman movie? Watch Dick Grayson mature into Nightwing? We don't need another origin story for Bats but again, look at Marvel. Marvel introduced Iron Man in 2008. Now in 2016 Spider-Man is introduced as a teenager who grew up in a world with Iron Man. We built up to Spider Man. It's good world building that has made everything feel natural. It's created legacy. Now if RDJ doesn't want to do another Marvel film, that's OK it's not like he'll suddenly vanish from the MCU completely since his impact will still be felt. If the actor playing Bats stops after a few solo films and a Justice League trilogy that's OK because we have characters he's responsible for to carry on the torch. Bleh, I'm getting off topic.

 

This film was a mess. How it ever got the thumbs up from the WB brass is alarming.

Edited by The Cowboy Poet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Two tasty treats for you from SDCC:

 

Wonder Woman

Similar vein as First Avenger I guess in going back to WWII era and maybe establishing some of the stuff for Justice League.

 

Speaking of which:

Looks a bit more promising, and going with strengths n focusing on Batman. Not sure on Flash n Cyborg but I think Kahl Drogo will be kinda cool, especially playing with the "You speak with fish" line on the end.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, Amazonians are near immortal. WW especially as she's directly blessed with divine powers. Though we still don't know the DCU's take on her yet. I know post-Man of Steel the prevailing theory was they're Kryptonian colonists, which add in a yellow sun and you get pretty much same power set as Superman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Well the Suicide Squad reviews are starting to come in and from the sound of it the film is not much better than Dawn of Justice, if it's even any better at all.

 

I don't know what's going on over at WB, but they really need to just get rid of all the people they put in charge of doing the DC Cinematic Universe because they are doing a terrible job.  They keep putting out failure after failure after failure and yet they never learn from their mistakes.  It's actually getting embarrassing to the point where I almost feel sorry for them, especially when their primary competitor is doing so well by comparison.  Whether you like the Marvel movies or not, you can't deny that they figured out how to make them work beyond everyone's wildest dreams.  Back in the 90s NOBODY in Hollywood thought that a Marvel Comics cinematic universe was even possible.

 

Get your shit together, WB.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, it's pretty fucked up when you think about it. I've definitely said this before BUT..... Marvel launched this whole MCU without Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Wolverine, or the rest of the Xmen, all their biggest characters were taken. Captain America was a joke. Thor was a joke. Iron Man wasn't anyone I remember people talking about when I was a kid. Hulk was probably their biggest name. Yet they launched this whole film universe while also making their own film division at the same time. DC on the other hand has access to all their characters and the support of Warner Bros and they can't figure their shit out. They don't unify their TV and film universes yet still force their TV shows to tiptoe around what their less successful films do. It's a mess.

I still think it was a mistake not to use the Dark Knight trilogy as a jumping off point for the rest of the universe. They're making a dark, gritty, 'realistic' universe anyways.

Edited by The Cowboy Poet
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, at least DC has made sure the DCAU is just as fucked as the DC movie universe. The Killing Joke is terrible in so many ways.

 

Did anyone think Suicide Squad was going to be any good? I mean, it has the anti-charismatic Joel Kinnaman as the audience surrogate lead and it's clear from the trailers that Margot Robbie's ass as the female lead. Also it's in the fucked-from-jump Snyderverse.

Edited by Mr. GOH!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was never anticipating it and in some ways I just never wanted to admit it was going to be a thing. Hard to do when there has been massive amounts of marketing the likes of BvS.

 

And I wouldn't dare say Fantastic Four or Daredevil are bigger names than Cap, Thor, and Iron Man. The reason a MCU could exist is that the first movies considered as part of the MCU, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, were self contained and didn't seek to incorporate every single thing that's Marvel into themselves. Dawn of Justice is quite figuratively the "catch up" film for DC so it can be said they've got a Cinematic Universe too.

 

The problem is that we have no individual films, aside from Man of Steel, that focused on these versions of the DC Heroes. It was thrown into a blender on high and it's hoped that the viewer can swallow their dinner and think it was still the same experience as having smaller and well defined bites. Suicide Squad is a in-depth DC Universe concept, basically the anti-hero/villain version of Avengers. Do you think Avengers would have been the same if all we had were Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk before it?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I wouldn't dare say Fantastic Four or Daredevil are bigger names than Cap, Thor, and Iron Man.

They're not anymore, but they were when Marvel started on their universe.  Cap, Iron Man and Thor were all B-list heroes, the A-list ones having already been licensed out and therefore off-limits.

 

Now Cap, IM and Thor are bigger names, but that's because of the MCU.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Marvel's A-List, as in known by non-comic book-readers, 10-15 years ago were Spider Man, the X-Men, Hulk, and the Fantastic Four, more or less. I think the non-Hulk Avengers were the bottom of the A-list for Marvel comic book fans, but not very well known by pop culture at large.  It is frankly amazing how quickly Disney made the Avengers household names.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic Four are classic, but even before the movies, they weren't as big a name as they once were. It was mainly Spider-Man, X-Men, and to a degree Hulk before the MCU. However, Iron Man, Captain America, and to a lesser extent Thor, had a presence in pop culture. It's just Spider-Man and X-Men were eventually gigantic icons, much like Batman and Superman were for DC. Of course what helped DC in the past were the old Justice League cartoon series. It was the only way I knew who Aquaman, Green Lantern, and the Flash were as a kid.

 

The Spider-Man Animated Series is garbage, but back in the day it was radical and thanks to that you might know who the other Marvel heroes were. Iron Man had his own TAS, but who remembers like the one season it got...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Killing Joke is a standalone thing, not part of the DCAU. (It seems with the recent Teen Titan film they're actually tying it backwards into Young Justice a bit). Though overall the DCAU is nowhere near as strict as the MCU has been in joint continuity.

 

MCU has defintely impacted the popularity of certain characters. Guardian of Galaxy was Z tier, heck it got rebooted, and ended up one of their most popular films. It's amazing Marvel could make hit films with b-list characters and washed up film stars but WB\DC can take one of the most famous super heroes, THE super hero, and also bring in oscar winners and end up totally fucking up. Sounds Suicide Squad has done the same. Superman Returns did a great Superman, the classic plane save n all that n snyder has him levelling buildings n breaking necks. Chris Reeves gave a masteclass in the big blue scout. Like...how was Green Lantern not their only fuck up to be butt of a joke in a Marvel film.

 

 

@atomsk: how dare you shit on animated spider_man.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eh I can put up with janky animation, watched a ton of Hanna Barbera stuff and studied it for a while too. I feel it captured Spider-man pretty well and had a good amount of villains and such. Sure it's not BTAS but I don't think anything ever will be. Young Justice is probably the most recent closest to TAS that has been around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...