AQUAMAN's Success Means Warner Bros. Is Focusing Less On A Shared DC Movie Universe
Well, this sucks. If Aquaman's success had restored your faith in the DC Extended Universe, then you'll be disappointed to learn that it now means Warner Bros. is forging ahead with no shared world...
We've known for a while now that Warner Bros. is moving away from a shared universe and are instead prioritising movies that can stand by themselves. That's not a bad thing but it means the studio is no longer building to future team-ups, news which is bound to disappoint fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its approach to storytelling.
After Aquaman grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, you might think that the studio would be more confident in building a DC Extended/Cinematic Universe but it's just reinforced their decision to make standalone adventures moving forward.
"We all feel like we've turned a corner now," Warner Bros. Chairman Toby Emmerich says. "We're playing by the DC playbook, which is very different than the Marvel playbook. We are far less focused on a shared universe. We take it one movie at a time. Each movie is its own equation and own creative entity. If you had to say one thing about us, it's that it always has to be about the directors."
This isn't a bad approach, especially if it means we get a series of good movies. The downside here is that it means fewer team-ups and references to past adventures. Oh, and the Justice League franchise might as well be dead!
Still, Aquaman had only one reference to that movie and did just fine so this may not be a big deal after all.
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Aquaman, hit the "View List" button below!
James Wan returned to his horror roots with The Trench sequence in Aquaman and this incredible shot shows the sheer amount of VFX work which went into bringing the monstrous villains to life.
This entire sequence played out like a horror movie and seeing Arthur and Mera surrounded on this boat as the monsters close in definitely felt like it pushed the boundaries of that PG-13 rating.
The use of colour in this sequence was also fantastic and the red underwater really pops off the screen and the second the flares start going out as The Trench close in is real edge of your seat stuff.
Two more visually impressive sequences, it's easy to see why Wan was disappointed when it was revealed that Aquaman's VFX team hadn't been shortlisted for an Oscar a little earlier this month.
We didn't get to spend a huge amount of time on Dinosaur Island but there's no denying that it was an impressive looking location and somewhere we're sadly unlikely to return to down the line.
Willem Dafoe's Vulko was supposed to make his debut in Justice League but the reshoots changed everything and he instead appeared in the DCEU for the first time during this adventure.
This before and after VFX shot shows that while Patrick Wilson was fully suited up in Orm's armour, everything around him bar where he was standing was brought to life thanks to special effects.
Atlantis looked amazing in Aquaman and while some fans were concerned after the trailer that debuted at Comic-Con, Warner Bros. definitely delivered by the time the DC Comics movie hit theaters.
Arthur sees Atlantis for the first time and is as blown away as the rest of us. It's incredible to see just how much of what we see in this sequence was added at a later date thanks to VFX.