A D.C. Man's Realizations on The Avengers and His Thought on the Inevitable D.C. Response(NOT a "How I Think It Should Go Editorial")

A D.C. Man's Realizations on The Avengers and His Thought on the Inevitable D.C. Response(NOT a "How I Think It Should Go Editorial")

Having just watched The Avengers on BluRay I realized a probable truth about the inevitable Justice League movie. As a DC Man, I just don't see it succeeding the way it should.

Editorial Opinion
By jjk2814 - Sep 25, 2012 09:09 PM EST
Filed Under: Avengers



As the teaser states, I am a hardcore DC Man, and I just watched The Avengers for the first time at home. I was wowed once again by the incredible awesomeness that it was. It brings me so much joy and entertainment. I saw it in the theaters at least three times, maybe four, I honestly don't remember. I realized many things about it. First and foremost; It is a GREAT Action Movie. A truly great action movie. In that genre, it deserves it's spot on the All Time World-wide and Domestic Gross list.

Before I go on, let me express my views on the difference between a good movie, a great movie, and THE Great Movies. I think this is something we all need to keep in mind...

A Comic Book Movie does not need to be a great movie, and has barely a chance at being one of The Great Movie. The Dark Knight is one of Those Great Movies. I honestly think that it will be the only comic book movie to reach that status. As some Hollywood Elite have said, it is The Godfather of our time. I believe that to be true. But, I'm not here to talk about The Dark Knight, or The Dark Knight Rises(Which is fair to say is the Godfather Part 3 of the trilogy, no matter how much I love it, I can admit that.) To judge a movie is to judge it as a member of it's genre. As I said, The Avengers is a GREAT Action Movie, a Great Comic Book Movie-And that...is enough. It does not need to picked apart by "Nolanites," fanboys, or all-around fools. It is only as good as the filmmakers had the brains to make it. They knew their audience and they did as much as anyone could to cater to them. Beyond that, it's quite frankly your problem, or opinion if it wasn't enough. You can not apply the same criticisms to it that you would The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Schindlers List, Citizen Kane, or whatever you feel to be one of Those Great Movies.

That being said, let me move onto the major realization I reached tonight; Warner Brothers most likely does not have what it takes to make a better movie for The Justice League. We know little to nothing about what they might have in store, but it already has a gargantuan obstacle; It has to be as good or better than The Avengers. It absolutely has to. Any less and it will have been a huge waste of time. So what would make it better? Well, I don't think the answer lies in carbon copying Marvels "Phase" method. I believe they can come out the gate with a Justice League movie, and if they put everything into it, and take their time, it'll be as good as it could ever be. If you can't accept this as a possibility you are either a cynic or a fool. A good writer and director could make this happen.

Why? To answer that we have to look at what made The Avengers the success that it was. I know many people think that the build-up, the solo films, is an ultimate reason it worked as well as it did. I wouldn't be so foolish to understate that as a big reason, but not nearly as much as people think. The Box Office numbers would suggest that many people saw The Avengers without seeing all the other Phase One films. Hell, I had to force my girlfriend of the time to watch Captain America and Thor the night before we saw The Avengers and she told me it didn't really effect her enjoyment of The Avengers. I think she was lying and I'm no longer with her, so...Take that or leave it. My point is though, is that its pretty clear plenty of people saw, and enjoyed The Avengers as a movie on its own.

Why wouldn't they? It was very well crafted. Each character had a memorable, interesting, and insightful introduction, and a consistant characterization throughout the film. Then there's the BIG advantage. Their powers. It's simply awesome and exciting to see six different super heroes work together, use their powers in a variety of ways to defeat a foe. It didn't really matter that the force they were fighting were only powerful through numbers because numbers mean we get to see more of them completely obliterated in a rain of true epic superpowered glory. If you go to a superhero movie looking for something else...well, you probably forgot which genre you were going to see.

So...what would it take for DC to amaze us with a Justice League movie?



I gotta give a fellow editorialist a bit of credit here; JPFola26 has posted many editorials and fanfic on Wonder Woman and The Martian Manhunter. I don't necessarily agree with all of his ideas on the treatment of these characters but in them really lies the difference that could put The Justice League in the same or higher regard as The Avengers.

Wonder Woman is the ultimate female super hero. As powerful as Superman and somehow as human as Batman, despite being from a "different world." She would obviously be a female Thor, but with much more recognition going into the project than Thor did before his first film outting. Then, when it comes to a power we've yet to see on screen, The Martian Manhunter's incorporeal,shape-shifting, and mental powers has so much potential as a member of an awesome team.

To make The Justice League a success, Warner Brothers only needs to assemble a great array of creators, cast, and crew. It can work. I know it can. But if Hollywood has taught me anything its this...

Just because it CAN happen doesn't mean it will.

If DC and Warner Brothers focus solely on trying to cash in on what they probably see as a "trend" with these comic book movies, they will most likely look no further than what HAS made the most money, and not use the foresight to ponder what COULD make the most money. They need to carefully pick the attributes of The Avengers success that they can carry into a movie that highlights the attributes that make their Heroes wholly unique. Oh...and feature a Batman so unbelievably awesome we forget about Christian Bale for an hour or two.



Yeah, something like that.

Stay civil, True Believers.
-jjk2814
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lokibane2012
lokibane2012 - 9/25/2012, 11:10 PM
See, I know a great writer/director can pull off Justice League by jumping straight to it without solo films.

But the thing is: there are very few people capable of that, even fewer who'd be interested in a Justice League film, and yet fewer who'd be able to follow up on their potential given the inevitable executive interference.

So for their own good, it might be better to do solo films first. Because if they jump straight to JL, Exec the shit out of it, and then it bombs.

Well, then you can say goodbye to a DC Cinematic Universe for at least another decade after that.
sikwon
sikwon - 9/26/2012, 12:49 AM
Two face wasnt filler, he was simply a tool for the joker to mess with batmans mind. It wasnt so much his character, his evil deeds that we were supposed to focus on. It was the twisting and breaking down of what he stood for. He stood for the same thing batman stood for. dent, like gotham, was caught in the middle of batman and the joker. He paid the price for it and was a visual character representation of batmans battle for the soul of gotham. Batman lost. That is why the third one is called rises. Unfortunately nolan chose to not reference any of that and rises suffers a bit for it. As far as tdk feeling all over the place, the chaotic feel was intentinal. Joker is an agent of chaos and that comes acrossed in the movie structure. Tdk is far from perfect, there are many lil things wrong but in terms of the theme, of the feelings it was intended to generate towards its characters it succeded. I personaly think that tdk comparison to godfather 2 is perfect because the movie wouldent be half as good (even with nolan being as amazing as he is) if it werent for ledger, the same way that deniro was amazing as a young vito corleone. Im a huge marvel fan but batman is probably my favorite individual character. Rises wasnt awesome, beigins and the dark knight were. I do find myself everytime i watch the dark knight just waiting for the joker though. As far as a JL movie being done well it all depends on the man of steel. In order for a jl to work superman MUST do well. And make no mistake, i would love to see a good jl movie. Great article by the way.
Orphix
Orphix - 9/26/2012, 9:26 AM
I have to chime in with the others who agree that Batman Begins is the best of the trilogy. It is well paced, structure and, most importantly of all, explores the themes of the film far more successfully than the following two.

Fear, organized crime, vigilantism are all covered nicely.

I found Harvey Dent's character difficult to believe in (ironically considering the marketing campaign). He goes from determined white knight to warped psycho in a few hours - driven insane by the loss...of his girlfriend!!! Not his children, or his wife or parents!! His FIANCEE!??!

If you're gonna be brave enough and upstanding enough to take on the mob I just think you would seriously have to go through the mill in order to resort to that.
jjk2814
jjk2814 - 9/26/2012, 10:11 AM
All right! Good thoughts guys!
Wallymelon
Wallymelon - 9/26/2012, 11:33 AM
first of this article is great. people are so harsh and critical of CBMs. they're frickin comic book movies man! i get into arguments all the time with my cynical friends expecting these movies to not be so fantastical. and it's like. you have a super hero on screen doing things that arent possible... how much realism can you add to the films? (which i think marvel is doing a great job of).

I thik DC can come out of the woodwork with a JLA movie. they just have to take there time like you said, and find the write writer/director. James Gunn would have been my choice but thankfully Marvel got to him first. (still not sold on the raccoon and tree)


@jpfola26: as usual i agree with you. the dark knight was pretty wack minus heath ledger. there was some exciting stuff, but too drawn out and dark just for the sake of being dark. it's a good film, well done, the acting is good(because nolan hires oscar nominated and winning actors) so what do expect from the acting. but other than that the script needed some work, and the ending didnt make sense, they should have ended with harvey getting away and wanting to establish the jokers vew of chaos. it would have made more sense to have two face working with the league of shadows working with bane.
dezdigi
dezdigi - 9/26/2012, 2:54 PM
Nice article, but I'm tired of the speculation. We've all had some ideas and now it's time to wait and see.
Darklypse
Darklypse - 9/27/2012, 7:40 AM
I agree with Loki. Obviously the film can be pulled off well without the solo films and surpass the Avengers, but it would be very, very hard and even though it's possible to do so without build up, I would still prefer the solo films first. Sorry, personal opinion is all. Each to their own.
coalesce
coalesce - 9/27/2012, 12:26 PM
Like most everyone else here, I thought "Batman Begins" was better than "The Dark Knight" (I haven't seen "The Dark Knight Rises" given that I was burned out from seeing "The Avengers" 8 times in the theater.)

My main concern with a Justice League movie (and this just may be a function of my unfamiliarity of the source material) is the apparent lack of mortality in many of the heroes. Batman and Aquaman are not invincible, but it doesn't appear that Superman, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter beatable, unless you count kryptonite. Superman is super strong, super fast, can fly, has heat vision, and can probably dance the pants off Churchill. Martian Manhunter is a super strong, shape-shifting alien and Wonder Woman doesn't seem to have a specific weakness. Any threat that is big enough to threaten Superman would, I guess, consider Batman and Aquaman to be insignificant at best. Contrast that with The Avengers, where only two members are close to invincible, and even Hulk can be beaten with sleeping gas. The lack of weaknesses may not make the average viewer care what happens to the Justice League, because they know that nothing can really hurt them. I can understand why the original creators made their individual characters are strong as they are, because no one intentionally sets out to make a weakling lead character. But audiences have to care about what they see on the screen. If they don't, then you're left with a movie that all about explosions, or to put it better: a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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