After seeing Justice League on opening night, there were a few moments that left me speechless, but overall it was underwhelming. Taking a look back at the DCEU, especially Batman vs Superman, I want to analyze what other possibiltiies they had with these stories and characters, and what direction they take them now.
Alexander Luthor, Jr.
One of the most controversial castings in recent memory is that of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Before the release of Dawn of Justice, there were massive amounts of fan backlash similar to that of when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Unfortunately for Eisenberg, things didn’t work out the same as Ledger. This was most likely due to the fact that this Lex Luthor was too similar in personality and in looks to Eisenberg’s most well-known role of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.
I am all for directors taking chances with characters by possibly adjusting their origins or modernizing them for the audiences of today’s world. Other than being wealthy and hating Superman, this version of Lex Luthor does little to embody the character from the comics and other media. He is a physically weak billionaire who has daddy issues. To paraphrase Kevin Smith in The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? when he speaks about Lex, "He loathes Superman in every definition of the word and looking at him as this f---king Kryptonian that isn’t one of us." Lex should be a strong man in stature and personality and not bug out every time he needs to talk to a crowd of people. This man was elected President in the comics! #NotMy Lex
What Could Have Happened: Other than changing his character completely, his strategy was flawed. How lame was his plan to kidnap Martha and force Superman to kill Batman? In my opinion (especially with it being shown how fast Superman is compared to the Flash in Justice League), Superman could have searched about every building in Metropolis and Gotham within the hour that was given to him with time to spare. And if that was the case, have Martha somehow get the gag out of her mouth at the warehouse where she is being kept and have her talk to Clark. Bring back a memorable part of Man of Steel where she says the phrase, “Clark, focus on my voice.” If Superman can hear Lois pounding on concrete underwater, I’m sure he would be able to hear his mother calling for him.
How to fix it:
Option 1: Other than recasting which at this point it may be too late to do with that AWESOME post-credits scene between Lex and Deathstroke, WB can continue to take the character in the right direction. Force Eisenberg to beef up and become more of a physically imposing villain. It already looks like a soft reboot is coming judging by the suit he is wearing on the yacht, and hopefully this occurs with his personality as well. We need to feel the hate for Superman oozing from every orifice of Lex and put him in the Warsuit. Ditch the Zuckerberg wannabe act and he may come to be a decent representation of the character.
Option 2: Bring in Lex Sr.! I thought that would have been a great thing to include in Dawn of Justice. Especially with the overarching theme of fathers and the issues that hang over our heroes like a heavy cloud, Lex’s father somehow coming back and being the real threat make the stakes that much bigger. And he could have already been bald, instead of Lex’s head being shaved clean in prison. In that case shouldn’t every prisoner in Arkham be bald? Would be interesting to see a bald Joker…and it honestly wouldn’t surprise me at this point.
Jimmy Olsen/Mercy Graves/Wallace Keefe/Senator Finch/Random Bomber in JL
I’m lumping all of these characters together as they all are equally frustrating. WB owns thousands of DC characters and still they feel the need to insert new characters that no one cares about and give them about the most generic plot and motivations ever. Or the other side of the coin, taking supporting characters and ignoring their history completely and doing what they want.
Jimmy Olsen struck a chord for me. How Snyder could take an iconic character in the Superman lore and relegate him to just a false name used by an undercover operative in the desert is inexcusable. You want to kill off Jimmy Olsen? Fine, but at least give him time in a film (Man of Steel) where he can build report with Clark and can be a character that embodies the audience who is watching. Like us, Jimmy Olsen is enamored by his hero Superman and is pretty much his fanboy. Instead we get random reporters who somehow don’t die while buildings are falling around or over top of them. Give Clark someone who he can have a relationship with outside of Lois and his mother.
What Could Have Happened:
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Jimmy could have survived the desert after being saved by Superman. While people around the world are protesting and blaming the hero for wrong doing, Jimmy could have been someone who doesn’t lose faith (even when Superman does).
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Mercy Graves could have been somehow involved gathering files for Lex on other metahumans and having her possibly being Lex’s liason between villains like Bane or others.
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Wallace Keefe could have been a version of Metallo that bombs the Capitol building only to have survived and rebuilt by Lex, as an insurance policy against Superman for later in the film.
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Senator Finch got too much screen time just because it was Holly Hunter but her character brings nothing to the film and instead they could have picked another character in the comics to oppose Lex in some way.
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Random Bomber could have been changed to any lower level DC villain like a Pied Piper or even Killer Frost. This could have been an introduction to a new villain who we would be seeing down the line.
How to fix it: Plain and simple, build up your supporting characters, but not to the point of their boring plot taking up too much time in the movie. Do a service to the fans by including characters from the comics who we recognize and are excited to see for the first time. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel with every character, and sometimes stick to what has worked for years and years. Side note: There was no need for that Russian family in Justice League. Those 10-15 minutes being wasted on that family (and bug spray) could have been put into another scene with more action, interactions with the team, or teasing of Easter eggs in the DCEU.
No Mention of the Bat-Family
Three movies with Batman included and we still don’t know who owned the Robin suit in the Batcave? Common sense tells you it belonged to Jason Todd, but has it been officially confirmed in canon? Even the clip from the Justice League trailer included the quote from Gordon, “It’s good to see you playing well with others, again”. This was changed to take out the “again” in the theatrical release. Why? Maybe WB didn’t want to commit to anything as Matt Reeves’ The Batman is still being written and even with what has been said by the studio, it’s unknown how it is going to fit into the DCEU if at all.
Batman has the greatest rogues gallery of all time, and other than a few brief scenes in Suicide Squad, we get little reference or acknowledgement of Batman’s 20 years in Gotham. As much as I love Hot McNally, he was wasted on the rooftop scene. Couldn’t they have used a character like Firefly, Victor Zsasz, or even Ventriloquist? If Suicide Squad was an indication, we want to see villains on screen, even if their story is awful. The course may be corrected is the rumors about a Legion of Doom movie coming to fruition.
What Could Have Happened: In the first scene of Justice League with Batman and the burgler, we could have been introduced to Nightwing, who has also been tracking parademons from Bludhaven. They team up to take down the villain and parademon, and we are left with an intriguing conversation between the two heroes about working together, possibly foreshadowing something between the Justice League in the final fight with Steppenwolf, or teasing for a future Batman movie.
How to Fix It: Go all out with The Batman. Include Robin, Oracle, Lucius Fox, and a ton of villains. Make it a more personal story for Bruce Wayne and bring the Joker into it. DC's two most popular characters just so happen to enemies of one another, so bring them into the same story and hopefully that would be a significant story from the comics. Killing Joke anyone?
To Be Continued...