I promised myself that when the Justice League movie eventually was announced, I wouldn't be a dick about it. After all, DC has a group of heroes of their own (more famous than The Avengers) and it's only inevitable that a film about them gets made. There's no reason why a JLA movie should get postponed indefinitely just because Marvel made The Avengers. But with the recent announcement that Warner Bros IS planning a JLA movie for 2013, I find myself raising an eyebrow at this sudden and seemingly unplanned development. There's no question that many of the people on this site have raised an eyebrow or two regarding a few of the spurious actions made by Warner Bros involving their DC properties. With a lot of travesties under their belt as well as the abysmal looking Wonder Woman tv series, some have even gone as far to call WB as bad as Fox. Galactus himself has even had personal experiences with WB and says they're extremely strict and anal about their film properties. With the announcement of the JLA movie, this can only be interpreted as a further example of WB's alleged tyrannical hold over DC.
My case starts with the fact that the plan is to release a JLA movie
without any kind of individual films to set up each character. Snyder's Superman and Nolan's Batman are not going to be in the picture. Those characters are being "reinvented". (which is a sneak way of saying
rebooted.) While we all knew that Nolan's Batman would end at some point, nobody expected that he would be hitting the silver screen
just one year after The Dark Knight Rises. For audiences everywhere, it will be incredibly hard to swallow the realization that the famous and forever-loved Christopher Nolan series is dead in the water and getting rebooted. It's almost like raising a pig and loving it only for the slaughterhouse to take it away from you and expecting you to be happy with a platter of bacon and pork. For an example that's more close to home, it would be like Marvel scrapping the Iron Man movies and having a completely different Tony Stark in the Avengers. Not just a different actor, but an all new character with a different backstory.
The fact that the JLA movie is getting made without ANY kind of solo movie for each major character is a huge problem indeed. Each member of the Justice League has backstory worthy of getting told in the form of a solo movie. Warner Bros should actually be making MORE solo films for the JLA than Marvel has been releasing for the Avengers. If you're going to introduce all the major characters of the Justice League in one film, that movie had better be 4-5 hours long. Not only do you have to develop each hero fully, but you also have to develop the story as well as the villain. And then you've got to squeeze the action scenes into the mix. The idea of all this being in one movie is why so many people consider the superhero ensemble to be virtually unfilmable. But Marvel has managed to stun the naysayers with it's clever use of a shared universe and individual films for each hero. Within each film you've got hints and nods to other happenings in the Marvel Universe specifically dealing with other heroes on the team. By the time the Avengers comes around, you've got these extremely fresh, popular, and fleshed-out characters who don't need any development. (The audience already knows who they are.) With the JLA film, it's just going to be a huge cluster[frick] trying to get these characters to work on the big-screen together.
All this leads up to my final point. I will rest my case by saying that fans should be worried about the future of DC Entertainment. We were promised that DC would turn over a new leaf. But this doesn't seem to be the case. Why do I sound so negative? Because I'm a biased Marvel fan of course. WRONG!
The answer is because Geoff Johns, Christopher Nolan, and Zack Snyder (the guys who have proven to have dedication to their respective characters, and who DC fans like to boast about) have made it very clear that they not only advise against seeing their movies combined into a single universe, but they just don't want it! What is WB's response to this? They make the movie anyway! And completely ignore The Dark Knight as well as Green Lantern and the Man of Steel. And then there's the fact that they want to release it almost immediately after 2012 as well as having NO solo films as set-up before it. It seems very clear to me that WB went AGAINST the wishes of DC in order to make a quick buck off of the coattails of Marvel's Avengers. And as we've learned from Fox's X-Men series, making a film solely for profit is NEVER a good thing and will lead to a lot of upset fans. (and audiences alike.)
And the worst part for DC fans is that this movie could have disastrous effects. I am not advocating that The Avengers will be a success. (Although it's likelihood sounds FAR greater than that of the Justice League movie.) But if the Avengers is successful and JLA is a critical disaster, it WILL be remembered by audiences as an attempt to steal the Avengers' thunder. Marvel has made it very clear with the release of 5 different solo films that they've got an Avengers film in the making. WB has nothing to show for their JLA film except for giftwrap and a Christmas card. It could end up being an abject humiliation for DC fans as well as DC entertainment.
You can call me a biased Marvel fan all you want. But I'm just stating the facts that WB has gone against the wishes of the guys who have brought them success with their DC properties and have pleased fans alike. Without them, we'd be stuck with endless sequels to Batman and Robin as well as Catwoman and Jonah Hex. I can't see any other reason for this quick decision except that WB wants a cash cow after Harry Potter ends and after Marvel/Disney boasts The Avengers. There doesn't seem to be any incentive to flex their creative muscles or to respect and honor these characters. I've heard fans say that they would wait 50 years if it meant getting one amazing Justice League movie. But WB seems to be blatantly contradicting this ideology.