Positives and Negatives of a Justice League movie with no Leadup movies

Positives and Negatives of a Justice League movie with no Leadup movies

Nearly all discussions about the JL movie are derailed by arguments over whether or not the characters need their own origin movies as a "set-up". Here are my very detailed thoughts...

Editorial Opinion
By Blueeyes - Nov 25, 2012 03:11 PM EST
Filed Under: Justice League

I beleive the Justice league movie can succeed either way with or without lead-up movies but I do acknowledge it being harder with no lead-ins due to it having a few negative qualities.

NEGATIVES OF NO LEADUP-NO 1:
With the exception of Batman and Supes non of them have Public draw power. People always argue that Flash,WW,Gl are more iconic than the avengers characters. Yet I dare you to ask a kid what what Flashs secret identiy is. Youll get no answer.Ask them what Ironmans secret identity is and theyll give it to you without blinking.The movies have moved heroes like Iron man from "simply recongnizble" to "Public drawing heroes".Flash,WW and to a smaller extent GL are still "simply recongnizable"

Basically it goes down like this
The appeal of seeing JL movie without solos-Bats and supes
The appeal of seeing JL movie with solos-Bats,supes,flash,GL,WW.

look at both and you can see why the solo movie approach is superior-It has more appeal. A JL movie without solos will ineveitably be less of an event than one with solos. So a Jl movie without solos will be less successful than one with solos--THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT WILL FAIL.It just means the JL movie wasn't as successful as it cld have been

NEGATIVES OF NO LEADUP-NO 2:
The other problem the spinoff approach has is establsihing the various mythologies of each hero in the same universe with one go.
For example Establishing Wonder woman mythos(fantasy) and Green lantern mythos(sci fi) in the same universe and having them interact normally.
It also has to constantly explain aspects on the mythos as they are introduced in the Jl movie explanations that take up screentime and detract from main plot.Explanations that wld have been covered in solo movies.

NEGATIVES OF NO LEADUP-NO 3:
Jl movie following the spinoff approach has to Get all characterisations right in one go and seeing as they cant use solo leadins as template like the avengers did,this will be more difficult.
Getting the characterisations right is not just for the sake of the movie but for the spinofs.Fact is The Jl director is essentially in one go setting up the groundwork for the solo movie spinoffs and theres a good possibility of making a mistake since he is focusing on so many characters.Its not like Marvels appproach where they systematically built the groundwork for each solo movie in its own movie thus minimizing errors.Whoever is writing the script for a JL movie needs to essntially have a grand plan for the entire solo movie spinoffs

NEGATIVES OF NO LEADUP-NO 4:
They have the risk of being seen as a superhero team(Fantastic Four,Xmen) instead of being seen as a superhero team up(Avengers) without Solos.



Now dont get me wrong,I think a JL movie can very much succeed without solos after all it has Bats and Supes. But there is no doubt in my mind it will have succeeded a whole lot more with solo movies leading up to it,and a lot easier.

I do need to piont out though that nearly all the negatives of the no-leadup approach can be eliminated if Extraodinary storywriting skills are applied to the movie.Im talking LOTR type writing skills



Anyways There are 3 main advantages to the no lead-ins approach

POSITIVES OF NO LEADUP-NO 1
is that we get a Jl movie earlier than we would with Solos(its this main plus that blinds people to all other disadvatnages of this approach)so its a big plus for fans.This advantage is also great for WB as it allows them to release a Jl movie as fast as possible-whilst the superhero crze is still going strong instead of risking releasing it in a time when the crze might have died.

POSITIVES OF NO LEADUP-NO 2
The no leadins approach gives Dc a chance to ctach up with Marvels movie within a short amount of time

POSITIVES OF NO LEADUP-NO 3
is that Spinoff movies are less likely to fail financially.This advantage benefits the studios not the fans though.

It simply means that WB will be in less of a financial risk when releasing the solo movies.
I personally dont care for this though -kinda seems like that they dont beleive in their characters hence why they feel the need to have them sponge off Batman and Superman s popularity to simply have a chance at the big screen.But I cant deny its a good business decision



So do I think WB is making the right decison to release a JL movie without leadups?My answer is Yes.The reason is WB/DC doesnt have the luxury of solo leadups as theyve fallen behind marvel due to their stupidity and now are just awakening to it.They really have no choice especially since they need tentpoles.That being said nearly all of the negatives of this No leadup approch can be nullified with Awesome storywriting so its not bad..

I need to piont out something at this piont.Quite frankly whether or not the JL movie has leadins, It will face Avengers Copycat accusations-they are inevitable.If they go with leadins,theyll be said to ripping off marvels approach,if they go without it they will said to be trying to rip off marvel without putting in the hard work marvel did.Its a no win situation,The best Dc can do is just to try their best to make JL as unique and as awesome as possible and all those accustaions will be forgotten when the movie is released

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sikwon
sikwon - 11/25/2012, 3:49 PM
There dosent need to be lead in movies. All DC needs to do is make refference to other characters, hell just other CITYS, in man of steel. We dont need a 3rd batman origin movie to set up for the JL. Just like they didnt re-boot the incredible hulk. That was one of the better decision that Marvel made. They simply continued the hulks story and made changes but not overwhelming changes. Even if you had never watched ang lees hulk the incredible hulk was able to stand alone and push the whole story further. Thats what MoS needs to do. Tell a superman story while pushing forward the bigger story. the big advantage that dc has is that its main characters really are cultural icons. SM, BM and WW are incredibly well known, even if people cant reciet their origins. Simply mention (a cameo is just to much to hope for) the flash or GL and the universe is established. Its really just that easy. Now if they tell a quality story remains to be seen. Personaly i think dc heroes are just entirely to powerful and that superman is just wayyyy to powerful. Hell i just read the final crisis and as good as it was the story really was just all the other heros fighting a delaying action until superman got his head in the game and won.
tonytony
tonytony - 11/25/2012, 5:02 PM
Good stuff. Nothing like an awesome movie to get peopke on side
gamecreatorjj
gamecreatorjj - 11/25/2012, 9:09 PM
Negative of lead up films: the end result takes away from the film itself, i said this before, Ironman 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor, are incomplete films.

If you went into any of those films without knowing anything about previous films, or the avengers, and you thouhgt that that would be the only film, You would feel robbed, like someone gave you a ticket to a movie, but at the end it says "To Be Continued" its all well and good, if those films felt like they had resolution, but they didn't. If the Avengers was cancelled in 2011, then those 3 films fall apart, they need their sequel to work
yourdaddy
yourdaddy - 11/26/2012, 3:52 AM
yea forget this debate. i'm just waiting for justice league to bomb, so warner bros can wisen up and we can get a proper dc cinematic universe in 10 years time.

it sucks that warner bros always needs a 'batman & robin' to guide them in the right direction. but it is what it is.

wait it out. one day we'll get the justice league film we all want.
HulkinOut
HulkinOut - 11/26/2012, 11:18 AM
A lot of your appoints are valid, but doing individual movies only make it seem as if their coping avengers. If u really want this movie to succeed then JL must be original and comeout in a way that is totally differ from what avengers did. Other wise the general public, where most of the money is coming from, would think its a avengers knock off.
While I do believe JL charecter are more iconic, overtime with the help of WBs lack of interest JL members other than supes and batman are becoming less popular, so individual movies probe wont workout for them. They would need a big JL movie that will make them popular again and cane spin off from there.
Tainted87
Tainted87 - 11/26/2012, 1:05 PM
Yeah I've pretty much written this article already - even had a response article attempting to undo my points.

What it boils down to is this:
Do you want...

A) X to get a movie for the benefit of the Justice League movie

B) X to get a movie that is memorable, iconic, and rich with X's mythology and lore

?

Don't get me wrong, I liked Thor well enough, but it was less than ideal. It served to introduce Thor to important people on Earth, as well as his villainous brother. Had it been made strictly for the sake of telling a story, it would have been much better.

The problem with the ideas of these solo outings, these lead-up movies... is that Justice League isn't the penultimate demonstration of the DC universe. People regard the Avengers as such a thing with Marvel, hoping to include all the characters that don't really belong on the team.

The beauty of a Justice League movie is that it has the opportunity to tell a story without a big jumping point. Look at "Alien", where a mining crew is hauling cargo through space. How did they get there? Why are they there? Since when did we have the ability to travel from planet to planet? The audience, whether it's the geeks, nerds, jocks, idiots, etc.... will get that this is what is already available. There are superheroes running around our planet.

There are even larger implications to explore from this. If less time is devoted to establishing where these superheroes came from, more time will be available to present WHO THESE CHARACTERS ARE through their dialogue, interactions, and responses. Kind of like finding out what you're made of when things get crazy.

Stories can be told. Original ones.
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