So, DC and Warner Bros. is going all in with this crazy
Man of Steel 2: Superfriends operation, teaming up Batman and Superman with a host of other heroes also dropping in for their big-screen debuts on their way to full Justice League glory.
Are they biting off more than they can chew? Wouldn't be the first time.
Is there a better way to work up to Justice League? Isn't there always?
Is there little to nothing a ranting fanboy can do to stop them? I don't doubt it.
And yet, once more unto the breach I go!
Part 1: SUPERMAN vs BATMAN A lot of things can go wrong if WB tries to do too much too soon, like maybe stuffing too many characters and subplots into a film that already has a lot going on with the title characters and isn't technically Justice League yet. Maybe they can pull it off, but it's a pretty small bullseye (especially with so much time between installments for added pressure), and missing the mark means everything falls back into development hell while Marvel keeps powering on with 2+ films a year.
I honestly believe WB has a Dark Knight problem. Not for lack of trying, but even now that they've closed the book on the Nolan trilogy, they still want to smear that TDK magic on all their movies (because it's by far the thing they've had the most success with), but that grounded, hyper-realistic approach that made that film so revolutionary isn't as applicable to the larger DC catalog (and in large part worked because Batman was on his own).
Man of Steel gave us the first glimpse, but they've still yet to truly capture the DC brand on film.
As for Batman and Superman specifically, there's a killer dynamic between the two iconic heroes that will be great to see on screen, but again, cameos from other capes and masks is more likely to distract from that relationship than enhance it.
Part 2: WONDER WOMAN (The Movie) Warner Bros has so much faith in
the most popular and recognized female superhero on the planet that they're gonna shoehorn her into a smaller supporting role in an already crowded film from the director of
Sucker Punch rather than give her a solo outing right now, following a year where films like
Hunger Games: Catching Fire,
Frozen, and
Gravity topped the box office.
Here's a question I wish I could pose to the suits at the studio: "Suppose you went ahead and broke up the film, you made movies for
Superman/Batman and for
Wonder Woman, and you got great box office returns from both of them, but
Wonder Woman made more $$$. You'd be totally 100% okay with that, right?"
Part 3: WONDER WOMAN (The Talent) As with anything else, the surest way for the studio to guarantee success with Wonder Woman is to select the right creative minds that are passionate about the material and get the hell out of their way and let
them resolve the hard questions that make WW such a tricky property to adapt to the screen. The video offers shoutouts to some of the people I'd like to see attached, from writers to producers to directors.
Part 4: BRAVE AND THE BOLD (FLASH/GL) Marvel remains agonizingly coy about when one of their many ladies will get a chance at the silver-screen spotlight. They also have no reason to make any full-sized features teaming only a couple of A-listers like DC's attempting with Batman & Superman. So that's 2 ways DC can pull one over on Marvel right now. While they're at it, they could pre-empt Justice League with an additional team-up between Flash and Green Lantern, which would act as a great big-screen debut for the former and an effective low-pressure soft reboot for the latter. They can even introduce John Stewart's origin in the same movie, so that they can later send him off to JL while Hal dukes it out with Sinestro in the proper GL reboot.
And if they're
especially bold, they can use this film to link the lucrative "Arrow" and upcoming "Flash" TV shows with the movies, since "Arrow" kicks all the ass and they've also got that going for them over Marvel at the moment.
Well, I've said my piece. Are YOU looking forward to the Batman/Superman movie? Would you like to see Wonder Woman and other heroes get a shot at big-screen greatness sooner rather than later? Am I just a petulant blowhard with too much time on his hands? Discuss in the comments below, we've got plenty to talk about and a lot can happen before summer 2016!