Will a Justice League Movie ever work?

Will a Justice League Movie ever work?

Are there too many issues for a JLA movie to come to fruition?

Editorial Opinion
By RyanLantern77 - Feb 25, 2011 02:02 PM EST
Filed Under: Justice League

With Marvel putting there eggs in the Avenger initiative, can DC produce their own super-team? As far as I am concerned, now is the time to cash in on superhero movies. The success and revenue that they are generating is staggering and the only sure thing to make money in the box office. Earlier this week, Mark Millar stated that he believes comic book movies will start to die down in 2014 or 2015. It is hard to argue with the statement, especially because in 2015, almost all of the main stream characters have been made, sequeled and rebooted.
For a Justice League movie to work, you have to capture the group dynamic. Everyone brings something to the party. There have been talks on this site of doing a JLA movie without Batman and Superman, which is absurd to me. Supes and Bats are founding members of the Justice League and the two most important forces within the league. If the movie is done, it must be done right or you will find yourself blacklisted by millions of angry fanboys.
First off, Batman will have to be rebooted before a Justice League movie happens. Christian Bale has been quoted that he will not be Batman in a non-Nolan directed Batman movie. Nolan has confirmed that The Dark Knight Rises is his last Bat-flick. Those are two vital cogs in the current Batman and to have a Batman in the Justice League, he must establish his tone and visual style in a solo movie before a team oriented film.
Here is where concerns rise for me as a CBM fan. One reason that The Avengers will (probably) work as a film is that all of the films have a similar look and feel to them. The trailers for Thor and Captain America are visually similar to Iron Man 2. The issues that arise in The Justice League is that Zack Snyder has a very specific, effects oriented filming style that is very unique. Batman must be done in a gritty realistic setting to be successful after Nolan's portrayal. Martin Campbell's Green Lantern looks brighter and while it will be effects oriented, the CGI does not resemble anything that Snyder has done before. It would be extremely difficult to take any of the members of the JLA out of their film style and portray them in another style. (Think about how stupid a Batman cameo in Green Lantern would look)
Finally, Hawkman, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman and Flash would all have to be introduced before the movie can work. Wonder Woman is green-lighted for a TV series, but can that be transferred into a JLA movie? A Martian Manhunter and Hawkman movie would likely not do well in the box-office just based on popularity and story lines. Rumors have been circling about a Flash movie for quite some time, but I believe that it would be successful. Green Arrow has some popularity growing recently and more a calling for a movie and rumors surrounding the SuperMax/Green Arrow movie.
All of this being said, none of these movies or productions can bomb or DC would be quick to pull the plug. I believe that the odds are stacked against a Justice League movie coming to fruition. I don't think that DC will be quick to pull the trigger, I think that they will weigh each character as it's own production and decide if it can work on it's own, and when all is said and done (provided that all characters have been successful), they will consider a JLA movie. I don't like those odds.

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golden123
golden123 - 2/25/2011, 2:55 PM
Just because the Director and Main actor are leaving a franchise doesn't mean the franchise can't carry on without rebooting it. Look at James Bond.
I, also, don't think that all the movies for the characters need to feel the same for a JL movie to work. Why can't different characters from different backgrounds and who have different personalities be in one movie. If all the characters were the same in tone and attitude the movie wouldn't be as interesting.
Finally, I don't think popularity should be a problem for characters like Hawkman and Martian Manhunter. If the movie is looks good and is well advertised it won't matter. You have got to remember these are from an american market and only around 500,000 americans actually read comics. Many of those people don't even read superhero comics (they read things like anime, star wars comics, and etc.) much less DC. Now I'll admit I haven't read anything focusing on Martian Manhunter, but saying Hawkman has plenty of good storylines saying he doesn't, or even inferring it, shows ignorance for the storys, or you have a really bad taste in what makes a good story. In plus many of the great CBM's have been original or at least very loosely based on the source material.
PaulRom
PaulRom - 2/25/2011, 3:06 PM
I'm with golden123, I don't think the same feel is necessary for a JLA film.
I say go for a DC Cinematic Universe. Wait til Green Lantern is successful enough to produce a sequel or two, and if Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and/or any other major characters in the JLA aren't made by the third GL movie, then I'd say reboot everything and start over from scratch.
Warner Bros. has stated that there are no plans for crossing over any of their DC movies, so there's little to no reality to Henry Cavill and Christian Bale heading the JL.
RyanLantern77
RyanLantern77 - 2/25/2011, 3:22 PM
@golden123- Don't get me wrong, I am not hating on Hawkman at all, I am a die hard DC fan and I have found stories that I love for just about every character, especially Hawkman. I just feel that it would be hard to introduce those characters because I really don't think that DC would take the gamble of giving a second-tier character their own movie (like Jonah Hex) their own movies. Rebooting is the wrong phrase when I talked about Batman's future. I feel that trying to continue what Nolan and Bale have done so far would be pointless and you won't find anybody that will do it better.

@PaulRom- This was just a rant of mine, regardless of Warner Bros. statements, I am just analyzing the demand for a JLA movie
RyanLantern77
RyanLantern77 - 2/25/2011, 3:27 PM
And while I don't believe that they need to feel or look similar to work, you have to understand that all characters will have to be represented on screen at one time, and you must find a visual style that will fit every character.
Checkmate
Checkmate - 2/25/2011, 3:40 PM
Batman will definitely need a reboot, I also think that WB is mainly waiting to see how Avengers goes. It'd be a dream come true to see these characters in the same movie.
Goliath93
Goliath93 - 2/25/2011, 4:02 PM
Never really got into hawkman, I want to though.

Also I don't think Hawkman has the villains for a good live action film. I don't know I may be wrong.

Suggestions on a Hawkman story and list of villains will be greatly appreciated.
PaulRom
PaulRom - 2/25/2011, 4:07 PM
@Dane I'm pretty sure Warner Bros will want to cross over their DC movies once The Avengers blows everyone's minds away. They're more than likely to try to rival Marvel.
RyanLantern77
RyanLantern77 - 2/25/2011, 4:29 PM
@Goliath93 - "Hawkworld" and "Golden Eagle" are 2 very good Hawkman story arcs
golden123
golden123 - 2/25/2011, 5:03 PM
@Goliath93: "Endless Flight" is a good way to get to know Hawkman's origin, and "Rise of the Golden Eagle" (same story as RyanLantern's second suggestion) is a good way to get to know Hawkman's villains and mythos.
As for his villains:
Fadeaway Man
Lion-Mane
Shadow Theif
Gentlemen Ghost
Matter Master
Hath-set
Byth
I.Q.
those ar probably his top and most notable ones. As well as most recurring ones.
Denn1s
Denn1s - 2/25/2011, 5:18 PM
jla is cheesier than the avengers but it can work...
Goliath93
Goliath93 - 2/25/2011, 6:02 PM
"Rise of the Golden Eagle" it is, thanks to RyanLantern77 and golden123
golden123
golden123 - 2/25/2011, 6:17 PM
@goliath93: Nice choice. Probably the best of the three stories suggested. Hope you enjoy it, and I hope it turns you into fan of the character.
RyanLantern77
RyanLantern77 - 2/25/2011, 6:31 PM
Good choice Goliath, you won't be disappointed, its a great story
George88
George88 - 2/26/2011, 5:31 AM
I think to make JLA work is to have as few characters as possible. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Latern and Flash will do. Avengers will work because of its realistic and something we can relate to. Having martians and aliens isn't. It may be good for an action/sci-fi movie but we do not want a "Transformers" movie with random explosions and weak storyline, we want a movie that translates the comics to the big screen perfectly. I believe that in order to make the JLA to work we need to have realistic villains aswell. Perhaps have Lex running for president and he is creating a team of villains to take down the competition and then Supes assembles his team to them down. In the end Lex is exposed and the JLA are hailed as heroes. I think something like that would work for the first movie and perhaps develop more sci-fi orientated storylines afterwards after the audience are familiar with the characters and movies. I believe that would work for a JLA movie.
RyanLantern77
RyanLantern77 - 2/26/2011, 5:43 AM
@George97 - If you don't think aliens should be in it then Green Lantern is out because all he deals with is aliens and superman is out because he is an alien. I don't believe you can make a faithful JLA adaptation without Hawkman and Martian Manhunter. Like I said in the article, I think that every character brings something to the team and leaving out a vital member could ruin that team dynamic that is so great in the comics.
TheAwesome
TheAwesome - 2/26/2011, 7:31 PM
I really don't think a connected movie verse is what DC needs. Marvel did that and it crippled Iron Man 2, I felt.
Suzanne
Suzanne - 2/26/2011, 11:51 PM
The one and only way would be if the Justice League from Smallville can be connected to the new Wonder Woman TV Show and if one of them bring in Batman.

The current movie franchises are impossible to be made into a Justice League franchise because they current DC franchises have been set up not to be connected together.
YourMomNaked
YourMomNaked - 2/27/2011, 10:10 AM
I'd like to see if Reynolds and Cavill work as GL and Superman 1st.
gmoney0505
gmoney0505 - 3/1/2011, 3:50 PM
Too many characters for it to work in a 2 hour movie especially if they are not established before the JLA movie. Not only do you need to portray the heroes but they will have to portray a villain or villains that can rival the whole JLA. They barely want to green light CBM for a 150mil and a JLA movie will need way more than that if they want to have great actors for the roles to characters portray them accurately. Don't know any writers than can write great for 10 characters. There barely many good ones that can write a good story for 3 characters.

That's the way I see it and I could be wrong, a JLA movie may work with the characters not having their own movies first.I just don't want to see a JLA movie not done to its greatest potential.

On the Avengers- Don't have high hopes for it being great. Marvel barely had money to pay the actors for Iron Man 2 and tried to put more characters that really did not need to be in the movie and it was just boring. Mickey Rourke was underpaid and his screentime showed it. Only 3 scenes were action scenes and they were very short and an afterthought. Hope the writers for Avenger aren't the ones from Iron Man 2 cause they could not write well for those characters.
Knight
Knight - 3/4/2011, 7:46 AM
A JLA movie movie will never work. Why? Because, other than Green Lantern and Jonah Hex, all the WB can do is focus on Batman/Superman movies. They have such a NARROW vision that they don't even care that Marvel is the king when it comes to super-hero films.

IF Green Lantern is a success, then a new franchise is born and the WB might FINALLY branch out and use their other heroes for movies, which they SHOULD have done 12 years ago. Then and only then will we see hope for a JLA film, but not for another 10 years at best.

But it all hangs on Green Lantern being a success. If GL is not a success, we're stuck with Batman/Superman. If GL is a success, then Mark Miller will be wrong because the WB will have the balls to use their super-heroes to make more super-heroes movies. I'd say we have another 20 years of super-hero movies if GL becomes a success.
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