I have long been a DC fan. I love Marvel, but DC is it for me. However, Warner Bros. or more specifically Time-Warner owns DC and this is where the problems begin. I can’t take the business decisions of Warner Bros. anymore without saying something. There are too many issues historically I have with Warner Bros. to go back too far, so I will just go back a few years at the most.
Lobo was recently greenlit and one can only wonder why that character over any other DC character, the answer lies with Wolverine’s success. It tells me the corporate mentality at Warner Bros. was “well Wolverine was a success, what does DC have that is similar?” Well Lobo would be it. He was created at a time where X-men and Wolverine books dominated the comics Top 10 charts as an attempt to cash in on that type of character. Is Lobo cool? Sure. Does he deserve a movie? Sure, maybe. Does he deserve a movie now? Hell no, not before Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman or Aquaman. But the corporate minds at WB don’t see what fans might want; they are too busy trying to play catch up and just follow in Marvel’s footsteps, punching out similar, but inferior projects, rather than setting the standard.
What are the two most successful Warner Bros. franchises? Batman and Harry Potter. So, continuing with the “corporate mentality” this can be the only explanation for them doing a “Mandrake the Magician” film before more JLA members. Corporate mentality: “Well he’s a comic hero, so he’s like Batman, check, he does magic so he’s like Harry Potter, check. How could we go wrong? It’s a gold mine!” This of course is ridiculous. So now we have two movies “Lobo” and “Mandrake the Magician” before more JLA members. Stupid choice Warner Bros. I smell another “Catwoman” and “Steel”, not another “Harry Potter” and “The Dark Knight.”
The Man of Steel, this movie so far looks great. Cavill is an excellent choice. But Zod as the main villain? Really? What an opportunity missed. They need to let go of the Donner films already. They were great but move on. Zod was never a major character in the comics. Brainiac is the ideal choice for a Superman movie that shows any portion of his origin. Not only could Brainiac give the big reveal to Superman of his birthright, but he could also give the fans a physical battle. Something Superman fans have wanted ever since Superman II. The jury is still out on this one, like I said it looks good so far, but that doesn’t mean anything at this point.
“Green Lantern.” This movie had such potential. It could’ve easily been as good as “The Avengers” in my opinion. Was it? Not even close. It was lousy. Green Lantern is my personal all-time favorite superhero, so this movie not only wounded me, but then they poured salt all over the wound. The budget was inexcusable. To put it into perspective “The Avengers” cost only $20 million more to make and look how much more epic that was. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” cost $5 million LESS than “Green Lantern” and the effects blew GL away and it felt more epic as well. The worst thing about the movie was the writing. It was horrible. It was rushed, the character whined a lot, he trained on Oa for about five minutes, etc. I could go on forever about the writing problems. Of course having so many writers didn’t help. But the franchise could still be saved if done correctly. There were some fans of the movie and now the animated series is doing well so a sequel with major tweaks could work and be profitable. Hell I could do it, I see where to take the story and fix everything in the first one. But now they have basically abandoned it. Warner has convinced themselves their only viable property is Batman, and its only true because they screw everything else up, not because they don’t have the potential.
Warner Bros. apparently still don’t see what went wrong with Green Lantern because now they hired one of the Green Lantern writers to write Wonder Woman. They don’t learn from their mistakes. Joss Whedon just made the 3rd most successful movie and he was dying to do a Wonder Woman movie. Let him. He’s proven and has a passion for the character. But no that’s too easy. Let’s make another dud instead.
Now the latest news they are preparing a JLA movie. Great. Just hearing those words is exciting. This is potentially the greatest news ever in the comic book world. But then reality sets in. It’s still Warner Bros. Even worse, they have a nobody attached to write. Now, this of course might not mean anything, he may very well be an amazing writer. But it seems odd to put such an important project into an unproven writer. But hey at least the writer is giving it a “dark and mature” tone. Ever since Nolan did Batman, Warner Bros. has become obsessed with the “dark and mature” formula. That doesn’t lend itself to many characters other than Batman, and most certainly not a JLA movie. That is not the winning formula. Staying true to the source material is the answer. Look at Marvel’s success right now. Hello. The realistic thing doesn’t work either. It works for Batman because he has no powers, but how can you do that with a man that flies? It is fantasy, let it be fantasy.
Warner Bros. needs to stop putting all their hope in Nolan. Nolan may be great, but he doesn’t want to do superhero movies forever. Other great directors and writers are dying to take a stab at it. But they need to stick to the source and WB needs to give the creators more freedom to give the fans the product that they want. This will in turn get WB the profits they are begging for. Being that they are a corporation, it is impossible to escape the corporate mentality, but there are answers, they need better consultants or liaisons with DC, ones that really know the characters and they actually need to heed the advice of those consultants. Once they do any of this they can be setting the standard, rather than playing catch up and copycat all the time with the Marvel movies. I love DC and really want great DC movies, but Warner Bros. needs to change their strategy.