DC Extended Universe

Okay so I know I'm really late to the party but I'm not the biggest Marvel or DC Fan. So, on the weekend I saw Suicide Squad for the first time. My friend also recently lent me his Blu-Ray of BvS - so I watched that a couple of weeks ago. Anyways, here's my initial reaction:


Is it me... or have the critics unfairly critiqued these films? BvS was no where near as bad as I thought it'd be. Because I went into both films thinking they would be below average I think I enjoyed them even more! Don't get me wrong, these films are not solid and don't properly explain themselves in places but they're good Comic Book films. I thought Suicide Squad was especially good.

My biggest criticism with Suicide Squad were:
A) Enchantress was such a weak excuse for a villain in my opinion. But I've never read any of the Comic Books so excuse my ignorance.
B) This villain that is threatening the world is destroying the place and no other super heroes have turned up? Only the new Suicide Squad? Nah. Don't buy that.
C) Generic lightning/power thing shooting into the sky - seen this way too many times.

What I especially loved about Suicide Squad:
A) The actors. Margot Robbie and Will Smith killed it. I loved their characters. The whole squad was great minus a few that they [understandably] didn't have time to properly introduce.
B) The Joker get's his own mention - amazing. I love him, and I want to see more of him. I think we saw just the right amount of him to keep us interested whilst not being a distraction for the whole film.
C) The soundtrack was superb.
D) It was fun.


All in all I'm really looking forward to seeing where the DCEU goes with these films. Especially Justice League.

 

From what I understand the Green Arrow Super MAX film is being adapted into a Batman film with Deathstroke leading the villains in Arkham.

 

I had a feeling those paths would cross soon or later.

 

That's why they're trying to lighten the tone for Justice League .

 

http://uk.complex.com/pop-culture/2016/09/margot-robbie-suicide-squad-spin-off-harley-quinn-official

 

So Ben Affleck confirmed his Batman solo film will be titled THE BATMAN.

 

https://www.facebook.com/ajax/share...sizzle-reel-is-filled-with-awesome-1787531679

 

New WONDER WOMAN trailer.

 

New rumours popped up about The Batman solo flick.
http://comicbook.com/2016/11/04/rumor-ben-afflecks-batman-script-has-serious-problems/

Apparently the script is mess but WB execs dont even care.
"‘We don’t care. We don’t really care. The amount of money we’re going to make globally, I mean 70 percent of our audience is not going to be seeing this in English. And it doesn’t really matter, these things that you’re bringing up about the flaws of the script.’ So I do think global concerns play a big part in how movies, and what movies, are being made, obviously.”"

What do you guys think about this? I mean its pretty hardcore that they allegedly just said it out loud that they dont care about the quality... Could this be true?

 

Here's another article on that subject for a little more added context.

http://screenrant.com/bret-easton-ellis-batman-script/

It all sounds a little hazy to me. On one hand, I can absolutely see stupid executives making a statement like that. On the other hand, wiser movie execs will realize that good movies tend to make more than bad movies. BvS was still a profitable movie, but it definitely missed out on potentially making a couple hundred million more due to its divisiveness with fans and audiences.

I also think that Affleck himself would want to avoid shooting a movie with a bad script, as his name is much more on the line as the director in this case. It's common knowledge that he was very unhappy with the reception of BvS, especially after how he poured himself into the role of Batman.

Honestly, it's hard to judge things like this due to the fact that there are some colossally stupid executives in Hollywood(anybody remember the remarks by one executive after the success of Deadpool?). Conversely, second and third hand rumors tend to be very unreliable.

 

Well also Brett Eston Ellis also backtracked his comments and I doubt he's REALLY in the loop and might have misheard .

 

Exactly, he said as much in the article I linked. He didn't entirely backtrack, but still cast plenty of doubt.

 

I agree. I have been vocal about the issues that I have with the DCEU so far, but most of my issues are with Snyder's direction, and frankly, poor grasp of the source material that he claims to know so well. Hearing that Geoff Johns is taking on a Kevin Feige type role at WB is one of the things that gives me hope for the DCEU down the line. The man knows DC comics, and why their characters are so beloved by the fans. Having read quite a few of his comics, I can honestly say that this man "gets" it.

For anyone who has doubts about that, I recommend picking up both volumes of Johns' Batman Earth One.

With Johns there to guide the ship, I am considerably more hopeful regarding the future of the DCEU. We still have two more films to go before we really see what a Johns run DCEU will be like of course, but I am hopeful, and Wonder Woman does indeed look good in the meantime (the jury is still out on Snyder's next film of course).

 

Oscars dont mean anything for a very long time now, and Affleck has never worked alone as a writer (not that im hinting something). Johns really? Sure he's done some good job with the recent animated flicks but it would be way to early to constitue him as "savior". He hasnt even written a live movie yet.
DC's savior is Nolan. When he was on board they rocked, and redefined the entire genre. Ever since he left, they seem clueless.

I agree that he's always had a big following, but I'd say the mainstream success of the character came from the very good early movies, shows, and Nolan's TDK, which basically reignited the flame after B & R and brought in a huge chunk of new fans. However, I think if WB continues to puor out low quality crap like BvS and SS, the character could very easely lose its mainstream no1 status for a long time again (especially in this huge competition), since the Batman stories are already overdone.

I have also been vocal about my dissapoointment, since I've had huge hopes to BvS, but imo almost everything regarding that movie was fundamentally bad, not just the direction. The script is a primer school example of what would I call a "mess". Underdeveloped main conflict, subplots that run into nothing, characters which have no motivation, dialogues so incredibly pretentious thats laughable, and so on. Note: I haven't seen the director's cut, as I couldn't bring myself to sit through the movie again.