10. Less Dark Knight Recycled Scenes
Who doesn't love The Dark Knight? It's easily amongst the greatest comic-book movies ever made. However, just because it's a classic, that doesn't give filmmakers the right to repeatedly drag it through the dirt by constantly recycling scenes and themes that were explored in the Nolan trilogy. For instance, the back-and-forth editing style of Batman Begins was brought back for Man of Steel, the interrogation scene (along with the muted colour palette) from Man of Steel was clearly inspired by The Dark Knight and the courtroom sequence (from Batman v. Superman) was very similar in tone to The Dark Knight's montage of The Joker murdering the police comissioner ("grandma's peach tea") and judge (by huge explosion). Hopefully, now that Jesse Eisenberg's Lex is bald, and imprisoned, he'll drop the entire "Heath Ledger's Joker v2.0" schtick for future instalments.
9. Practical Effects, Minimal CGI
Oh, no. Not the age-old argument about why practical effects are always so much better than CGI again. It's been said again-and-again to the point where it's basically become redundant, although for good reason. Having CGI in place of scenes that could've been done practically, with a little more thought and effort put in, is always a downer. One of my biggest gripes with Man of Steel was the final fight sequence being so VFX dependent. It's still a fine action scene all-around, but the behind-the-scenes footage of the fight shows a much more intense confrontation, since the performers are obviously much more emotive than layers upon layers of effects. One of the best examples for why practical effects are so much better than CGI is the underrated 1985 movie Legend, which features outstanding character-actor Tim Curry as the most intimidating form of the Lord of Darkness that we may ever seen.
8. Keep Major Villains Alive
While Marvel is more guilty of this than DC, it still needs to be said that major baddies deserve to be kept alive if they've got a rich history in the comics. There's a whole story that could've been told about Doomsday's tragic origin as a science experiment, but Batman v. Superman completely derailed that notion since they needed a big bad boy for the team to beat-up at the end. This was not only a waste of Doomsday, but a waste of Michael Shannon's Zod as well. Shannon is easily amongst today's finest actors and the fact that the filmmakers couldn't let him return as a resurrected Zod was a missed opportunity. While some people may have complained about not having a new villain featured, it would have been a treat to see Shannon reprise his role as Zod instead of just Zod's corpse.
7. Less Chaos
Personally speaking, I don't mind a ton of chaos and destruction in my movies (as long as it's not mind-numbing). However, considering how the majority of audiences agree that there's far too much carnage going on (in both Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman), maybe it's high time to listen up, or get obliterated by the competition. Clearly most people prefer Batman over Superman because good 'ol Batsy brings the least amount of destruction and property damage to his heroic/vigilante endeavours, and that's a shame since Superman films are capable of showing so much more than him inadvertently leveling a whole city. We have the technology to show Superman's speed and agility, so why not make a film out of Superman rebuilding a city and saving lives along the way?
6. More Adventure
In referring to "more adventure", this simply means less emphasis on taking down the big bad guy. Certainly any adventure film could benefit by having an evildoer or two thrown in for good measure, but they're not the center of the story, they're only the force that pushes the hero into pursing such an experience, the thrill of the chase and potential victories along the way. Think Raiders of the Lost Ark, even though the film does have a main antagonist, along with the intimidating henchman by his side, this doesn't mean the film will simply revolve around stopping them. It shows Indy's just about as interested in the discovery as his enemies. Another, more recent example is Mad Max: Fury Road, which is largely plotted around getting the female prisoners to safety at Furiosa's homeland, only to twist back around and become a journey to claim a tyrant's throne for their own. It's a nice, simple story that does have a main bad guy, but he's not trying to end the world, or any other ridiculousness like that, instead he's trying to "rescue" his breeders. Imagine a story centered around The Flash and/or Aquaman attempting to find a treasure of some kind, only for greedy villains to try and steal it in advance. Sounds like a welcome change in formula.
3. Inflatable Action Sequences
What happens when a balloon is overblown? It pops. While I'm a sucker for over-the-top fight scenes, sometimes it can get exhausting. Soon enough these gigantic action set-pieces are going to dig either Marvel or DC (if not both) into a hole that they may never be able to escape from.
Not all action sequences need to be 10-20 minutes in length. That's outrageous. Sure, you want the big boss battle to be as long as suitably possible, but sometimes it's great to see these scenes played out more realistically, as opposed to "let's drag this out further because we need trailer shots and money". An example which comes to mind (when referencing realism in action) is the fight sequence between Aragorn and Lurtz during the climax of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The battle only lasts for a minute, and it's one of the best fight sequences ever filmed, thanks to outstanding cinematography, as well as brilliantly naturalistic choreography.
1. Small Scale Stories
When I first heard the announcement of Suicide Squad, I was immediately excited by the prospect of villains lounging around and sharing stories of all the times they failed to beat so-and-so. The reason I've been dreaming of a movie like this for such a long time now is largely due to what is arguably my favourite episode of Batman: The Animated Series, "Almost Got 'Im". Right from the get-go, the episode draws you in immediately because you hardly ever get the chance to see these villainous characters interact on a (somewhat) friendly-level. It's refreshing and surprisingly delightful watching these characters just be themselves for a change, instead of being wrapped up in some sort of grandiose scheme. If DC/WB wants to find new, exciting ways to challenge Marvel/Disney on the big-screen, then this is the perfect place to start, and it all started with a creative team of people that they hired. No more big, underdeveloped bad guys to fight during the climax, no more mass destruction, no more outrageous budgets that have the potential to bury these movies if they slip even the slightest at the box-office, let's relax with these heroes/villains for a change; because if they can make a film about a homicidal yuppie entertaining, why not a movie about supervillains playing poker?