Why the DCEU can ultimately become a better franchise than the MCU.
Here a few reasons why I think the underdog can become the leader in the future. Everyone in the comic book movie world names Marvel as the crown king of the genre with their shared universe model, which dominates the year with multiple pictures and TV series. Marvel have achieved success in exploring a more cohesive storytelling and a formula that seems to work with fans of the comic books and regular movie goers as well. This is something I mainly attribute to their unfair start, holding the rights to less know characters, they were in a position where the usual movie trilogy or a separated film franchise was way more risky, considering that some of the characters they wanted to introduce had multiple origins not as familiar as some of their bigger names. A new approach had to be taken, where if one franchise takes off, it could simply act as a supporting foundation for another one. A lighter more comedic approach was introduced, where this played a pivotal role in characters that had a more out there back story that might have not been embraced by non-fans of the property.
A comic book fan is happy even if the character is simply looking like his comic book counterpart, where this is isn’t enough for a regular movie goer.
The best thing about a shared universe is that like any TV series, it goes on for much more than 3 movies, who would refuse another season of
Breaking bad, Suits, The Wire, House of Cards or any good TV show, no one is the correct answer. Once the movie is over, you are teased for the future, the next one, in your mind you are satisfied that you will indeed see another one soon.
The advantage over TV is the bigger budget, the better FX, the more recognizable actors, the bigger stakes and the quality overall. I mean I can argue the budget not always helps as I find Marvel’s DareDevil TV show to be much better than many other Marvel property, but if they had more money it could have been worse – you never know. For characters with powers it seems FX need to be on point, and they are the product of money and time.
Everyone seems to be on DC’s back for delivering some movies that could have been better, well I see this is a valid point, but at the same time not on a 100 %.
Could
Man of Steel have been better, maybe yes – maybe they could have done with less destruction in the 3
rd act. It seems that in that movie Zack and WB went for the Nolan approach “”What if he existed with those powers?”” – In that equation, if this guy exist maybe a fight between him and Zod would end just like it did in the movie. But is that something that regular movie goers want to see? Are they so interested in the answer of that question as comic book fans? Mostly probably not – maybe they would have preferred to see some humor and jokes about saving cats and helping old ladies, I do not know.
Batman V Superman came out, and it was heavy with
Miller references, darker Superman stories and the main minus for me a CGI villain or sub villain let’s say. One thing that I think we can all agree, CGI big baddies aren’t doing very well with regular movie goers, I can give you a lot of examples from comic book movies and other genres, but it’s never as satisfying as an actor giving us a unique performance. Sure the movie wasn’t edited as good as it could have been and they went for a very serious tone for the dialogue, something maybe non comic book fans found to be off-putting and not entertaining, but its was a new type of movie for sure.
With some recent comments from the Producers, I think they realized that they need to satisfy not only die-hards but mainstream fans as well. The major thing here is that they now know this and are surely not to repeat this mistake.
Suicide Squad was movie that probably started of darker than it ended up eventually, but as you can all see it still performing well in the box office despite the negative score it got from the critics. The movie is now passing 637 Million worldwide without a China release and positive reviews, just like Batman V Superman it was able to define the negative. It might not have grossed over a billion, but still it gave chance to other
DCEU movies to be made.
With
Marvel I think by now, with minor exceptions have found a way to tell a different story, but with the same core. They weren’t the most successful in terms of Box Office pre The Avengers, they had some hits but a lot of misses same as DC, they learned what works and what doesn’t and got rid of the elements that seemed to be against them.
Same will happen with
DC from now on, I think 3 movies are enough to find your main approach to each movie. They found a great leader in the face of
Geoff Johns and other big name producers, that can both advise on the comic book elements and the simply movie aspect of it.
If Wonder Woman isn’t judged by the brand in front of its name and it’s a good critically positive movie and that sets a good standard for their approach and their movies start getting a more realistic score (not the forced negative ones they have been bombarded with now) we are in for a threat.
I am not saying that Justice League is safe now, just because it looks to be more fun, critics are surely going to go after Zack Snyder, and it’s just how it is. He has been marked in that category, he is a good visual master, maybe a perfect one, but sometimes he gets carried away by that and loses focus on other aspects. They can however utilize him in a role as a producer and a consultant for other directors that have less experience with visuals and simply stop using him as a director. That would be a smart move to get of the hate train as people by now are used to attacking him.
The current lineup of DC movies sounds awesome, I can’t wait for
Aquaman and
Flash. I love the directors chosen so far.
Now back to the main point, why I think DC can beat Marvel in their own game.
First off, DC has the rights to their entire catalogue of characters – what that means is that any popular story line can be done, without having to change the heart of the story. No need for replacing characters and plot details for the sake of rights. With Marvel currently it’s looking much better, the only major franchise they are missing is the X Men, which isn’t that bad for now. Maybe they buy them back in the future, for now however they seem to be avoiding the mutant aspect by using story lines from within the MCU, and mutants can easily be replaced by
Inhumans if needed. Still all Marvel fans want to see Hulk vs Wolverine, or Cyborg shooting his beam at Iron Man, it’s just that good of an idea.
Second thing that I think will elevate the DCEU is the good and popular back stories of the main rooster, everyone knows Batman and his rogues gallery can probably have its own movie (in a way Suicide Squad is mostly Bat villains), we have the Bat family which can easily spawn children as well.
With
Flash being so popular on TV, I think we can easily assume that a trilogy of movies is an easy fix, with great villains and FX the Flash can be that super surprise at the box office and bring the success DC needs. And let’s not pretend that we do not want a Flashpoint movie.
Aquaman in the hands of
Wan looks like something I want to watch now, the facts it’s something brand new in terms of unexplored space is awesome. We have been to space, Earth but never underwater, the possibilities of stories there are endless. We have conflicts with the amazons that can in the future be translated in great movies and story lines that are crazy good.
Justice League – as a
Batman fan I can say , this has never been my favorite book due to the fact I never prefer Batman surrounded by gods that can do anything, but I will give it a chance since the business model can’t avoid this crossover in the current state. He can fit well in a more leadership role, I mean he does have the experience and the means to provide the JLA with resources.
Wonder Woman – this is the one I am waiting for the most, I have never been so invested in her books and animated appearances until I saw Flashpoint, it gave me another point of view and I started paying attention. With Patty Jenkins stepping in to direct, I knew I am in for a serious take on this character, what I didn’t know is that she will shoot the visuals out of this movie and bring me action as well – now I am a 100 % on board. This movie looks to be different from what I have seen so far and I believe in Gal.
The Batman – I think the fact that Affleck is directing and Geoff helped with the story, plus the announcement of
Deathstroke shows that they will not go and try to recreate TDK or any previous story beats. This shows that they want to reinvent the character. This time we will get an opponent that looks as opposing to the Bat as they come. With the Joker we always have this angle where his madness and his mind are the main threat, you never know what he will do, but he never felt like a threat to the Bat in terms of a match up. Let’s see something new and exciting, never done before. You can save the Joker for another sequel to Batman or Suicide Squad, it’s not an issue with fans in a shared universe.
I am not going to dive deeper in
Shazam, Cyborg, Green Lantern Corps as the information I have for them is zero at this point.
Man of Steel 2 same thing, I have nothing to base of my expectations.
But one thing I am sure in is that if those movies are done to perfection and are reaching not only for the geeks and nerds out there, DC can make some of the best movie in the genre.
We are talking about 3 movie so far compared to 13, but those 3 movies were trashed by the critics and still managed to make over 2.177.428 Billion Worldwide. Now close your eyes and imagine a positive review of a DC movie, and what that box office would look like.
I think Suicide Squad 2 with more time to be developed and a better villain could easily kiss that 1 Billion box office money. The Batman is surely a contender for that Billion club.
And the fact that we have yet to see so many never seen before characters and stories is simply great.
The only thing that is bothering me, is that the press and journalist are trying to paint this sad picture of DC doing bad, doing worse every time and they just passed 2 Billion on their 3
rd movie.
For comparison Marvel did that in 5 movies, their first 5 grossed 2.292.429 Billion, by the time Suicide Squad finishes it will close to that number with probably 50-80 Million.
If Wonder Woman and Justice League next year bring both around 2 Billion, than we are in for a difference of 2 Billion for the first 5 movies, that is the good scenario.
The bad scenario is Wonder Woman makes 500 Million WW total and JLA makes 800 Million WW total, then we have 1.3 Billion more for the same five movies, still not too bad.
I know what every Marvel fan will say below, but Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are more popular than Iron Man and Hulk etc, and they should be, they are the OGs of this game.
That however doesn’t mean non comic book fans know anything about them, to me beyond Batman DC’s main rooster is irrelevant to main stream, people just want to see a good movie.
If Iron Man is so unpopular then why did it gross 1.3 Billion, because people know him now! This argument is so stupid. Batman had 2 terrible movies in the past, this doesn’t elevate his status to normal movie goers, or the Superman movie from the past, how do they help him in front of normal people? Let’s see the new Superman movie, I hope it’s just like Superman 3, 4 and Returns? Is that how it works, or if not explain to me?
Stop finding excuses for the facts, DC has good chances to provide good movies and maybe be a bit more successful long term, at least in my eyes.
The only thing that can stop it is people bashing them on every step, for small mistakes that Marvel has done over and over again.
Bad villains – Mandarin, Abomination, Whiplash, Iron Monger, Malekith, Ronan, Yellowjacket, Frost Giants, Zemo etc
Generic plots – Iron man 2, 3, Ant-Man, Thor, Thor 2, Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, Age of Ultron etc
Whatever you think DC is doing bad, look at your favorite studio and you will see it has been done just as bad before that. Not saying it’s bad to make mistakes, just don’t be blind when they are coming from something you love.
We all need to realize that DC is ok and will do even better in the future