Here’s the kryptonite as I see it: There’s no way JLA can be any good. Yeah, we don’t really know anything about it yet. We know which characters will be in it, but there’s no cast. We know there’s a script, but not for certain what it’s about. There are rumors that it’s awful, but until we know for certain whether there’s any substance to them let’s not waste brain power on the consideration of gossip. The problem isn’t any of these things, it’s all about numbers.
To be a JLA movie, the film needs to have multiple superheroes in it. In this case, we’re getting Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. It’s also safe to assume there will be super-villains, but at the least we know it’ll have those seven superheroes with major roles in the film. Has anyone considered the effects budget??
It cost Bryan Singer a staggering $270 million to make Superman fly realistically into theaters. It cost Christopher Nolan $150 million to make Batman look real in his Begins movie. In each case, they only had to work on special effects for one set of superpowers. Singer developed all kinds of specialty gadgets to make Superman look like he’s really flying, or that he really has super-strength. He developed tools specific to each of Superman’s effects, and it worked. Superman looked real on screen. It also cost a fortune.
JLA is seven Supermans all in one movie. To deliver the kind of high-quality superpower effects we got in movies like Superman and Batman, how much do you think it’ll cost? $100 million per superhero? $200 million per superhero? Wonder Woman shares some powers in common with Superman, so maybe they can fudge there and share special effects between them. But The Flash’s super-speed has never really been done on screen before. They’ll have to come up with something entirely new to do that. Green Lantern’s effects will be a nightmare… he can create anything out of thin air. Aquaman is going to require lavish underwater sets and tons of live and CGI marine creatures to interact with. The Martian Manhunter can turn invisible and walk through walls. Every superhero will require special sets and special, unique effects to realize them on screen and to do it right in a live action movie it’s going to cost a fortune. $500 million? $700 million? No studio is going to spend that.
Instead, Warner Brothers is likely to go no higher than $200 million, which sounds like a lot until you consider the above. There’s no way they can possibly do this movie right on the same sort of budget used on single hero, superhero films. Warners has no choice but to the movie on the cheap… except in this case on the cheap means hundreds of millions of dollars.
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