Justice League Gives DC and Warner Brothers the Chance for a Do-Over
We’re looking back at where the DC films came from. What was once seen as WB not putting in the work for their franchises has now become a golden opportunity to right the ship
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2008. Warner Brothers just didn’t know how to quit Christopher Nolan. After showing audiences that superhero movies can be serious movies, and after raking in $2.5 billion worldwide, Warner Brothers no longer had the celebrated director to helm their biggest franchise. Hell, they no longer had their biggest franchise, with The Dark Knight Trilogy intended as a closed trilogy of films telling an overall story, and none of the cast or creatives intending on returning. What they did have, however, were the characters. Batman and Superman were two of the most recognizable characters in the world, each coming with their own corresponding symbols and brands. At the same time, they had a library of DC characters to pull from, especially ones that were enjoying or had enjoyed successful runs on television. What they didn’t have, however, was a plan. In 2008, The Dark Knight was released to almost universal acclaim, hailed as one of, if not the best, superhero film of all time. It was one of the biggest box office films of all time, it even forced the Academy to readjust their Best Picture voting after it failed to garner a nomination. Warner Brothers was riding high with The Caped Crusader as it’s figurehead of superhero entertainment.
Then Marvel happened.
The same year The Dark Knight was released, so was the first Iron Man. With that film, or more accurately, with a scene at the very end of the credits, Marvel announced that they indeed had a plan for the long term, even if it was a gamble at the time. Warner Brothers had a good thing going with Christopher Nolan, but even they knew that was going to come to an end at some point. After Nolan’s Gotham was done, where were they to go? They turned their sights to the Last Son of Krypton himself, Superman. After several failed iterations and non-starts, the looped Nolan back in after a pitch from writer David Goyer, putting Superman into a modern context the likes of which we hadn’t seen before.
2013. Man of Steel did many things right as a modern-day Superman story when it came out 5 years after The Dark Knight and Iron Man. In adapting the story as a allegory for immigration and feeling alien, they certainly found a timely way to bring Superman back into the world. The casting of Henry Cavill, hell, the casting in general was inspired all around. Special effects had finally caught up to give us a convincing Superman that actually did super things at super speed with super strength, as opposed to the 70s version which had, frankly, aged horribly; lacking gravity, speed, and impact. Audiences were even given what they had desperately craved for so long: an honest-to-God superpowered brawl. The climactic showdown between Superman and General Zod had finally show the Man of Tomorrow punching an opponent at full strength… and toppling skyscrapers in the process. Audiences (and most prominently, the Internet) took particular offense to the loss of life at Superman’s hand.
As a quick sidebar, I’d like to mention that I think the outrage towards Superman and Man of Steel in particular are completely unfounded. Not only was Kal-El basically a farmboy going up against a lifelong warrior, but the majority of the destruction causes to Metropolis was from Zod’s actions. His zero-gravity terraforming machine crushed dozens of city blocks and killed tens of thousands, and the few buildings toppled during their skirmish were a direct result of Zod’s actions, not Superman’s. But I digress…
The disgust that some people had towards this new version of a modern Superman was palpable. How could The Man of Steel be so reckless in his actions? How could he not even attempt to save more lives during his battles with Zod? The box office reaction to Man of Steel had been good, but not great. Warner Brothers then made a choice to pivot on this public animosity towards their movie, not only making by making it part of the film narrative, but by bringing in an audience favorite to draw more butts to the seats.
2016. At some point between 2013 and 2016, Warner Brothers and DC Comics starting mistaking “in a real world” with “grim, gritty, and angry”. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was weighed down by a horribly convoluted title, dreary marketing, and an overall focus on seeing two of the worlds biggest, most popular heroes fighting over some petty bullshit they could’ve easily talked out if either of them were smart enough. Ben Affleck’s excellent portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman was overshadowed by the fact that his elder Batman was a sociopathic murderer, calling into question why any of his villains were even still alive anymore. Superman, still a very good Henry Cavill, became a self-doubter, wondering if he even wanted to be Superman if the people hated him. More than anything, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn’t the dawn of anything. Instead, it was a muddled, convoluted film with some excellent performances that tried to squish three or four films worth of story into it’s bloated run time. Not only did we have to see Batman and Superman square off, but we also had to see Superman go through a litany of questions from crummy authority figures, rush through the Doomsday/Death of Superman story, and cram Wonder Woman in there for good measure. When the trinity stood together during the films climactic showdown with Doomsday, it WAS exciting, but it wasn’t because the film had earned it’s moment. Rather, the audience was so familiar with these characters that they understood the weight of the moment purely by their history, by knowing who they were and where their loyalties belonged. When Superman lay dead at the end of the film, audiences knew it wouldn’t last, because it was only the second movie in the franchise. Dramatic stakes were completely ruined by the simple fact that audiences knew he had to come back because there were more films to make. It appeared that Warner Brothers was trying to cut corners to get to their own version of The Avengers. Despite the fact that the film was a big box office success, it was seen as a major disappointment. The first onscreen meeting of Batman and Superman in film history should have raked in billions of dollars, but instead petered out before it could hit $850 million worldwide. By comparison, both of Marvel’s Avengers films, as well as Captain America: Civil War, easily crested $1 billion worldwide.
Warner Brothers knew it had to pivot. They could make adjustments on the films in development, but they already had one mostly in the can, so they adjusted what they could: the marketing.
Instead of the gloomy, rain-soaked marketing that came with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad came with an eccentric, exciting trailer cut to Bohemian Rhapsody and had the star power of Will Smith behind popular characters such as Harley Quinn and The Joker. The marketing embraced the comic book origins of this band of psychopaths, and marketed the film as a different tone than the gloomy, angry film released earlier that year. If nothing else, it sold audiences a movie with big stars, big characters, and fun action set in the same world where Batman and Superman stopped killing each other because of their mother’s name.
That was a load of crap, too. Suicide Squad may have had slightly more color, and it definitely had crazier characters, but it was just as grim and gloomy as BvS. Not only that, but at least BvS had the audacity to cram too much story into it’s runtime, Suicide Squad instead of a chopped up story with two first acts, no second act, and a 60 minute climax. It was, for all intents and purposes, not a well made film at all, especially in regards to structure and pacing.
But what Suicide Squad DID have going for it were two of the things that Warner Brothers and DC were good at. Firstly, Suicide Squad highlighted that these films are VERY well cast. Every actor fit into their characters larger-than-life personas very easily, not only keeping them familiar to comic book fans around the globe, but making them interesting and diverse enough for new fans to pick up what they might’ve missed out on. Ben Affleck. Henry Cavill. Gal Gadot. Margot Robbie. Will Smith. Viola Davis. Amy Adams. Kevin Costner. Russell Crowe. Jeremy Irons. Hell, even Jared Leto. They all brought something to the table in terms of gravitas by playing these borderline mythological figures.
Suicide Squad also finally released the studios loosening grasp on the whole “in a real world” concept and started to embrace the weird. The film features, in no particular order, a murderous clown couple, a crocodile man, a sword that houses souls, a man imbued with the power of an ancient fire god, and a woman possessed by a thousand year old sorceress. I haven’t even mentioned the sharpshooter who can’t miss or the drunk who throws boomerangs. Warner Brothers and DC were finally ready to embrace the weird, all they had to do was get their story straight, and they could finally be on the right track. All it took was the right woman for the job.
2017. Wonder Woman was here to save the day. Released to almost universal critical praise, the film was also a gigantic box office success, succeeding in many areas where BvS had failed. Under the direction of Patty Jenkins, audiences finally were given a hero that could not only face the horrors of WWI but also give the masses hope in those times of despair. As perfectly portrayed by Gal Gadot, this Wonder Woman was one not afraid to go in and fight, in fact, she welcomed it. But she was also not afraid to stop and let herself be swayed by a little baby, or put a pause on her mission to help civilians in need. Her relationships with her stalwart crew of wartime buddies helped give the film a heart behind all it’s power. Which isn’t to say the film is without flaw. Wonder Woman finds itself from the same climax problems all previous DCEU films have had. A big CGI bad guy surround by generic fire and destruction. BvS had Doomsday, Suicide Squad had Enchantress and her brother who’s name no one remembers, and Wonder Woman had Ares. What made Wonder Woman’s finale so impactful were the personal stakes set forth by the films characters, making each moment actually feel like it mattered. The film was a huge success in getting it’s audience to care about it’s characters through it’s story. Most importantly, it showed us that not only could we get heroes that made us feel good again, but also that DC was fully embracing what makes their heroes so different to Marvels lineup.
The Justice League is so fascinating because these heroes are borderline gods. They are a direct modern day correlation to the old mythical figures of ancient Greek and Roman culture. Wonder Woman embraced this by straight up having it’s heroine born of clay, molded into the hero the world needed. DC’s catalogue of heroes are larger than life, bigger than humanity. Even Batman, the billionaire playboy vigilante, is treated as a mythical figure by those around him. Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash all resemble modern day gods with their equally majestic and powerful skillsets. By moving away from their obsession with keeping things dark and gritty, Warner Brothers found a perfect balance of drama and action with one foot in reality and the other in mythology.
This brings us to the end of 2017. Justice League is on the horizon, and it should be one of the biggest films of all time. Should be. If Warner Brothers and DC had played their cards differently, instead of the 4th film in a struggling franchise, it could be the 7th or 8th film in a powerhouse. Imagine if Man of Steel was followed up by another solo Superman sequel. Then think if we got a solo Batman film with Affleck squaring off against Leto’s Joker and Robbie’s Harley Quinn, or Smith’s Deadshot, or even Killer Croc. Then we got Wonder Woman as it exists, out of order. Maybe then we could squeeze in Batman v Superman, amongst origin Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg films. If they had put in their work before hand, they might be looking at a film ready to gross $2 billion worldwide. It still might get there as is, but it’s no sure thing.
Instead, they’ve been put in the unique situation of not only putting their franchise films in a unique order, but also using their tentpole team up payoff film not as a culmination of all their work before, but as a do-over to get the tone right for their universe moving forward. No story is beyond redemption, and Justice League looks to be an honest attempt to fully move away from the dark side and go towards the light. Will it succeed in it’s attempt to win audiences over to this franchise? That much remains to be seen. But they’re certainly trending in the right direction. Batman doesn’t appear to be killing people anymore, Wonder Woman looks like a leader. The Flash looks like the jokey rookie smartass he should be, and Aquaman appears to be rocking a Polynesian dude-bro attitude that has seemingly endeared him to audiences before the film has even been released yet. DC is finally focusing on what made their characters great to begin with, and now it’s time for us to see if global audiences will embrace these modern-day mythological figures in the same way they did the stories of Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares hundreds of years ago.
I, for one, will be there opening day with the masses to see it all come together. After all, like the poster says, you can’t save the world alone.
