The DC Cinematic Universe

So I just saw Suicide Squad. I like it, I like it like any Fan boy would like a comic book superhero movie. I’m familiar with the comic book that they adapted and I must say, it’s a very faithful adaption.

And will smith was gettin jiggy wit it!

And Will Smith was gettin jiggy wit it!

And it’s about time. The DC Cinematic Universe is kicking into high gear and they took forever, literally for this to happen.

If you did not known for over 40 years DC comics is actually own by a major movie studio, Warner Bros. So it always bothered me that they never tired harder to make movies featuring more DC comic characters.

It seems like soon after Warner Bros. brought DC they brought it’s biggest hero (at the time), Superman onto the big screen.

Superman is actually one of the best superhero movies of all time. Richard Donner brought the Man of Steel to the big screen like never before. Played iconicly by the late great Christopher Reeve the tag line for the movie was you will believe a man can fly and they made us a believer.

Superman was a hit and this would have been the perfect time for Warner Bros. to see if they can make a hit out of some of their other DC characters, but what they did instead was milk the bone dry.

The Superman franchise is proof of how unimaginative Hollywood can really be. They had a hit and did not want to take chances so they made Superman II, a rare sequel that lives up to the original, thanks to the villainous General Zod, whose campyness marks the film as a cult classic. Then came Superman III, which relied too much on the fame of Richard Pryor rather than his comedic skills, and basically tarnished the franchise.

The poster was a sign that they are running on fumes

The poster was a sign that they are running on fumes

But none of that matters when it comes to Superman IV. the franchise was dying but they wanted to squeeze it bone dry so Warner Bros. gave a group of B-movie producers the helm to make the next movie as cheap as they could, but not as crappy as they could but that’s what ended up happening, unfortunately.

Unless I'm wrong and someone else will admit to liking this guy

Unless I’m wrong and someone else will admit to liking this guy

So now it’s over. Warner Bros. is convinced that they squeezed all they could out of  Superman. So they moved on, with Batman.

It does not matter how much better Christopher Nolan’s Batman is, Tim Burton made my Batman. Micheal Keaton is my Batman, like Sean Connery is one generation’s Bond like Daniel Craig is another generations’s Bond

Like this is some generation's Batman

Like this is some generation’s Batman.

Micheal Keaton convinced me that Bruce Wayne was literally bat-shit crazy. Driven by his parents death to stomp out crime wearing a full body condom. Tim Burton was the final stake in the more colorful light-hearted caped crusader. Plus a score by Danny Elfman made this the movie to see in the summer of 89. Back when it took more than four mouths for a movie to come out on home video, I remember seeing this movie for the 13th time at a second run theater on Christmas.

And now, here we go again. Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. In all fairness the movies kept  getting better and the money kept coming in.

Well, all except...

Well, all except…

And once again Warner Bros. sucks it dry like a vampire. What kinda sucks here is that if you look at their pattern this would have been the time when they would have tried another DC superhero and if you go by the order, It’s Superman, Batman then Wonder Woman.

They did put some effort into it. I herd rumors about the Wonder Woman coming to the big screen since I herd they green lit Batman and Robin (as if they knew). I myself became interested in the rumors when they dangled the idea that they would make Princess Diana black for the film.

Although I knew this was not going to happen, I kept my eyes and ears open. By the turn of the century, every (white) scarlet that was on a hit TV show that catered to teens and young adults seem to be considered for the role.

Thinking back on it, I think that Wonder Woman’s biggest hurtle (Other than a world that was still kinda backwards and not ready to see a female superhero on the big screen) was the superheroes that came before her.

Despite both Superman and Batman’s Franchises being burned out Warner Bros. still felt they can rekindle the fire. After all, they still made a shitload of cash off these guys so it’s worthy to try again.

Superman’s attempted comeback made some sense. He had a hit TV show with Lois and Clark, they just released an animated TV show and his 65th anniversary was coming up. “Let’s make a movie” Warner Bros. said to Tim Burton who they wanted to man the helm in hopes that he can run the same magic on big blue like he did on big bat.

Batman was more about greed. Despite how god awful  Batman and Robin is, Warner Bros. still wanted to see how much money they could make off this dude. I herd rumors of  Batman triumphant, Batman Victorious, Howard Stern as the Scarecrow, Jenny McCarthy as Harley Quinn (Don’t quote me on the last cast rumor that may have been in my head).

I also herd rumors of  Warner Bros wanting to do Batman vs. Superman way back in the turn of the century. Now that I think about it, this was a good answer, taking both dead franchises and combining them could have brought both back to, life (and been the start of the DC cinematic universe).

For the next few years both franchises went through development hell until a good idea for what I believe is the first time a Franchise was ever rebooted happen with Batman Begins.

I want to point out that if you look closely at Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins you kind of can see a vague element to what Tim Burton was trying to do with 1989’s Batman, which is why Batman Begins is nothing compared to The Dark Knight which feels completely Nolan. However, Batman Begins takes the credit for fueling the Franchise’s fire all the way yo the billion dollar box office hit it becomes.

The hit with Batman Begins made them try again with Superman a year later, but Superman Returns was not the comeback they expected it to be. It’s a situation in which an idea sounds good, but somehow falls on death’s year. Director Bryan Singer (known for successfully bringing to to the big screen some other superheroes from another comic book company, called the X-Men), obviously thought like all of us that the first two Superman movies were great and the last two sucked, so what he did with his movie is made it the sequel after Superman II (Totally erasing superman III and Superman IV, making Superman Returns Superman III).

That would have kicked ass if this was still the 80s. Superman Returns was stunning  when it comes to visual elements of the story telling, but it sucks in it’s character development. What Christopher Reeve did with Superman was fantastic, but there was a time and a place for that and it did not fit into the Superhero world that Batman Begins was establishing. It also starts a bad trend of Superman being totally out of character in the movies.

He said condoms are made of kryptonite

He said condoms are made of kryptonite

So Superman gets shelved again as Batman soars to the number one spot among the DC heavy hitters, but their is hope(Well….)

In 2010, someone at Warner Bros. had a golden idea to adapt the DC comic book character, Jonah Hex into a western. What I loved about this idea was that DC comics, best known for it’s Superheroes has a lot of in universe characters that don’t fully fit the description. Jonah Hex is one of them (In 2005 the adapted the character John Constantine into a film but not sure if it counts despite DC owning Vertigo it’s still two different comic book publishers).

The success of Jonah Hex could have possibly met that Warner Bros. would open their minds a little more to see potential in other DC characters with the same angle, like Black Hawks, which could be done as a movie about soldiers in war, or Kamandi: the last boy on Earth, which could have been a post apocalyptic fantasy film like lord of the rings, or adapting the comic book New Gods, which I can totally see as a Star Wars rip off. Unfortunately, Jonah Hex was not a success. It failed at the box office, closing that potential door.

But the worse door slam was 2011s Green Lantern movie. Wrongfully skipping over Wonder Women’s spot, Ryan Reynolds(Who was also up to play the Flash at one point) was cast as my favorite Green Lantern, Hal Jordan a test pilot given the greatest weapon in the universe in order to join an intergalactic police force.

I was pumped, I could tell DC was pump too, as I saw comic book ads that noticeably made  Green Lantern on the same level if not much bigger than Batman and Superman when they were promoting the comics (Notice wonder woman got smaller as well). Green Lantern could have done for the DC Cinematic universe what Iron man did for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that’s not what happen.

That's what you get for skipping.

That’s what you get for skipping.

The Green Lantern could not pull it off. I could tell you what’s wrong with the movie but fuck it, what’s done is done. This one kind of stings cause it’s like I’ve been screaming to everyone one I known forever about how it makes no sense that Warner Bros has own DC comic for so long and DC does not have a cinematic universe (Especially when Warner Bros. animation dominated with it’s DC animated universe) and when it seems like someone at the studio answered my screams, It turns out that they were right to just stick with Bats and Supes

I have said many times how The Flash should have his own movie Franchise, namely because his rogue’s gallery rivals that of Batman and Spider-Man and should keep him making great sequel after great sequel, but then in the back of my head I remember that in-between Batman and Batman Returns,the Flash did have a TV show that only lasted one season (Although, I remember I would catch the last half of the show  because the first half was on at the same time as the Cosby show so in fairness I can not judge on how good it was or wasn’t, but I do remember the music (by Danny Elfman) and the Batman influenced costume)

And just when I was like ok, let’s gear up for Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel and forget about The DC Cinematic universe, I get slapped in the face by Marvel’s the Avengers.

You got to give it up for Marvel, because Marvel has always tried. Marvel has allowed whoever had the money and interest to make a movie out of their characters to make that movie.  Thor has been in a movie before (Although only as a supporting character) The Hulk has been in a few movies (Thor was a supporting character in one of those), and Captain America had done a movie before, and this is the real downfall.

The Captain America movie was lame. Dr. Strange has a movie, lame. Nick Fury had a movie, lame. Marvel has a string of lame movies, but I have to give them credit for putting their necks out until they got it right.

Your welcome.

You’re welcome.

Out of nowhere, Wesley Snipes turns the second bill marvel comic hero, Blade into a box office draw, and though they did come out with sequels that drain the franchise dry (Blade 2 was good, Blade 3 is the problem) they did not stop there or wait there.

20th Century Fox, Who during the 90s did for Marvel what Warner Bros. did for DC as far as animation is concern, Released X-Men. In all honesty when I first saw my favorite comic book characters on the big screen I was like “This is just ok”, but it was good enough to try again, and their next effort, X2: X-men united was fantastic.

Then Marvel hit the big time with the the game changing event, Spider-Man. Spider-Man was pure box office gold and told the public that super hero films were in (Especially if they’re based on Marvel characters).

For those of us who grew up on 90s cartoons, 20th Century Fox should have been Marvel’s main home for movies. X-men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil were all released by Fox. It would have been cool if that was the case. Instead marvel’s content was spread across many studios to whoever wanted to make the movie. The Punisher at Lions gate, The Hulk at Universal.

Making him a Universal Monster, fitting.

Making him a Universal Monster, fitting.

Then Marvel says to themselves that the only one who can make a Marvel character into a Marvel movie is Marvel itself, and that’s when the roof gets blown off. It was a long hard road for Iron man for his first time at bat. No one thought he had the star power that Spider-Man had, but he sure enough proved us wrong. Unlike his other super powered Avengers, Iron Man’s first time was knocked right out of the park. Marvel wasted no time letting you know that a universe was going to development with an end credit cameo telling you what’s next.

I had missed this cause at the time nobody really did end credit scenes

I had missed this cause at the time nobody really did end credit scenes

Iron man 2 came out and now Phase one was starting, with A Hulk film, a Captain America, Film and and Thor film all leading up to the milestone in the superhero genre, the Avengers, and as we head into phase three it can only get better for Marvel with Disney on it’s side (like Warner Bros. should be on DC’s side.

The battle between these two studios got even better over the years

The battle between these two studios got even better over the years

And like Bats leaving Supes in the dust so has Marvel left DC in the dust and once again I’m screaming. This should not have happen with DC. Warner Bros. sat down and just let this happen. Oh well.

Now Man of Steel marks the official beginning of the DC Extended Universe as they put it. With this movie marks the trend of the universe, to be dark. With Batman being a bigger movie star than Superman and possibility because of The Dark Knight Trilogy’s director, Christopher Nolan being executive producer and it’s writer David S. Goyer also penning the first film in the Extended Universe. They made Superman the darkest he had ever been, even though what made the Dark Knight Trilogy was the fact that it’s real, but I guess it hard to imagine a character like superman to be real so they went so dark that superman did things in this movie I would have never imagined

I remember the final battle with Zod, when Micheal Shannon’s version of the charter taught himself how to fly (so bad ass) then they had the battle which caused superman to do something so out of charter that I felt the entire audience just gasp as though he was a real person. I spend the next few days justifying more to myself  than to anyone else what had happen,  but this would not be the first time or the last.

I saw it with both Batman v. Superman and with the Suicide Squad how the universe is being structured around the kind of hero Batman is, I get it. Batman is the money maker so everything needs to look like batman

After all, it worked before, right.

After all, it worked before, right?

Although the darkness pattern so far has not created the billion dollar box office DC had with the Dark Knight or that Marvel has with….everything, at the moment, I’m still rooting for much success, and hoping this Justice League movie in 2017 can break the billion dollar mark.