Dreams of Justice
Okay, welcome back to blogspot, first off. I switched back because as nice as Weebly is if you're paying them and running a real website, as strictly a blogsite to me it leaves much to be desired. Now, with that out of the way, let's dive into today's topic:
So I saw Avengers on Friday night, and it was good. Like, very good. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I can't wait until it comes out on home video, so I can get it and have an Avengers movie night. The film itself sets the standard for not only comic book movies, but for all action movies in general going forward. So with that said, I'm going to need Warner Bros. and DC to stop screwing up.
The last time DC made a decent movie without the word "Bat" in it was somewhere around 1980 or 1978, depending on who you ask. Attempts to get other properties off the ground and into the public conscious have resulted in films that are at best mediocre, and at worst, worthy of Razzies. And as Marvel gets ready to develop it's second inter-connecting movie series on it's way to making Avengers 2 (which hopefully involves Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Cap 2, AND a Black Widow and perhaps a Ms. Marvel film), essentially making it's second lap around the track, DC is still fumbling at the starting line as if they didn't hear the gun.
Honestly, you have no idea how much it frustrates me, and if I had the skills of a far superior writer than myself, I still wouldn't be able to express it properly. You see, I'm a DC fan at heart. Yeah, Spider-Man's cool, the X-Men are okay, and I fucking love Iron Man. But when it comes down to it, I'm more at home with the insane power levels and high concepts of the DC Universe, with it's superpowered space cops, it's last children of dying planets, and peace ambassadors from countries consisting entirely of soldiers. So it saddens me to watch DC make mistake after mistake with their properties--or not even TRY.
Words cannot express how excited I was when they announced the creation of DC Entertainment, placing Geoff Johns as Chief Creative Officer of DC and basically making him the link between the comic books and the mass media adaptations. But that excitement dissipated pretty rapidly when the first image for the movie Green Lantern popped up. I don't know how far out of his control that movie had already gotten by the time he got the job, but it was hugely depressing to have the only DC film out of four superhero films released to be the one people were disappointed by. For those unaware, Geoff Johns has been the writer of Green Lantern for roughly seven years now, having started in 2004 with Green Lantern: Rebirth and taken the character from the mid-list seller it was into a powerhouse for DC Comics that frequently outsold most every other comic book on the stands, from Superman and Batman to X-Men and Spider-Man, and I still caanot figure why he (or anyone at DC, for that matter) allowed one of DC's A-List characters to look so ridiculous on screen.
Warner Bros. has wanted a Justice League film in theaters since Batman Begins hit the summer of my Junior year in high school, and if rumors are to be believed, they still want it and plan to release one by 2015. I just sincerely hope there's someone to tell Warner's to hold their horses and stop approaching a huge potential money-maker like the Justice League backwards. The reason why Avengers is able to be as good as it is--whether people realize it or not--is that aside from the post-credits scene, there was not a single character that needed introducing to the audience. The big three had their own films in years past, Black Widow appeared in Iron Man 2, and while he wasn't a focal point Hawkeye appeared in Thor. Even the supporting characters had all made prior introductions in previous films so that if you'd seen all the older movies the only characters that were unrecognizable was the villainous army, which had no real lines and no presence in the film other than targets for Hulk to smash.
Tackling Justice League the other way around would give them a minimum of five (but more likely) seven characters to introduce. Every potential flaw you thought Avengers would have that it overstepped to make it the film it was, a Justice League film done without ANY prior introduction to the characters would have. You don't have a reason to care about any of them. None of them can be your favorite because you don't know any of them. They all just exist to beat the bad guys and may go on to their own movies but since your connection to them begins and ends with this one film, you don't care.
Nope, as childish as it may seem, "copying" Marvel is definitely your best bet in this case. A team based superhero movie is something you have to earn and build from the bottom up, especially if it involves characters that will definitely be going on to their own movies later on. So, with that in mind, let's look at some of the properties you need to make a Justice League film work, and see just how they would fit in to the timeline we have now of a Justice League film coming out in 2015.
Now while the Justice League's standard roster has seven members in it, the build-up to it ideally shouldn't need more than five other films:
Superman: The current status of this is that we'll be seeing Superman: Man of Steel sometime around June 2013. It COULD be good, but there's couple of stumbling blocks in the way right now, starting with the creative team. Producer Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer are capable of some pretty amazing things (see: Batman), and Zack Snyder created one of modern culture's favorite action films in 300, but none of them scream "Superman" at me. Don't get me wrong, they could easily make a decent film, but there's a reason Superman comics tend to be average: he's a hard character to write about, and he can't undergo the same "dark, realistic take" Batman had. Still, without a trailer or the like I don't know what to make of it. Also...Zod. He's pretty much one of the most boring villains Superman's got. (And Superman has some really boring villains.) It solves the problem of Superman having no one to fight, but at the same time he's just not an interesting character that will command the proper attention. Any angle they wanted to explore about "good alien/bad alien" could've just as easily been done with the infinitely more interesting Brainiac.
Still, I have to assume this film works out well for two reasons: One, if it doesn't everyone at DC Entertainment is probably fired. I'm not saying they SHOULD be, but if you create TWO mediocre films that cost nearly 400 million to make and probably half that to promote them both, you're probably going to get fired. Second, the idea of DC screwing up their only film during a year that'll be packed with Marvel movies...again...is just plain depressing. So let's assume it works, and DC has their first successful non-Batman film. A sequel would be fast-tracked and probably put on the bill for a 2015 release. That's one down, four to go.
Green Lantern: Yeesh. Okay, this is going to take a bit of work. You could try the reboot without calling it a reboot, like they did with the Hulk, but...I don't know. Some people say Incredible Hulk did okay, but it was a film that cost $150m to make and it made under $270m in theatres, just barely going past $320m adding the DVD release. Overall, I never hear people claim the movie to be a must-watch either as Avengers prep or as a superhero fan, so to me I think it was a failure. Still, I think a direct sequel can work, only if it's a fantastic fucking film that basically equates to Training Day in space. The first film from what I can tell attempted to do too much. Parallax isn't a concept that you introduce alongside the origin and in truth attempting to "save" Sinestro as Batman did Joker and as Iron Man has Mandarin was a mistake. But it's a mistake that can be corrected. But while we're at it let's scrap the ridiculous CGI costumes and give them real outfits--don't even explain it, just do it and keep moving. If Captain America can walk around in a suit that's pretty much a carbon copy of the one he wears in the comics, there's no excuse for DC trying to pretend it's 1999 again and superheroes can't just wear their costumes.
This film could be put together for a summer 2014 release, but if that's the case it's something that needs to be lined up right now to get producer, director, and writer together. But you really shouldn't have Green Lantern without...
The Flash: I'd be lying if I didn't say the Flash was a hard sell. His powers are the most straightforward and thus the least interesting: He runs fast. It's an easy concept to explain, but it's not necessarily one I'd be jumping to make a movie of. Still, there've been no shortage of good Flash stories and even right now the book isn't too bad. The movie has plenty of characters to draw from, with my only suggestion being: Stay away from Gorilla Grodd. A talking monkey with mind control powers sounds good at first, but I honestly can't see it working on the big screen. The biggest challenge will be creating a villain that can actually give the Flash a challenge, but for an origin film I'd say either Savitar or the Hunter Zolomon version of the Reverse-Flash would be the best opening villains--ones that can match Flash speed for speed and really show off what the character is capable of, powers wise while also showing off Barry Allen as the genius scientist that he is. The second movie could explore the escalation in crime Central City has experienced since Flash was created and thus the unofficial supervillain group "The Rogues" could easily be incorporated into Flash 2.
I'd put this film alongside Green Lantern, either a month before or a month after GL 2's release. The possibility that we might be pushing towards a Justice League film just might give Green Lantern 2 the push it needs to become a blockbuster film.
Wonder Woman: So, here's a fact for all you non comic book readers: Long, long ago, the person who wanted a shot at directing Wonder Woman the most? Was Joss Whedon, the current director of Avengers. I can only hope that somewhere, in an office room with no windows, a former exec has been sentenced to sharpening pencils FOREVER for letting him get away. (In an office that only uses mechanical pencils, at that.) At the time, it was believed that an action movie starring a female lead wouldn't work. (This--coupled with the fact that it was just plain silly--is probably why the pilot didn't get picked up too.) Now that Hunger Games has kicked misogyny in the balls, I can only hope someone at DC Entertainment is fast-tracking this property into film development.
And you know what? Fuck guys for this movie. There shouldn't be a guy higher than like, fourth lead or something. There shouldn't even be a guy writing or directing it. Wonder Woman's a warrior trained by an immortal army of bad-ass female Grecian soldiers. Put her up against a threatening female villain like the sorceress Circe, and let Wonder Woman's human partner that introduces her to "Patriarch's World" be Etta Candy (Gail Simone's bad-ass intelligence officer version) instead of lame-ass Steve Trevor. (I have no idea what the female version of bromance is called, but they should totally do that.) If Hollywood can't find enough talent to pull a movie like this off, then they aren't trying. The fact is, if it's a movie that's written, directed, produced, and starred in by talented women, it'll WILL sell a shitload. So somebody needs to get to work.
I'd love to see this come out in the early part of 2015, building towards the Justice League release in late July or something.
Aquaman: This would be the hardest film to make work. My suggestion? Take a page from Geoff Johns' Aquaman: Accept that he's the guy that talks to fish, but acknowledge that he's a bad-ass. This guy is king over three-fourths of the world. He swims at depths that would crush a normal human's body into the size of a trash compactor cube, so his skin is super hard (like deflect bullets hard) and he's actually got some super strength too. In fact, the entire movie could easily take place under water with him either earning his spot as king, or showing what it's like to be the king over 75% of the planet, but that's only if you want to leave his introduction to the surface land for a later film.
I'd probably skip out on releasing this in the later months of summer when there's so much coming out grabbing people's attention. I'd release it near early May or even late March/April when there aren't a lot of big name action flicks dropping, that way if it's amazing it doesn't have to compete with anything else.
Bonus:
Last but not least, if I could, I'd try to start another Batman trilogy up. Yes, Bale and Nolan have created an amazing trilogy of movies here--not just good superhero films, but good films altogether. But here's the problem: Bale has NO plans of being Batman in any Justice League or Batman/Superman or Batman Smacks a Crackhead for calling him "Bat-Honky" films. He only ever wanted to work with Nolan on this trilogy, and once it's over he's gone. So DC's flagship character is--WITHOUT QUESTION--going to have someone new under the mask in the Justice League. And while it's been proven you don't need to have all the original actors to make a team movie work, it's not something I'd take a chance on considering how popular Batman is. If nothing else I'd try to schedule a new Batman film for 2015, around the same time Superman 2 and Wonder Woman came out, just in time for a Justice League film at the end of the summer.
This time the first necessity would be to hire someone who can play Batman but would also agree to be in the Justice League movie. The second would be to make it more of an action film and less of a suspense-thriller like it has been for the past seven years or so. Lastly, I would embrace Batman's full entourage of heroes. It might not even be the worst idea to create a film called Batman: Gotham Knights that featured Batman, Batgirl, Robin, Huntress, and maybe Black Canary. This Batman would already be known for working with heroes, which will hopefully lead to him having a better end than the one that the current Batman might have.
In any case, all of this would lead to a Justice League film in 2015 (or 2016 if they pushed it back a year to allow the other films to breathe). Now people have been saying that the reveal at the end of Avengers sort of killed DC's chances at using their big gun in a Justice League film, but I don't think they ever needed that particular villain to make the first film work anyway. The Waid/Augustyn-penned JLA: Year One has the perfect plot for a first Justice League film--the team is initially brought together by a wave of aliens who make a big showing of themselves, only to find out that this was a distraction and the true invasion was much more subtle, with a number of people in key positions of power already kidnapped and replaced by the rest of the alien race, and the Justice League has to stop not only this but the true invasion force before it's too late. Of course this would be a great movie to introduce Martian Manhunter in, while we're at it. Really, JLA: Year One is almost perfect--just remove the references to older heroes and you've got a near-perfect adaptation.
Of course, my saying all of this isn't even speculation. Just the mad ravings of a fanboy who has a lot of belief in DC improving it's movie slate in the future. Until then I'm just dreaming.
So I saw Avengers on Friday night, and it was good. Like, very good. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I can't wait until it comes out on home video, so I can get it and have an Avengers movie night. The film itself sets the standard for not only comic book movies, but for all action movies in general going forward. So with that said, I'm going to need Warner Bros. and DC to stop screwing up.
The last time DC made a decent movie without the word "Bat" in it was somewhere around 1980 or 1978, depending on who you ask. Attempts to get other properties off the ground and into the public conscious have resulted in films that are at best mediocre, and at worst, worthy of Razzies. And as Marvel gets ready to develop it's second inter-connecting movie series on it's way to making Avengers 2 (which hopefully involves Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Cap 2, AND a Black Widow and perhaps a Ms. Marvel film), essentially making it's second lap around the track, DC is still fumbling at the starting line as if they didn't hear the gun.
Honestly, you have no idea how much it frustrates me, and if I had the skills of a far superior writer than myself, I still wouldn't be able to express it properly. You see, I'm a DC fan at heart. Yeah, Spider-Man's cool, the X-Men are okay, and I fucking love Iron Man. But when it comes down to it, I'm more at home with the insane power levels and high concepts of the DC Universe, with it's superpowered space cops, it's last children of dying planets, and peace ambassadors from countries consisting entirely of soldiers. So it saddens me to watch DC make mistake after mistake with their properties--or not even TRY.
Words cannot express how excited I was when they announced the creation of DC Entertainment, placing Geoff Johns as Chief Creative Officer of DC and basically making him the link between the comic books and the mass media adaptations. But that excitement dissipated pretty rapidly when the first image for the movie Green Lantern popped up. I don't know how far out of his control that movie had already gotten by the time he got the job, but it was hugely depressing to have the only DC film out of four superhero films released to be the one people were disappointed by. For those unaware, Geoff Johns has been the writer of Green Lantern for roughly seven years now, having started in 2004 with Green Lantern: Rebirth and taken the character from the mid-list seller it was into a powerhouse for DC Comics that frequently outsold most every other comic book on the stands, from Superman and Batman to X-Men and Spider-Man, and I still caanot figure why he (or anyone at DC, for that matter) allowed one of DC's A-List characters to look so ridiculous on screen.
Warner Bros. has wanted a Justice League film in theaters since Batman Begins hit the summer of my Junior year in high school, and if rumors are to be believed, they still want it and plan to release one by 2015. I just sincerely hope there's someone to tell Warner's to hold their horses and stop approaching a huge potential money-maker like the Justice League backwards. The reason why Avengers is able to be as good as it is--whether people realize it or not--is that aside from the post-credits scene, there was not a single character that needed introducing to the audience. The big three had their own films in years past, Black Widow appeared in Iron Man 2, and while he wasn't a focal point Hawkeye appeared in Thor. Even the supporting characters had all made prior introductions in previous films so that if you'd seen all the older movies the only characters that were unrecognizable was the villainous army, which had no real lines and no presence in the film other than targets for Hulk to smash.
Tackling Justice League the other way around would give them a minimum of five (but more likely) seven characters to introduce. Every potential flaw you thought Avengers would have that it overstepped to make it the film it was, a Justice League film done without ANY prior introduction to the characters would have. You don't have a reason to care about any of them. None of them can be your favorite because you don't know any of them. They all just exist to beat the bad guys and may go on to their own movies but since your connection to them begins and ends with this one film, you don't care.
Nope, as childish as it may seem, "copying" Marvel is definitely your best bet in this case. A team based superhero movie is something you have to earn and build from the bottom up, especially if it involves characters that will definitely be going on to their own movies later on. So, with that in mind, let's look at some of the properties you need to make a Justice League film work, and see just how they would fit in to the timeline we have now of a Justice League film coming out in 2015.
Now while the Justice League's standard roster has seven members in it, the build-up to it ideally shouldn't need more than five other films:
Superman: The current status of this is that we'll be seeing Superman: Man of Steel sometime around June 2013. It COULD be good, but there's couple of stumbling blocks in the way right now, starting with the creative team. Producer Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer are capable of some pretty amazing things (see: Batman), and Zack Snyder created one of modern culture's favorite action films in 300, but none of them scream "Superman" at me. Don't get me wrong, they could easily make a decent film, but there's a reason Superman comics tend to be average: he's a hard character to write about, and he can't undergo the same "dark, realistic take" Batman had. Still, without a trailer or the like I don't know what to make of it. Also...Zod. He's pretty much one of the most boring villains Superman's got. (And Superman has some really boring villains.) It solves the problem of Superman having no one to fight, but at the same time he's just not an interesting character that will command the proper attention. Any angle they wanted to explore about "good alien/bad alien" could've just as easily been done with the infinitely more interesting Brainiac.
Still, I have to assume this film works out well for two reasons: One, if it doesn't everyone at DC Entertainment is probably fired. I'm not saying they SHOULD be, but if you create TWO mediocre films that cost nearly 400 million to make and probably half that to promote them both, you're probably going to get fired. Second, the idea of DC screwing up their only film during a year that'll be packed with Marvel movies...again...is just plain depressing. So let's assume it works, and DC has their first successful non-Batman film. A sequel would be fast-tracked and probably put on the bill for a 2015 release. That's one down, four to go.
Green Lantern: Yeesh. Okay, this is going to take a bit of work. You could try the reboot without calling it a reboot, like they did with the Hulk, but...I don't know. Some people say Incredible Hulk did okay, but it was a film that cost $150m to make and it made under $270m in theatres, just barely going past $320m adding the DVD release. Overall, I never hear people claim the movie to be a must-watch either as Avengers prep or as a superhero fan, so to me I think it was a failure. Still, I think a direct sequel can work, only if it's a fantastic fucking film that basically equates to Training Day in space. The first film from what I can tell attempted to do too much. Parallax isn't a concept that you introduce alongside the origin and in truth attempting to "save" Sinestro as Batman did Joker and as Iron Man has Mandarin was a mistake. But it's a mistake that can be corrected. But while we're at it let's scrap the ridiculous CGI costumes and give them real outfits--don't even explain it, just do it and keep moving. If Captain America can walk around in a suit that's pretty much a carbon copy of the one he wears in the comics, there's no excuse for DC trying to pretend it's 1999 again and superheroes can't just wear their costumes.
This film could be put together for a summer 2014 release, but if that's the case it's something that needs to be lined up right now to get producer, director, and writer together. But you really shouldn't have Green Lantern without...
The Flash: I'd be lying if I didn't say the Flash was a hard sell. His powers are the most straightforward and thus the least interesting: He runs fast. It's an easy concept to explain, but it's not necessarily one I'd be jumping to make a movie of. Still, there've been no shortage of good Flash stories and even right now the book isn't too bad. The movie has plenty of characters to draw from, with my only suggestion being: Stay away from Gorilla Grodd. A talking monkey with mind control powers sounds good at first, but I honestly can't see it working on the big screen. The biggest challenge will be creating a villain that can actually give the Flash a challenge, but for an origin film I'd say either Savitar or the Hunter Zolomon version of the Reverse-Flash would be the best opening villains--ones that can match Flash speed for speed and really show off what the character is capable of, powers wise while also showing off Barry Allen as the genius scientist that he is. The second movie could explore the escalation in crime Central City has experienced since Flash was created and thus the unofficial supervillain group "The Rogues" could easily be incorporated into Flash 2.
I'd put this film alongside Green Lantern, either a month before or a month after GL 2's release. The possibility that we might be pushing towards a Justice League film just might give Green Lantern 2 the push it needs to become a blockbuster film.
Wonder Woman: So, here's a fact for all you non comic book readers: Long, long ago, the person who wanted a shot at directing Wonder Woman the most? Was Joss Whedon, the current director of Avengers. I can only hope that somewhere, in an office room with no windows, a former exec has been sentenced to sharpening pencils FOREVER for letting him get away. (In an office that only uses mechanical pencils, at that.) At the time, it was believed that an action movie starring a female lead wouldn't work. (This--coupled with the fact that it was just plain silly--is probably why the pilot didn't get picked up too.) Now that Hunger Games has kicked misogyny in the balls, I can only hope someone at DC Entertainment is fast-tracking this property into film development.
And you know what? Fuck guys for this movie. There shouldn't be a guy higher than like, fourth lead or something. There shouldn't even be a guy writing or directing it. Wonder Woman's a warrior trained by an immortal army of bad-ass female Grecian soldiers. Put her up against a threatening female villain like the sorceress Circe, and let Wonder Woman's human partner that introduces her to "Patriarch's World" be Etta Candy (Gail Simone's bad-ass intelligence officer version) instead of lame-ass Steve Trevor. (I have no idea what the female version of bromance is called, but they should totally do that.) If Hollywood can't find enough talent to pull a movie like this off, then they aren't trying. The fact is, if it's a movie that's written, directed, produced, and starred in by talented women, it'll WILL sell a shitload. So somebody needs to get to work.
I'd love to see this come out in the early part of 2015, building towards the Justice League release in late July or something.
Aquaman: This would be the hardest film to make work. My suggestion? Take a page from Geoff Johns' Aquaman: Accept that he's the guy that talks to fish, but acknowledge that he's a bad-ass. This guy is king over three-fourths of the world. He swims at depths that would crush a normal human's body into the size of a trash compactor cube, so his skin is super hard (like deflect bullets hard) and he's actually got some super strength too. In fact, the entire movie could easily take place under water with him either earning his spot as king, or showing what it's like to be the king over 75% of the planet, but that's only if you want to leave his introduction to the surface land for a later film.
I'd probably skip out on releasing this in the later months of summer when there's so much coming out grabbing people's attention. I'd release it near early May or even late March/April when there aren't a lot of big name action flicks dropping, that way if it's amazing it doesn't have to compete with anything else.
Bonus:
Last but not least, if I could, I'd try to start another Batman trilogy up. Yes, Bale and Nolan have created an amazing trilogy of movies here--not just good superhero films, but good films altogether. But here's the problem: Bale has NO plans of being Batman in any Justice League or Batman/Superman or Batman Smacks a Crackhead for calling him "Bat-Honky" films. He only ever wanted to work with Nolan on this trilogy, and once it's over he's gone. So DC's flagship character is--WITHOUT QUESTION--going to have someone new under the mask in the Justice League. And while it's been proven you don't need to have all the original actors to make a team movie work, it's not something I'd take a chance on considering how popular Batman is. If nothing else I'd try to schedule a new Batman film for 2015, around the same time Superman 2 and Wonder Woman came out, just in time for a Justice League film at the end of the summer.
This time the first necessity would be to hire someone who can play Batman but would also agree to be in the Justice League movie. The second would be to make it more of an action film and less of a suspense-thriller like it has been for the past seven years or so. Lastly, I would embrace Batman's full entourage of heroes. It might not even be the worst idea to create a film called Batman: Gotham Knights that featured Batman, Batgirl, Robin, Huntress, and maybe Black Canary. This Batman would already be known for working with heroes, which will hopefully lead to him having a better end than the one that the current Batman might have.
In any case, all of this would lead to a Justice League film in 2015 (or 2016 if they pushed it back a year to allow the other films to breathe). Now people have been saying that the reveal at the end of Avengers sort of killed DC's chances at using their big gun in a Justice League film, but I don't think they ever needed that particular villain to make the first film work anyway. The Waid/Augustyn-penned JLA: Year One has the perfect plot for a first Justice League film--the team is initially brought together by a wave of aliens who make a big showing of themselves, only to find out that this was a distraction and the true invasion was much more subtle, with a number of people in key positions of power already kidnapped and replaced by the rest of the alien race, and the Justice League has to stop not only this but the true invasion force before it's too late. Of course this would be a great movie to introduce Martian Manhunter in, while we're at it. Really, JLA: Year One is almost perfect--just remove the references to older heroes and you've got a near-perfect adaptation.
Of course, my saying all of this isn't even speculation. Just the mad ravings of a fanboy who has a lot of belief in DC improving it's movie slate in the future. Until then I'm just dreaming.
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