Posted on 08/04/2016 6:10:55 AM PDT by C19fan
When a studio is launching a franchise, one bad movie is an anomaly, two is a problem, and three in a row spells possible disaster. This is the issue facing Warner Bros., which on Friday is releasing its third and newest entry in the universe of films based on DC Comics. Early reviews for Suicide Squad have been largely unkind. Fan outrage is already reaching fever pitch: A petition calling for the shutdown of the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes has 13,000 signatures from viewers upset with Suicide Squad’s poor ratings. Rumors of massive studio interference with the film are already beginning to leak out. As a narrative of damage control takes hold, it’s becoming clearer what mistakes the studio has made in trying to roll out an entire cinematic universe—and how it can turn things around for the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Maybe it is because of fake Green Lantern movie trailers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hTiRnqnvDs
I know I love a movie where the audience has no clue who to root for and identify with.
Haven’t seen “Suicide Squad.” Unfortunately, I watched “Batman v. Superman.” Gal Gadot was the only redeeming feature in that movie. Ben Affleck was terrible.
I’ve said this for years: the appeal of the early Marvel comics-—and why they buried DC in the 1960s and became “hip”-—was twofold. First, their characters had real, human problems. Spider-Man was an insecure teenager. The Fantastic Four had a hothead (literally) and a street thug who didn’t get along. Second, the teams-—Avengers, FF, X-Men all had interesting powers, but (except for the Avengers) largely incomplete powers and HAD to work together to achieve anything. Contrast that with the “full deck” Justice League-—Superman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter? With those three alone all but a nebula-level enemy was going to lose.
My take on all these early teams was that they represented AMERICA, namely we are all individuals but achieve great things when we combine our individual talents and powers. But we never lose our unique identity the way the Marxist states do.
Then Marvel went one step further and pitted these groups against each other (or individuals, like Spidey vs. anyone) via the “Puppet Master” or major misunderstandings. Still, you never doubted their goodness, and never lost their individuality.
DC on the other hand for the longest time remained in the “pure” 1950s super hero mode where Superman was almost unbeatable, and the JLA, even without him, was far more powerful than any Marvel group except the Avengers. Thus there was really no chance for them to lose. The villains had to get “too big.” Well, that doesn’t work because a rule of thumb in movies is that the villains have to have SOME level of attraction. Think of the only three DC movies that really worked, the Nolan “Dark Knight” series. “The Joker” was a classic. Evil, of course, but incredibly interesting to watch. Likewise, “Bain,” though completely corrupt, had been corrupted by love and was in his own way trying to engage in a socialist experiment-—which is why we rooted for him to lose.
Bottom line: the villains are too big, the teams too strong, and the only way they lose is to bring in some galactic force that then is so powerful it defies belief that they lose (Galactus).
They turned into a propaganda source instead of an entertainment source. I don’t contribute time or money to LGBT communists who decry our Constitution.
The DC films are too dark, I think. And the Marvel films (most of them) are little works of art.
Look at the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor with Kenneth Branaugh directing, Anthony Hopkins, etc is a masterpiece.
Even this last Captain America seemed to involve about 100 super heroes and get away with it.
My goodness even Ant Man with Paul Rudd of all people was thoroughly enjoyable.
Another reason now I’ve switched to KDramas as my chief form of entertainment.
IMHO, the Captain America movies are the best. Like Iron Man 1 but not a great fan of the sequels.
On a side note, is there any kind of ping list or running thread or the like here on FR that discusses movies generally?
I would like to have a thread that generally discusses movie releases and gets Freeper input. I would trust it more than RTomotoes
I might even manage such a thread if there is an interest.
AFAIK Rotten Tomatoes is a private entity. I don’t think a “petition” is going to take it down. That’s what competition is for.
Not being critical of your post BTW just sayin’
There’s a lot wrong with the DC movies.
1. They went with a completely wrong vision of Superman in “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman.” To a lesser extent, they did the same in “Superman Returns.” Too dark. Superman is by nature an optimistic, sunny character. Not to the point of absurdity, but beyond his powers is the fact that he’s a good person at heart. That was lost in all the recent movie misadventures.
2. They’re trying to add complexity and end up making things complicated. In “Man of Steel,” they added this layer to the story of the DNA of millions of Kryptonians are within Superman’s body. Completely unnecessary. The Superman mythology is elegant in it’s simplicity - the Last Son of Krypton makes Earth his adopted home, and becomes it’s greatest hero. You can only mess that up if you try very hard.
3. We’ve already seen Lex Luthor and General Zod done before and done better. Give audiences something new.
4. Both new Superman films are overlong, terribly paced, ponderous, and poorly constructed. They’re just not made very well, on the merits.
5. Suicide Squad is a great concept, but it’s way too early in the film franchise to do that kind of story. The characters have to be established before you join them together like that.
6. And that doevetails with the final point: they’re just rushing things. They should have followed Marvel’s model and paced out their film schedule. Instead we get fairly poor depictions of Superman and Wonder Woman, and they’re rushing to do Justice League when in fact the team up movie should have been fight or sixth, after doing the individual heroes well.
It really boils down to two things:
not being first and developing a corporate strategy based on envy
And trying to build a shared universe from an empire that’s always been strongly siloed
By not being first they put themselves in a position to try to do what the other guys are doing without copying them. They wanted the shared universe because it was making lots of money, but clearly not because they thought it was a creative direction. And they so far haven’t really focused on making a good movie first, and then bringing it into the universe later. And as the article points out that lack of individual oversight will keep them in the wrong mode.
But then there’s the core problem that the DC universe was never truly shared. All the books basically live in their own silo, and sure the characters interact, but that interaction never impacted the other books. While they had a long running Superman/ Batman team up book that book was never allowed to effect the other books of Batman and Superman. Much like how the Justice League never truly effected the books of the individual members. Marvel’s crossovers were always canon, if Iron Man got a new suit in Avengers he had a new suit in Iron Man, if Captain America got dragged into a battle in Spiderman the next issue of Cap would acknowledge that fight happened. By trying to make a shared cinematic universe they’re fighting against one of the most basic design concepts in the DC universe. Unlike Marvel who made a shared cinematic universe because that’s a basic design concept in Marvel.
Actually in the cinematic they’re going in kind of the opposite direction. DCU is super dark and gritty where as MCU is keeping it fun. They might be handling adult conflicts, but the MCU makes sure they’re handled in 4 bright colors.
Actually, it’s the opposite. Marvel Studios films are pretty much suitable for all age groups. Warner’s DC movies are pretty bleak and pursue realism to the point where they are full of moral ambiguity, death, sex and destruction and not fit for children to view.
Technically Deadpool was not a Marvel project. He was sold to Fox in the X-Men deal. And yeah actually that story has been bouncing around a long time.
I’m a big DC fanboy. However, I dropped buying the floppies back in the 90’s when DC decided that they were going to be more Marvel than Marvel.
Every character was give problems and flaws to the point where most of them were as bad as the villains they opposed.
most of my collecting over the last 10 years or so, has been purchasing all of the Golden, Silver and Bronze age stuff DC has been cranking out.
If you want to read a current super-hero title that is pure fun try Atomic Robo.
most of your complaints can be attributed to one person, Zack Snyder. His only successful movie has been 300 in 2007. Somehow he parlayed this into directing three DC movies; “The Watchmen”, “Man of Steel” and “Batman vs Superman”.
Since DC’s movie continuity is apparently based off of his Superman movies, they will continue to show the dystopian universe that Snyder brought to “Man of Steel” from “The Watchmen”.
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