This June Wonder Woman the fourth
installment in the DC extended universe arrives in threaters
there's a lot riding on it not just because it's the first
female lead superhero movie of the modern era
but because far the cinematic universe based on the
DC Comics superheroes has been met with let's say mixed reactions
yes the movies have been profitable but
they've been critical disasters that have sharply divided audiences
since Warner Brothers intends for this franchise to continue for at least
the next decade with multiple new installment every year
it would be helpful to finally have one that's widely embraced
there's been a lot of talk over the past year
about what the problem is with these movies
many people point to an overly dark and bleak tone
which I'll agree is an issue
but I think there's a much larger problem that runs through all three movies
and it's one I think the people making them desperately need to fix
if they want this series to succeed in the long run
its the characters, yeah those guys
so far in the DCEU with there are no well-defined dynamic characters
by that I mean characters with clear motivations, growth and personalities
we haven't been given a good reason to care about any of them
these movies have been coasting on great marketing
and the built-in popularity of the brands
people are going to go see a batman movie that's just how it works
but if the universe is going to succeed
if Warner Brothers want audiences to get invested in it
they need to present us with characters worth caring about
they seem to be assuming we're going to show up
because we already know and like the characters
but here's the catch
we like previous versions of Superman and Batman
from the comics or other movies or cartoons
for the series to work we need to like this Superman and this Batman
and so far a lot of us don't
see the whole idea of a cinematic universe rests on a core concept
that audiences like the characters
and want to see them interact with each other in different movies
why did the Marvel Cinematic Universe
become such a massive astounding success
because people love those characters
why they love those characters?
because Marvel did the hard work of developing
interesting fully-formed characters that audiences cared about
to give you a piece of anecdotal evidence
last august I went to see Suicide Squad on its opening weekend
there are a couple scenes that have little cameos by Batman and the Flash
when these cameos happened in this sold-out Times Square Theatre
the biggest audience reaction i detected was some whispers of
"I think it's the Flash" and "Is that Ben Affleck?"
In comparison a few years earlier
I remember seeing Thor: The Dark World
which is no one's favorite Marvel movie
but there's a scene where Captain American shows up for about 10 seconds
and immediately the entire audience erupted in cheers
That's the reaction Warner Brothers wants but, they haven't earned it yet
See stories are driven by characters
And our investment in stories comes from our empathy for the characters
Empathy is gained by showing us what characters want, what motivates them
choices they make and how they change
Let's look at a really effective example,
Tony Stark in 2008's Iron Man at the beginning
Tony is an arrogant douche driven mostly by selfish desires
He is then attack by terrorists, captured and almost killed by his own weapons
He escapes and makes two big decisions,
to stop producing weapons and to start using his technology to help people
to make up for the damage that his work caused
He started the movie driven by greed and through learning new information
and making choices he drew into a person driven by a desire to help people
A not-so-great person becomes a good person
This is classic effective storytelling and it worked so well
that it took a b-list superhero
and launched one of the most successful movie franchises of all time
So now let's see how Superman's own origin is handled in Man of Steel
Can you tell me how he changes from the start of this movie to the end?
That's a trick question because he doesn't
This is the first time we see Superman in the movie
heroically saving people at a burning oil rig
Now skip ahead two hours, here he is in the climactic scene
heroically saving people from General Zod
If this is an origin story and he's already a hero at the start
What's the point? How is he growing?
Well he's not that's the problem, unless shaving his beard
and putting on a cape counts as a character arc
He even stays a jerk in the same way
At the start he destroys a guy's truck because the guy was rude
and then at the end he destroys the military's drone because they annoyed him
And here's a larger issue, why is he helping people in the first place
if he's going to dedicate his life to helping people
What motivates him to do that?
I don't actually think there's an answer to that question other than he's Superman
Even when we see him as a kid in the flashbacks, he's saving people
The movie never shows him learn why it's important to use his powers for good
In fact his father keeps telling him not to use ours and to let people die instead
But then he also tells him that he's going to change the world one day
This is slightly off topic but I want to point out how confusingly Paul Kent is written in this movie
Getting back to Superman, we don't know what he wants,
we don't know what his motivation is and we never see him grow as a person
Why are we supposed to be interested in this guy?
As an experiment imagine you had never heard of Superman
and had no preconceived thoughts or opinions aboutt he character
If this was your introduction to him,
would you care enough about him after this movie to want to see a sequel?
In Robert McKee's classic screen reading book "Story", he writes
Basically, we learn who a character is through the choices they make
Almost all superhero origin movies give us a moment
where the main character makes a huge choice that defines their outlook on life
in which they decide to help people
A great example comes in Batman Begins,
at the end of Bruce Wayne's training in the League of Shadows
he is order to execute a criminal, he refuses saying,
"I will go back to Gotham and I will fight man like this
but I will not become an executioner"
Right here he makes a decision to express what he believes
and leads directly to him becoming Batman
This is the major turning point of the movie and it's completely rooted in character
Maybe the most effective origin story is in Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man
You know how the story goes Uncle Ben tells Peter that
"With great power comes great responsibility"
Peter uses his powers for personal gain
then chooses not to stop a criminal
then that same criminal goes and murders Uncle Ben
The most important moment is when Peter catches the criminal and recognizes him
Realizing that if he hadn't behave selfishly his uncle would still be alive
He remembers the advice his uncle gave him and now makes the decision to follow that advice
and never let anything like this happen again
"With great power comes great responsibility.
Remember that Pete, remember that."
Man of steel never gives Superman a moment like this
He never makes a choice that defines who he is to the audience
and it doesn't get any better in the next movie
For the majority of this two-and-a-half hour film
Superman is focused on two things
helping people despite the fact that he appears to really not enjoy it
and Batman whose methods he doesn't approve of
he seems far more concerned with the bat vigilante
than all the actual criminals committing actual crimes
to the extent that at one point
he stops Batman from catching some of those criminals
just so he can threaten him and then fly away
once again there's no arc for Superman
He ends the movie by sacrificing his life in order to kill a giant monster
which seems like the completion of an arc that's never setup
and considering the guy is straight up getting killed, saving the world
We should care more than we do
Batman on the other hand does have an arc
unfortunately it's a pretty stupid one
he starts the movie hating Superman and wanting to kill him
and then finally he realizes that they're in the same side
the problem is that this is after two hours of Batman learning nothing
while everyone tells him that killing Superman is a terrible idea
"He is not our enemy"
And we as the audience know that Superman isn't a bad guy
so we're rooting against Batman
His big moment of growth is to realize "Hey, that guy who saved the planet isn't so bad"
I also want to point out that considering Batman thinks Superman is a massive danger that has to be destroyed
It takes me a year and a half to actually act on that
Isn't he supposed to be good at what he does
His distrust in Superman is actually pretty well set up in the opening scene
but the jump to wanted to kill him is way too extreme for us to empathize with
so for this whole movie Batman is relentlessly unwaveringly angry
and Superman is just there not growing or learning or making choice
Part of what makes this movie feels so long
is that the haracters are so static for so much of it
For both Superman and Batman their emotional states never changed through almost the entire film
they remain the same from scene to scene locked in the same exact way of thinking
you could easily move their big showdown up 90 minutes earlier in the movie
since in all that time the characters perspectives remain exactly the same
sure that would mean the audience would miss finding out where Batman got the Kryptonite
or his big crossfit montage but I think they'd still got the idea
ok I should probably talk about Suicide Squad now while it's the worst of the DC films
it also offers up the closest they've come to interesting characters
there are a ton of characters in this movie but the primary protagonists
our heroes if you will, are Deadshot and Harley Quinn
unlike Superman or Batman they actually have personalities
They have personality but still no growth, they're following orders
And other than not wanting to die have no personal investment in what they're doing
Deadshot seems to have an arc that's intended by the filmmakers but it makes no sense
He's a hit man who's in prison and wants to take care of his daughter
She doesn't like what he does for a living and wants him to change
But then at the climax as he's about to shoot a bomb that will destroy the villain and save the world
He imagines his daughter in front of him telling him not to pull the trigger
But he's not killing a person for money, his literally saving the world
Why wouldn't his daughter wanted to do that?
It's a lazy attempt at forcing a character arc
Like the filmmakers forgot to include one and then just plug it in at the end
Harley while probably the most fun person to watching the movie, is completely static
She wants to get back together with the Joker for the entire movie
That's it, in the final scene they get back together
What's a shame is that there's a great arc sitting there unused
Where she could realize, over the course of the movie, how abusive and awful he is
and then finally gain some independence and reject him,
but sadly that does not happen
The one character with any emotional connection to the main story is Rick Flag
whose girlfriend June Moon gets possessed by the Enchantress
and becomes the main villian of the movie
so while the team is on a mission to kill her he wants to find a way to save her
But, because Deadshot is cooler and played by Will Smith,
Flag gets relegated to a supporting role
He should really be the one to make the final shot to destroy Enchantress
but that goes to Deadshot, a guy with zero connection to her
So in the end Suicide Squad gives us a bunch of characters with personalities
Who seem like they could be interesting but the script gives us nothing to form any emotional connection to
Even when it's occasionally amusing we still don't really care
because there's nothing happening remotely below the surface
While I criticize DC films a lot I'll be the first to admit they're doing some things right
Unlike Marvel they've managed to create memorable musical themes for two of their major characters
The choice to shoot their movies on film
gives the visual richness and texture that Marvel's digitally shot movies can't come close to
and the casting with one or two exceptions has been consistently great
Which isn't easy when dealing with characters this iconic
it's clear that the filmmakers behind these movies in particular
Zack Snyder and David Goyer had ambitious goals
Man of Steel aimed to be a realistic look at how a godlike aliens might exist in the real world
Batman v Superman wanted to explore the ideas of power and fear
through a mix of superhero action movie and political thriller
and Suicide Squad, well I don't know exactly what that was aiming for
since it feels like three very different visions arguing with each other
We can debate the extent to which they succeeded all day long
but that doesn't change the fact that the character work has been seriously neglected in all three movies in all
In their grand ambitions the filmmakers have forgotten that
if we're going to care about the stories we need to empathize with the characters
So while i'm glad that they seem to be easing off on the relentlessly grim tone
what I'm really hoping for from Wonder Woman is a central character I can get invested in
I want to know what motivates Diana to leave the Themyscira to help the rest of mankind
I want to see her learn and grow and change over the course of the movie
If that happens then maybe, just maybe, there might be some hope for this cinematic universe after all
Hey guys thank you for watching!
Now I wanted to make this video because a couple months ago
I made a video essay discussing the color grading in Marvel's movies
and I thought it was only fair to balance the scales and discuss my biggest issue with DC's movies
but this is probably gonna be the last video essay
I make about comic book movies for the foreseeable future
Now I realized with this subject matter the comment section might get a little heated
which is fine if you disagree with me
I'm envious of you because I wish I liked these movies
but I ask one thing, and that is you don't accuse me of not knowing the comics
because as anyone who's watched my other videos can tell you that's objectively untrue
Anyway, if you wanna help us make these videos
and contributed budgets for them, check out the link to our patreon
If you want to yell about literally anything, get updates on what we're working on,
check out the social media links
We'll be back here next week, with a very big very, cool new video
And for now I'm gonna go do anything other than think about these movies
because I'm really sick of it, bye