So it's currently quite a shaky time for movies coming out in the DC universe, and combining
both the reactions to the films and the recent box office performances, it's clear that they
need to re-approach the way that go about making comic book movies.
Of course, we've got the DCU starting in 2025 and that gives them the opportunity to reboot
and do thigs quite differently.
And while I'm reserving my own thoughts on that until we start to get those movies, I've
got to be honest I'm starting to get quite worried about the direction the studio
is going in.
However, the one aspect of DC films that is working for me and I think for many other
fans and general audience members, is the stuff releasing outside of the main
universe, with films like Matt Reeves The Batman and Todd Philips Joker.
So in this video, I'm going to be discussing what DC as a whole can learn from the success
and reaction to those movies, as I think its stuff that is important
for the brand as a whole.
Before I get into it though, if you want to keep up to date on any of my future content
surrounding The Batman universe and other upcoming DC films, then
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But without further a do, lets dive into what DC should
learn from The Batman.
So DC is in a bit of a mess right now.
Other than Matt Reeves The Batman and Todd Phillips Joker, a lot of the films coming
out have been ones that have dissapointed those who have seen
them and the films haven't really been seen by that much viewers to begin with.
Black Adam dissapointed at the box office, Shazam 2 completely flopped and now The Flash
is on the verge of continuing that dissapointing streak, making
even less than Black Adam on opening weekend.
At the minute its tracking to make just over $300 million in total and while things can
change, the reception of the film isn't helping it at all.
Yes there's numerous reasons why this film isn't performing very well and you can assign
some of those reasons to other recent films and why they equally haven't
performed.
Whether it's the fact that DC is starting over with Superman Legacy in 2025, the quality
of the films not being the strongest and therefore general audiences haven't had that
much interest, or all of the conflictions surrounding the main actor and the many delays
and issues that this film has had behind the scenes.
But the key thing connected to a lot of response has to be the lack of general audience appeal
for the movies being made.
As you know, I didn't particularly love The Flash film and
while I found there to be strengths, there was a lot of issues, specifically with the
filmmaking, the jumbled tone of the film and the muddled direction that they were taking.
It felt like a bad culmination of filmmaker and studio
decisions that didn't have a decisive tone or approach from the outset.
And for me that is apparent with both the quality of the
film itself, the more conventional and forced elemets and bad cgi on display that we tend
to get in 80% of comic book films right now.
Yes it's mainly a comic book movie problem, but
DC are making things even worse by trying to stress on the things that just aren't working
for many people, and to me, it feels like they're trying to take as much pages as they
can from other studios.
But where DC get things right and this has been the case over the last couple of years,
has been when they truly focus on themselves as an individual brand, both
through filmmaking and storytelling direction.
The Batman and Joker are prime examples of that very point and we had two films that
equally in their own ways focus on what they're trying to tell, telling that in the best way
they can and having allowing creatives to bring that to life in the way they think is
best.
There's no sense that these films have been made
by the studio or have a conventional formula underneath them.
There is a pure vision.
So using Matt Reeves The Batman as a main example, because it is the most recent successful
one, what can DC learn from the artistic and box office growth of The Batman.
Well for one, as I was just touching on this, the film feels
director driven.
One of the main issues with DC and Warner Bros over the last decade has been a consistent
pattern of studio inference or making films that have clear bad studio
decisions that equal to a low quality of product.
Yes I know, Zack Snyder has both creative supporters and people who aren't particularly
fond of his work, but a lot of things that went
wrong in that saga where mainly to do with the studio and not Snyder as a filmmaker.
While I personally love the film, Man Of Steel had mixed
reactions.
And yes Batman V Superman wasn't the greatest comic book film by any means.
But during the beginning stages of the DCEU, Warner Bros put trust in Snyder's pitch and
they gave him the confidence to make his vision work.
And when the movies got mixed reactions the studio began to go down a much darker path.
And that path was to completely change films that had
already been shot, taking a vision and making it far worse and misguided.
The extended result of that is well what we've seen recently.
And while there's an agreement that the final films in the DCEU don't even matter and that's
why people aren't watching them, I'd argue that that isn't even that big of a factor.
Most of the general audience don't even know that
this whole DC Universe is being rebooted and how each film connects to the other.
What they do know is that they are not going to spend money on a film that is artistically
and narratively poor.
And that is what we are seeing with these final films in the DCEU.
There's no sense of vision, there's no identity, there's no filmmaking creativity or satisfaction
in the final product.
It's recycled product that appears more like every other comic book brand we are seeing
out there right now.
Marvel are having quite a similar issue but the growth
that they once had is allowing them to bring fans in on opening weekend resulting in less
of a disaster.
It's still in a bad state and on a bit of a decline, but when it comes to DC,
they've abandoned their vision and identity.
No one really cares for the poor state of films we're getting let alone the extended
universe at play.
And while the old DCEU did have mixed results from the outset, just in watching
something like say the Snyder Cut you could at least see the progression of a vision and
a style of comic book filmmaking that DC originally put faith in.
They broke that faith and now the DCEU has ended with the most conventional and lackluster
movies in the genre.
But turning to the expanding Batman saga under Matt Reeves, there's a completely differently
outlook.
Yes it's seperated from universe based comic book movies and it's grittier
and more natural to what DC fans actually connect to, but primarily while building it's
own seperated universe, you can feel a director's true print and identity on all aspects of
that film.
Right from the outset they put faith in Matt Reeves to deliver his detective driven vision
of the caped crusader.
The cinematograpahy, the lighting, the aesthetics of Gotham city,
the characters themselves and the main developing story feel authentically created and driven
by a filmmaker.
It feels like a true piece cinema rather than a repetetive studio
approach to just ticking all the boxes.
By giving the audience a well-made film using a well-known character, one that is still
a fresh take on that iconic figure, the audience chose to
vote with their box office money.
And these exact points can literally be applied to the success of 2019's Joker film.
So we now know what's going wrong for DC when it comes to their
extended universe side of things.
And that is having no vision or creative space for the filmmakers that they put in charge
of this work.
Sure in the case of Flash we don't know whether it was more filmmaker or studio driven, but
the consident forcing of badly done cameos, poor cgi, integral filmmaking and storytelling,
is surely going to make the audience think that
it's bad studio decisions and why in hell would they spend more money to see these types
of films.
So the main thing that I think they should learn from this, is to not repeat what they
did with before and what has happened with recent DC films.
They should focus on the filmmakers and allow them to bring their pitch to life which is
agreed on from the outset.
And if the approach is to only take on pitches that match
the formulaic directions of that studio, then the problems stem right from those early stages.
There are creatives out there who are talented in crafting unique films in multiple
genres, and if filmmakers like Matt Reeves and Todd Philips can get that treatment, then
why can't others get that within the extended universe side of things, even with their being
a continuous narrative.
DC has always had a unique identity in the comic book sphere and to abandon that and
go the route of another studio just because you want to make profit
is exactly why the brand is not becoming profitable.
The Batman embodied the style and unique sense of atmosphere that a DC film can bring
to the big screen, and to not look at that and truly see the potential for other characters
with interesting stories to be told, would be a big opportunity missed.
And that brings me to the final topic of discussion, which is, my hopes and fears for James Gunn's
DCU.
While I'm clearly dissapointed with the recent films from dc in its extended
universe, the upcoming DCU under James Gunn has the chance to do things differently.
And having a creative director like Gunn at the helm of it may help to really establish
more of a connection and trust between both the studio
and the directors it works with.
Now yes I do have intitial worries for what could happen creatively.
One is that they go the route of the recent MCU and focus on teasing what's
next rather than stressing on the quality and storytelling of each individual film.
Yes I know that there will be a continuing narrative, but
they can still find their identity and do something that still feels continually fresh
with each feature film.
Another is that even though I really like James Gunn as a filmmaker, I
fear that his approach to a comic book film, especially with writing, isn't the one I expected
nor really want from a rebooted Superman.
And on top of that, when it comes to Superman Legacy, the future potential of DC as a universe
based brand on the big screen really comes down to that very film.
If Legacy doesn't do well and audiences don't love the film, then I
can't imagine the state that DC would be in.
The whole thing is built from that very film and if your new Superman isn't pulled off
right and appears like more of the same when it comes
to recent Marvel and DC work, then things are really in trouble.
But while those are my fears for DC's future, I am hopeful that again, with there now being
a creative leader behind it, that relationships can be rebuilt and more
filmmakers can be trusted and given the freedom to make the films that they pitch both narratively
and productively.
If they can give the directors apart of DCU the space to make great
individual films and apply a sense of uniqueness to the comic book landscape, like we saw with
Matt Reeves The Batman, then things can start to repair.
They've got to do this consistently if they want the numbers to start going upward rather
downward like they are right now and it's gonna take a lot of rebuilding.
DC was once a brand that had identity and respect,
and now, not even general audiences are showing up for these films that are apart of the extended
universe.
Personally, I think The Batman is a good lesson and one that tells
the studio that even now in the midst of bad performances within the comic book genre,
that well-thought out films with a director's vision at
the centre of it, one that is given faith by the studio to begin with, is the way to
go.
But that was my video discussing what DC should learn from recent successfull projects like
Matt Reeves expanding Batman saga.
It's going to be interesting to see if the DCU can rebuild
the universe side of things when it comes to DC as a movie making brand, and again,
I'm always hopefully that they can trun the ship around.
Having a filmmaker like Gunn at the helm can really help things creatively, but all things
need to go right, and that includes the involvement of Warner Bros as a studio too.
There's got to be a level of creative trust amongst
both the studio and the filmmakers involved, allowing the creatives to make films based
on the pitches that they studio would agree to beforehand.
This is what works about the movies outside of the universe side of things and
you really get a sense of distinct filmmaker approaches on numerous characters.
Of course, creator freedom can go in the opposite direction
from time to time too, but if you have that initial faith in their vision from the outset,
commiting to it rather than making choices to make your films more like another brand,
I think in the long run there would be less of a disconnect
between the fans of the property and these types of approaches.
I think they need to get that right with the DCU and really take the
time to plan this out and execute it a strong way.
We'll have to see what happens, but as I said, The Batman and even recent films like Todd
Phillips Joker, are a good lesson for the studio when it comes to the quality filmmaking
that can be brought to big screen.
But let me know down below in the comments section what your thoughts are towards the
current situation at DC and what do you think needs to happen
to really make these universe films connect more to the audience, and in general, have
a much greater appeal.
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