- Today's episode of Nerdist News
is brought to you by Graphic Stock.
Will Wonder Woman's success be enough to change the DC EU?
Find out on today's Nerdist News.
(upbeat music)
Praise be to Hippolyta for we have witnessed a miracle,
the ugly gray formless clay of the DC EU
has finally been shaped into something wonderful,
specifically something Wonder Woman.
Yes, the daughter of Themyscira storms into theaters today
and by all accounts, the movie more than earned
the wonder in its title, I've seen it twice
and it holds up, it's great.
In fact, while it once being titled with the dubious honor
of, could be better than Suicide Squad, now it's being
praised as one of the best superhero films of the last
decade, maybe one of the best superhero films ever.
Critics and fans alike are heaping a ton of love on it,
calling its charismatic lead and exciting action
as being more than enough reason to put it at the top
of your summer movie required viewing list,
like I did on the Dan Cave.
Wonder Woman.
Good show.
But perhaps even more unexpected are a bunch of words
that are popping up that you don't really see
in reviews for movies like this,
words like hopeful, optimistic, and sincere.
In interviews for the film, directory Patty Jenkins
has said she wanted to make a Wonder Woman movie
that was free of irony, one that celebrated the character's
devotion to the ideals of love and we couldn't be happier
to report that it definitely seems like she succeeded.
Now of course if you've been a DC UE devotee up to this
point, you might be feeling a bit out of sorts right now.
I mean, where are all the underlit men's room fistfights
I've come to expect from my favorite superhero franchise?
you might be asking.
Well, don't fret too much because Justice League
is right around the corner and that might be
exactly what you're looking for.
But after that, who knows?
With Wonder Woman earning the DC EU the critical love
that's pretty much eluded it up until now,
one has to wonder, is this gonna be the start
of a major course correction for the studio?
Could Diana's ideals of love and optimisim
become the status quo for DC going forward?
Well it's hard to say right now, a lot of that's gonna
depend on the film's final box office
at the end of this weekend.
Wonder Woman is already off to a great start
with an 11 million preview night haul,
which is more than Ant Man, Thor, and Cap all made
in their initial first night outings, but it's also well
under the amount brought in by Suicide Squad previews.
In fact, that film, despite being considered the epitome
of everything DC does wrong, was a still a massive hit,
grossing more than Guardians of the Galaxy
before it left theaters and it also won an Oscar.
Suck it, Marvel.
So while Warner Brothers is probably smiling
from all those good reviews, it's hard to imagine
they'll ever fully step away from a formula
that's been so bankable.
Then again, there is a precedent for superhero films
going dark and succeeding in the short run
but then never really recovering from it.
Just look at X-Men: The Last Stand and Spider-Man 3.
Both of those films took their respective franchises
into darker, more depressing, and in one case,
slightly more emo directions and they were both massive hits
but both super series kind of flamed out
for awhile after that.
Even Christopher Nolan's beloved Dark Knight trilogy
saw a big drop in box office and critical praise
after its ultra-nihilistic second outing.
So maybe the lesson here is that while audiences
can stomach darkness in small doses,
it's not entirely sustainable in the long run.
However, the bright poppy positive aesthetic of something
like the Marvel movies can keep audiences
flocking back to theaters for nearly a decade now.
It's definitely a lesson the publishing arm
of DC's seemed to learn.
Their recent rebirth relaunch has been a major win
for the company, precisely because they've re-embraced
a lot of the positivity and optimism
that's been missing from their titles for so long.
As a result, they're now rivaling Marvel on the sales chart,
a feat they haven't been able to pull off
for quite some time.
Now of course it still remains to be seen
if after Wonder Woman, DC films is gonna be bold enough
to make a similar move, but there are reasons to remain
hopeful, especially with Joss Whedon coming on
to punch up Justice League,
as well as write and direct his own Batgirl movie.
Whedon has always been a guy that's been able to strike
a nice balance between the dark and the light in his work
and honestly, he could be the guy to save the DC EU
if it were not for the one small detail
of the fact that DC has already been saved by Wonder Woman
and director Patty Jenkins.
Jenkins' work on Wonder Woman is truly amazing
and honestly, in our opinion, Warner Brothers needs to keep
Jenkins onboard, not just to direct the inevitable
Wonder Woman sequels, but to help shape
the rest of the franchise from here on out.
We'd be excited to see what her touch could bring
to other superheroes, even ones without woman in the title.
A female director helming a non-female-centric
superhero film?
I know, sounds crazy, right?
It's not, though, it's (bleep) 2017, shut the (bleep) up,
let's face it, after seeing Wonder Woman,
I think we can all agree, Jenkins is a pretty good fit
for any superhero, I mean, did you notice how Wonder Woman
actually seems to like the people she's saving?
And didn't wear a bunch of Henleys?
But what do you guys think?
How much did you love Wonder Woman
and would you like to see more films like this from DC?
Let's discuss.
And a big thank you to the sponsor of today's Nerdist News,
Graphic Stock, Graphic Stock is the largest unlimited
download image library on the internet
and the best part is, once you become a member,
you'll have access to all of it.
Over 350,000 unique images and they're all yours.
They've even added a whole bunch of new images
from their Creator to Creator collection
and if you wanna give Graphic Stock a shot,
June's the time to do it because this month and this month
only, they're offering a free seven-day trial,
just go to graphicstock.com/NERDIST
or click the link in the description box to sign up
and for the next seven days, you can download whatever
images you want totally for free.