Originally published at: Warner Brothers allegedly regrets biting on that whole Snyder-verse thing | Boing Boing
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When you cave in to trolls, it doesn’t make the trolls go away. It makes the trolls realize you’re an easy mark. So they get worse.
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The mistake was trying to cram all these characters into a shared universe in the first place. The Batman and Joker were both great movies but also very different and unconnected to each other. The shared universe seems to work for Marvel (so far) but I suspect it will eventually collapse under the weight it’s own continuity (there’s a reason that comics do a reboot every decade or so).
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The success of the DC Animated Universe from 1992–2006 proved that those characters can absolutely coexist in a successful and compelling shared universe. And Marvel has had tremendous success doing the same thing for their characters in live action.
The problem isn’t putting these characters in a shared universe, it’s putting the wrong people in charge of creating that universe.
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I suppose that I’ll have to watch the Snyder cut eventually. Maybe after surgery when I’m doped up.
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Speaking as someone with a reflexive aversion to the Snyderesque grimdark edgelord vibe, I have to admit that the Snyder cut was indeed an improvement on the theatrical release. I even watched the whole thing in one sitting, and actually enjoyed(!) it.
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Right! Exactly. Also, let’s remember that all of these universes are connected in the comics they are based on! They’re not inventing this connectedness, they’re just figuring out how to adapt it to a new medium here.
IMHO, It works for marvel because they’ve done a great job adhering to the spirit of the interconnectedness of their comic counterparts, and they planned those connections out from the very very beginning, using the very same methods the comics did to bring those characters together in many cases.
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I’d go more 12 out of 10 ranking, but you know, stupid ranking system limits.
Sigh, the spam fanboi comment I was responding to is no more.
For at least a couple of decades, movie adapatations of comic book franchises have catered to the notion that viewers wanted a grimdark world where only the villains had senses of humor, and heroes won but not completely. Marvel simply managed to get out of that trap first, whereas DC (at least for the big screen) doubled down rather than admitting the mistake. The first Wonder Woman movie and Shazam were the most fun theatrical things DC did since the first couple of Superman movies.
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While I’ve not seen Shazam, the 2017 Wonder Woman movie was very good. I don’t know how close the movie holds to the comic as far as origins, I had read it once very long ago.
I would have liked Man of Steel better if it was in color. /sarcasm
Batman gets a pass mostly because Gotham IS grimdark, and is supposed to be a polar opposite to Metropolis, which is supposed to be a colorful and altogether nicer place to live. But how many times has that series been rebooted? I’ve lost count. (Same with The Joker- I hold that the Best Joker is the Animated Series as voiced by Mark Hamill)
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Agreed, Man of Steel was just a train wreck of an adaptation compared to the 1978 Superman movie. Henry Cavill’s Superman was basically a bitter, tortured loner whose foster father taught him that saving innocent lives was less important than hiding his powers. Christopher Reeve still managed to make Clark Kent feel like an outsider, but he also managed to make having superpowers look fun.
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Shazam was actually fun. Not a description that fits the rest of DCs output recently.
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That movie answered the question of “what if Wolverine’s dad sucked?”
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“Why does everyone think I’m trying to rip off Wolverine just because I’m a tortured stubble-faced loner working odd jobs across Canada while trying to avoid barfights that would reveal my super-invulnerability?”
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“OOOhhhh… a compliment! I may not have to gas you!”
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Right!?
It wasn’t entirely terrible. Unless you’d heard of Superman and Wolverine before.
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Yep. I love this movie so, SO much. So many warm fuzzies to be found within.
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Still felt kinda derivative of Captain America though. As @Brainspore has pointed out in the past:
- Takes place during a World War, where the hero assembles a small rag-tag team of misfits to carry out dangerous operations behind German lines.
- Mostly they’re fighting against a faction of diabolical German zealots, not the main army.
- Hero has bullet-proof round shield and a costume featuring patriotic colors.
- Movie ends with a guy named Steve (played by an actor named Chris) sacrificing himself by destroying an implausibly large aircraft full of devastating super-weapons.
- Movie starts and ends with the ageless hero in the present day.
I’m sure there are several other parallels I forgot.
I just watched Wonder Woman 1984 this week. As pointed out in a Pitch Meeting sketch, that movie was fun but not without its issues. Steve can skillfully fly a jet because he once flew WWI planes? And in the end, what happened for all the people who were wishing for world peace? Did people who wished to feed their starving children have to renounce their wishes?
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I couldn’t even watch it. There was no humor, lightness or lighting! I want a good popcorn movie, not a lesson on how Superman is affected by his horrible trauma of having superpowers. Batman vs. Superman was just awful.
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What Marvel did successfully is to base their interconnectedness (for the most part) on the same spiritual era the comics did-- 60s and 70s. So those movies are bombastic, fun, funny, dramatic, melodramatic, epic even… just like the comics from the Bronze Age.
DC, on the other hand, chose to go with the sensibility from the late 80s and 90s where all the heroes wear trench coats, feel like they’re packing guns and are just generally depressed jerks.
I thought they’d have had real success by focusing on strong single movies for each property, rather than trying to ape what Marvel has done. I can see an alternate timeline where Nolan’s Batman is out first followed by Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman, Black Adam. There’s no Snyder anywhere in this Utopia (or the old Green Lantern flick).
Sidenote: Please stop resurrecting Batman every few years. It’s like one of the most valuable icons in the world, please treat it as such
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