Geoff Johns Wants DC Films to Include More 'Hope & Optimism'

[DocSpin]

This isn't comforting coming from the architect behind the Green Lantern movie. BvS was way better than Green Lantern.

Fans are just weird to me sometimes. I thought the movie was fine not sure what people were expecting. I'll be honest it was handled better than I thought it would be. When the news first dropped about this movie I thought it was going to be dumb I couldn't envision Superman and Batman going at it in live action without me rolling my eyes. So all in all the movie surpassed my expectations. They should have cut out that weird dream or vision sequence tho, it was so random and out of place even as a comic fan I'm going "why would you toss that in."

Actually Greg Berlanti was the "architect" for Green Lantern as writer and producer. And Ryan Reynolds has mentioned more than a few times that they were waiting for scripts on a daily basis. Johns had just been appointed to his new position after GL was already in production.

[DocSpin]

Johns was not the architect of the Green Lantern movie. Neither were Berlanti and Guggenheim, frankly, and they get just as much flak for the movie. The architect behind Green Lantern was a WB committee..

That's very interesting. Can you point me to more information on that?

[Redvector]

A good script. Last two DC movies did not have it. Neither did GL. Plus this is kinda ironic coming from the guy whose use of Superman in his JL run as mostly mind controlled, poisoned, or dying. And then he did a rather boring Superman story on his short Superman stint in new 52. Civil War hitting WB/DC hard, lol. It's called cohesive writing and character development.

Cohesive Writing, character development, and not to mention plot, dialog and editing like it wasn't done by a blind man with ADD.

[Frontier]

That's very interesting. Can you point me to more information on that?

Greg Berlanti Confirms Green Lantern Wasn't the Film He Really Wrote

[AndrewHuerta]

It really is ironic because for as long as I can remember Marvel Comics was always the darker & edgier side of superheroes where DC was always the more optimistic universe.

For the longest time that was the case. Especially when the Ultimate line started.

[rpi]

So I guess his producer credit on Batman v Superman was entirely decorative. Man of Steel, Green Lantern, and Batman v Superman were all some combination of dumb, bloat, and meanness. Hearing that Johns wants to make more happy movies rings very, very false. If Warners/DC wanted what these characters were really about, they'd have Grant Morrison doing the show-running.

[rpi]

Brighter colors, and a more distinct music score would be a good start. Babysteps and all that.

I think not having Batman and Superman slaughter people would be an even better place to begin :-)

[rpi]

This isn't comforting coming from the architect behind the Green Lantern movie. BvS was way better than Green Lantern.

Fans are just weird to me sometimes. I thought the movie was fine not sure what people were expecting. I'll be honest it was handled better than I thought it would be. When the news first dropped about this movie I thought it was going to be dumb I couldn't envision Superman and Batman going at it in live action without me rolling my eyes. So all in all the movie surpassed my expectations. They should have cut out that weird dream or vision sequence tho, it was so random and out of place even as a comic fan I'm going "why would you toss that in."

A Batman that wasn't dumb as a post and killing anyone that looked at hime askew, and a Superman that wasn't a whiny mope-fest with about 40 lines in the whole movie? "Your mom's name is Martha? My mom's name is Martha! I just tried to kill you, but we're friends now! I'll go get Martha!" At least Green Lantern is the sort of movie that is kind of watchable on a Saturday afternoon on TBS.

[Osiris-Rex]

It's interesting he says that, DC movies needs more hope and optimism. Because TV Supergirl is known for her optimism. And in the Supergirl TV episode "Better Angels" Supergirl defeated Myriad with hope. And he is one of the people involved with creating the Supergirl TV series. It was his idea to make TV Hank Henshaw into TV Martian Manhunter. Be interesting if he starts making movie Superman more like TV Supergirl.

[Osiris-Rex]

Does Guardians' Awesome Mix also not count?

I think Arrow and Flash's respective TV themes are pretty memorable .

The Blake Neely music on Supergirl is pretty damn awesome too. Especially the closing credits theme. That just speaks Super.

[Username taken]

I like this news.

Whatever WB/DC was going with before clearly wasn't resonating with majority of audiences and critics. It's one thing to have a serious character and it's another to depict Superman as some emo moping character that would fit better in a twilight movie than a superhero film.

It's not really that hard to make a bright superhero movie that a majority of people can appreciate and not just random internet folk who are too petty to see beyond their own bias. Sony and Marvel and WB themselves have shown in the past that it's very possible with with the Spider-man movies (the Raimi ones) and the original Superman series (discounting the last two and Superman Returns).

If WB can strike that balance, then the sky's the limit for them.

[Username taken]

Honestly, I think WB should consult the comic guys more

When Marvel first started they had the their "creative committee" with Bendis, Millar, Quesada and some others. It's been disbanded now since they've nailed down the formula.

At this early stage of the DC movie universe, I think it would help if some of DC's top writers like Snyder and even a Morrison (even though he's left) could be consulted.

[Darth Tigris]

This isn't comforting coming from the architect behind the Green Lantern movie. BvS was way better than Green Lantern.

Fans are just weird to me sometimes. I thought the movie was fine not sure what people were expecting. I'll be honest it was handled better than I thought it would be. When the news first dropped about this movie I thought it was going to be dumb I couldn't envision Superman and Batman going at it in live action without me rolling my eyes. So all in all the movie surpassed my expectations. They should have cut out that weird dream or vision sequence tho, it was so random and out of place even as a comic fan I'm going "why would you toss that in."

What crazy is I remember reading more complaints about the dream/vision of Thor in Avengers: Age of Ultron than this one. Seriously, Thor set up his unique experience in dialogue right before the initial dream/vision sequence and more explicitly in the one that follows. Batman's dream/vision has no set up or explanation and makes no story sense as to why him.

[MoonDog]

Same old DC. Try, try, again. Sooner or later they will get their movie and comic universes right.

[Cyke]

It really is ironic because for as long as I can remember Marvel Comics was always the darker & edgier side of superheroes where DC was always the more optimistic universe.

The Bendis-Avengers years were pretty dark, and it seemed to seep into every other book except for the Fantastic Four or the like.

But DC's turn to consistently grimmer/grittier, I think, started with Nu52, which the movies seem to be drawing from. Even Final Crisis, which was a huge metaphysical/metafictional crisis, wasn't that dark in comparison. Even the pre-Flashpoint Batman books -- while appropriately dark -- didn't affect the rest of the DCU the way Bendis' Avengers did.

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Anyway, I'm sure Johns realizes that Batman and Superman are fundamentally different characters with fundamentally different philosophies, but also with a huge amount of respect for each other. DC media can do hope and optimism -- Flash and Supergirl are proof of that (even if TV is a different medium). The problem with BvS is that the title characters were too similar -- darkness works for Batman, but making Superman dark (in MoS) makes him or the story around him seem cynical, when really he's a beacon of hope himself. That is, it wasn't light vs. dark, but dark knight vs. dark dusk. And I would fear that Wonder Woman would fall into the same trap if it were Snyder. Flash and Cyborg don't need that. Suicide Squad does. But to me Johns would, at the very least, know what tone each movie would need in order to succeed. Not every movie needs to be like Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy (but even then, the trilogy still ended with hope and optimism for almost all the major good guys).

This is where I think Civil War succeeded where BvS failed -- actual characters doing battle but acknowledging that there are real emotions and history at stake between them, rather than merely setting two figureheads go at each other like Jason vs. Freddy. That Winter Soldier was the piece that both headliners revolved around emotionally helped position the two of them. In the comics, when Batman and Superman have a genuine bout (that is, no mind control, no manipulation, etc), their philosophies matter just as much as their abilities, and even then it's tempered with a huge respect for each other, something BvS could've taken note of.