DC/WB New Direction

[ComicJunkie21]

Given how badly Momoa's Conan movie bombed, it's not THAT hard to say it was because of the movie over the appeal of Jason Momoa.

Haha I completely forgot about Conan, that was a bad movie. I think though that he may have bounced back with his role as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones at least in the eyes of a lot of women.

[titanfan]

Them wanting to go in a different direction than the Marvel movies is what lead to the Justice League debacle in the first place.

[Colossus1980]

I like the DCEU and wish they would concentrate on a shared universe because I love watching mash-ups of heroes together. I want to see interactions that one reads in comics.

However I'm really not impressed with what the DCEU is doing. All they seem to do is announce project after project with no follow-up. I don't want to see anymore announced projects and just stick to a few instead of trying to get every single IP out there. So aimless to me. I shake my head when I read the line up of films in development on the Wikipedia page.

At least they are dominating the TV shows.

[Beaddle]

The world of DC is in a good place. Creatively they are better than Marvel by keeping everything separate . I would forever love how DC makes cartoons for adults. There movies still need a lot of improvement. What DC needs to do is not hire hacks like Sndyer again.

[Beaddle]

Them wanting to go in a different direction than the Marvel movies is what lead to the Justice League debacle in the first place.

It is what led to Batman v Superman. Justice League was DC going in the same direction as Marvel.

[ComicJunkie21]

It is what led to Batman v Superman. Justice League was DC going in the same direction as Marvel.

Completely agree with you Beaddle. DC trying to mimic Marvel is what got them into trouble in the first place. Personally I don't see anything wrong with DC being more standalone films and Marvel doing their thing with the interconnected universe. I see it as a win-win for fans and directors. For directors for DC moving forward they are going to have more freedom in storytelling without having to worry about past work of other storylines restricting them. For Marvel, I would imagine their future directors may end up feeling creatively stifled (which they hate) because they have to take into account canon storylines from prior work affecting how or if they can do something with a character storyline. This may not happen but I see it as a possibility.

[ComicJunkie21]

I like the DCEU and wish they would concentrate on a shared universe because I love watching mash-ups of heroes together. I want to see interactions that one reads in comics.

However I'm really not impressed with what the DCEU is doing. All they seem to do is announce project after project with no follow-up. I don't want to see anymore announced projects and just stick to a few instead of trying to get every single IP out there. So aimless to me. I shake my head when I read the line up of films in development on the Wikipedia page.

At least they are dominating the TV shows.

I think you may be disappointed then coming up as they have made clear that there are no team up movies coming anytime soon. Heck even the new Joker film (which is generating oscar buzz) will not team up with Matt Reeves new Batman (which I expect to be good based off his previous work ie. Planet of the apes).

May want to leave team ups to Marvel as DC is not going to be moving in that direction for a while since JL flopped hard.

[Jokerz79]

I don't care about the Marvel and DC peeing match both companies should just go with whatever tone fits the character they are adapting for screen.

Don't make Batman or Blade silly but don't make the FF or Booster Gold brooding either.

[Username taken]

There's room for Spider-man, Avengers, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Venom and Captain Marvel to all target the family audiences (granted Venom was a bit gnarly but there's nothing explicitly violent in the movie).

I don't know where some fans get this ridiculous notion that because Marvel movies have a certain tone that other companies superhero movies should dive into R-rated territory "grim dark" territory. It's like some folks are still stuck in the past, this isn't the late 90s early 2000s, the world has changed.

A worse notion is that being dark and/or violent means more mature. Was Deadpool more mature than The Dark Knight because it was rated R??

Worse still is the absolutely false notion that all Marvel movies have the same tone, i mean, in what way is Ant-man like Black Panther? Or Winter Soldier like Guardians of the Galaxy? If one wants to critique something, it has to be based in reality for it to make sense to people (or to the actual film makers). So moving away from the "Marvel formula" isn't even a thing because all the movies don't have the same tone. Do the movies have shared features? Of course, the movies are coming from the same studio! But the tone of the movies just aren't the same, that doesn't make sense (unless if someone could explain how Black Panther or Civil War is the same as Ant-man or like Guardians of the Galaxy or like Avengers Endgame). There's a reason why WB simply went all in on Shazam and WW, different movies need to have different tones. You're not going to turn Batman or Daredevil into a comedy nor will you make a Spider-man or Superman movie overly dark serious (especially Spider-man).


A bad movie is a bad movie and a good movie is a good movie. End of story. Film makers don't need to make everything dark to make it good, they simply need to make good movies. A lot of this is frustrating to read because DC/WB, Fox and Sony did perfectly well churning out proper superhero movies and they still can (with the exception of Fox for obvious reasons). DC is fine on the path they're on now, Aquaman and Wonder Woman were massive hits and Shazam was critically acclaimed. Honestly, the whole Birds of Prey thing is sounding very iffy to me especially because of the "gay Black Mask" sub-plot which sounds problematic as heck.

[XPac]

Completely agree with you Beaddle. DC trying to mimic Marvel is what got them into trouble in the first place. Personally I don't see anything wrong with DC being more standalone films and Marvel doing their thing with the interconnected universe. I see it as a win-win for fans and directors. For directors for DC moving forward they are going to have more freedom in storytelling without having to worry about past work of other storylines restricting them. For Marvel, I would imagine their future directors may end up feeling creatively stifled (which they hate) because they have to take into account canon storylines from prior work affecting how or if they can do something with a character storyline. This may not happen but I see it as a possibility.

There's no doubt that what marvel is doing is MUCH MUCH harder. They're almost making it look easy given the sucess they have had in putting out two dozen inter connected movies (somethng that I don't think has ever been done and probably never will be done again by anyone else), but it likely is a logistical nightmare to pull off. But they did it right down the end game.

Given DC can't string together 2-4 movies without wiping egg of their face yeah... it probably is easier to focus more on a stand alone product. I still think there's SOME value in doing team ups and having hereos working together, but I don't think they're capable of pulling off anything as difficult and elaborate as marvel did. They are probably better off not trying.

[ComicJunkie21]

There's no doubt that what marvel is doing is MUCH MUCH harder. They're almost making it look easy given the sucess they have had in putting out two dozen inter connected movies (somethng that I don't think has ever been done and probably never will be done again by anyone else), but it likely is a logistical nightmare to pull off. But they did it right down the end game.

Given DC can't string together 2-4 movies without wiping egg of their face yeah... it probably is easier to focus more on a stand alone product. I still think there's SOME value in doing team ups and having hereos working together, but I don't think they're capable of pulling off anything as difficult and elaborate as marvel did. They are probably better off not trying.

No question, Marvel definitely has done a high risk high reward model and it has seriously paid off. Hands down, they have created the most successful universe of all-time that I don't even think they can replicate after endgame.

For DC they thrive better in limited crossovers. As stated earlier the best we can hope for is a flashpoint storyline crossover. However, imo we are more likely to see if anything a villian standalone movie and a superhero movie crossover (think Shazam vs Black Adam) which I would very much like but we won't get it for everything (sorry Joaquin Phoenix Joker and Matt Reeves Batman unlikely to be in the same movie ever).

[Agent Z]

There's room for Spider-man, Avengers, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Venom and Captain Marvel to all target the family audiences (granted Venom was a bit gnarly but there's nothing explicitly violent in the movie).

I don't know where some fans get this ridiculous notion that because Marvel movies have a certain tone that other companies superhero movies should dive into R-rated territory "grim dark" territory. It's like some folks are still stuck in the past, this isn't the late 90s early 2000s, the world has changed.

A worse notion is that being dark and/or violent means more mature. Was Deadpool more mature than The Dark Knight because it was rated R??

Worse still is the absolutely false notion that all Marvel movies have the same tone, i mean, in what way is Ant-man like Black Panther? Or Winter Soldier like Guardians of the Galaxy? If one wants to critique something, it has to be based in reality for it to make sense to people (or to the actual film makers). So moving away from the "Marvel formula" isn't even a thing because all the movies don't have the same tone. Do the movies have shared features? Of course, the movies are coming from the same studio! But the tone of the movies just aren't the same, that doesn't make sense (unless if someone could explain how Black Panther or Civil War is the same as Ant-man or like Guardians of the Galaxy or like Avengers Endgame). There's a reason why WB simply went all in on Shazam and WW, different movies need to have different tones. You're not going to turn Batman or Daredevil into a comedy nor will you make a Spider-man or Superman movie overly dark serious (especially Spider-man).


A bad movie is a bad movie and a good movie is a good movie. End of story. Film makers don't need to make everything dark to make it good, they simply need to make good movies. A lot of this is frustrating to read because DC/WB, Fox and Sony did perfectly well churning out proper superhero movies and they still can (with the exception of Fox for obvious reasons). DC is fine on the path they're on now, Aquaman and Wonder Woman were massive hits and Shazam was critically acclaimed. Honestly, the whole Birds of Prey thing is sounding very iffy to me especially because of the "gay Black Mask" sub-plot which sounds problematic as heck.

Black Mask being gay is an unconfirmed rumor from a notoriously unreliable tabloid site.

[Scott Taylor]

If there is one way to tread ground Disney can't tread, its to go the R-rated route. But those movies also tend to make less money. So is it really a win?

Though I agree with not trying to mimic Disney/MCU. To me, Justice League suffered alot due to decisions to "make it more like Avengers" when it would have been better to just continue the path started by MoS.

[Username taken]

Black Mask being gay is an unconfirmed rumor from a notoriously unreliable tabloid site.

I pray so because it sounds very ridiculous.

[Star_Jammer]

Honestly, the whole Birds of Prey thing is sounding very iffy to me especially because of the "gay Black Mask" sub-plot which sounds problematic as heck.

Why would that be problematic?