I know this blog is usually rife with my depressed musings or cryptic natter about the people I currently hate, but today I will be commenting on something really important: How badly DC is mishandling its cinematic universe.
Growing
up, I was much more familiar with the DC Comics universe than I was
with Marvel's. I mean, apart from the X-Men and Spider-man, I wasn't too
familiar with now-famous characters like Hawkeye and Black Widow. Or
for that matter even Iron Man. (To be honest, I knew more about Ant-Man
than I did Iron Man. And Thor was mostly a joke.)
Meanwhile,
over in DC-verse resided my all-time favourite comic book hero (or
anti-hero) - Batman. Even casual comic book fans know Superman, Wonder
Woman, the Flash and Aquaman.
The
difference has been in the movie universe. The Marvel Cinematic
Universe (MCU henceforth) was masterfully set up under the guidance of
Kevin Feige from the start. Even movies that didn't work too well
(notably the first two Hulk movies) were interesting.
Enough
virtual ink has been devoted to why MCU is has been successful; from
choosing great scriptwriters and directors, to casting the right actors
(starting with Robert Downey Jr.) and picking the right comic book arcs
(most notably the Winter Soldier arc from Captain America) to bring to
the cinema, Kevin Feige has made a series of right decisions. However,
the decision that I think deserves the most credit is the one that
allowed MCU to build a world, with rules and over-arching villains and
heroes that could co-exist. Each superhero was fleshed out but still
belonged to the same world as all the others. That is no mean feat.
Meanwhile,
over at DC, apart from a few good choices, all I can see is the
squandering of great comic book properties. To be fair, Arrow on the CW
(a TV show based on the Green Arrow comics, for the uninitiated) is
great. It may even be responsible for a successful spin-off in the form
of the Flash, who is a truly beloved character from the comics. And of
course, it goes without saying that the Christopher Nolan's Batman
movies were stellar, with the second being an absolute masterpiece (and
arguably the greatest comic book movie ever made).
HOWEVER,
with news emerging in the last week about DC giving Zack Snyder the
keys to the kingdom, a la Joss Whedon over at MCU, I am now truly afraid
for what is to come.
Snyder
directed last year's Man of Steel and is now scheduled to direct Batman
vs. Superman as well as a Justice League movie to release in 2017.
First
off, Man of Steel was just awful. I mean plain terrible. The last 40
minutes of the movie is just one long rampage that was directed with all
the subtlety of a drag show. Most people left the theatre with a
headache. Henry Cavill, and I am sorry in advance to anyone who liked
him in the movie, was an abysmal Superman. I will reserve judgement on
Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot as Batman and Wonder Woman because I know
nerds (like me) often have a reputation for losing their shit online
over casting choices for their favourite comic book characters and then
having to eat their words at a performance like Heath Ledger in as The
Joker (in case you didn't know or don't remember, us nerds lost our
ever-loving minds when he was cast).
My
bigger problem is with Zack Snyder. He is well-known for fetishizing
women in his movies, with some feminists going so far as to claim that
he outright indulges in rape fantasies in many of his films. How can he
possibly be allowed to have a hand in bringing to life the greatest
female superhero i.e. Wonder Woman? Compare that to Whedon who was
responsible for writing one of the best, most kick-ass, feminist heroes
in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Snyder also has a very heavy hand and is
not too well known for developing characters with nuance and
complications. Whereas, DC has some of the most complex characters in
its universe. My fear is that his Batman will just be a billionaire who
beats up bad guys at night (in a highly-stylized manner, no doubt;
another major criticism leveled against Snyder has been his emphasis on
style over substance) instead of the broken man who saw his parents
killed before him and developed a complex moral code as a result.
His
Superman has already proven to be an angsty whine-machine who did not
seem to hesitate to snap his antagonist's neck. Now, this point is worth
discussing. I didn't have as much of a problem as other fans when
Superman killed General Zod at the end of Man of Steel. My issue was
that it came in the first movie itself and that too without taking pains
to establish Superman's sense of responsibility and his highly-rigid
honour code. He is referred to as Boy Scout in the comics because he is
adamant that he will not kill. In fact, many Justice League stories have
been born from his vast divergence in morality from Batman. Snyder did
not establish this moral code and instead just showed him violating it.
We should have been shown what a very big deal it is that Superman had
to resort to killing someone and what kind of toll that could take on
him.
Finally,
DC hasn't taken pains to develop a universe before jumping straight
away into a Justice League movie. How are casual fans supposed to know
who Cyborg is? Which version of Aquaman will they be presenting and what
will his character be like? And will characters like the Green Arrow
and The Flash appear in the movie even though they exist in a parallel
universe on TV shows?
So,
here's the thing, I am very unhappy with the choices made over at DC
and had to put down all my objections. I doubt any of the people that
read this blog care as deeply about this stuff as I do. Still, it's
worth mentioning. I'm not one to solicit feedback on my weird rants, but
in this particular case, if you read this blog, comment and let me know
what comic book movies you like and why.
