The Impending Disaster that Could Be the DC Movie Universe
I'm going to try very hard not to bash on DC or Warner Bros here. It will be tricky but at the end of the day, I'm hoping that Batman v Superman is fantastic. I hope that Wonder Woman comes out and is a great movie about the character in her own right. I hope that this is all leading up to a Justice League movie in a few years that will blow everyone's socks off and easily compete with Marvel as a truly great super hero team up film. This is what I genuinely and truly want to have happen, as I'm sure you do as well. But it's getting harder and harder to thing that might ever come true.
Ok, we know that right now DC is trying to play catch up to Marvel. Marvel is releasing their second Avenger Movie this week, the tenth movie total in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while DC still won't have two characters meet on screen till March of next year. Now DC has been trying to catch up on this Multi-film universe trend for a while now. Even before the first Avengers movie was released there were rumors of a Justice League movie that was supposed to come out around the time of the first Avengers film. The idea at the time was that while Marvel was making movies about individual heroes that eventually meet, DC would start off with the big Justice League movie that would eventually spin off movies about the individual characters. That clearly didn't happen, and then Green Lantern was supposed to be the Iron Man movie that kick started the whole universe but we all know how that turned out. The main point is that now, after all this time, we are finally starting to get a look at what DC might be doing to bring forth their movie universe. But it's still plagued with problems.
Warner Bros wants to put out 10+ DC movies between now and 2020 which breaks down to about two releases a year from 2016 onward. But it takes a lot longer than that to make a movie, so while Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad are being released in 2016, Warner Bros. doesn't have time to wait for those movies to be finished before starting work on the next two (Wonder Woman and Justice League) or even the two that are scheduled to come out in 2018. ( Flash and Aquaman)
As a result, people are working on these up coming super hero movies with no clear vision as two how the mythology of the entire universe works. It has been reported that five different writers have been hired to write the first act for five different Wonder Woman scripts based on five different treatments, with two of them being selected to move forward before eventually being paired down to one. One writer for Aquaman reportedly followed the studio's directions for the script only to hear later that the rules governing the universe had since changed and his script was now effectively useless.
It's worrisome, because it seems that in an effort to catch up to main comic book rival Marvel, DC and Warner Bros have taken the approach of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. It's hard, near impossible to build a universe that stretches over ten different movies involving vastly different characters and just because Marvel has made it seem easy these past couple of years, doesn't mean that it is. Part of what has made that work is keeping a big picture in mind. Marvel, like DC, has released a calender of planned movie releases for the next five years, but it's clear that they have a tight control on the overarching story that they want to tell. Age of Ultron is a result of the events in the first Avengers and Winter Solder. In turn the events of Age of Ultron will affect Civil War and perhaps Black Panther or Dr. Strange. Things that we see take place in Guardians of the Galaxy, we know will come into play in the next Avengers movie.
This is what DC seems to be lacking. It's worrisome that even thought Wonder Woman is scheduled to appear in Justice League in just two years, there are five completely different treatments that her movie could still follow. I know that DC wants what Marvel has but it took Marvel seven years to get to where they are now, and I don't know if DC can do the same thing in two.
Ok, we know that right now DC is trying to play catch up to Marvel. Marvel is releasing their second Avenger Movie this week, the tenth movie total in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, while DC still won't have two characters meet on screen till March of next year. Now DC has been trying to catch up on this Multi-film universe trend for a while now. Even before the first Avengers movie was released there were rumors of a Justice League movie that was supposed to come out around the time of the first Avengers film. The idea at the time was that while Marvel was making movies about individual heroes that eventually meet, DC would start off with the big Justice League movie that would eventually spin off movies about the individual characters. That clearly didn't happen, and then Green Lantern was supposed to be the Iron Man movie that kick started the whole universe but we all know how that turned out. The main point is that now, after all this time, we are finally starting to get a look at what DC might be doing to bring forth their movie universe. But it's still plagued with problems.
Warner Bros wants to put out 10+ DC movies between now and 2020 which breaks down to about two releases a year from 2016 onward. But it takes a lot longer than that to make a movie, so while Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad are being released in 2016, Warner Bros. doesn't have time to wait for those movies to be finished before starting work on the next two (Wonder Woman and Justice League) or even the two that are scheduled to come out in 2018. ( Flash and Aquaman)
As a result, people are working on these up coming super hero movies with no clear vision as two how the mythology of the entire universe works. It has been reported that five different writers have been hired to write the first act for five different Wonder Woman scripts based on five different treatments, with two of them being selected to move forward before eventually being paired down to one. One writer for Aquaman reportedly followed the studio's directions for the script only to hear later that the rules governing the universe had since changed and his script was now effectively useless.
It's worrisome, because it seems that in an effort to catch up to main comic book rival Marvel, DC and Warner Bros have taken the approach of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. It's hard, near impossible to build a universe that stretches over ten different movies involving vastly different characters and just because Marvel has made it seem easy these past couple of years, doesn't mean that it is. Part of what has made that work is keeping a big picture in mind. Marvel, like DC, has released a calender of planned movie releases for the next five years, but it's clear that they have a tight control on the overarching story that they want to tell. Age of Ultron is a result of the events in the first Avengers and Winter Solder. In turn the events of Age of Ultron will affect Civil War and perhaps Black Panther or Dr. Strange. Things that we see take place in Guardians of the Galaxy, we know will come into play in the next Avengers movie.
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