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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Substandard is the Standard for the DC Cinematic Universe


Last weekend Suicide Squad was number one at the box office with a $135 million dollar opening. That pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for quality movies coming out of the DC Cinematic Universe. At this point I can just give up all hope of ever seeing a faithful adaptation of any DC Superhero on a movie screen.


Thanks to that strong opening the standard for DC Superhero movies is no standard. The bar for quality is so low at Warner Brothers an ant can scratch its back on it. When you look at Suicide Squad, Warner Brothers took a script from a 1990s episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and adapted it into a movie. After Harley Quinn cut out the Cardiotron heart from the Hatchasaurus-I mean Enchantress I was waiting for Deadshot to call on the power of Titanus and have the Suicide Squad form Ultrazord to take out the Enchantress once and for all.


It’s a sad day when Haim Saban can produce a far better quality superhero show than Warner Brothers with a two hundred million dollar budget, an A-List cast, and top screenwriters and top directors. All these so-called talented professionals working together in Hollywood and they can’t even meet the standard of a guy like Haim Saban who used no-name actors and redubbed Japanese Sentai footage?


Damn. Just Damn. The saddest part is no one in America is EMBARASSED about how low the bar is at Warner Brothers right now regarding its superhero films. Microbes can scratch their back on the bar for quality regarding DC Comics films. Then they looking up at the screen and shake their heads.


And because audiences accepted that substandard story as their standard for DC Superhero films, that’s all DC fans are going to get. Absolute garbage as it relates to the DC Cinematic Universe. With a $135 million dollar opening in August. Warner Brothers no longer has an incentive to get their shit together regarding their Superhero films. So instead of audiences getting quality films that capture the spirit of DC’s superheroes. Man of Steel 2 is getting greenlit.


Damn. Just Damn.


That’s right DC fans, all you’re going to get are more angry morose brooding New 52 styled versions of DC Superheroes on the silver screen. And it’s your fault moviegoers. Maybe if the audience would let some of this cinematic garbage sink to the bottom of the sewer, Warner Brothers would hit rock bottom and begin the housecleaning that they needed to do two decades ago. 


When it comes to Superhero movies, Warner Brothers is STILL making the exact same mistakes it made back in 1997 with Batman and Robin. And sadly they believe doing the exact same thing will lead to a different result. The rest of the world calls this insanity, but this is business as usual at Warner Brothers.


And I’d have to believe the audience for DC films is crazy too. Instead of listening to logic in the face of bad reviews, they call to have rottentomatoes.com shut down. Then they go out and spend $135 million to continue enabling Warner Brothers to continue on in its dysfunctional model for Superhero films.


Damn. Just Damn.


Clearly showing the co-dependent relationship many comic fans have with the companies that produce anything superhero related. As long as they produce ANYTHING with their favorite characters on it, they’ll accept it. This is how substandard becomes the standard. When you have to rip off Saban’s Power Rangers and he STILL kicks your ass in terms of quality, it’s clear something isn’t just fucked up, it’s FUBAR.


My Standard! 
I find it sad that many of the same people who paid money to see Suicide Squad will demand I produce books with better covers. I’m told by people I need to raise my bar for SJS DIRECT publications, but these same people will give Warner Brothers a pass when they present them with the film equivalent of Hot garbage. Seriously, if I can make efforts to step up my game with no job and no money, then why can’t Warner Brothers?


Warner Brothers should easily be able to do much better than they’re doing regarding DC Superhero films. At this point I think I could make a better Isis movie or a Spinsterella movie than DC could a Superman or a Batman. I know if I were given a $200 million budget I could probably put together a much better film than the hot garbage that was tossed on movie screens across the country last weekend. The way I see it DC fans deserve better than what they’re getting. Unfortunately, because they keep settling for less, they never get the best.


5 comments:

  1. Do you think Man of Steel 2 might be better since Zack Snyder isn't directing it? IDK, but I hope that not only is Snyder not directing it, but Goyer isn't writing the script either.

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    1. Nope. I have no faith in Warner Brothers.
      If WB really cared, they'd just let the entire franchise die at this point and start fresh in 2020 after they regroup.

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  2. Yeah, pretty much feel like this. Even their most recent choice in animation was a big WTF in the form of The Killing JOke. That story never should have happened. I don't get why DC figures that having characters killed off, raped, crippled, dreams crushed. At the end of the day, I am only going to hope that DC is going to eventually hit bankruptcy, because that would absolutely force them to change how they manage and handle things.

    SO far, I pretty much gave up on all DC movies, which is sad enough considering I gave up on their comic books years earlier. Even their animated films don't seem to be taking a good turn considering that Holy Cow! They decided to do Batman: The Killing Joke as an animated movie, when hell, they could have done an animated movie of Static Shock or more optimistic Elseworlds DC stories like Kingdom Come.

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    1. Ben, as far as the DCEU movies are concerned, half of their problems are regurgitating the dark, twisted, nature of the DC Universe in the 2000s, the time when Superman was a hypocrite who killed but went crying home and threw a fit when somebody else killed to save the day, they pretty much gave Superman that awful personality in Dawn of Justice. If DC didn't throw all the death, rapes, and unnecessary plot resolutions like New Krypton and Grounded in, they would never have been forced to reboot with the New 52. Adapting material from the brighter days of DC Comics makes a lot more sense. The other half of the problem is that WB just plain puts stupid into their movies. I don't care much for 2000s DC Comics. That era was crap, IMHO, and besides Geoff Johns calling his own work bad to shift the blame, the current regime needs to leave DC and also WB as well.

      -John

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  3. It's not like Marvel's movies are doing any better in the long term...

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