DC Movie Slate Faces Intense Scrutiny In the Wake of Marvel Studios’ Success
Maybe if your characters smiled once in a while?
We’ve been noticing this for a while. It seems like, when it comes to creating a successful, united cinematic universe, Marvel Studios has the game on lock, and with the highly-anticipated Age of Ultron opening this weekend, the success will likely continue to roll in. Meanwhile, between needing to find a new director for Wonder Woman, a lukewarm reception to the Batman v Superman trailer, and writer troubles with the upcoming Aquaman starring Jason Momoa (who apparently believes it’s on), DC Entertainment seems to be struggling to find their Cinematic Universe feet.
Writer troubles also seem to be plaguing Wonder Woman. Newsarama reports:
Sources indicate that at least five writers were hired by Warner Bros. to write movie treatments and first acts for the Wonder Woman film, with the studio hoping one would stand out to develop further as the movie’s finals script. THR indicates that the studio has narrowed the competing scriptwriters down to two, but an unnamed Warner Bros. insider says the process “felt like they were throwing shit against the wall to see what stuck.”
Warner Bros. reportedly approached Fifty Shades of Grey screenwriter Kelly Marcel for Wonder Woman, with THR’s sources indicating that the screenwriter declined over “concern about the number of players who were involved” and a “vision [which] contrasted sharply” with plans for the movie.
Some think that the instability of the DC movie slate is due to a lack of leadership. Whereas Marvel Studios has Kevin Feige running a pretty tight ship (and having a deep knowledge of the characters involved), Polygon mentions that:
The folks in charge of crafting the direction of Warner Bros. DC Universe include [Zack and Debbie Snyder], “a team of Warners executives,” producer Charles Roven, DC Entertainment’s president Diane Nelson and Green Lantern scribe Geoff Johns. That’s a mere two or three folks who came up in the industry from the creative side rather than the business one.
That’s definitely a possibility. I also think that Marvel’s success with its films, compared to that of DC, also has to do with tone. One of the frequent criticisms I hear of anything related to DC properties, whether it’s their TV shows, or their upcoming movie slate, is that they’re trying to make “everything Batman.” In other words: dark, cynical, and brooding. It’s all dark color palettes, slick costumes, dour expressions, and commentary about how everything in the world is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Contrast that with Marvel: their films tend to be brighter, and more hopeful. They’ve released two different team films, supporting the idea that If we all work together, we can defeat whatever comes! Their heroes wisecrack, reminding us that, even in the midst of despair and chaos, we should hold onto our humanity. Their characters SMILE, for crying out loud (or at least smirk), and when the heroes inevitably win at the end of their films, there’s a sense of WE WON!
Whereas when DC heroes win, it’s more like WE WON! Or did we…?
I think audiences already have enough real-world corruption and darkness to deal with without wanting to also watch their heroes falter. We’re tired of cynicism and despair. We’re desperate for hope. We want to be inspired to take down the evils of the world to the tune of an Awesome Mix tape, not worry about whether one of our greatest heroes is actually a cult leader that’s going to be the death of us all. I think Marvel does well, because they’re giving today’s audience more of what it wants, while DC continues to insist that everyone needs to wear really dark colors and speak with a raspy voice.
What do you think would help DC Entertainment have a solid cinematic universe?
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