With the outstanding success of The Avengers and all the movies leading up to it, it is not at all surprising to hear that rival company DC are planning a Justice League film, likely to be released in 2015. If Justice League does come out within the next few years, it may not be able to live up to The Avengers based on the fact it was rushed out much quicker to compete with the brilliance that is Marvel and their slow-burning planning. Justice League has a bigger advantage than they think if they just wait it out.
Here are the 5 reasons Justice League should take their time with bringing the JLA together;
5. Fan Base
If DC is worried that they are losing fans to Marvel; they shouldn’t be. A comic book fan is a comic book fan. All superheroes are welcomed, but what isn’t welcomed is a bad movie. DC has had overwhelming success with the latest Batman trilogy that has set the tone for other singular comic book hero movies embarking on their own. The animated Justice League television show lasted five seasons and was quite popular. Superman just toured a decade on television picking up new fans with the teen drama Smallville and also popularizing the character Green Arrow enough to grant him his own show (Arrow). Although Green Lantern wasn’t a great success, neither was the Hulk (and they tried a second time), so the worst thing you can do is rush out a full blown movie like Justice League without thinking it through.
There is still a fan base and they are willing to wait as long as you make the wait worth it.
4. Learn From Your Mistakes and Marvels
One of the biggest advantages DC has is they can see what Marvel does wrong with The Avengers series and improve on it. The Hulk was one example of something Marvel couldn’t get right until it mattered. Don’t try repeating with an even more questionable Green Lantern movie.
So far Avengers hasn’t made too many mistakes, but there are some. For example don’t make the heroes finally band together in the Justice League movie because some minor character that made an appearance in all their respected movies died in a spout with the villain. Heroes should band because they are inspired by their leader, in this case Batman or Superman, to do what’s right.
3. Build the Hype
Marvel planned their movies very well and hyped up The Avengers like it was the second coming. They did not disappoint. DC has the chance to do the same, and by waiting they can do it properly. Superman and Batman are very popular characters, and the inclusion of them both in a live movie would be a very intriguing marketing campaign.
Having their own movies beforehand would certainly help get things going. I’m all for another Batman movie, assuming Christian Bale doesn’t reprise his role in the Justice League movie, if its focus is on the Justice League movie. Bringing in different elements of JLA or even having a couple other less popular members in the Batman film would help make the statement that it isn’t competing with Nolan’s trilogy, but setting up for a great Justice League movie.
The next Superman movie is due out next year, and its plot is not known in full detail, so it’s hard to tell how that can play into a Justice League movie for now.
Granting other characters (Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Hawkgirl, and Flash) their own movie as long as it is aimed towards Justice League and written well would be also be a step in the right direction.
As for Green Lantern; you screwed up the Caucasian Hal Jordan, you still have a chance at redemption with the African American John Stewart. Get it right!
2. A Great Script
Obviously a lot of planning went into Marvel’s blueprint for The Avengers and all the individual films that preceded it. Well if DC decides to take their time, they can plan and execute an even better film. The Nolan’s have already done their rendition of Batman, but who’s to say they couldn’t lend a hand in writing a Justice League movie even if that is their only involvement. If Nolan and his brother do become more involved and their Dark Knight trilogy takes place in the same universe, then that is a bigger bonus.
Regardless, taking the time to plan every plot twist and turn could be very beneficial. Rushing into production with a mediocre script and banking on the team’s popularity is a very risky move and may make even the most dedicated DC fan jump ship to Marvel. At least they treat their fans well.
1. Finding the Perfect Cast
If Christian Bale reprises his role, that’s great news. If not, it wouldn’t be the first time we replaced Batman. Finding the perfect cast that embodies each hero and villain respectively is critical to the success of the movie. The Avengers did a MARVELous job casting their team, so it is imperative DC takes the time to get things right with theirs.
Both Superman and Batman have been portrayed many times by different actors, so don’t assume that Christian Bale and Henry Cavill (Man of Steel success pending) can’t be replaced. We were upset when anyone of significant importance was replaced, but we got over it. As long as they cast someone who can make us forget why we cared.
The Justice League has very popular and diverse heroes, and a live action movie would be downright amazing. It is essential that the time is taken to plan it properly to ensure it can compete with the Avengers and put DC right back up there with Marvel.
Feel free to share your opinion below.
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9 Comments
We don’t yet if the upcoming Man of Steel will have a connection to The Justice League movie, it might have a cameo from Wonder Woman or Martian Manhunter, maybe even a Batman you never know.
It wouldn’t surprise me if at the end of Man of Steel Martian Manhunter appears to Superman and tells him that he is impressed with him etc and says that he is also not from this planet blah blah, and perhaps recruits him.
Or Batman might have a cameo, either Bale (he said he would do Batman if Nolan was involved) or JGL donning the Bat-Suit, maybe he’s shown with other heroes such as Flash, Green Arrow etc and they are shown to be watching Superman.
Why should the heroes band together just because they are inspired by a leader? Films can’t do it like that all the time — there has to be room for more diversity in motivation — and the way they did it in the Avengers was just one way.
No films can’t do it like that all the time, but it wouldn’t be hard to see someone like Superman or Batman inspiring a group of heroes. The way Avengers did it was fine, but the whole bloody card thing was too much for me.
Honestly, I thought the same thing until it was revealed that the blood on the cards was just a ruse… because it totally was over dramatic. but it was an choice by a character to lie about it…
I think the important thing for them to do is to focus on the origin stories and have the crossovers occur in them. They should even do Batman again (last) in a couple of years…say 2014 or early 2015… that touches on his origins but ever so briefly. Having a Justice League movie should certainly not be rushed. But with an aggressive focus on the introductory stories of the heroes, maybe by the same writer who can best blend the movies together, they could make it the greatest cinematic event of this generation.
They should release a Justice League film on 2015 because that year The Avengers 2 will be released on the silver screen. My only criticism is this: if Warner Bros. crew members didn’t argue, they could have made a Justice League film a decade ago! Instead Marvel takes the lead and is the only one making Superhero team live-action films. First the X-Men (2000), The Fantastic Four (2005), and now recently, The Avengers. I hope Warner Bros. & DC Comics could heat up the competition. They should be #1! In 1978, Superman made his debut on the silver screen inspiring the creation of other superhero films. Also, during the Golden Age of Comic Books (1938-1951) DC Comics was the biggest comic book publisher. I hope Warner Bros. and DC Comics will rise to the top. Right now however, I think can hear Iron Man saying,”Your heroes are so isolated from each other I’m starting to think DC stands for ‘Ditch Continuity’”. I hope he’ll eat those words. (No offense Iron Man, you are still in the top ten of Marvel’s greatest superheroes.)
i would really love to see christain bale play batman in the justice league he played a really good batman and as the one who played super man both are good actors but christain bale is the best i have seen yet so i hope to see him in this new up coming movie
thank you
mark henderson
It seems like a huge waste if the JL movie ignores Nolan’s Batman universe. There is a huge fan base for those movies who would watch a JL movie that featured Bale as Batman, because its the closest thing to a pRt 4 they are going to get. Hopefully we will be able to say the same about the Superman reboot.
Also, it seems kind of obvious, and I hope they don’t spoil this by anything they do in the Superman reboot, that the JL universe should start in the Nolan Batman universe. A place where Batman is the only superhero, because it gives us somewhere to go in terms of the power spectrum. Batman is basically imaginable within a world that resembles the one we live in (as far as a comic book world can), whereas a world in which superman lives…, well, let’s just say he may live in a place called Kansas in that world, but it’s not Kansas. The voyage from the Batman world to the superman world is epic and mind blowing in itself, apart from the actual drama of the story.
The obvious way to handle this journey is to tell the story from an xfiles perspective that taps into UFO and urban mythology, stuff that is on the peripheral of what people can take seriously, but in this world has some basis in fact that seems to point to some strange phenomena. Through the course of the film the explanation for these phenomena is then revealed. The search for an incredible truth fed the xfiles for however many seasons it was on, and the secret to making this work is to hold onto the big reveal as long as possible. Hopefully the superman reboot will do that, and even when the secret is out, it would be best if they can find a way of putting it back in the box so that the other characters can emerge in a similar way. I don’t think the xmen/fantastic 4 approach, where the secret is old hat, is going to work if you want to create a film that feels at all like Nolan’s Batman films.
This was what was wrong with the green lantern film. It just looked and felt like something that just couldn’t happen in Nolan’s bat,an universe. And without a universe, like Nolan’s, where there is a semblance of reality, it’s simply impossible to take the characters and the drama seriously.
They need to take this slow. Thread the worlds together. Build up the anticipation.