With Man of Steel on the horizon and The Dark Knight Trilogy now concluded, a Justice League movie seems like the next logical comic book film step for Warner Bros. Recent internet rumours have hinted at a possible 2015 release date, meaning it would most likely be the next superhero film at DC after Man of Steel. With the critical and commercial success of Marvel’s The Avengers, the blueprint has been laid, and a Justice League of America movie is a great idea on paper. Like a dating website profile, however, looking good on paper does not always lead to wedding bells.
Fast-tracking a live action Justice League movie is a bad idea for Warner Bros., and here is why…
5. Lack of Foundation
The summer of 2008 was a landmark year for comic book films. In May, June, and July of that year Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Dark Knight were released respectively. As important as The Dark Knight was for Warner. Bros., Iron Man meant even more to the future of Marvel Studios. While Warner had decades of experience releasing comic book films, Iron Man was Marvel’s first movie as a standalone studio and its success or lack thereof would certainly impact the studio’s future.
If marijuana is a gateway drug, then Marvel Studios must have been higher than Tony Stark after he first tested the altitude limits of the Iron Man suit off the response of the film. Iron Man earned a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score – identical to that of The Dark Knight – and also went on to earn over $585 million worldwide. Iron Man’s success proved that Marvel Studios could flourish with characters not named Peter Parker, and laid the groundwork for the films that would ultimately comprise the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That universe was the foundation that would generate the audience buy-in that was necessary for The Avengers to be the box office behemoth that it was.
By comparison, a Justice League of America film would have no such foundation. Assuming the screenplay for the film includes the original seven members of the Justice League, only three members have had recent films: Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern. Unfortunately, none of those films are likely to factor in a JLA movie at all. Superman last appeared on screens in 2006′s Superman Returns. Although it was financially successful, Warner Bros. did not feel it warranted an investment in a sequel with President of Production Jeff Robinov stating in 2008, “Superman Returns didn’t quite work as a film in the way we wanted it to.” Being that Batman retired at the end of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of Batman will not be part of a JLA film either. Finally, Green Lantern was such a critical and commercial flop that Warner Bros. will probably cut ties with Ryan Reynolds’ take on Hal Jordan also.
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11 Comments
“only three members have had recent films: Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern. Unfortunately, none of those films are likely to factor in a JLA movie at all. Superman last appeared on screens in 2006′s Superman Returns. Although it was financially successful, Warner Bros. did not feel it warranted an investment in a sequel with President of Production Jeff Robinov stating in 2008, “Superman Returns didn’t quite work as a film in the way we wanted it to.”
Did you not know about the new superman film out next year?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/
Nm i just saw the next page :p
Only time will tell tbh, can’t really count your chickens before they lay the eggs. Anything might happen come 2015
“There is no denying that any future take on Batman will be inferior to Nolan’s vision.”
Well, actually we can deny that. Just because Nolans Batman films were great, doesnt mean a different director with a different vision and tone cant come along and tell an equally captivating but different story. Also Nolans films werent without their flaws. The last movie especially had some major plot holes.
I do agree with a lot of the points related to the JLA movie. Lack of buy-in to the additional characters is going to be a huge hurdle.
The problem with reinventing Batman for JLA isn’t so much that it can’t be done, it’s that it could very well fail given how fresh Nolan’s Batman is in our minds. Granted, that will fade between now and the time of this movie, but that version of Batman will be “thee” Batman that comes to mind for years.
Now, if they rebooted Batman like they are Superman before JLA, that could work. It would give the audience a good measure of time to adapt to the new version. But Batman will pop on screen in JLA and a lot of people will immediately think of Nolan’s Batman and be thrown off when its a different version. Heck, those that don’t follow movie news might wonder how Batman is even there if they just saw him a retire a couple years prior.
I think you are absolutely correct. The foundation really has to be laid first in order to get it to be right. It does not seem as though the plan is in order to do so. While it is true that the DC trinity and even Green Lantern are fairly familiar characters to the general public, it is also true that the issue of the worlds that they inhabit being starkly different needs to be negotiated otherwise a Justice League film that comes out of nowhere will have clashing settings. Having Wonder Woman who is used to battling mythical and magical creatures suddenly traipsing around in space with the Lanterns has always been incoherent to me. Not to mention is the “god” Ares going to show up in Gotham City? The foundation needs to be laid for a common, rational universe even if it means a reimaging of characters; otherwise it will look and feel bogus.
I disagree about the star power. You can hire actors who are not that well known and still pull of a good film. Christopher Reeve was not that well known until after Superman the Movie. Even the original X-Men cast were mid-level stars. Plus the name Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman have their own inertia in bringing viewers which explains the success of Smallville which has no stars. But it would better serve Warner Brothers to at least have the three major characters in DC have their own movies to introduce them to the public…yes even Batman! I think it is a myth that you cannot reintroduce Batman in the near future. In 1995 Batman Forever had a higher opening and went on to gross more than the previous Batman Returns which was after only 3 years despite a new actor as Batman and a new director. It was not a pure reimagining but it had a different feel (and I know…Jim Carrey was a huge draw).
The issue about Cavill will play itself out next summer when all of the focus will be on him. He will be on every magazine cover and interview chair for the three months leading up to the Superman movie. This would be the best time to tie in justice league movie and start the hype machine around it. Hopefully if Warner Brothers played their cards right they would have chosen a Wonder Woman, new Batman and Green Lantern to begin marketing them together.
As good as Nolan’s Batman was, there are many themes that a new Batman movie could explore. A new Batman film does not need to solely focus on his origin but for example could focus his overcoming his solitary and independent ways and accepting help perhaps when faced with a challenge where he is severely overmatched. It seems a bit presumptuous to think a film cannot ever be as good or better than Nolan’s. Plus it did not hurt the Avenger with a rebooted Hulk and I was a big fan of the Edward Norton take of the character. I think this issue may be overstated.
You hit the nail right on the head with your suggestion that they start with books. Unfortunately what the DC Universe needs to do is go back to the drawing board and create books about the Justice League in a familiar yet radically different world than what they have or what they are doing with the new 52. The strategy should be to release a series of three books over the next three years with the last culminating with the start of the first Justice League movie. The purpose of the books should NOT be to tell the story of the Justice league but to tell the back story that lead to broad conflicts the Justice League must confront.
Making an epic JL movie (or more) can absolutely be done. In fact, a friend of mine summarized a reimagined DC universe that respects the source materials while radically changing certain aspects of some characters. It could easily translate on to screen, eliminated plot holes and made the DC characters and Universe more relatable. It was nothing short of brilliant So there seems to be nothing stopping a good Justice league movie accept the will to do it the right way.
I don’t think Justice League is being released anytime soon. Like their animated universe, DC wants to take the time to create a well rounded film universe. I’m sure they can do it and when they do, JL would be a hit.
I have to agree with the sentiment of this article.
Well, most of it. I’ll admit that the recent Batman movie was very good and the trilogy is as a whole. But I think it was filmed differently enough than the Marvel movies that Marvel movies don’t have to worry too much about being successful afterwards. They’re different enough that, even though still superhero movies, they aren’t quite in competition. Or at least I’ve never felt it necessary to compare the Marvel movies to Nolan’s Batman series. I’ve enjoyed both for different reasons.
That said, I think DC is making a huge mistake lining up JLA the way they are. No superhero group movie is going to have time to introduce every character in depth. And the audience won’t have time to absorb what they see and come to care about the characters. That not only takes screen time, but also time for them to go home and think about the character for a while. Maybe months.
Worse, they’re recreating characters we “just” saw. We’ll have some time to adapt to the new Superman before JLA, but what about Batman and–yes–even the Green Lantern, which I for one enjoyed? Not only do they have to introduce us to new versions of both, but they have to make us forget about the versions they recently introduced us to.
Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, and even Hawkeye, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Loki and others, were all introduced to us BEFORE The Avengers. In fact there’s only one character freshly introduced in The Avengers that I can think of, and that’s Agent Maria Hill. And maybe the guy playing Galaga and that familiar-face old guy who stands up to Loki. This allowed the story to be about the creation of the team, and not the introduction of each character. We already knew them, knew which ones we liked, and knew which ones we cared about.
And short of going back to David Hasselhoff’s 1998 portrayal of Nick Fury in a Direct-to-DVD movie, none of those characters were even being reinvented for movie audiences.
Could JLA still be a fun action movie? Sure. But it’s not likely to have anywhere near the impact of The Avengers, or even Dark Knight Rises (which itself even had to introduce us to an almost new Bruce Wayne).
The only way that I can see the Justice League being pulled off like this is if they create a trilogy, similar to Lord of the Rings, and use the first movie to introduce the characters and lay the foundation of the threat that will require them all to work together. The second movie will see them each trying to defeat the menace individually, and each falling one by one. The third movie will show them united, and working as a team to save the world.
Outside of this scenario, I don’t see the JLA movie just standing well without the development similar to what Marvel has done. Plus, if they do it in this manner, you won’t get the “we just copied the Marvel method” of developing the movie.
I think if DC comes up with a story and concept that is good, and doesn’t try and replicate the Avengers it can work. However, it will be tough to pull it off since everyone in the universe will want to compare the two. They can get away with out the individual films and the back story on characters if the story is written correctly. Perhaps some major bad guy goes against Superman beating him to begin with, he crashes to Earth, found by a certain Amazonian Princes, (possible love spark). In mean time earth struggles to deal with threat bring other heroes to light. It can all be done in one movie.
Personally I think a good TV series would be better, No one has pulled off a good hero series, Heroes, Alphas, and similar shows are close but fall short. But there shows on TV that rival their movie counterparts, like Walking Dead, and Star Trek.
Chris Osborne is so far up Nolan’s ass that his brain must be damaged. Learn something about storytelling you dumbass. There are two good performances in The Dark Knight and that is it. Ledger and Eckhart saved the movie, without them, it would have exposed Nolan as the kind of filmmaker he is. One who shrouds everything in smoke and people applaud him for it. Moron.