Marvel’s “The Avengers” has grossed over $1 Billion worldwide and is one of the most successful films in history. Yesterday it was announced that Warner Bros. would seek to duplicate this success by moving forward with the development of a much expected “Justice League” Movie. As a fan of the JLA and of its many members I should be ecstatic about this—but I’m not. In fact, given the information we have, I think it’s a pretty big mistake.
In brief, we’ve been told that Warner Bros. has hired “Gangster Squad” writer Will Beall to provide a screenplay likely to feature Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash. Not much is known beyond this—however if we take a look at what made the “Avengers” a success as an ensemble film we can see some things that DC will need to have in place but is choosing (at this point) not to pursue.
Marvel and Paramount did something really risky in seeking out an “Avengers” movie. Starting with 2008′s “Iron Man” they developed and filmed an establishing story for nearly all of the core team members of the film. “Iron Man”, “Iron Man 2″, “Thor”, The Incredible Hulk” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” all led directly to the ensemble Avengers movie and part of what makes “The Avengers” so awesome is that it is an indirect sequel to each of those films while still allowing the independent development of further stories with those characters. This was financially risky of course, because if any of the establishing movies was a box office flop then it would jeopardize the pièce de résistance that “The Avengers” was intended as.
DC has admittedly been in the movie business longer than Marvel, with most (if not all) of their films having come from Warner Bros. Still, the history of DC movies is . . . questionable at best. For each “Superman “there is a “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace”. Each “Batman” has a “Batman and Robin”—in short for each good DC movie produced by Warner Bros. there is an equally bad one.
This checkered past is a concern on its own for DC fans, but the additional news that a “JLA” movie will ignore established movies that have been commercially successful such as Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy as well as “Green Lantern” and the upcoming Superman film “Man of Steel”—red flags appear everywhere. By ignoring what has been developed, a “JLA” movie begins with no establishing continuity for the heroes being featured. What this means is that Batman, Superman and Green Lantern will appear on screen in a different capacity than was established (or in the case of “Man of Steel”, will be established) by the preceding films which will create confusion within those stories. Add to this the fact that Wonder Woman and the Flash have no on screen presence thus far, and will therefore have to be introduced—possibly including their origin stories—in the “JLA” film, makes the film crowded and confused at the outset.
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8 Comments
So once upon a time there was this TV show, it was called SmallVille which introduced many of the Justice League/Society characters and the respective team over a span of a few seasons… stop me if you heard this one before. So a large demographic should recognize the characters from this successful series, or would more spoon feeding be required?
if you want to avoid developing new movies, and story lines including character development for your characters, working off Smallville crew and story is the way to go, including using Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, and Justin Hartley! It worked successfully for 10 years!
Interesting point Grant. The thing is that Smallville is a small screen adaptation that plays fast and loose with continuity and exists outside of established canon. Not to mention that even though it did have a large viewership, and did introduce those fans to a large demographic, a lot of hard core comic fans strongly dislike it. It would be a tough sell to use Smallville’s continuity to appeal to the mass audience rather than just fans of that show. Still, your point is well made and it will be interesting to see where this goes.
I concur Adam with many of your points in this article as well as your previous comment. I have been well invested in this topic on WC(see other comments on “The Avengers Success Makes Justice League Film Inevitable?”). I, some others and another of your contributors Joseph Kratzer have had a lengthy discussion on what it would take to make a JLA movie. I would like to state I agree with the points you made considering origins stories.
But first I’d like to take issue with hiring Will Beall as the screenwriter. I don’t have anything bad to say about Beall’s talent. Why? Because I hardly know Beall’s Talent. I have watched Castle, which in my opinion is a mediocre crime dramedy, starring a very good talent in Nathan Fillion(Firefly Rules!!). His new film “Gangsta Squad” has yet to hit theaters, nor has his calibration of the reboot of “Logan’s Run” yet to be produced, and neither has similarity to a the comic/superhero genre. With that said, I do undoubtedly question his qualifications for taking on such a project when someone as seasoned as Joss Whedon had difficulties, whose success with the Avengers has now become legendary.
With these new developments, I have a hard time believing the movie will have much success. The establishment of characters within the context of the JLA movie itself would be a shortsighted endeavor to say the least. Mashing 4-5 origin stories together in one movie would seem to engender a rush of clichés that will ultimately sour true DC comic book aficionados(myself included), leading to further disappointment(ala Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, and Constantine).
As with your fellow contributor, I pointed out that it will take vast amounts of “balls and effort” to put forth a viable iteration of such comic icons, and as you stated, for every good DC movie, there was unquestionably the bad, which did nothing to help the lore of DC comics characters. If anything those films brought about disinterest.
I am not saying it can’t be done. As a writer, I don’t necessarily live by Hemingway’s “write about what you know” dictum, but I do believe it has some merit. Although, what I am saying is that I am not sure Beall is the one to take on this project. Maybe David Goyer, Kevin Smith or David Hayter might have a better go of it, being they have either written comic book scripts, comics or are fans themselves, who see the value in these historic properties.
Yet it seems that WB is more interested in jumping the superhero ensemble flick bandwagon, but “The Avenger’s” train may have run too far ahead for them to catch up now.
I concur Adam with many of your points in this article as well as your previous comment. I have been well invested in this topic on WC(see other comments on “The Avengers Success Makes Justice League Film Inevitable?”). I, some others and another of your contributors Joseph Kratzer have had a lengthy discussion on what it would take to make a JLA movie. I would like to state I agree with the points you made considering origins stories.
But first I’d like to take issue with hiring Will Beall as the screenwriter. I don’t have anything bad to say about Beall’s talent. Why? Because I hardly know Beall’s Talent. I have watched Castle, which in my opinion is a mediocre crime dramedy, starring a very good talent in Nathan Fillion(Firefly Rules!!). His new film “Gangsta Squad” has yet to hit theaters, nor has his calibration of the reboot of “Logan’s Run” yet to be produced, and neither has similarity to a the comic/superhero genre. With that said, I do undoubtedly question his qualifications for taking on such a project when someone as seasoned as Joss Whedon had difficulties, whose success with the Avengers has now become legendary.
With these new developments, I have a hard time believing the movie will have much success. The establishment of characters within the context of the JLA movie itself would be a shortsighted endeavor to say the least. Mashing 4-5 origin stories together in one movie would seem to engender a rush of clichés that will ultimately sour true DC comic book aficionados(myself included), leading to further disappointment(ala Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, and Constantine).
As with your fellow contributor, I pointed out that it will take vast amounts of “balls and effort” to put forth a viable iteration of such comic icons, and as you stated, for every good DC movie, there was unquestionably the bad, which did nothing to help the lore of DC comics characters. If anything those films brought about disinterest.
I am not saying it can’t be done. As a writer, I don’t necessarily live by Hemingway’s “write about what you know” dictum, but I do believe it has some merit. Although, what I am saying is that I am not sure Beall is the one to take on this project. Maybe David Goyer, Kevin Smith or David Hayter might have a better go of it, being they have either written comic book scripts, comics or are fans themselves, who see the value in these historic properties.
Yet it seems that WB is more interested in jumping the superhero ensemble flick bandwagon, but “The Avenger’s” train may have run too far ahead for them to catch up now.
I concur Adam with many of your points in this article as well as your previous comment. I have been well invested in this topic on WC(see other comments on “The Avengers Success Makes Justice League Film Inevitable?”). I, some others and another of your contributors Joseph Kratzer have had a lengthy discussion on what it would take to make a JLA movie. I would like to state I agree with the points you made considering origins stories.
But first I’d like to take issue with hiring Will Beall as the screenwriter. I don’t have anything bad to say about Beall’s talent. Why? Because I hardly know Beall’s Talent. I have watched Castle, which in my opinion is a mediocre crime dramedy, starring a very good talent in Nathan Fillion(Firefly Rules!!). His new film “Gangsta Squad” has yet to hit theaters, nor has his calibration of the reboot of “Logan’s Run” yet to be produced, and neither has similarity to a the comic/superhero genre. With that said, I do undoubtedly question his qualifications for taking on such a project when someone as seasoned as Joss Whedon had difficulties, whose success with the Avengers has now become legendary.
With these new developments, I have a hard time believing the movie will have much success. The establishment of characters within the context of the JLA movie itself would be a shortsighted endeavor to say the least. Mashing 4-5 origin stories together in one movie would seem to engender a rush of clichés that will ultimately sour true DC comic book aficionados(myself included), leading to further disappointment(ala Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, and Constantine).
As with your fellow contributor, I pointed out that it will take vast amounts of “balls and effort” to put forth a viable iteration of such comic icons, and as you stated, for every good DC movie, there was unquestionably the bad, which did nothing to help the lore of DC comics characters. If anything those films brought about disinterest.
I am not saying it can’t be done. As a writer, I don’t necessarily live by Hemingway’s “write about what you know” dictum, but I do believe it has some merit. Although, what I am saying is that I am not sure Beall is the one to take on this project. Maybe David Goyer, Kevin Smith or David Hayter might have a better go of it, being they have either written comic book scripts, comics or are fans themselves, who see the value in these historic properties.
Yet it seems that WB is more interested in jumping the superhero ensemble flick bandwagon, but “The Avenger’s” train may have run too far ahead for them to catch up now.
I concur Adam with many of your points in this article as well as your previous comment. I have been well invested in this topic on WC(see other comments on “The Avengers Success Makes Justice League Film Inevitable?”). I, some others and another of your contributors Joseph Kratzer have had a lengthy discussion on what it would take to make a JLA movie. I would like to state I agree with the points you made considering origins stories.
But first I’d like to take issue with hiring Will Beall as the screenwriter. I don’t have anything bad to say about Beall’s talent. Why? Because I hardly know Beall’s Talent. I have watched Castle, which in my opinion is a mediocre crime dramedy, starring a very good talent in Nathan Fillion(Firefly Rules!!). His new film “Gangsta Squad” has yet to hit theaters, nor has his calibration of the reboot of “Logan’s Run” yet to be produced, and neither has similarity to a the comic/superhero genre. With that said, I do undoubtedly question his qualifications for taking on such a project when someone as seasoned as Joss Whedon had difficulties, whose success with the Avengers has now become legendary.
With these new developments, I have a hard time believing the movie will have much success. The establishment of characters within the context of the JLA movie itself would be a shortsighted endeavor to say the least. Mashing 4-5 origin stories together in one movie would seem to engender a rush of clichés that will ultimately sour true DC comic book aficionados(myself included), leading to further disappointment(ala Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, and Constantine).
As with your fellow contributor, I pointed out that it will take vast amounts of “balls and effort” to put forth a viable iteration of such comic icons, and as you stated, for every good DC movie, there was unquestionably the bad, which did nothing to help the lore of DC comics characters. If anything those films brought about disinterest.
I am not saying it can’t be done. As a writer, I don’t necessarily live by Hemingway’s “write about what you” dictum, but I do believe it has some merit. Although, what I am saying is that I am not sure Beall is the one to take on this project. Maybe David Goyer, Kevin Smith or David Hayter might have a better go of it, being they have either written comic book scripts, comics or are fans themselves, who see the value in these historic properties.
Yet it seems that WB is more interested in jumping the superhero ensemble flick bandwagon, but “The Avenger’s” train may have run too far ahead for them to catch up now.
MK, as a writer, you should learn to click the “post your comment” only once.