Justice League of America: The Final Word/Analysis

By Matt Holmes / June 30, 2011

Warner Brothers are set to go ahead with one of the riskiest plans in the recent history of the studio as they push forward with a Justice League of America film which will have big ramifications to not only the Batman franchise, the Superman franchise but also their untapped characters Wonder Women, Green Lantern and The Flash. Basically, it's the studio's bread and butter from now and the next five years that could rely on this decision. A JLA film is looking more and more likely as each day passes. A filming slot in the first quarter of 2008 has been muted with the movie eventually taking up the release date set aside for Superman: The Man of Steel in the summer of 2009. Some reports on the Internet even suggest that casting could begin any day now as WB are on the search for a new actor to play Batman and Superman as Christian Bale (through his own comments says he won't be involved) and Brandon Routh (who is desperate to be in this but WB don't want him in there, probably for conitunity reasons) are not going to appear.

The cold truth of the matter is that the Harry Potter franchise has only two movies left now for Warner Brothers, meaning the frantic search for the next franchise which can generate them their summer cash is on. The Dark Knight should prove to be a huge hit next year but it's a character with a wealth of potential that they know they can milk in future movies because it's not exactly set in stone that Christopher Nolan would direct a third movie, even if Christian Bale is committed to three. We have to remember that Marvel are a couple of years ahead with the production of their films than DC. Next year alone we will see Wolverine, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (for the second time), The Punisher 2 whereas DC can only come up with a second Batman film. Marvel have been really smart with their output of films and whilst not all of them have been critically successful with examples being Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, they have all made a tremendous amount of money with relatively little hassle. Especially in the case of FF 2 which seemed to go through a quick production without a hitch at all. DC and Warner Brothers feel that to match Marvel's output of characters, a team-up film is required which will bring those characters like Wonder Women who have been stuck in development hell for many years now to the forefront. It€™s all part of their big marketing scheme for the future, where they can do a similar thing to Marvel by greenliting any of their successful characters into their own movie, like Wolverine has for X-Men.

One of the biggest factors in the success in anything in life is timing and for a while I believed the timing was totally wrong for this movie but when you think about it, maybe the timing really isn€™t. Warner Brothers need to strike whilst the comic book vibe is hot, I mean who is to say by the end of this decade this comic book craze is going to be as popular and marketable as it is today. Movie trends come and go all the time and it€™s usually because studio€™s give us too much of a good thing and not only the over-expose of their genre and their characters but also they dry out of meaningful stories. Sure Batman, Superman and Spider-Man are popular right now but it only takes one bad movie to kill a series. Superman: Returns has so far anchored the Superman franchise to the ground as it wasn€™t well perceived by everyone and didn€™t make the money Warner Brothers were hoping for and it could easily happen to any of the other big characters. I mean X-Men at 20th Century Fox is suffering from the same problem even though the last movie made a ton of money. They have gone the strange route of a solo film as they have ran out of steam with what to do with the series as they put too many eggs into their last X-Men basket. We€™ve seen this summer with the viral marketing for the reveal of The Joker€™s look and the amount of press attention that every single day of filming of The Dark Knight has received that there is a huge market for Batman right now. Those aren€™t just Bat-geeks but also those that didn€™t like the Burton/Schumacher films but are now fully on board to Nolan€™s vision after Batman Begins.

Will this disrupt Nolan€™s Batman vision? I don€™t know him personally but anyone who says this move won€™t effect his trilogy is wrong. It has to. The JLA movie will be one of the biggest films of 2009 and will have a huge marketing based on Batman and Superman being in the same movie at the exact same time, even if they are played by new actors. The €˜average joe€™ won€™t care about continuity, if they see Batman on screen and it looks goofy, they may not turn up to another Christopher Nolan Batman flick. And what happens to Christian Bale when this new movie is going on? Surely it€™s his character for the time being and no-one else should be playing him on screen. I mean can you imagine Sony making two Bond movies at the same time for a 2008 release? Daniel Craig wouldn't stand for that and he would abandon the flick as quickly as Singer looks to have from Superman.

So what are the facts of the JLA movie at the moment then? Well we believe it€™s been confirmed that veteran Australian director George Miller has been given the task of directing the picture. An unconventional choice to be sure, but one that exudes more confidence than Brett Ratner or even possibly Bryan Singer. Miller has been making films since the 1970€™s and although he isn€™t as prolific as most, he can be pretty proud of his filmography which includes the very cool apocalyptic action flick Mad Max and all it€™s sequels including one of my pet favourites of the 80€™s, The Road Warror (aka, Mad Max 2). He is also responsible for The Witches of Eastwick, Lorenzo€™s Oil and then two kids movies with Babe: Pig in the City and the box office smash hit Happy Feet which may not have been to everyone€™s tastes but they delivered what the studio wanted. Yes he€™s not the first choice that comes to mind for such a movie but he is a seasoned helmer and one that knows how to shoot big action movies. He€™s got a big task on his hands here though in what is surely the biggest job of his career.

The characters which will be used are Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Women, Aquaman and The Flash. As far as I can tell, the big task Miller has is getting all these characters on the screen together and doing their thing without it looking stupid. Having Wonder Women fly around the city in her blue, red and white costume whilst Batman in black is fighting some guy down below could be a contrast of styles and colours which could look a mess on the big screen. Sometimes this type of team-up works in comic books, but not always and I know many Batman fans who really dislike the character when they are placed in an environment that€™s not Gotham and that's not realistic. The closest indicator as to what it could be like is the X-Men franchise as that is currently the only superhero movie franchise with lots and lots of multiple characters. X-Men has been successful so far but one thing that Bryan Singer did very smartly at the time of the first movie was to ground it all in a reality based environment. Gone were the yellow spandex€™s and blue suits as characters with uniforms were introduced much to the dismay of die hard comic book fans, even if they could see the benefit or why it was done on the big screen. Of course if the JLA movie went down this route with costumes that were basically just the same uniform on every character then this movie would be a huge flop. We all know Batman and Superman€™s look, so you can€™t ground them into such costumes, they have to go the full out way with them. I would expect the casting to work very similar to how Singer cast X-Men and how J.J. Abrams is casting Star Trek, although probably more the latter than the former. It will be fresh faced actors, mostly from television and probably made up of unknowns who they can mold into the movie stars they want them to become.

Like I keep saying, we are moving into a new age of comic book movies right now. The classic Alan Moore graphic novel Watchmen is finally making it to the big screen after 15 years or so of attempts, for a novel that many said was un-filmable. David Goyer is planning a movie that blends the conventional superhero movie with The Green Arrow but then blending it with something like The Shawshank Redemption where he is placed in jail with the in-mates he put in there. Z-list comic characters are said to make an appearance in what is a rather unique and fresh way to introduce a new comic book hero (and is the reason why Green Arrow won€™t be in the JLA movie). Peter Berg is directing a movie that depicts an alcoholic and a wife stealing superhero in Hancock, starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman. Again, this is something new as it hasn€™t got a character everyone already is familiar with and is a fresh take on the character. A Teen Titans movie is currently in the early stages of development from Mark Verheiden which again is another team-up movie. DC Comics are at the forefront of all these new and innovative ideas as it tries to compete simply with Marvel€™s big turn-out of characters. Will 2008 be the last year for the conventional superhero movie because after that, it would seem all bets are off? So why the risk as I opened the article with? Well, let€™s remember that change doesn€™t always work so well with comic book movies or indeed franchises in a whole. The James Bond franchise although became financially successful after Goldfinger, the movie€™s were never the same again and the result was a ridiculous franchise by the time Die Another Day came out that had truly run it€™s course. Tim Burton going more gothic and dark for Batman Returns was a change that didn€™t stick well with many. Batman Forever€™s change more so and Batman and Robin went through the roof with change. Spider-Man 3 went darker than the previous two and look what happened there. Star Trek Generations depicted two Star Fleet Captains in the same movie and it€™s almost become a forgotten Trek movie now-a-days.

Warner Brothers say they love the script and the approach to this film but remember this is the studio that apart from Batman Begins, hasn€™t really had a successful comic book movie in some time. Superman Returns was suppose to be the catalyst of a new franchise and it wasn€™t, they approved the awful script of Constantine, lest us not forget Catwoman and of course Batman & Robin. They greenlit all these movies and at one time those were the ones they were pushing€ so let€™s just remember when they say they have a HOT SCRIPT, just remember whose word you listening too.