10 Lessons DC Needs To Learn From Batman V Superman

It's been a rough couple of months for DC. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was supposed to show off what their new cinematic universe had to offer but instead it completely fell flat, leaving DC momentarily clueless about how to proceed.

They seem to have finally composed themselves and Warner Bros has unveiled the brand-new DC Films division. Ostensibly to oversee the development of their future films, it's pretty obvious that this move was in direct response to Batman V Superman's poor reception.

It's a promising sign that the powers-that-be are trying to right the ship but if they think all it will take is some more creative oversight, then they're sorely mistaken. The problems of Batman V Superman were numerous and DC needs to keep proving that they've learned from all of their mistakes.

The good news for fans is that a lot of these problems can actually be fixed for future films. Suicide Squad is probably too close (though early reactions seem to point to success there anyway), but the likes of Wonder Woman and Justice League will be the kind of movies that fans have been expecting from DC.

Batman v Superman was a much-needed wake-up call for the DCEU, but they need more than just a new film division if they want to earn fans' trust back. And hopefully their initial failures will pave the way for a universe we can all be excited about.

One of the biggest problems that fans specifically had with the film was its repeated failures to portray the main characters in a compelling, faithful manner. Superman was sullen and angry, Lex Luthor was too hyperactive and Lois Lane didn’t really do anything. On an individual basis, this was disheartening, but collectively, it becomes a pattern.

No matter how good the story or action is, if a movie is stuffed with bad characters, it’s a recipe for disaster, and Batman v Superman proved that true.

The whole ordeal felt like an effort to tell a story about the role of powers in society and how the government ought to deal with superheroes in general. The actual heroes in question could have been anyone and the result was a movie full of characters that didn't behave like the should have.

The main players of Batman and Superman should have been the starting point to the story and the plot should have come from their actions. DC needs to recognize that by creating more compelling lead characters, a lot of the narrative will fall into place on its own.

Truthfully, it really shouldn't be that difficult to achieve this. All of their major players have huge amounts of amazing stories in the comics, they just need to capture a bit of that essence and characterization for them to work on film as well.