10 Movies Ruined By Listening To The Fans
6. Justice League
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was undeniably one of the most disappointing blockbusters of the last five years. Despite the obvious potential of its superhero slug-fest, Zack Snyder's comic book epic was more often a dour, overlong bore than a thrilling blast of welcome fan-service.
The consensus seemed to be that the DC Extended Universe was in desperate need of lightening up, particularly with its depiction of Superman (Henry Cavill), whose mopey demeanour reached an unbearable fever pitch in Batman v Superman.
With Batman v Superman releasing mere weeks before Justice League started shooting, Warner Bros. went into panic mode, ordering on-the-fly rewrites to make it more light-hearted, before bringing in Joss Whedon to effectively remake most of Snyder's movie in his own Avengers-esque mould.
The Justice League released in 2017 was of course widely ridiculed by critics and audiences alike.
Beyond the issues with Henry Cavill's CGI jaw, it just felt like a cynical, soulless corporate exercise, designed to be broadly appealing to as wide an international market as possible while having no real personality to speak of.
In making such a blandly inoffensive - and paradoxically, quite offensive - piece of work, Warner Bros. learned all the wrong lessons from Batman v Superman, taking fans' tonal grievances and making something with no edge whatsoever.
Thankfully Snyder was eventually allowed to release his infinitely superior four-hour version, which basically split the tonal difference between Batman v Superman and "Josstice League" - it wasn't self-consciously grimdark nor distractingly quippy.