Justice League: 10 Things It Should Have Done Differently
4. Take Creative Risks
One of Warner Bros' biggest problems when it comes to its slate of DC movies is its knee-jerk reactions to criticism. Suicide Squad ended up a mess blighted by clunky editing because the studio demanded post-production changes in response to the backlash Batman v Superman's joyless tone garnered.
In their desperation to deliver superhero movies that please everyone, Warner and DC have played it too safe with Justice League and delivered the film everyone was expecting, to a fault. Creativity and unpredictability are the victims of this approach.
DC clearly want their films to be more Marvel-like, and the best lesson they can learn from the rival franchise is that it pays to take bold creative risks now and again. The MCU is at its best when it mixes and matches genres and experiments with tone.
Ant-Man wove comedy elements into the mix, Guardians of the Galaxy added sci-fi themes to the franchise, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier was more spy-thriller than comic book adaptation.
Whether any of those elements per se would have saved Justice League from a creative standpoint is highly debatable, but the powers that be should have taken a gamble here and there and experimented more.
Batman v Superman didn't work, but at least it tried something different with its hero deconstruction. Just because the execution was off on that occasion it doesn't mean every DC movie going forward should rigidly stick to a specific formula.