Justice League Real Talk - Where does the DCEU go from here? - Part 2

[007]

A black Adam solo has got to be a priority for WB.

Dwayne Johnson is a cash cow. Even some of his awful films make money.

Just hope its good.

 

[titansupes]

Need to do away with Clark being a reporter & working for the Daily Planet. His only connection to the DP needs to be just Perry/Lois. Move on from the secret identity aspect.

This misses a huge part of the point of Superman and fundamentally changes the character. It's fine as it is. Just let someone do it right next time.

 

[FunkMiller]

A black Adam solo has got to be a priority for WB.

Dwayne Johnson is a cash cow. Even some of his awful films make money.

Just hope its good.

They may want to hurry up then, Dwayne might be unavailable:

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-president/2017/12/02/id/829481/

He’d win. Not even joking.

 

[FunkMiller]

This misses a huge part of the point of Superman and fundamentally changes the character. It's fine as it is. Just let someone do it right next time.

Superman is as much Clark and he is Kal. This isn’t a Bruce Wayne situation. Remove Clark and you remove half of Superman’s entire character. 100% demi-god is boring.

 

[FunkMiller]

Here's the most important thing I hope they keep in mind. The DC superheroes aren't edgy. They're simple and they're old fashioned. They're theatrical. They're corny.

There is nothing wrong with this. Embrace it, accept it.

To approach this material from a cynical perspective, like the recent movies have done, is to betray the essence of what these characters are. They have names like Superman and Wonder Woman. They have bright, colorful costumes. They have power rings and magic lassos. They inhabit fictional cities like Gotham and Metropolis. They operate in the 'Hall of Justice'. They fight bad guys named Brainiac and Darkseid.

These movies should be aiming for something as close to an Alex Ross aesthetic as possible.

Bravo. Great post. These are larger than life archetypes, who’s ridiculousness should be celebrated and worked with, instead of deconstructed and denied. The reason why Wonder Woman’s is the only good DCEU movie, is that it embraces her inherent silliness, and uses it as a virtue. Literally - the Wonder Woman movie isn’t ashamed of its main character.

 

[gerrym51]

A black Adam solo has got to be a priority for WB.

Dwayne Johnson is a cash cow. Even some of his awful films make money.

Just hope its good.

I like Dwayne Johnson-but he is so strong right now-he will never commit to multiple appearances. If he did we'd have another Affleck situation.

You need 'young actors or actors without extensive opportunities'. Affleck and Johnson are multi-media personas.

Remember RDJ was 'a drug addict' who was rarely clean. Marvel took a chance he would stay clean. It was never about his acting ability

 

[007]

They may want to hurry up then, Dwayne might be unavailable:

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-president/2017/12/02/id/829481/

He’d win. Not even joking.

I really don't think hell go for it, despite him making those noises.

He genuinely seems to love entertaining the masses, and his work ethic is amazing.

But you're right he would, he is arguably one of the most loved celebritys I can remember.

He's made incredibly smart choices not speaking out about politics and alienating one side of the fence in a time when it can cost you millions of fans.

 

[007]

I like Dwayne Johnson-but he is so strong right now-he will never commit to multiple appearances. If he did we'd have another Affleck situation.

You need 'young actors or actors without extensive opportunities'. Affleck and Johnson are multi-media personas.

Remember RDJ was 'a drug addict' who was rarely clean. Marvel took a chance he would stay clean. It was never about his acting ability

TBD that's not entirely correct, he'd been sober for a fair few years before that.

Also was really surprised at how little they all got for their first marvel films, pay wise.

 

[Iceman]

The Rock could give things a proper boost.

 

[FunkMiller]

I really don't think hell go for it, despite him making those noises.

He genuinely seems to love entertaining the masses, and his work ethic is amazing.

But you're right he would, he is arguably one of the most loved celebritys I can remember.

He's made incredibly smart choices not speaking out about politics and alienating one side of the fence in a time when it can cost you millions of fans.

I think if he feels he can genuinely do the job, he won’t think twice about throwing the celebrity movie star career out of the window. He’s incredibly driven in everything he does, and someone with a frighteningly good intellect for a man his size, and coming from the background he comes from as a wrestler.

Trump will not lose to a career politician, but to an even bigger celebrity, who is beloved by both liberals and conservatives? It’d be a ****ing slaughter, and I’d love every second of it.

 

[The Batman]

Please tell me what are your favorite Christopher Reeve performances outside of him playing Superman? You know the ones that really show off his range.

LOL, its been known that Reeve's career largely sucked aside from Superman. What does that have to do with talent when 1. He turned down good roles and 2. You could still get typecast playing a Superhero back in the 70's/80's?

Please tell me when Gal Gadot got accepted into a top level acting school. When has Gal been nominated for a Bafta? Christopher Reeve ain't Olivier, but the idea that he and Gal have a similar level of acting talent will never stop being absurd, and smacks of a desperate attempt to make Gal more than she is as an actor. Sorry. Dude showed more range in one role than Gadot has her whole career.

 

[007]

Let's be honest bring trained at a performing arts schoolis not the be all and end all

Pitt, depp, do caprio, will smith all had no training and were much better actors and have had much better careers.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Need to do away with Clark being a reporter & working for the Daily Planet. His only connection to the DP needs to be just Perry/Lois. Move on from the secret identity aspect.

That's a terrible idea. Civilian Clark, his relationship with Lois, Perry and Jimmy Olsen. As well as his journalism makes up a huge part of what makes Superman interesting.

 

[STARMAN]

If you're not going to do the Clark Kent persona then you might as well not do Superman.

 

[Tg11]

Might as well start the DCEU over again...hey look it worked with Spider-Man they rebooted his franchise how many times until they got it right in the MCU? Might as well reboot the whole DCEU as a whole and start from scratch...get rid of Zack Snyder as top priority but also get a much better writing team and stay close to the source material

 

[DACrowe]

LOL, its been known that Reeve's career largely sucked aside from Superman. What does that have to do with talent when 1. He turned down good roles and 2. You could still get typecast playing a Superhero back in the 70's/80's?

Please tell me when Gal Gadot got accepted into a top level acting school. When has Gal been nominated for a Bafta? Christopher Reeve ain't Olivier, but the idea that he and Gal have a similar level of acting talent will never stop being absurd, and smacks of a desperate attempt to make Gal more than she is as an actor. Sorry. Dude showed more range in one role than Gadot has her whole career.

I like Christopher Reeve quite a bit, but I have not seen this range you are so convinced of. Sorry. Sure, he went to Juilliard, he was a great Superman and I enjoyed him in small, supporting and humorous roles (like Noises Off). But most of his leading roles outside of Superman fell flat with a thud. Much like Gal Gadot's other roles (leading or supporting) that I've seen beyond Wonder Woman.

I am not going to hold his school or the fact he turned down good movies as proof of his talent. In the dozen or so movies I saw him in, he struck me as a really charming, charismatic guy with limited range. Gal Gadot strikes me as a really charming and charismatic woman with limited range. Is Reeve perhaps a little better? Probably. My main point stands: neither are great actors. Neither are of the talent and range we have seen from Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, or Robert Downey Jr. This does not mean I don't prefer his Superman to all of their turns as superheroes, because Reeve was perfectly cast. And it does not mean Gal Gadot isn't a wonderfully graceful and transcendent Wonder Woman, just because she has even less range than Reeve.

Personally, this seems more like you trying to defend a childhood favorite from any criticism.

 

[DerekLake]

That's a terrible idea. Civilian Clark, his relationship with Lois, Perry and Jimmy Olsen. As well as his journalism makes up a huge part of what makes Superman interesting.

If you're not going to do the Clark Kent persona then you might as well not do Superman.

Agreed. As a character who fights for truth and justice, the Daily Planet is at least half of Superman’s identity. His entire core supporting cast work at the Daily Planet. Get rid of that, and you really get rid of the perspective that makes Superman relevant and appealing. If anything, they need to do much more with the DP, because they’ve been relegated to mere observers (or comic relief) on the silver screen. Giving the DP a bigger, more respectable role in a future Superman story would be the best way to delve deeper into his fight for truth and justice.

On a very different (but loosely related) note, I also think a shared universe is the only good context for Superman. By that I mean that Superman has been written as one hero among many across print and animation for the past five decades, but he’s mostly been written as the only hero in TV and film. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that very few people know what to do with him on film.

 

[RoryTate]

Might as well start the DCEU over again...hey look it worked with Spider-Man they rebooted his franchise how many times until they got it right in the MCU?

Do you think the most recent Spider-Man reboot would have worked if Sony didn't have the MCU to leverage though? I would argue that it would have very likely failed...miserably. Sony would have had trouble finding internal people who could bring a fresh set of eyes to the character, the general audience would have been rightly skeptical that Sony were bringing anything new to the table, and there wouldn't have been the novelty of seeing Spider-Man interact with Iron Man and Captain America, nor the anticipation of him meeting Hulk, Thor, GOTG, etc. There's a huge reason that Sony chose not to go it alone on the most recent reboot of Spider-Man.

The DC cinematic universe doesn't have the MCU to use like that, so they'd probably have to leverage Wonder Woman or Batman in a similar reboot, but that runs the risk of damaging those popular IPs. WW and BM movies have only worked so far as standalone stories, so it's no guarantee that they can support the weight of a shared franchise. And then there's the problem of the company and people who work for it not changing much...at least yet (obviously major terminations should be coming soon).

I don't think Spider-Man's successful reboot is anything more than a strong warning to DC that they are taking a huge risk in trying the same thing without a safety net.

 

[Frodo]

Agreed. As a character who fights for truth and justice, the Daily Planet is at least half of Superman’s identity. His entire core supporting cast work at the Daily Planet. Get rid of that, and you really get rid of the perspective that makes Superman relevant and appealing. If anything, they need to do much more with the DP, because they’ve been relegated to mere observers (or comic relief) on the silver screen. Giving the DP a bigger, more respectable role in a future Superman story would be the best way to delve deeper into his fight for truth and justice.

On a very different (but loosely related) note, I also think a shared universe is the only good context for Superman. By that I mean that Superman has been written as one hero among many across print and animation for the past five decades, but he’s mostly been written as the only hero in TV and film. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that very few people know what to do with him on film.

I actually think that Television is the medium the character has worked consistently well in. The last several films from Superman 3 through JL, tend to always shift away from Superman's cast, away from Metropolis, and onto themes regarding global issues and his place in the world more than his place in the lives of those who care about him and the city he calls home.

While none of them have been perfect , The Adventures of Superman, Lois and Clark, STAS ,Smallville, and even Supergirl have all done the character justice while at the same time rooting him the lives of his supporting cast and in Metropolis.

Of course with Tv you have the time to really flesh out different dynamics at the daily planet, Lex, his origins, and with his supporting characters. Still though , the tv sides seems to really get Clark Kent and Lois Lane much better than the movie side has over the past 30 years .

 

[Venom'sDad]

He does need a job though

LoL...yeah, gotta eat, take care of his family, & pay the mortgage.

That's a terrible idea. Civilian Clark, his relationship with Lois, Perry and Jimmy Olsen. As well as his journalism makes up a huge part of what makes Superman interesting.

I think it's time to grow up & move on from that & the glasses. In today's society, that makes no sense & immature. Kids questions why no one know who he is, when he's a hero that is so visible, in today's social media...a God many likes to say.

If DC want to write these stories for film with more maturity & realistically, then they need to move on from this 50's mentality. The character need to evolve...not stay stuck, for tradition sake.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Or maybe they need to stop fretting over impressing people who place value in appearing "grown up" and embrace the inherent silliness of the character.

And there's nothing childish about Clark Kent. It's a way for Superman to stay grounded in the world of men, so he doesn't become a tyrant. Plus, its super fun to see Clark, Lois and Olsen do their stuff. Any superman film is better off having them.

It's exactly the mentality that Superman needs to be grown up is why we have MOS and BvS, where Olsen is shot dead in his first appearance.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Reboot baby

 

[MbJ]

It's exactly the mentality that Superman needs to be grown up is why we have MOS and BvS, where Olsen is shot dead in his first appearance.

This is Jimmy Olsen's revenge.

 

[007]

Clark kent has always been one of the worst alter egos.

I mean how stupid would the characters around him really have to be to not notice that.

There isn't much that can be done in that respect now because its far too far along. But it should of been written differently originally.

 

[Jekecy]

It's never too late. These characters are getting reinterpreted all the time. Just for whatever reason no one ever bothers to do something new and interesting with Clark.