So once again The DCEU is rebooting itself and I decided that now would be a good time to discuss my feelings on what was announced in regards to The DCEU moving forward. I know I said I was done talking about Warner Bros. and DC BUT this warrants discussion, so let's dive in.
Now people are gonna wanna say I'm a hater regardless of what I say so I really don't feel the need to lay out my DC bona fides in a full paragraph, I think my choice of icon and the banner of this blog speaks volumes as to which camp I'm in with regards to DC or Marvel. That being said, let's wind the clocks back several years before The MCU got off the ground, that's say 2007 when a "Justice League" movie script was completed and was dubbed "Justice League: Mortal", at that time Batman and Superman were already doing their thing with Brandon Routh's outing as Superman in "Superman Returns" and Christian Bale breathing new life into the Batman franchise with "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" coming in 2008. DC was in a weird state and Marvel just started to lay the groundwork with "Ironman", so in terms of getting outta the gate DC was first to make a splash on the superhero scene but in terms of building a "Cinematic universe" as they're called now Marvel took the reigns started teasing connections between movies.
Fast forward to now and The MCU is slowly collapsing while The DCEU still hasn't gotten outta the gate. The DCEU attempted to do this by starting their universe off with "Man Of Steel", because Superman would be the natural beginning and then introducing Batman and Wonder Woman in the sequel "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice" and then came the big team movie "Justice League" with the other members (Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg) being teased in the previously mentioned "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice". "Justice League" had a realm of controversy surrounding it, with Ben Affleck wanting to end his tenure as Batman, and the most devastating blow, Zack Snyder having to step down as director due to family tragedy only to be replaced by Joss Whedon, who disparaged the film on his own Twitter account. The film suffered major reshoots and was released to mixed reviews, reviews so mixed that Warner Brothers finally caved to fan pressure and managed to get Zack Snyder to release the much mythologized "Snyder Cut" 4 years later have the original release of "Justice League" in 2017.
"The Snyder Cut" served as a eulogy for The DCEU as this would be the last time The Justice League would be together or referenced in any DC film afterward with "Aquaman", "The Flash" and "Wonder Woman" having their solo outings with little to no connection to previous films, it was also around this time when The DCEU decided to reboot another of their properties with the release of "Suicide Squad" with released to mixed reviews...so mixed that Warner Brothers decided to reboot it and title it "The Suicide Squad" helmed by James Gunn, which received betters reviews, better enough to warrant John Cena's character Peacemaker helming his own TV show. So looking at the scorecard, The DCEU managed to reboot 2 of their properties barely within a decade of each other, we have 2 versions of "Justice League" and 2 versions of "Suicide Squad" both teasing larger stories that by now should have come to fruition. Meanwhile, Matt Reeves's "The Batman" was already in the works and once again this film had NO connection to the previous DC properties thus making the movie feel out of place and disjointed as Ben Affleck was still Batman "The Flash" thus retaining the role for no valid reason.
All of this is history that is common knowledge now BUT after several blunders, DC has to once again reboot their universe BUT this time not with the previous actors whom the fans have come to enjoy. Henry Cavill despite having no material work within either of his movies endeared himself to fans as Superman, despite how I feel about him Ben Affleck endeared himself to fans as Batman and Gal Gadot won everyone over as Wonder Woman, and despite these triumphs, their return to these characters is up in the air, with Henry Cavill definitely not returning as the role of Superman has already been cast, Ben Affleck not returning and Gal Gadot's fate uncertain, not to mention Jason Mamoa as Aquaman who is possibly being retooled to fit into the new DCEU. And therein lies the problem with The DC Gunn Verse, too much has happened in recent memory to warrant starting over again.
Let's take The DCEU's biggest problem, which is Batman. Currently, there is a sequel to Matt Reeves's "The Batman" slated to be released in 2025, on the docket of James Gunn's DCEU is "The Brave and The Bold" which is a Batman movie. So that's potentially 2 Batman movies within years of each other that have nothing to do with each other. If I can word this another way, imagine you're watching your favorite TV show, and then after that episode ends the next episode starts BUT it's an entirely different cast playing the same characters but the storyline is very different, naturally, you'd be confused...that's exactly how this looks. That aside the lineup in and of itself doesn't look good either. The 2nd movie to be featured after "Superman: Legacy" is going to be "The Authority" and if you haven't heard of them I don't blame you because before being grafted into The DCU were under The Wildstorm imprint and had no connection to The DCU until 2016. This isn't a slight on Wildstorm, I've never read "The Authority" but they're a new edition to The DCU and a lot of groundwork and trust is gonna have to be built in introducing characters who don't even have a TV show to their name.
Introducing The Authority would be equal to introducing "Guardians Of The Galaxy" as the 2nd MCU movie after "Ironman". A lot of trust had to be built before The MCU could expect non-comic-book readers to take a talking raccoon seriously. Also, they're planning on introducing "Swamp Thing", once again the "Swamp Thing" TV show (the revival not the original TV show from the 90s) was canceled after 1 season. This isn't due to the quality of the program, I heard it was actually quite good but rather due in large part to a complete lack of interest in the character. "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" looks fine but I doubt Sasha Calle is returning as the character, not that I'm fine with that, but I'm just saying their casting choice was nothing more than a stunt just as we all thought. And furthermore, this new universe doesn't seem to be building to anything and the ton just feels completely wrong.
This first "Chapter" as they're calling it is titled "Gods And Monsters", just who are the gods and who are the monsters? From the lineup it looks like they might be going for that old tired cliche of the perception of metahumans being either gods or monsters, if so, please stop. Also, let's look at the TV shows they have slated for this new universe. Amanda Waller is getting her own TV because that's exactly what people wanna see a woman in her who'll be in her 60s running a covert operations team. "Lanterns" which is said to be about Hal Jordan and John Stewart in a semi-detective type story, "Paradise Lost", a "Game Of Thrones" style drama about Themyscira featuring Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot? Who knows? And a comedy series that features Booster Gold. Now considering that Warner Bros. already butchered this character in the modern era;
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| Because when I'm looking to cast a live-action version of a blonde-haired blue-eyed White guy, I immediately think of a bald, brown-eyed, Black guy. |
In short, there's nothing here to get me excited about it. The current lineup of films and TV shows doesn't seem to be building to anything. Say what I will about Zack Snyder's DCEU but it at least built to a showdown with a New God in Apokolips D-Lister Steppenwolf and even if Zack blew his load early with having Darkseid not only made an appearance but got his ass kicked in the film even before the Justice League showed up he at least had something of a climax planned. If James Gunn does have a climax planned and that's IF, he's playing it close to the chest and it can't be Darkseid, not after every attempt to introduce him in live action has failed before it even got started. Even "Smallville" gave the character more respect than The Snyder Cut.
Ultimately, The DCEU is like The MCU is now, it has no direction and no climax in sight. Considering after Thanos every MCU movie now feels completely disconnected from what happened before when that wasn't the case in previous films. The DCEU has gone through 2 revolutions in such a short period that people aren't going to be excited about another Superman movie when the previous Superman movie hasn't even left people's collective memories. Not to mention there is already a Superman on television. The DCEU is going to have to really kick ass outta the gate, no more mixed reviews, and "Superman: Legacy" doesn't at least in my opinion look like it'll be a good enough foundation to relaunch a universe people weren't all that impressed with. No slight on Superman, I love the big blue boy scout BUT DC/Warner Bros. have shown they really have no clue what to do with this character (or any character that isn't Batman for that matter...) other than to make him a tired Jesus allegory.
This isn't to say I want this reboot to fail, I want nothing more than to enjoy these movies BUT I don't see that happening and while I'm not wishing failure upon them I am hoping something happens that causes the studios to maybe wait a few years before trying this and legitimately carve out a solid blueprint to where this universe is supposed to go rather than releasing content for content's sake. That's my opinion, lemme know what you guys think and I'll catch you lot on the flip-flop.
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