Why I'm Not Looking Forward To James Gunn's DCEU

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.

...and What The DCEU ALMOST Did Right Part Two

So in my previous article, I discussed what Marvel did wrong and what they did right, and if you haven't read that article you can read it HERE or just below this article. Anyway as mentioned hitherto writing this article has caused me to have to do a bit of homework myself and that homework was completing my DCEU, which you can read HERE. I suggest you read all the articles before reading this one as it'll solidify my position here. But here is what The DCEU ALMOST did right.

The Snyder Cut Trailer Is Upon Us!

So after that weird-ass "Hallejuah" trailer, we finally have an official trailer to the much mythologized now actualized Snyder Cut of "Justice League", a little superhero film that dropped in 2017 and didn't do what it should have done in the box office. Now Warner Bros. powered by HBOMax are doing it again and this time with feeling by allowing director Zack Snyder to release his version of the movie. Now I've said it once and I'll say it again, I am NOT excited about this movie whatsoever, I am not exactly looking forward to it. I've been so burned out on The DCEU that I'm not even interested in seeing the films that people are saying are the good ones, namely "Wonder Woman", "Aquaman" and "Shazam" who I'm still refusing to call Shazam (his name will ALWAYS BE Captain Marvel, damnit!), because this film ("Justice League", both versions) will always be rushed products, Marvel took 12 years to build up to Thanos and "The Infinity Gauntlet", laid the groundwork for characters to grow and took their time, The DCEU crammed Wonder Woman in a movie she didn't belong in (Batman vs. Superman) and then stuffed "Justice League" with a bunch of characters we've only seen in BARELY cameos and made them fight a villain with no personality.

That was "Justice League", now we have "The Snyder Cut" and all the news about this thing still comes off as rushed and bloated. By bloated I mean they're going to have to do worldbuilding while at the same time keeping the narrative moving, films become bloated when you have to introduce a new thing and explain that thing because it's important to the story. The issues that are bloating this film are the Martian Manhunter, what would be the point of introducing the Martian Manhunter if he's not going to be important to the plot? Furthermore the character wasn't even hinted at in "Batman vs. Superman" or the original "Justice League" so having the character in this film makes NO sense. Jared Leto is returning as The Joker, no clue why, he was the worst part in "Suicide Squad" and I have no issues with Jared Leto but remove The Joker from "Suicide Squad" and the movie doesn't change AT ALL. Anyway, I'm rambling, in this article I'm gonna watch the official trailer and give you my 2 cents. Let's dive in;

And Now The Snyder Cut

I keep saying I'm done talking about The DCEU and every time I'm proven a liar on that notion simply by the fact that somehow The DCEU keeps popping up like a relentless game of Whack-a-Mole. Each time I think they're finally in their death throws their vitals keep spiking. So what's spiked their vitals today? It turns out that the much mythologized Snyder Cut of "Justice League" will be released on of all things HBO's new streaming service HBO Max. For those of you out of the know, The Snyder Cut is apparently a 4 hours version of the film with scenes previously removed from the theatrical cut and more intuned with Snyder's original vision than Joss Whedon's studio assembled nonsense. Am I excited about The Snyder Cut? No. And I'll get into why after the break.

Watchmen S01E01"It's Summer And We're Running Out Of Ice" Review

"Watchmen", "Watchmen", "Watchmen"...one of the 3 comics DC unfortunately believes are among the only comics that matter ("The Dark Knight Returns" and "Death Of Superman" being the others) and oddly enough, "Watchmen" has been making something of a comeback. I won't attribute this entirely to the upcoming (or concluding) DC comics event "Doomsday Clock", which will (in some respects) serve as an honest to God canon sequel to Alan Moore's original "Watchmen" (for better or worse, I'll let you know after I read it), and I won't attribute this entirely to DC Comics having come out with prequel books for many of the Watchmen characters in the series "Before Watchmen", and I definitely won't attribute this to the 2009 film directed by Zack Snyder that brought "Watchmen" to the masses. I can't attribute this series to any of those factors because, in reality, a "Watchmen" series was always in the works WAY before a movie was.

"Watchmen" has been one of those hot properties for a long time now, the book came out in 1987 and that's a long time for something that literally shook the comic book industry to its core (not an exaggeration) to be sitting on the shelf. Before a movie was even proposed people talked about doing a mini-series, HBO was involved before But Alan Moore's work has largely been considered unfilmable, mostly by Alan Moore himself but that didn't stop people from wanting to do it and Zack Snyder managed to do it (and in my opinion, well). But I'm not going to belabor the history of "Watchmen", just pointing out that now we're about to have 2 (count'em), 2 sequels to the same series one for the canon story or the print version of "Watchmen" ("Doomsday Clock") and one for the film ("Watchmen" the HBO series). And while The HBO series doesn't consider itself a sequel to the films, let's be 100% honest and say the mainstream aren't going to care or be aware of the comic books.

So...going into this series...I'm gonna be 100% honest, I think this is going to suck, and I say that without an ounce of care because in all honesty, I don't care. I had no real expectations going into this and once it was announced I simply rolled my eyes and said "Whatever." because the idea sounds bad on its face. For starters, if "Watchmen" were to have a sequel, it'd have to be done IN PRINT (hence why I'm more interested in "Doomsday Clock" than I am this) and second, this won't feature the "Watchmen" characters, just greater ramifications of the fallout of the events of "Watchmen"...which again I'm not interested in. The ending to "Watchmen" is left ambiguous for a reason, did Ozymandias managed to save the world? The ending is left open for you to determine who's in the right...but sadly, in the words of Dr. Manhattan "Nothing ever ends." and that includes people's obsession with this series which brings us back to this series. Which I can only imagine was conceived because "Game Of Thrones" was ending and The HBO execs were like "Holy sh*t, we need to fill airtime! What other property can we produce that already has an established fanbase?".

So am I expecting this to be good? If by production and acting quality, absolutely, but that's about it. The cast is nothing to write home about apart from Don Johnson and Jeremy Irons (playing an aged Ozymandias, how he'll manage an American accent will be fun to watch) having played 2 DC roles (Alfred and now Ozymandias) and that's about it. The writer and showrunner for the series is Damon Lindelof...and he's a huge fan of "Watchmen", and I enjoyed "L O S T", but ever since then, at least in my opinion lightning really hasn't struck (then again I never watched "The Leftovers" which might have been good...wasn't interested, I'm not too keen of works adapted from books) so having him as writer for this...I don't know. I'm gonna dive into the pilot episode and give you guys my take on the series when we come out the other end, just know I go into this not exactly wanting to hate it, but not exactly looking forward to it. We'll see how I'm doing after the break;

And Now "Worlds Of DC"...

I said I was done and I meant it, I really did but when DC/Warners Bros. announces it's very own streaming service and the trailer for it's showcases series "Titans" drops I have to comment. Not only because I'm a huge fan of The Teen Titans (after all Beastboy has graced my banner since the beginnings of this blog and he's the character I most identify with) but because in the conflict between DC & Marvel I have and will always be a DC guy. But that isn't what you'd hear from some of the people out there who believe that every negative criticism lobbied at DC/Warner Bros. is because whoever is doing the criticizing is a paid Marvel shill. I wish that were the case in my situation because then I'd be getting paid for these articles and probably getting some decent promotion of them as well, but such isn't the case. In this blog I'm going to try and explain MY issues with the now christened "Worlds Of DC" and put to bed any notions of simply "hating".

But before we begin, I guess I have to do the standard thing that everyone accused of hating must do and that's establish my credentials. I'm a DC fan, have been for a LONG time, from watching "Super Friends" as a kid, "Batman: The Animated Series" and so on, Darkseid was one of my favorite villains, Firestorm was one of my favorite superheroes and this was from watching "Super Friends" and "The Challenge Of The Super Friends" with The Legion Of Doom and their Darth Vader helmet headquarters, all the way up to reading the comic books and really digging into the meat & mythos of the characters. No one can accuse me of being a Marvel fanboy without acknowledging my love of DC's characters as a whole. My harsh criticism of DC/Warner Bros. has always been in the interest of seeing the characters that I know and love done right and showcased to a public that may not know of them in a light that makes people want to know more.

Thor & Loki were not house hold names but now they are, anecdote here but I used to work with two girls who discussed dressed up for Halloween as Thor & Loki and I guarantee you they probably wouldn't have had such an idea IF NOT for the Chris Hemsworth & Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of those characters. This is what I want for DC/Warner Bros. I want people outside of comic book fans gushing about the coolness of characters that would otherwise only be talked about by a handful of people. Anyways, I've preambled this enough; it's 6:26am, my wife & son are asleep, I'm up WAY too early for work and I've got a tall order ahead of me, let's dive in.

Okay, Let's Talk About "Justice League"

So here we are you guys, a month and a half away (Nov. 17th) from an actual Justice League movie combining the forces of Batman, Aquaman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman and...Cyborg? Umm...okay? It should be no mystery to anyone who's read this blog that my opinion of The DC Extended Universe (as it's being called) isn't particularly high. And that's not me being a mark for Marvel, when it comes to comic books I'm a DC fan through and through (despite the fact that aside from the unfortunate "Court Of Owls" story arc, I haven't read a comic book in a LONG time). That being said, I realized I haven't exactly shared my thoughts on "Justice League" and now that we have enough trailers out we can piece together what's going on. Let's dive in.

What If...?: Batman vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice

What If Batman vs. Superman was Good? No, like really Good. I'm Ugo Strange and welcome to "What If...".Now we all can agree that Batman vs. Superman was a cluster of ideas executed horribly and presented in the most boring fashion possible, But I'm not going to review it, enough people have flayed that movie, I'd recommend Movie Bob's critique of the film as the most entertaining. Rather, this is a re-working of all the elements in Batman vs. Superman and making them Good. But before we dive into that,let's do some housekeeping:

Final Thoughts On Superman vs. Batman: Dawn Of Justice

So I watched the trailer last night and watched it again not too long ago to maybe absorb what I may or may not have missed and while my initial reaction was...well...underwhelmed, I unfortunately remain underwhelmed. Let's talk about the positives. For starters I'm still liking Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. We've seen the brooding, cold, calculated Lex Luthor. Superman's elder who's fixated on power and control. Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor is less of a physical presence and more of intellectual titan. His first appearance on the screen he's visibly small in size and stature to both men, his voice is higher pitched and he's much more jovial than either of them, however he is completely self-absorbed and is delightfully devious. I think I will enjoy this Lex Luthor...and that's about the ONLY positive I have to say.