DC Comics Multimedia General - A crisis of infinite fuck ups

[Nikes_JustDoIt]

So how many monkeys does it take to make a good DC movie?

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

 

[BrunoMattei]

I think I realized one of the problems: it's trying to be an origin movie without the origin. Like Batman 89. The difference is that Batman 89 still gradually introduced you to things. It wasn't like Batman was already pursuing the Joker, was already fucking Vickie Vale, and etcetera.

It had other problems, too. I didn't find it funny. It was too rushed. I didn't like the guy who played Lex. And Krypto was shoved in there to sell toys and nothing more. You'd think they would have established the god damn dog but no, the dog is there.

Also, unless this suddenly does gangbusters this weekend then it's officially a bomb.

 

[GlupShitto]

Praying Zaslav kicks Gunn out on his ass. Honestly, I kind of need capeshit to be done with anyway.

 

[Giga_Nigga_28]

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These guys look like the cartoon nerd stereotype come to life. Horrifying.

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

These guys look like the cartoon nerd stereotype come to life. Horrifying.

I wonder if these modern Zoomer nerds would shit themselves at the level of collateral damage in an average JLU episode.

What's wrong with the world when a couple of 20 something comic book nerds act and sound like Marge Simpson?!

.

 

[Mystery Spy]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet, but DC's two biggest names are nearing the public domain.

This truly is their last chance to one-up Marvel and create a profitable cinematic universe. James Gunn mentioned a 10-year plan, and guess who's scheduled to enter the public domain in 2034? Superman. Batman follows the next year, in 2035.

They have less time than that to squeeze every penny from these characters before the gold mine starts to dry up.WB's situation is dire. I don't think they can even afford to let Gunn go and start over. Time is not on their side. They need to make this work, or other companies will soon be able to produce Superman and Batman projects. I think Marvel would be foolish not to use both the instant they can.

In fact, I think Gunn's push for "little known" characters beyond his C-list obsession might be backed up by WB' feeling the deadline in ther necks. It might explain the Supergirl movie too. They’ll need other moneymakers besides Superman and Batman, and fast.

Edit: I understand that only the original versions of Superman and Batman will enter the public domain. Some of Superman’s more iconic additions will remain copyrighted for longer, but nothing prevents anyone from creating a unique variation of his original version. Batman, however, is a different case. I believe even his most basic form is highly usable.

 

[Disastrously Dumb]

As smeone living in a 3rd world South East Asian country
I think the "SUPERMAN IS FAILING INTERNATIONALLY" argument isnt as straightforward as one might think
since its always the implication that the movie sucked
but in reality where im from, 2 weeks now all theatres are booked from morning to night and i had to preorder tickets for Sunday to bring my dad to watch.

Realistically, International audiences in my home country are just somewhat fatigued by the overall lack of quality in Hollywood movies over the years
and with how bad THE FLASH & BLUE BEETLE was, and all following MARVEL movies in phase 4-5. People are just very wary.

Also the overt messaging in most hollywood movies in regards to Californian values. Not US values, Californian values. i.e. Girlboss, noble illegal immigrants, LGBT and other weird shit that goes against the rest of the world's values... i mean.. what can you do?


Nontheless, the new superman movie personally i enjoyed it, and alot of people i saw enjoyed it. and word of mouth is going on spreading saying its good so i reckon in maybe 2-3 weeks the overall results will change.

Yes. I know alot of people enjoyed the Snyderverse, I also wanted to see where Snyder will go with his story and the final battle against Darkseid. But lets be honest here. With how bleak and depressing MARVEL is and majority of movies. The colorful contrast and story of hope in James Gunn's version is much needed in a constantly neverending cynicism the world have gone to.

There is no perfect movie. there will always be flaws.
but how long have it been since you last watched a movie, and walked out giddy and smiling and laughing and feel somewhat refreshed? in the last decade.


Maybe who knows, in a decade if Gunn's projects were all a success, maybe he'll have enough sway and pull to convince the heads of WB to let his friend, Zack Snyder finish his vision. and maybe by that point, a dark gritty DCverse would be refreshing once again.

As for now, I have hope that DC movies will be good again.
and in 2025, maybe a little bit of hope is what we all need in our lives.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

The last DC movie I can remember doing well in the box office was Aquaman, and one of the main reasons for that was it being aggressively marketed in and incredibly successful in China.

The last success was the first Joker film which made a billion without much international help. Maybe you can say The Batman, but I am not sure that one did a mass amount of numbers in comparison.

which he could have blown away with his established super breath, or conveniently absent freeze breath, or just burned up in atmospheric re-entry.

I remember getting to the Ultraman fight and just asking myself, why didn't Superman just laser the cameras Lex has flying around. Also, the cameras weren't a thing till that scene right?

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I have said it earlier on, but a big problem with Snyder was less the destruction and more the griddy tone and constant pans to people dying under the rubble and whatnot that gave the film its poor reception. Rather than getting a dumb superhero fight to entertain the masses, he tried to have it while also going hard on the tragedy, making the entire thing very off-putting.

 

[Your Starter for 10]

Maybe you can say The Batman, but I am not sure that one did a mass amount of numbers in comparison.

The Batman did $770M globally (with just over half of that coming from international markets) vs a ~$190M budget and a marketing budget that was probably 1/10th of Superman's. It also spun off The Penguin, which had heat, and people are clamoring for more of (no one can really comment on the numbers for any streaming show, because everything available is pure lies and idiocy, but I highly doubt that the budget was THAT big, as it re-used a ton of assets from the film, and Colin Farrell was the only A-lister in it, and he's not taking RDJ money or anything). It's impossible to know what makes a streaming show successful or whatever, but it's certainly not a failure along the lines of Rangz of Power or literally every Star Wars and Marvel show. If I had to guess, I'd put it somewhere around Stranger Things level of success, all things considered.

I haven't seen Superman, but I highly doubt Gunn could spin off anything successful from it. I mean I guess it's possible, but you know the budgets are going to be bloated, the shows are going to be way too frenetic and unfocused, and/or they're going to shoehorn in boring "muh Trumps and immogrants" shit ad nauseum, so it will literally be impossible for them to be either good or perceived as good. I mean just look at all the chatter about Peacemaker and Creature Commandos - oh wait, there isn't any, and I highly doubt there will be for Lanterns or whatever other Gunnslop is coming out.

Honestly the most interesting thing about this whole endeavor is going to be what happens next. They can go the Disney Marvel route, and keep sinking huge budgets into these (whether from looting the studio or just sheer incompetence, I don't know); they can go the Universal/JW route and just shrink the budgets, continue producing mindless slop that target the left side of the bell curve and make a little bit of money; or they can just give up and start something else (so unlikely it's virtually impossible). Guess we'll see via the announcements and what gets started vs what gets cancelled in utero over the next year.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

Honestly the most interesting thing about this whole endeavor is going to be what happens next. They can go the Disney Marvel route, and keep sinking huge budgets into these (whether from looting the studio or just sheer incompetence, I don't know); they can go the Universal/JW route and just shrink the budgets, continue producing mindless slop that target the left side of the bell curve and make a little bit of money; or they can just give up and start something else (so unlikely it's virtually impossible). Guess we'll see via the announcements and what gets started vs what gets cancelled in utero over the next year.

Best route is just to accept superheroes are diving back into being a niche again and choosing to develop some good animations and games instead. These projects are lower budget, so they can be more experimental to drive up a new audience like they were doing from the 90s-10s. Just play to nerds while being creative enough to expand a little past that, it was the reason why content like the DCAU, Teen Titans and Young Justice are so fondly remembered and profitable even 10-20 years since cancellation.

They don't even need to invest fully in superheroes, they could try to do more with some of their niche franchises like they have already done:

Hell, go the route of a DC Rivals, make a fun game that allows some of the D-list characters to rise up a bit. They could also do like an Ultimate Alliance/JL Heroes thing, just something...

Knowing WB, rather than fix this mess, they will likely either spin the wheel again for a new DCEU or kill everything that isn't Batman, with bets on it being both.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Also also, I hate to say it but I went through a period where I only had access to network TV (all 12 channels) and had to watch whatever was on which is when I discovered Smallville. It's an overall good show. But I think that Michael Rosenbaum was the best actor to play Lex.

After him then I'd say Kevin Spacey was the 2nd best. I know Rosenbaum and Gunn are long time friends and he's too old now but fuck it, Gunn should have cast him as Lex in this.

 

[Calandrino]

Creature Commandos

How bad is this really? It has creatures. Maybe it could be could.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

How bad is this really? It has creatures. Maybe it could be could.

It's not worth it...

The characters barely have any development and the plot sucks. It is trying so hard to be an edgy Guardians of the Galaxy, but the humor doesn't land and all the "sad" backstories are just nothingburgers. Most will say its woke given the incels at the beginning of the series, along with the Bride being an obvious girl boss who is trying to escape a creepy stalker-incel Frankenstein (She also defends prostitutes from weirdos). It also has G.I. Robot whos whole character is repeating the lets kill Nazis line. In all honesty, the woke is hardly the biggest issue with the series. It just lacks focus, mainly being a series of reveals of the backstories with the government infiltration plot taking a backseat till the shit twist-that-isn't-a-twist happens. Frankenstein and G.I. are obnoxious, The Bride is a nothingburger, Weasley is clearly Gunn's self-insert (including being framed for having weird relations with children), Rick Flagg is a out of place, and the villains may as well just not exist with how little they are given. Nina is the only character worth a shit since she has development and a decent backstory.

 

[Big Green]

Spoiler

Just watched Superman. It wasn't the greatest of all time, but it was alright for a superhero movie. Compared to the Marvel slop I've seen recently it beats that at least. If they just didn't make the shithole country full of brown people that whole thing would've played a lot better. I actually thought people were overreacting until I saw that every one of them were a shade of brown while the attackers were all white. Superman intervening in wars isn't new stuff, but it should serve the purpose of whatever story you're telling instead of being shoehorned in. It still could've worked, but there was no reason to keep going with it into the second half of the movie.

They made the superhero actually seem heroic so that's a big plus. I liked that his alien parents weren't redeemed by the end. It always annoys me when Superman starts calling himself Kal-el and goes all Kryptonian. Ending the movie with him watching videos of the Kents was wholesome.

I liked that they pulled some less widely known names from the DC universe.

I liked Lois, but taking her to the pocket dimension was pushing it. I don't know why superhero stuff always has to insist on including the girlfriends in the action.

The fights were meh. People who direct superhero movies should be made to watch fighting anime to get a idea of more clever ways for superhumans to win fights. When they were filling his lungs with the nanomachines and Superman started flying into space I thought for a second something was going to happen. But nah, he just divebombed back to Earth and somehow the supergenius didn't see that coming and it also somehow solved all of Supermans problems.

They did a good job making him nonlethal until the very end when he eye lasered all those jetpack soldiers. I get that didn't kill them, but it makes no sense that it didn't.

I don't really understand why exposing Lex Luthor at the end made everyone love Superman again, but whatever.

I give it a 3/5. or a 4/5 compared to other superhero slop.[/ISPOILER]

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

I’m reminded of that autist from Sci-Fi Speed Dating who dressed up as Jimmy and got every chick’s number by virtue of being normal looking and not smelling.

I bet that’s the reference, Gunn is terminally online enough to know about that.

The thing I really remember about that was that the guy didn't seem especially interested in all the women who were throwing themselves at him - he kinda seemed like he'd rather just hang out with his big, buff, black haired friend who coincidentally just happened to look a bit like Superman.

Spoiler

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Not only did Midnight Edge open his video by saying the international audiences failed Superman. He is using the argument that no one cares or has superheroes outside of America for Superman flopping. Even ignoring Ultraman and Kamen Rider from japan this statement is retarded. The British Invasion in American comics during the 80s is mostly due to miracleman. The most popular superhero cartoon worldwide right now is about French superheroes.

I, for one, struggle to take Midnights Edge in any way seriously any more, after he genuinely brought on Mundane fucking Matt of all people for an unbiased, educated take on Ghostbusters 2016.

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James Gunnfags has zero right to make fun of Synderfags after praising him for ripping off a Simpsons joke about bad Hollywood writing as a plot point. Only DC pajeets and journalists the think plot point is good writing.

That's not a Simpsons joke. The Simpsons referenced it, but they didn't come up with the idea.
'Infinite monkey theorem'. Look it up.

 

[Humble Architect]

The thing I really remember about that was that the guy didn't seem especially interested in all the women who were throwing themselves at him - he kinda seemed like he'd rather just hang out with his big, buff, black haired friend who coincidentally just happened to look a bit like Superman.

Spoiler

That's not a Simpsons joke. The Simpsons referenced it, but they didn't come up with the idea.
'Infinite monkey theorem'. Look it up.

Well Jimmy was wearing a dress in All-star…….

I fucking hate Grant.

 

[TheAmbiguousLurker]

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I mean, the problem in Man of Steel was never the amount of destruction, it was how Superman seemed to do nothing to try and avoid it. It'd be one thing if Zod and Co kept shutting down any attempt Supes makes to try and divert the fight out of population zones because he's inexperienced, but Supes barely seems to even give a shit and sometimes is directly just driving his opponent into buildings.

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

I think a lot of you are getting really into the weeds with the whole Man Of Steel thing. Man Of Steel's major problem wasn't the amount of collateral damage or Superman killing Zod or whatever. Man Of Steel's major problem was that it was a boring, joyless, up-its-own-arse ordeal of a film, populated by characters people neither liked nor related to, and it completely failed to resonate with audiences as a result. It's not a bad movie because of the destruction, it's a bad movie all on its own, to begin with, and the destruction doesn't help it.

I don't think people don't really especially care about wanton destruction in their superhero movies - stuff gets smashed up all the time in those Avengers movies and nobody cares, because those movies are generally fun and exciting and the characters are charming and likeable.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I think "wanton destruction" is fine until you get to 9/11 imagery in a superhero flick.