Fixing the DCEU

 

While I loved The Flash, it cannot be denied that the movie is a bomb.  Thus the great experiment known as the DC Extended Universe ends with a whimper, not a bang.  

This is a shame because some of my favorite comic book movies are part of this cinematic universe?

So what went wrong?

There are many issues at play, that I will not be able to go into detail here.  Much of it involves the mismanagement of the entire course of the cinematic universe at the executive level.  

Hindsight is always 20/20, but here are my thoughts on what could have been done to make this franchise successful.

1 SLOW DOWN

The biggest problem with the DCEU was the lack of patience on the part of the executives (much of which is tied to their desire for bonuses).  In 2012, Marvel's gamble of establishing a cinematic universe paid off big-time with The Avengers.  In 2013, Man of Steel started the DCEU.

The original plan involved following up Man of Steel with a solo Batman movie, a Wonder Woman movie, a Flash movie, a sequel to Man of Steel and then part one of Justice League which would culminate in "The Death of Superman" storyline.  

Needless to say that this would take several years.  Warner Bros. became impatient and instead abbreviated the schedule.  After Man of Steel, Warner Bros. told Snyder to make Batman v. Superman and Justice League  back to back.  In between there would be a movie about Wonder Woman (who would be introduced in BvS). This would be followed-up by Suicide Squad.

This caused a lot of pressure on the next two movies.  Unlike Avengers, the main heroes did not get their own solo movies to introduce them.  As a result, both BvS and Justice League became overstuffed.  While I didn't mind it in BvS, many audience members did.  BvS was not the runaway hit the way Warner Bros. wanted, but they were already fully into production on Justice League.  

DC is always accused of trying to mimic Marvel, and to some extent that is true.  But if they had followed their blueprint more closely, they could have avoided a great deal of trouble.  The Dark Knight Trilogy and The Batman have shown that solo Batman movies tend to be very profitable.  If DC had allowed Ben Affleck to star in his own Batman film, it could have built up anticipation for BvS.  This, along with a few more solo hero movies would have relieved some of the character pressure off of Justice League.  This would have let audiences enjoy it more than they did.

DC acutally did not learn their lesson as they pushed on.  In Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson not only tried to establish himself as the center of the DCEU, but he wanted to set up the entire Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher.

2. Curate the Line    

DC got very experimental very quickly.  Their fourth movie was Suicide Squad, a movie about expendable villains forced to be heroes.  It is clear that they were going for a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe.  But DC forgot that this was only after Marvel had established its brand already with nine previous films.  And it is often forgotten what a gamble Guardians was.  Marvel was hedging its bets by opening it in August.  Now, it turned out that James Gunn struck gold, but that was not a guarantee.

DC started experimenting too quickly.  As mentioned before, there needed to be more build-up to Justice League.  Focusing on the DC A-Team would have laid a solid foundation.  The two highest domestic grossing DCEU films are Wonder Woman and Aquaman.  If instead of Suicide Squad, they had focused on the Justice League members, it could have built up the hype.  

On top of this, DC went forward with Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad.  And while the latter was critically praised while the former was critically panned, I believe that both did damage to the brand.  Birds of Prey was just a horrid piece of cinema.  But The Suicide Squad was so horridly disgusting in its presentation and its morals that it killed off a lot of good will.  Look, there is something to be said about swinging for the fences, but when you announce to your audience that it is no longer for younger audiences, then people will stay away.  All of the DC films after The Suicide Squad disappointed.

3. Too Much Fracturing

Instead of focusing on the DCEU, Warner Bros. got desperate to use the DC properties in some way.  After Wonder Woman, the highest grossing DC films were not part of the DCEU: The Batman and Joker.  To be sure, they are both excellent movies.  But divorcing them from the DCEU does two things.

The first is that it creates brand confusion.  People who loved those non-Extended Universe movies may not understand why these characters aren't in the DCEU.

The second is that the success of these movies could not translate to success for the DCEU.  One of the reasons that movies like Captain Marvel did so well was because it was tied to the uber-successful Avengers movies.  If DC was able to do that, things may have been different.

Thoughts?