In Part two, we explore the movies that came right before the Man of Steel, as well as some of the failed attempts to kick off the Cinematic universe. We also begin discussing Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel.
Marvel and it’s related characters are copyright © Marvel Entertainment
DC and it’s related characters are © Warner Brothers.
So, after giving it a lot of thought, I have decided to jump into the world of video blogging.
The video blogs will not be straight up reviews. Instead they will be more analysis. I will be using them to explore things going on in the industry of film, as well as look at popular film series and explore them.
The first video for the Tripping Through Gateways blog turned into a series. I did not realize as I was writing it just how long it was going to be. So I broke it down into seven parts. Part one actually explores the landscape preceding Man of Steel. This is the only video in the series to deal extensively with the Marvel Movies in any form of contrast, and it mainly for the purpose of exploring DC and Warner Brother’s progress with their shared film universe.
However, as I state in the video, this is not about Marvel vs DC. This is not a proclamation on who is better. I enjoy the characters from both Marvel and DC. And I want to see DC have real success. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Matter Eater Lad deserve that much.
Shazam! art by Doc Shaner
New Gods art by Jack Kirby
Ultimates art by Bryan Hitch
Marvel and it’s related characters are copyright © Marvel Entertainment
DC and it’s related characters are © Warner Brothers.
So, since the last time I talked about Deadpool, I was proven very wrong. Deadpool was a hit with critics and audiences, receiving a lot of praise. There are people who did not care for it, but the movie broke records nobody expected.
I am happy to be wrong here. I am glad it has succeeded. And I think there is room for both family friendly super hero films and ‘R-Rated’ super-hero films.
On Twitter a week or so back, I got involved briefly in a discussion that was inspired by a tweet that stated that “Nothing Good Can Come From Deadpool’s Success.” I took the opposite side, arguing I do not think it means all super-hero films are suddenly going to go hard ‘R’.
Then in a couple days time, we saw announcements of the next Wolverine film will be ‘R’ and there will be an ‘R’ rated “super cut” of Superman vs Batman. And I do get the concern, though I am not ready to admit defeat. The Wolverine is not surprising, and they have skirted the violence of the character for over a decade.
Going back to X-2 we were being given pitches that we were about to see the Wolverine the last film did not deliver. We got a more violent cut of the second Wolverine film. At best, the success of Deadpool let them know that the ‘R’ is not the kiss of death.
In regards to Superman and Batman…Warner Brothers has always seen dark and gritty as the key to success. When Superman Returns did not succeed quite as big as the WB had hoped? They cited that it was not Dark Enough. When the Dark Knight succeeded they felt vindicated and even suggested that this is how they would fix Superman. When Green Lantern failed Warner Brothers blamed the film for not being dark enough.
Yet Man of Steel was dark and grim. And it seems the DC Universe was already on this path, well before Deadpool.
What is sad, is there is a lesson to be learned from Deadpool’s success. Deadpool was not a dark and grim take on super-heroes. It was a fun and bizarre ride. It had dark humor, and lot of it. But it was funny and intentionally so. The creators (from the writers to the director to the stars on) got the character. They knew and were faithful to their source.
Deadpool proves taking a big risk is worth doing. Films that know who they are? They are what studios should take a chance on. Truth their creatives, don’t micro manage. Letting the creators be free often produces positive results. Micro-Managing everything gives us studio vision and less interesting films.
I had not paid attention to this before…but I realized this week, some of the same people that gave us the Ryan Reynold’s Green Lantern brought us Arrow, Flash, Supergirl. This includes Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim. And I have to say, in some ways it is very obvious.
The film draws heavily on characters from the comics, though sometimes to poor effect. Amanda Waller, for example. She is simply a scientist named Amanda Waller. That is supposed to a cool Easter Egg for fans. But aside from getting her race correct, the film gives us an uninteresting scientist…not the Wall.
Based on the Flash? This would seem mystifying. The Flash does Easter Eggs extremely well. Except, there is also Arrow. Arrow is problematic most of the time. Relying all too much on Flashbacks and a darker tone than appropriate for the Green Arrow…it has gotten by on a likable cast. But from the first season, it was incredibly obvious that the creators of Arrow did not want to make a Green Arrow show, but a Batman show. They just could not get the greenlight for it. The same thing happened on Smallville.
And we see the same problems in 2011’s Green Lantern. There are some great things in the film. Marc Strong’s performance as Sinestro stands out. However, the film was designed to kick off a franchise. And yet, it makes Hal Jordan’s first fight against a universe sized threat. Where do you go from that? Instead of keeping it small, allowing Hal to save the planet, rather save the entire universe right away.
There are no other future Lanterns introduced. I mean, seriously, you want an Easter Egg? Introduce John Stewart in the film(He was cut from the script).
In addition, when this film came out, Marvel was only a year away from the hotly anticipated Avengers. DC and the WB had a very prime opportunity to start building that shared universe they desperately wanted. The script even considered showing Clark Kent in a brief cameo as a candidate for the ring and the film has a sign for Central City. It was cut on the idea of not relying on other heroes. So, we ended up with a closed universe. This could have opened the door and with a better setup than we got from Man of Steel.
I was disappointed, in the end, with Green Lantern because it falls short all to easily. Seeing what Berlanti and Guggenheim have pulled off on the Flash makes me wonder how much involvement they had in the final product.
Tripping Through Gateways 