I’ve been a HUGE fan of comic book movies since I can remember. Superman: The Movie was one of my first real comic-book movies that I saw, and I was totally entranced. Tim Burton’s Batman was another fantastic film that really did justice to the character. These were and still are truly great movies. But after the release of Batman And Robin, the film industry and audiences pretty much turned away from the genre for a number of years until the X-Men movie was released back in 2000. While we did see a number of fantastic movies based on comics like The Crow and Blade, people really didn’t take comic books or the movies based on them all that serious until 2000. When X-Men came out, people really started to take notice of these movies again. We had entered into a new age of comic book-based cinema. While X-Men got really popular, Marvel Studios really kicked things off with Iron Man in 2008. This was the movie that kick-started the MCU, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. During the decade that followed, Marvel had established characters like Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man in movies that were interconnected. While some films were not nearly as good as others, the overall quality of the movies that were released was high. People and critics responded quite well. Soooooo….what did DC have that matched? NOTHING. They had Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, which was a trilogy of phenomenal films, but didn’t connect with anything else that DC was doing at the time.
It wasn’t until Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, that DC and Warner Bros. decided to have a go with their own universe of comic book heroes. While I loved the hell out of Man of Steel, it was not necessarily the film that a lot of people were expecting. It did really well, so a follow-up film was inevitable. People who loved Man of Steel were really looking forward to a Man of Steel 2. HOWEVER, Warner Bros. had a different plan. See, when The Avengers came out in 2012, the dynamic of comic book movies changed. Marvel and Paramount/Disney had given us our first real superhero ensemble film. It blew everybody’s minds. It was awesome. So…to try and compete, DC Comics/Warner Bros. decided to step in the ring with Man of Steel. But it wasn’t until some time later that they decided to go for an ensemble movie of their own with Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. This was NOT the movie that people were expecting. They were expecting another solo Superman film. They’ll get another one, alright. Just not for a while. Anyways, I digress. Batman V. Superman was supposed to be the real jumping off point for what is now known as the DC Expanded Universe or DCEU for short. The film was not particularly well-received. I liked it well enough, but it was loaded with problems. You can read my review by hitting the Reviews tab at the top. Warner Bros. was expecting the film to hit the 1 billion dollar mark, and when it only reached 800 million, they were disappointed. Really? $800 million is not chump change for a movie like that. Critically, it got wasted, so an extended version was released on Blu-Ray that fixed a majority of problems. People were excited when Wonder Woman stepped on screen for the first time in a live-action film. Gal Gadot knocked it out of the park. But that still doesn’t address where DC stands when it comes to comic book movies.
DC has a number of films lined up like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, The Green Lantern Corps, and the big enchilada: Justice League. Unfortunately, DC was about a decade late to the party. See, Marvel Studios already had an established world with THIRTEEN movies released, and DC’s Expanded Universe currently only has three which includes Suicide Squad. I realize that DC and Marvel are the two top competing comic book companies in the world, but Marvel is coming out ahead in terms of the live-action film arena. DC has fantastic animated movies, so they aren’t slouches there. For the foreseeable future, though, Marvel has the upper hand. They did it first and they did it well. DC’s playing catch-up and they aren’t doing a very good job of it at all. It’s a shame, because I am looking forward to seeing the stuff that comes out of DC over the next couple of years.
With Captain America: Civil War, Marvel has pretty established their dominance in the live-action comic book movie arena. They keep upping the ante in terms of story, character development and action. DC’s got some really cool stuff coming down the pipe, but a lot of people are wondering if it’s a case of “too little, too late.” I could be wrong, and DC might knock it out of the park with Justice League. It’s entirely possible. But if DC and Warner Bros. don’t start getting it right with movies like Wonder Woman, they are going to be faced with a situation that could spell doom for the entire DCEU. I don’t want that to happen. Most comic book movie fans don’t want that to happen. But if DC doesn’t start paying attention to what they’re doing instead of trying to ape the competition, it could be disastrous for everybody involved.
Over the next couple of days, I will be discussing my favorite movies from each company. With Marvel, I will be including films from other companies that use Marvel characters. So, stay tuned for that and I will talk you later.