'They will race behind you. They will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun.' This quote from Man of Steel really can apply to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, can't it? No matter how you feel about Marvel Studios' films, there's just no denying that the MCU has earned a ton of praise and an absurd amount of money at the box office. When it comes to building a shared universe, no other studio has been able to duplicate its success.
Sony has tried - and failed - to build its own Spider-Man Universe, and now the studio's going to try to build its own Marvel Universe again, but this time with Venom leading the way. Paramount's attempting to construct a Transformers universe, and the future isn't looking good for Universal's Dark Universe. WB's been building the DC Extended Universe, but Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are seriously polarizing movies, and Suicide Squad had its neck bomb detonated by critics. Wonder Woman was the first DCEU film to receive overwhelming praise from critics while also earning a bunch of money. Now, Justice League - which should've been the DCEU's most successful movie yet - had the weakest box office opening out of all the DCEU films. Who would've thought we're on the version of Earth that gave Suicide Squad - and even Thor's third movie - a bigger opening weekend than the Justice League, DC's A-list team?
Fans often compare the DCEU to the MCU and it's totally understandable. They're the 'Big Two' in the world of comics and it's pretty natural to want to compare how each studio is handling the iconic heroes and villains on the big screen. While some claim the DCEU should be inspired by the MCU's methods, others praise the DCEU for taking a very different approach. No matter where you stand in that debate, we can all agree that the future of the DCEU does need to undergo some changes. If WB can't earn Mogo-sized box office numbers with Justice League, something is obviously wrong. I think WB should look to another studio for inspiration, but it isn't Marvel Studios. If you've read the title of the article, then you obviously know that I'm talking about 20th Century Fox. The DCEU needs to be character-driven, not universe-driven.
Look at how 20th Century Fox treated Wolverine's movies. The first one, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, added fan-favorite characters like Gambit and Wade Wilson. Despite that, you'll find very few fans out there who call it one of their favorite comic book movies - it was torn apart by both critics
and fans. James 'Logan' Howlett's next solo film, The Wolverine, released four years later and received a much better response from critics and fans even though things got a little too silly in the final act and it still felt like Wolverine's true potential was being held back. Overall, it was an improvement over the first film, but it still wasn't truly the Wolverine film that so many of us wanted. Fast-forward another four years and the world
finally got the Wolverine movie that it was waiting for: Logan. Character-driven and true to the character, it was clear 20th Century Fox realized that the best way to win over the audience was to give them the movie that they truly wanted all along! The end result is an emotional Wolverine movie that will definitely stand the test of time and it's arguably one of the best comic book movies out there. Even though it was rated R, it still earned more money than the other Wolverine movies, too!
20th Century Fox learned from its mistakes and delivered a phenomenal Wolverine movie that also introduced the general audience to X-23 without trying to make the viewer think about what movie comes next - they were left thinking about what they just watched. The same held true for Deadpool. The backlash from the appearance of 'Deadpool' in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was huge and there was clearly a lot of demand to see the Merc with a Mouth done right on the big screen. The final product stayed true to the character, earned a huge amount of money, and even had some great jabs at the studio and its confusing continuity with the X-Men movies. They let Deadpool's movie be what it needed to be. They let Wolverine's final movie be what it needed to be. In both cases, studio interference was reportedly minimal and they were allowed to do whatever they needed to do to stay true to the spirit of the characters, even if it meant throwing in some jokes about the studio. It's also worth noting that the stakes were personal instead of being yet another end of the world scenario. The threat always doesn't need to be
bigger to be more impactful.
The future of 20th Century Fox's comic book movies looks promising. New Mutants is looking like it won't be another formulaic superhero story and it's instead going for the horror angle, and it's clear that they're letting Deadpool 2 be every bit as ridiculous as it should be. Plus, the minds behind X-Men: Apocalypse have admitted where they went wrong and hopefully they will sincerely keep the constructive criticism in mind while working on the next X-Men film.
Love or hate Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it's clear that the theatrical version of Justice League is not the one he would've wanted to deliver. Some of the added and redone scenes are way too transparent because they
feel different and a good amount of material is missing from the trailers. Again, like or dislike those changes, it's tough not to have them take you out of the moment and make you think about how there was apparently a clash of ideas behind the scenes. The film is supposed to be about heroes coming together, yet it feels like the product of people who clearly don't
want to be together.
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| Why was this awesome Aquaman shot cut? |
Hopefully, Justice League will be a unique case and a learning experience for WB. The studio now has Superman in the position where they've clearly wanted him to be, so at this point, the studio needs to focus on bringing in people who truly care about these characters and see eye to eye with their approach, inform them about the bigger picture, and then step back and let them do their own thing. Don't get caught up in continuity and selling the audience on what comes next - focus on what makes the heroes and villains unique. Sell the characters, not the world. Succeed there and there's no doubt that a crossover/team-up involving the heroes and villains will sell more tickets. Fingers crossed the future of the DCEU will have us entertained and enjoying being in the moment instead of thinking about what happened behind the scenes.
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