The DCEU - A Broken Film Universe

It seems that these days, at least when it comes to comic book movies, you can only be one of two things: a Marvel fan or a DC fan. Ignoring the fact that a completely binary opinion on two different movie series is ridiculous, it makes sense why there's a more distinct rivalry emerging between Marvel and DC at the moment. Both companies are trying to build film universes that are just as intricate and tightly-knit as those of the comics that they're based on, in the forms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe. As someone who's a fan of both Marvel and DC Comics, it's incredibly frustrating to see one film universe working so well while the other is just kind of sputtering along.

Obviously, the quality of the movies themselves is entirely subjective. If you love the Marvel movies and hate the DC movies, that's fine. If you love the DC movies and hate the Marvel movies, that's also fine. But the love that a fan of the comics feels for a film is very different than what everyone else will feel. While the general reception of the DC films by audiences has been lukewarm, it's all leaving a lot to be desired, and the DCEU has a few holes in it that threaten to sink the whole ship.

The most consistent failure of the DCEU is characterization, although to be fair, the comics have seen hundreds of different iterations of the same characters over the decades. But the reason why these characters endure through time is because the core of the characters remains intact. You can change a suit to make it look better on-screen, but if you make Batman murder multiple people with guns, you're going to have a few people in the audience scratching their heads. The stories being told in the films are new, and don't have to be faithful to the comics in the same way that the characters should be. In Man of Steel, the core details that make Superman who and what he is are entirely wrong, so the character that's developed isn't Superman. Also, his character hasn't had time to develop into a more positive form because every DCEU film is asking the question "what if Superman was evil?", but not expanding on that idea in any way. Seeing Superman just be a mopey, dour, murdering sadsack takes away the point of his character entirely. Onto the other main character of this universe, something as simple as Bruce Wayne's father throwing a punch at the man robbing him fundamentally changes Batman's origin. Suicide Squad also established Batman as a man who would attack someone in a dark alley at night while they're with their child, which strikes me as a bit ironic. All of the major characters in the DCEU are so radically different from their original forms - from their backstories to their appearances - that the relationships between them in the comics don't make sense in the context of the films. Lex Luthor and The Joker, two villains who would make (and have made) great characters on film have been reduced to two vaguely eccentric men. Neither "villain" seems like an opponent that their respective heroes would have any trouble defeating repeatedly, and given who Batman and Superman are in these films, they'd probably just be killed very quickly. I'm not saying that the films have to be totally and absolutely faithful to the comics, because it's impossible to truly achieve that, but there should be an understanding of why they work.

With the idea of adapting the storylines of the comics, DC is continuing to do what comic book films have always done: taking elements of certain stories and re-tooling them into an original story that better fits a film. For fans of the comics, the influences on the films are clear, whether it's in the form of story beats or tiny references. For example, when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was being made, there was a lot of talk about The Dark Knight Returns coming from the filmmakers. But there's a difference between adapting a story, taking inspiration from a story, and making an original story with moments and images awkwardly shoehorned in. DC often does the latter. Batman v Superman starts out strong, but loses momentum when it becomes clear that it doesn't know what story to tell - because it's telling fifteen stories at the same time. There are interesting stories somewhere in the finished DCEU films, but they're buried under so many moments of fanservice that the moments begin to feel empty, and feel like they were thrown in "just because". But it's clear that DC can adapt their own stories well, because they've been doing so in their animated films for years. Up until The Killing Joke, at least.

The stories in DC films aren't being developed properly because they're trying to build the universe and set up future films instead of just telling a story. The point where the members of the Justice League, the most iconic comic book team of all time, were introduced through e-mail attachments was when everyone should have collectively realized that some stuff was being rushed. The universe itself isn't being developed properly because DC is rushing every element of it to catch up with Marvel, but creating the MCU took a lot of preparation and patience. The DCEU is throwing in character after character, reference after reference, and if you don't understand or can't follow, then "you just don't get it". If the only people who can understand what's happening in your movie have a prior, in-depth knowledge of the source material, then the movie has failed. The DC films are trying so hard to differentiate themselves from the Marvel films so much that they're missing what people actually like about comic book movies in general. The Marvel films are consistently simple: the characters have some fun interaction, and things are generally kept light because that's what the source material is like. Marvel embraces the ridiculousness of the comics, while DC is almost apologetic for it, and trying to make their characters "darker" and "edgier" - the casting of Jason Momoa as Aquaman is an obvious example of that. Scenes of "character development" are being cut for the sake of "artsy" dream sequences and flashbacks, so it's difficult to get a clear picture of who the characters are even supposed to be. Being different for the sake of being different isn't always the best approach.

Another issue that's becoming more and more prominent as the series goes on is editing, which reduced Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad to barely coherent versions of themselves. This cutting left character arcs, subplots, motivations, and pacing extremely unbalanced, to the point where Superman's character is almost completely excised from the movie with his name in the title. In Suicide Squad, scenes of character interaction and development are put to the side for the sake of more dream sequences and more flashbacks. The solution for BvS's chopped-up story was "The Ultimate Cut", but that presents a whole other issue. You'd think that the versions of these films that were released in theatres were supposed to be DC's best foot forward, and were supposed to get people invested in this universe. But to then release the "real" version of a film a few months later on Blu-Ray gives the impression that Warner Bros. simply doesn't care about what they're releasing. Suicide Squad took the same approach with its "Extended Cut", where the film itself wasn't improved in any way, and a few more pointless scenes were just shoved in to provide a slight increase of context for a few scenes. Even so, the changes aren't significant enough, and the existence of these new editions feels like yet another marketing gimmick.

The real enemy of the DC films appears to be the studio behind them, since Warner Bros. doesn't seem to know how to develop this universe properly. The studio very often makes kneejerk-reaction decisions that make their own films worse, and that's obviously a big issue. The studio is panicking and trying to make their universe more appealing to general audiences at every opportunity, but they're not correcting the right issues. Tone isn't what's preventing people from connecting with the films, it's muddled stories and flat characterization. It also raises the question of why the studio keeps greenlighting scripts for 3-hour films that they have no intention of releasing, since they're just going to cut them down later. Warner Bros. is just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

The dark, gritty, realistic tone that DC is employing for their films is a direct response to the success of The Dark Knight Trilogy, and nothing else. But that dark tone worked for those films, because they took place in a world crafted specifically for that trilogy, and not in a world that includes aliens, Amazons, magic, super-speed, and cyborg men. Because the films are trying to be so dark and serious - removing colour and levity for the sake of "drama" - the films themselves look and feel drab and dull. The usage of colour is one of the key features of comic books, because if everything was printed in black and white, they wouldn't be very visually interesting. There's certainly nothing wrong with a darker tone, and I'm all for variety in style (because Age of Ultron proved that changing nothing just sends these films down a path of mediocrity), but having the films be dark to such an extent takes away from what makes the comics work in the first place. But then you also have Suicide Squad, which is bizarrely edited to include animated intros for characters, neon lights and twisting effects over transitions, and intrusive pop songs that give various scenes completely different tones than were originally intended for them. These moments, alongside a darker, more grounded story with the rest of the film, are extremely jarring. On top of that, all of the scenes that could have had any real bite in the series - like prison shanking, blood, even more murder, or Joker and Harley Quinn's abusive relationship - are cut, because the films have to stay at PG-13. God forbid the Joker does something evil; that might make test audiences uncomfortable. There's no clear vision for the series, and it's not because the directors are being given more control; it's the exact opposite.

One of the most defining features of the DCEU has been reviews that range from disappointing to scathing, which has led to a lot of backlash from fans. But the reason why these films are being poorly reviewed isn't because "All critics hate DC!" or "Disney paid for bad reviews!", it's because the films are disjointed and are making the same mistakes over and over again. Really, there isn't much of a difference between critics and general audiences; everyone just wants to see a good movie. Fanboys are the real anomaly, because having a level of emotional investment in a film before you even see it does skew how you interpret it. As a lifelong fan of DC Comics, I want the DC films to be a portrayal of the comics that everyone can enjoy, but they're building on a weak foundation and repeatedly making films that have the same problems. The trailers for future films look to be including the same issues, and with director after director leaving The Flash, it's hard to have any faith in the future of this universe.

Even though the DCEU hasn't found its legs yet, that's not to say it never will. Geoff Johns has stepped in to oversee all of the future films in the series, and he knows DC Comics better than anyone. If he's calling the shots, it's far more likely that the series can reach its full potential. Only time will tell at this point, as 2017 will be the make-or-break year for the DCEU in many ways. Marvel and DC have both had their share of ups and downs in film, but now that they're both on track to make every fan's dream come true by bringing their universes to the big screen, DC's repeated failings are starting to drag their reputation down. And given how many good stories have been told with these characters, it's only growing more confusing as to why the films can't replicate that same quality. Maybe one day, DC will finally hit their stride.

Or they could just do what Sony did: cut their losses and sell the film rights to Disney.