Thursday, August 9, 2012

Justice League ≠ The Avengers


Rumor has it Warner Bros. has reached out to Ben Affleck to direct their Justice League movie. While I always have a place in my heart for our local boy, why would Affleck be their top choice? He has directed a total of 2 films (Gone Baby Gone, The Town) and although they were both awesome, he doesn’t come to mind as someone who can handle a big action movie spectacle like this with all the pressures of fanboys and summer blockbuster status on his shoulders. Needless to say, he’s no Joss Whedon. And he’s not even DC… Daredevil is a Marvel character.

That brings up another point: the Justice League is not the Avengers. Marvel and DC could not be more different in how they write their comics. The Marvel characters were actively intertwined in each other’s tales while the DC characters seemingly lived independently of each other. Hell, Marvel even set up all their movies from Iron Man on to lead into the Avengers film. What has DC done?

In addition to not having any overlap in their universe, DC also hasn’t carried over very well to film. Batman of course has been the tentpole but what after that? They’re rebooting Superman for a second time in 6 years. They tried to make Wonder Woman into a TV series with Adrianne Palicki (it didn’t air a single episode). Green Lantern ended Ryan Reynolds career. Aquaman and the Flash haven’t even seen the light of day. This isn’t exactly a group people care about. Plus, the fact that Christian Bale has hung up his Batsuit is the final nail in the coffin. I don’t see how this movie gets made and I certainly don’t see how it succeeds commercially.

4 comments:

  1. Nerd alert!!

    j/k, great post, BB! I like Ben Affleck and all, but you made some really great points. And to think you just brushed off the idea of writing this post when I first suggested it...

    ReplyDelete
  2. We just watched Captain America in preparation to see the Avengers. Or, more correctly, B watched it while I fell asleep 2/3 of the way through and I have yet to watch the end. It was nowhere near Ironman but I liked the Stark tie in. FWIW, I prefer the Marvel movie intro to the DC movie intro.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Affleck is out!

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/27/justice-league-wachowskis-ben-affleck_n_1832677.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

    ReplyDelete