Roast of the DCEU

So in a contrast to my last post about the flaws of the MCU I will do the other side of the fence. Even though I liked BvS and MoS, as well as enjoyed Suicide Squad and am looking forward to Wonder Woman and Justice League later this year I can still see the issues with the DCEU management and creative control. However unlike Captain Salt's s*** post this isn't gonna mindlessly insult the DC brand and actually take a critical look at why people are so divisive on these films

The first thing is that WB seems to be micro managing more and more. With MoS and BvS it seems like they just let Snyder do whatever he wanted but with BvS they did cut down the movie to be 2 hours and be PG13 instead of what is generally considered the superior rated R 3 hour extended cut. I assume the idea to this was they wanted the most standard block buster run time to get the most show times and be released in countries where rated R films would be banned but seeing that the movie didn't break a billion and was panned so hard. Now Zack does claim that he was okay with the theatrical cut but we should take this with a grain of salt

Another issue with BvS was the extensive re writes and merging of two very different movies which will come up again. David S Goyer who wrote MoS did return to do BvS but Snyder was apparently unhappy with Goyer's script so WB brought in Chris Terrio to re work it. What we got was a bizarre combination of a political thriller esque film from Terrio and a sci fi film from Goyer. I mean the first half felt very grounded and real and even Superman felt like he could exist but the final half is evil cgi big troll alien shooting lasers everywhere. The issue isn't that it is too insane but the execution was very out of place for this fairly grounded movie. Sure you could argue that it is made by alien tech so it'll be out of place but even that fails because from what we saw of MoS does DD or the tech look like would ever be used by Kryptonians? Maybe to you it does look similar to those fetus plants but to me it just didn't. Maybe if they established it in MoS or had DD just be something else like Bizarro or a cyborg or just make Zod's transformer look less like a cave troll's birth and more like DD birth with his skin thickening to extensive torture and pain and over time he gets more rocky and spikey (maybe even some white hair) it would've looked better. Hell at least give us the containment suit

The next major problem was Suicide Squad which at this point is well known to have been rushed out and had extensive re shoots. The script was supposedly written in 6 weeks and there were numerous reshoots and while several actors and crew did claim the reshoots were not to make the movie funnier it does feel that way. Jared Leto has also been vocal about his disappointment that his part was cut extensively. Even in the extended cut Joker was very under utilized especially when they had one of arguably the most dedicated and diverse actors in Hollywood

The main beef of this is future plans for the DCEU after Justice League. There are none. After JL Flash and Aquaman were meant to come out followed by JL Part 2, Shazam, Green Latern and Cyborg

Ever since then it has been a mess. Rick Fukahawa left Flash for creative difficulties and is now going through extensive rewrites by a first time writer, Cyborg has rumored to be cancelled, and The Batman has no known release date and is being re written by Matt Reeves. On top of that WB seems to be throwing out a lot more Batman spin offs with Nightwing, Gotham Sirens, and Batgirl AND there could be the potential that all four (The Batman, Nightwing, GS, Batgirl) could come out the same year. FOUR Batman related movies in one year. While I am glad to see the first on screen Nightwing and Batgirl (No I dont count Silverstone) this is just too much. Not to mention WB seems to be running back to milking Batman instead of giving their dozens of other heroes the spotlight. There is also a Black Adam origin movie thrown in there and MoS and Suicide Squad sequels. So far it seems the only movie that will make it that was part of the original slate is Aquaman since Wan hasn't walked and still seems like it'll start filming in the spring. Like Jesus Christ WB Slow your roll. The superhero genre isn't dying any time soon you don't need to rush them out. I understand Ben Affleck is on the fence about the DCEU and being Batman and they want to introduce the Bat family to replace Batfleck (The best part of the DCEU) asap but at least get through Justice League first. Also if Ben already feels over worked what makes you think having him so much as cameo in 3 other movies gonna convince him to stay on board? Also what is going on with Green Lantern? He's not in JL, his movie is the second to last but they have a writer and idea for it before half of the other films they plan to release before it?

So to summarize it WB shouldn't mess with the directors' ideas, give them time, plan out a solid movie slate, not just throw movies out there until they at least begin pre production, and STOP MILKING BATMAN. Personally if I were an executive at WB I'd have the DCEU take a year off to get organized. Now from my understanding they are listening to criticisms. JL Seems more light hearted and less 'pretentious' if you will, not spoiling the movie from the trailers, more consistency, and putting Geoff Johns as head of the DCEU but only time will tell if the DCEU will survive or if the're simply reboot it

I'm glad you made this. I'm a fan of both the MCU and the DCEU but it's still good to acknowledge the flaws. Especially these days where people can get so passionate when defending what they like that they can't admit it has flaws. I like BvS but I'm very aware it has problems (biggest being for a movie called Batman v Superman it has very little of the two even interacting with each other before their big fight).

The problem i have with DC films so far is that 1) they don't seem consistent, 2) a lot of lazy writing, which becomes obvious by the retarded choices made by the characters and the huge gaping plot holes, 3) its full of needless destruction porn and last, too much effort on making the movies grim and epic instead of light hearted and enjoyable. I mean, Watchmen was one of the very few REALLY WELL superhero flicks but its unbearable to watch more than twice. Its just too depressing (the lighting, the colors, the humor)

@thenoobstomper: lazy writhing and need for destruction porn and making everything grim and not fun? They're not lazy and every superhero movie or any big block buster action movie has destruction porn. Seen Avengers? X Men? Transformers? Independence Day? That's just a thing. I don't see the issue with a darker tone. Not everything has to be light hearted and bright. Hell even the best marvel movies are ones that are generally darker

I don't get why people keep calling DCEU dark and gritty. It's stylise, but dark filters do not make a film dark and gritty. I personally prefer CBMs to be stylised, I think it suits them (Sin City, Watchmen). If it was a romcom or something fair enough but these are CBMs. Plus it's something different to what Marvel is doing, who have no stylisation, just 'clean' footage. But no, everyone wants things to conform.

And now I hear that JL is going to be more lighthearted and humorous. Great.

Agreed.

Nice assessment. I Agree. The problem with the DCEU is Warner Bros. They rush their movies for that $$$ and they interfere with the director's wishes and creative path, and all that. They are also very unorganized and they don't really seem to have a real structure that works.

BTW, that Batman rumor with 4 Batman movies coming out this year has been debunked by a head of director or something.

Let me rephrase: 3) NEEDLESS destruction porn. You can't compare the Avengers with the MoS fights because the Avengers don't have the power to throw their enemies 10 miles away from any populated area. The New York fight was happening in a city, the side destruction was inevitable. But in MoS, in the final battle Superman keeps throwing and smashing Zod on buildings that are supposed to be full of people, like he thinks that it will somehow gonna hurt him. Same happened in BvS where when Superman returns from outer space he picks up Doomsday and drives him through all those fuel tankers that explode, which is again, needless because he should already know ITS NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING. Earlier in the same film, he keeps throwing Batman through walls and toilet rooms for what? He can literally neutralize him right then and there. You don't have this kind of situation in the Avengers, and when there is a lot of destruction there at least they try to minimize casualties in any way they can. As for the dark and grim thing. A film doesn't have to be full of jokes and happy faces for me to enjoy it. I enjoyed the Winter Soldier very much. But it has elements that make it enjoyable. It has some light, some color. Some likeable characters. Its not trying to be TOO dark. The plot involved the murder of 1 million people and total take over by HYDRA, and brought it out in a good manner. BvS takes itself too seriously with all the political crap and the dark lighting, like we have to believe that Clark actually cares about what people think of him when he never bothered to speak to any of them. We have Lex giving his speech about gods and demons and its fine to a point, i am like minded in a way, but we don't get to know the character a little better. The only attempt at exploring the depth of his character was his line about "nobody being there to protect me from daddy's fist when i was a child". And aside from that, i have already stated in another post that his plan made no sense.

@thenoobstomper: Superman doesn't throw Zod through buildings. The only direct destruction he caused was blowing Zod through some windows. The Avengers arguably cause more needless destruction than Superman. Even then the Avengers are veterans at this point unlike Superman where this is his second fight of his life. As for BvS Superman hoped it would at least slow Doomsday down and there was nobody around. In Avengers Hawkeye blows up Chitari that crash into buildings, Thor destroys one of those monsters that crash in a skyscraper where we see people inside it, Hulk in general, hell Stark directly leads some Chitari scouts through a parking garage that blow up. In AoU Iron Man fights Hulk in a populated street and doesn't try to lead Hulk back to the outskirts. In Civil War did Wanda really need to throw those cars through the building, Giant Man rip off the wing of the plane or Vision destroying the com tower to block off Captain America and Bucky? Another thing to consider the city was mostly evacuated by that point. The Krypotonians activated the world engine and most of the humans were out of the city so the only thing he's hurting is realtors wallets

I could say the same about BvS. Alfred cracks a lot of jokes with Bruce, some sentimental moments of Clark with Lois and Martha and some other points. Superman did try to interact with the humans at the court and after words when he was helping poeple out in the UE. Lex Luthor is easily more developed than every marvel villain combined. At times he basically spells it out that he has issue from his fathers abuse and why he hates Superman. I also don't see the problem with his plan

@thenoobstomper: also I doubt Superman knew those gas tanks were there

Avengers had an entire team to defend new york but supes was alone on his first day

@thenoobstomper: I also forgot to mention the BvS fight but he was a little angry at Batman after all the shit that was going on and just got his powers. It makes it more realistic. Do you really think those kinds of fights would happen without any destruction? That was the best part of the BvS fight. It was gritty and felt real and brutal. They weren't holding back and were throwing everything at each other. I don't see the issue with destruction porn especially since you're fine with the Avengers destroying cities

In BvS Superman grabs Batman twice before Batman even pulls out the gun, and instead of rendering his suit useless, he pushes him 100 feet away. For no reason. As for the destruction porn in Avengers, i specifically stated NEEDLESS destruction porn. And i said that the Avengers cannot BFR their opponents and drive them off the city. What could they do about the Chitauri on New York? Carry them one by one outside the city and then beat them up? Or in Sokovia? Most of the time there they were trying to evacuate the city and it took them so long that they actually did that a few minutes before the city reached the require altitude. Superman can literally drive Zod off the city and beat the crap out of him in any other place, but he doesn't really try. However he did try that on Doomsday when he caught him and took him to space. The airport scene in Civil War is also excused because 1) the airport is clearly said to have been evacuated 2) they have to create a diversion for Cap and Bucky to leave.

And to make my point clearer, by "destruction porn" i mostly mean fancy cinematic explosions and stuff getting broken to really tiny pieces. What do you think of Doomsday's new ability to "absorb energy" and then blow the whole square up? Cause i don't recall anything like that from the comics, but are Michael Bay wannabe called Snyder obviously thought it would be cool to have even more shit being destroyed. And last, Lex's plan didn't make any sense because he made Doomsday before the fight between Bats and Sups even began.Sure, Wonder Woman would eventually kill Doomsday but being in Luthor's head, i cant figure how he thought that was a good idea.

He punched Zod across the city's skyline without hitting any buildings and at one point took him up into space. You remember what happened next? Zod brought them both right back down into the city.

Zod was Superman's complete equal in terms of power and while not as in control of those powers as Clark, was quickly learning how to use them and already had several more years of combat experience than Clark did. There is no way Superman could handle Zod as easily as you're making it sound, especially when Zod specifically states that he's going to kill all the humans to get revenge on Clark for preventing his plan to bring back Krypton. He's not just after Clark. Zod wanted to destroy as much of what Superman cared about as possible.

@thenoobstomper:

The avengers barely stopped an army of fodder

@aros001:

>Zod was Superman's complete equal in terms of power and while not as in control of those powers as Clark, was quickly learning how to use them and already had several more years of combat experience than Clark did

Saying they're equals is even a bit generous. Zod was born for the sole purpose of being a warrior and trained from when he was a boy. Clark has lived his whole as a pacifist from Kansas. Zod is simply superior to Clark in every way and Clark only won because he had a very brief opening to grab Zod

A far better roast, as it aims its criticism at the DCEU and its creators, rather than at the "fanboys" that make up its admirers.

Lol, DCEU Sux, and their fanboys are salty

If you mean the Chitauri, of course they barely stopped them. However thats not lowballing them cause there was no way in hell they were gonna beat the entire Chitauri army if they all came through the portal. And "fodder" is a relative term. They had weaponry but the fact that they weren't specially trained, doesn't make them non dangerous. Hawkeye, Natasha and Steve would be the first to go down after a while had the portal not been closed, Tony soon after, eventually Thor would also fall and that would leave the Hulk alone raging his guts out and busting up space whales with no hope of actually saving the earth.

What a joke DC has become this gen. Nothing is worse. I'm thinking Affleck will make his leaving announcement soon.

CaptainSalt? Back so soon?

@thenoobstomper: i think the military would be able to take it. although new york would be destroyed. send a nuke at new york and all the current chitauri are dead and then a nuke up the portal.