The DCEU Should Learn From 20th Century Fox

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"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.

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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I agree with most of everything. I’ll just say I personally don’t mind these different interpretation of the DCEU characters: A Superman/Clark not widely accepted by the world and stumbling trying to find his way, an older more extreme Batman/Bruce that has been through Hell during his many years crime fighting and a Diana that had perhaps lost faith in humanity but inspired to return to save man. These different views on these classic characters provide more growth and potential great storytelling, other than the same ol’stuff we typically get with them.

As far as continuity is concerned, I’m with you to an extent. It shouldn’t be the end-all be-all, but I don’t think it can be ignored either, especially for world building in a cinematic world. FOX has made some huge mistakes with that imo. I for the life of me couldn’t put the XMEN/Wolverine solos in order correctly if you paid me money. I think continuity can still be implemented without having write stories where it’s a crutch on the director or writers. Not everything needs to be a piece to some huge mega event that’s coming later down the road, but things/events can still be referenced and chronicalized so we know these characters all exist in the same space. I think this is where the DCEU is headed, or at least I hope it is.

I can agree with a good amount of this. One advantage I think the DCEU can have over the XCU going forward is the greater number of characters it has and that not all of them have to come from or tie into the Justice League like most of Fox's characters have to tie back to the X-Men, so they might have more freedom and not have to map out a universe so much in their films.

While Justice League certainly had its fair share of problems, it and Wonder Woman seem to show that the DCEU is making the effort to fix their biggest flaw, which is their characters. The DCEU does a good job at making the characters feel important and grand, but with not much going for the characters themselves and what they are like or why we should care beyond "because they are important". In Justice League, I loved all the characters! I can't wait to see them again. That's honestly what I feel has been the MCU's biggest strength, that we get attached to their characters. Even after two disappointing Thor films, people were still really excited for Thor Ragnarok because they really liked Thor and Loki (and Hulk, who also had two disappointing movies).

Same can now kind of be applied to the DCEU. I heard people saw that their only interest in JL was just to see Wonder Woman again because of how much they'd grown to love that character. Even if someone didn't like Man of Steel or BvS, I can still see them watching JL and going "Holy crap, where was THIS Superman this whole time?! I can't wait to see this Superman in his own solo!"

Thankfully, with the next few DCEU movies on the list, such as Aquaman, Shazam, and Wonder Woman 2, we'll finally and hopefully be getting a break away from the team movies that are dragging down on the franchise and be focusing more on the characters themselves and their small slice of the world. Notice how Zod and Ares are the best villains the DCEU has right now? Because they're in movies that have time to focus on them for a bit and where their presence is felt throughout the entire film?

I'm pretty sure the only reason they don't cut losses and reboot is because Wonder Woman can be a succesful franchise. So we'll see how it goes.

@k4tzm4n: Despite the fact I found Logan overrated (but still good) and think The New Mutants is going to suck major a**, this is a great post. You hit the nail on the head about these movies needing to be more considered with character. The most critically succesful, beloved DCEU film is also the one most focused on the essence of the character, and that is Wonder Woman. That's why Deadpool and Logan were good.

WB: Slow down, focus on the character instead of trying to play catch up, because there isn't any hope for you catching up anyway. Just slow down and make focused, character-driven films. Make Aquaman about a guy who is struggling to take leadership, but has to. Get the audiences (myself included) to understand Aquaman and get on his side. If the movie is good, we're gonna want to see more without you pulling forced cameos, easter eggs and teases out of your ass.

@theamazingspidey: Thank you.

they can learn some things, but X-Mens last team up movie(Apocalypse) wasn't exactly top notch and the villain in Logan was completely forgettable

Of course, I'm not saying "do everything that 20th Century Fox is doing," you know? Just the focus on character over universe and not holding directors back. I think that's very important for WB/DC right now. I also did briefly address Apocalypse in the article.

@k4tzm4n: ah I see, I'm a little distracted right now so I didn't read the whole thing, but yeah, they need to do what they recently said they're doing and be more creator driven, allowing the director to complete their vision(I still want Zack Snyder to finish a cut of JL)

@mrnoital: No worries. Really hoping they move forward with Gareth Evans' Deathstroke and give him total freedom...

@k4tzm4n: oh yeah, I forgot he wanted to do that

yeah they should really do that

Good read, miss the days you were staff

I hope so.

Thanks, I had a great time writing for CV.