Why the "Aquaman" and "Shazam!" movies could save the DCEU

"Wow, so funny! Sure you're not from the MARVEL universe?"

Which might be the point. Justice League was a crappy movie, but it was almost saved by the comic relief of Ezra Miller's Flash and the lighthearted edginess of Jason Momoa's Aquaman. With the Shazam! and Aquaman movies coming soon, as well as a Flash movie in development, it seems the DCEU may have a shift in tone.

It'll be funnier

Shazam! looks to be a comedy, while Flash and Aquaman were good sources of humor in Justice League. A bit of humor is the band-aid the DCEU needs to cover the wound created by Snyder.

It'll be lighter, and less dark

A Flash movie should have a light tone, while an Aquaman movie should neither be especially dark nor light. Shazam, meanwhile, could totally bring the DCEU into Marvel-esque territory.

So, what do you think? Can a bit of fun save the DCEU? Comment!

Yeah, I hope they could, JL was a disaster.

What's wrong with Aquaman being dark?

this

mcu casual fans only like light stuff or its trash

@lan_fan: FINALLY. Someone agrees that it was awful!

@the_living_tribunal_24: Wrong. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of my favorites, and it's a very serious movie.

Agreed. By the time Aquaman comes out, Justice League and Batman v Superman will feel like distant memories; as long as Warner Bros. gets their act together, they can draw a lot of people back into the franchise.

One thing the DCEU does seem to do well is solo movies. Sure Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League all had issues, but what movies were great? Man of Steel and Wonder Woman, their two solo movies. They may not be able to work crossovers and team-ups, but they sure as heck know how to do a solo movie, and their next 3 movies will all be solo movies.

The serious DCEU was better...campy humor ruins the verse for me and makes it into the Arrowverse all over again.

@solar_nerd: im not saying you, Im talking about the casual masses that know nothing about cm and bring all the money in, they're like at least 90% of the viewer base, they go online and watch videos from someone like comicbookcast and other people and get swayed to the point they wont like anything fox/sony/dc related even if isnt cbm related.

@the_living_tribunal_24: Daredevil season one had Fisk decapitate someone with a car door. It's also considered one of the best written live action Marvel properties to date. And as another poster said, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is also beloved by mcu fans. The DCEU struggled early on by trying so hard not to be like Marvel, they made their films dark for the sake of angst. They didn't have enough levity to balance out the grim nature they were going for and it came across as gratuitous. I've always said that the Fox X Men universe was the absolute best at striking the balance of having dark content but not letting it get overwhelming. DC has gotten better over the years; Wonder Woman being that perfect balance imo, but early on, it did come across as the movie equivalent of an angsty scene kid going through a phase.

DCEU will be even worse with light-hearted comedy.

They should continue to be dark, that's the thing that made MOS, BVS (ultimate edition), and WW good ?

I'd like it if DCEU movies were still serious, just less dreary than Snyder's films. A little humor can work as long as they don't overdo it. In general though, they also need way better scripts.

@deviseddream: Yeah, serious and depressing are two different things.

They will both be good and go a long way in repairing the damage.

Both will be trash like the rest of the DCEU dumpster ?

If Shazam, Aquaman and Wondy 2 are going to have good ratings, word of mouth and overall buzz, there's no reason to assume not.

They are unburdened by the complexities of life.

i have a feeling shazam will kinda suck

almost saved by the comic relief of Ezra Miller's Flash and the lighthearted edginess of Jason Momoa's Aquaman.

I don't know, man, those might've been my two least favorite parts of Justice League

Good stuff

For me, DCEU is dead right now.

I'm not gonna change my opinion unless the upcoming movies are good and I don't like mindless campy movies.

DC movies should remain serious and gritty. That will lend them a trademark of their own.

No way any of these movies are going to be good.

Ezra Miller is one of the worst live action comic book portrayals of all time

but it was almost saved by the comic relief of Ezra Miller's Flash

Probably the worst part of JL.

Honestly, the reason JL was such a bust was because they didn't have the balls to follow through. I mean, they already divided the audience in those who love them and those who hate them. It is IMPOSSIBLE for them to gain over those who hate them. They should DOUBLE DOWN on the dark and gritty and keep at it. I mean, BVS was polarizing, but it still made a lot of money. That shows that there is an audience for dark and gritty superhero movies.

@marvelanddcfan24: Along with Jesse Eisenberg and imo Henry Cavil

@solar_nerd said:

"Wow, so funny! Sure you're not from the MARVEL universe?"

Which might be the point. Justice League was a crappy movie, but it was almost saved by the comic relief of Ezra Miller's Flash and the lighthearted edginess of Jason Momoa's Aquaman. With the Shazam! and Aquaman movies coming soon, as well as a Flash movie in development, it seems the DCEU may have a shift in tone.

It'll be funnier

Shazam! looks to be a comedy, while Flash and Aquaman were good sources of humor in Justice League. A bit of humor is the band-aid the DCEU needs to cover the wound created by Snyder.

It'll be lighter, and less dark

A Flash movie should have a light tone, while an Aquaman movie should neither be especially dark nor light. Shazam, meanwhile, could totally bring the DCEU into Marvel-esque territory.

So, what do you think? Can a bit of fun save the DCEU? Comment!

There is nothing wrong with humor. In fact, humor makes any movie better, because a large percentage of people joke around in every day life and it feels more real for people to make occasional jokes in movies. That said, Shazam is looking to possibly be a straight out comedy (as opposed to an action movie infused with comedy), which is rarely a really good thing in the era we are in of everything needing to feel over the top. I have a very strong feeling that the film is going to feel a lot like Tom Hank's Big, where a child got stuck in the body of a man, and was played for serious laughs. I really doubt that I will like Shazam.

@handofprometheus: nah I think Eisenburg could be good in another roll I think he could have been a really good riddler in the right setting and Cavill would be a good Superman as hes a decent actor and looks exactly like Superman but his writing and direction have been shit

Look at Gal Gabot she's not a great actress but did well in her movie and roll because of good writing and direction ignoring justice league

Batman vrs Superman could have been the worst big budget movie ever made and it still would have made above $275M at the domestic box office, because it was the first Batman AND Superman twin billed movie and people are going to go see it just to see those two battle. If the movie had been anywhere near the quality of Captain America or Avengers movies it would have made $450M domestically easily. $330M (considering the caliber of heroes in the title) was fairly close to a failure.

So the only way for DCEU to succeed is to emulate the MCU?

Justice League was a crappy movie, but it was almost saved by the comic relief of Ezra Miller's Flashand the lighthearted edginess of Jason Momoa's Aquaman.

No it wasnt, The Flash was one of the worst thing about Justice League.

“Tone” was never the problem, at least not for me anyways, I rather enjoy the Warner’s darker approach to CBM’s than Disney’s, gives us consumers a bit of options and doesn’t flood the market with same style films...no.. the problem is Warner’s interfering and not allowing there directors and writers do their thing they are paying them for in the first place, and flocking up the end result. This provides no consistency (for good movies). Awful marketing ain’t helping anything either, particularly for Justice League. When they leave sh!t be we get good stuff like a Man of Steel, BvS: Ult Edition and Wonder Woman. When they get too “handsy” we get crap like Suicide Squad and Justice League.

I keep hoping they learn their lesson but their last movie has not provided me personally with any confidence whatsoever. I mean, I’ll be there for Aquaman but I’m hoping for the best, and expecting the worse and it just shouldn’t be that way.

either way they're both going to suck so ???

Well, not quite so, it is true that Marvel raised the bar seriously, but bringing in those numbers was always considered incredible. But, my point is that a lot of people really enjoyed BVS. A lot didn't and i accept that, but the movie had following. And, if they went on to make dark and gritty movies, but corrected the issues they had with plot and pacing of the movie, they would have a much better franchise than a discount Marvel flick machine.

but it was almost saved by the comic relief of Ezra Miller's Flash

Ezra's Flash was one of the worst things about that movie...

I don't think the problem was the tone. I think it was the crappy writing. It had no idea what theme or message it was trying to tell. If it were written like say game of thrones it would probably be an understood masterpiece.

Such optimism in this thread.

@jakefuryv2: That's strong coming from Godspeed.

@solar_nerd: lol

@solar_nerd: I'm hoping that this statement was true though. I hope we can get better DCEU movies after JL

Like Wonder Woman before Justice League destroyed everything again?

I have no trust in WB anymore.

i think a red lion solo movie (similar to black panther) could save them commercially.

I think that the DCEU needs to find the perfect balance of seriousness and humor, similar to what the MCU has done. Winter Soldier was a very serious movie, but it had humor at appropriate times, like the scene on the escalator with Steve and Natasha, etc. One thing I don't like about the DCEU is the horrible lighting. It's always very dark, and makes much of the action hard to see. I know it goes with the dark theme/undertone, but seriously, can someone find a light switch?!

Aquaman's massive Chinese opening is a great sign for the movie and the franchise as a whole. If it does as well in the rest of the world as it does in China (which I don't see any reason why it wouldn't), we're easily talking about an $800 million or more movie.

a movie being dark or light does not matter. The Dark Knight and Logan are dark movie but are still praised.

The problem with DCEU is that their movie are bad.

I just hope Aquman and Shazam are better than the previous DCEU movies