Should Warners Give Up On A Justice League Movie?

I just don’t see why this writer has to be such a defeatist. First, he complains that a movie with ‘so many working parts’ would be difficult, when the Avengers just came out to prove that such a movie can be made. Then, he has to use Avengers as evidence that it cannot be done.
Look, any movie is difficult. The Avengers took a lot of time to make and I am positive there were other creative people who were going to be part of it and could not but it still worked. Heck, Marvel comics has had a history of making really bad movies (Howard the Duck, anyone?) before getting their act together.
Also, isn’t it a bit early to be a doomsayer? All that happened so far is that a script was written and the first person given it was Ben Affleck, who it looks like will turn it down. This is how Hollywood works, and I am positive he will not be the only person who gets to look at the script and decide if he or she wants to direct it. Yes, Joss Whedon is amazing, I thought it for years and am glad the rest of the world finally figured it out. But, he is not the only creative human being in Hollywood.
 

Headline = question no one was asking = Graeme McMillan! Not that there aren’t people who have said a lot of the things you’re saying here, but the leap from the story about a denial of a rumor of Ben Affleck’s involvement to an article titled Should Warners Give Up On A Justice League Movie is pure McMillan. The level of conjecture and crazy leaps in logic displayed in your articles approaches the sense of self parody, on the way to making really insightful points that no one else was debating to begin with. Not criticizing, your articles have carved out the most insane niche and it’s always interesting to see the next one reaffirm that.

Of course, the idea of launching a JL movie via a second sequel to a critically derided box office failure, possibly with zombies in it, is patently ridiculous, but the fact that you got there at all and made a case for it is impressive to witness. A lot of your points about how a Justice League movie would seem to be dead before it got off the ground make sense in theory, although it could also work the other way, where having already seen a good Avengers movie allows audiences to suspend disbelief and get excited about the “Batman and Superman in the same movie” of it all. Long enough for Warner to do everything they can to make a good movie, which I don’t think the Green Lantern movie and Superman trailer actually give us enough to fairly speculate about. Man I feel like I’m in the McMillan thought vortex. Good job!

The Nolan Batman movies were great, well written stories.  Now we move onto Superman (which Nolan and company are involved) and like Zack said “get his house in order, then we’ll see,” in talking about a JL movie.  We’ve not even seen a solid Wonder Woman yet, and frankly even though I enjoyed Green Lantern, most people did not.  We also have not even seen a Flash movie either.

I think if you want a solid JL movie that is on par with how well Avengers did, it’s not going to be the storyline that’s the problem as it will to have very good solid movies about at least 4 of the JL members before bringing JL to the screen IMHO.

I also read somewhere that the next Arkham game was going to be more a prequel that will be more of a JL game then just Batman and all of this was to begin to hype up and introduce the JL team.

I think this is all in the works in many ways, it just needs to be done right and maybe they are trying to figure that out on how to do it?

They should give up. DC characters are too lame.

“we have no idea whether or not Zack Snyder will be able to pull off a Superman movie that will make a whole new generation believe a man could fly”

Yet we have no problem with believing a man can turn into a giant green monster whenever he gets angry?

Is the Hulk a fair comparison to Snyder’s ability to direct? Because his directorial skill is up to debate.

Hells bells, NO!!!  Just ‘cuz Affleck bailed, doesn’t mean that WB should let Marvel Entertainment get the upper hand on them.

Make one movie before throwing in the towel.

Jeez, grow some balls, WB!

I thought killing the Australian made JL was a bad idea. It will take 3-5 years to set up origin films to set up a JL movie. Why not take a leadership position and spend 200-250 million and make the best JL movie you can make, then spinoff the characters. Right now Wonder Woman works better in the team versus a solo movie. Having the JL fight Darkseid is the way to go. Id like to John Stewart(especially how he was written in the cartoon) cause Im not keen on Hal Jordan. Also pick a new Batman now, so that by 2016 it can spin off into his own movie with the JL universe already established.  You could also have Shazam in the movie , and see how the public takes to him.  I think also Cyborg in the team like the 52 reboot would work well too. You can hire up-and-coming actors and get them to sign affordable contracts, because the money can be spent on FX and filming. Its the characters we want to see, not any particular actor/actress.. PS Id like to see Gina Carano as WW…I think it could work.

I agree with everything you had to say except about Howard the Duck because the movie was awesome! 

Aside from Watchmen, WB sucks at making superhero movies that even vaguely resemble the actual comic characters. The Batman movies are monster productions, but Batman works the shadows in tights, not in armor and tanks. I never saw Superman Returns because no one could successfully explain to me where he was retiurning from. Green Lantern….um …did they ever make this one?
I think WB needs to make some decent character movies (Wonder Woman, Aquaman,)guys  they haven’t ruined yet. Then try to make the big one. Marvel didn’t start w/the Avengers and they tried to fix the Hulk a couple of times before they put him in the Avengers.

Just my opinion.

Graham I disagree with your article what they should do isrelease the league movie first then the spin offs. Opposite to what marvel did it makes sense and if you saw the extended man of steel trailer from comic con you would have faith in superm abd the connection with modern day audiences

CBR, really don’t get their sources checked out. Dumb fucks

Who would want Ben Affleck to direct a JLA movie, anyway?  I mean, really?

I think what the author meant was that, right now, DC doesn’t even have the players.It took Marvel years of planning and five movies to prepare the stage for The Avengers. Over the course of those years and those movies, we got to know the characters. The Avengers wasn’t just about a bunch of people with powers who quickly got together to fight against something because of PLOT. And that’s what the JL movie is looking like, right now. DC has no established movie characters existing in the same universe. No continuity.A team-up movie is not a good place to introduce all the characters. JL should happen, but as a result, not as an entry point.

DCs challenge isn’t the same as Marvel’s, so their strategy shouldn’t be the same either. Marvel didn’t have mass name recognition of it’s biggest heros, so they had to build toward Avengers very methodically. The took their time and it worked brilliantly. DC on the other hand has the two most recognizable superheros in the world. The slow build would be a waste of their time. Putting Batman and Superman in the same film should be enough to have a hit. Make a JL movie, put those two front and center in the marketing, and use the film to re-introduce all of the other characters. It’s the reverse-marvel approach, which might seem riskier, but Batman and Superman are famous enough to make it work. As for a covert JL movie in the middle of another movie without calling them the Justice League? Silly. That plays into the worst instinct that comic movies in general have espoused over the years: fear of their own source material. Avengers proved that comic movies can be true to the source material and be ridiculously successful. I hope studios have now learned that they can call things what they are without people walking out of the theater.

It could be called The Super Friends. I’m just saiyain.

What a ridiculous article.

I think one of the problems with a Justice League movie is that the characters are so powerful that it would be a tough sale.Your average person is gonna say”Why does Superman need these guys?” or “Whats Batman contribute to a group like this?” Superman and WW would probably have to be depowered slightly like Thor was.

Do what marvel did make the solo super hero movies first see how they all do then make a damn JL movie

The Green Lantern mythos is a mess now. Thanks to Geoff Johns. The Blackest Night “event” was a creative disaster.

I’d reboot everything. Superman is already being released next year. Introduce a rebooted Batman (I’d use Snyder & Morrison as the screenplay writers, I think you need both types of batman), introduce Wonder Woman with a heavy Greek Mythology element exactly as seen in Azzarello’s Wonder Woman series and I’d introduce THE FLASH next has a scifi heavy character, John Stewart Green Lantern you have to separate green lantern from the 1st movie debacle (the Guardians should not be seen in the first movies at all).

DC needs to differentiate itself from the formula of Marvel’s movies. I’d really get Grant Morrison involved in the screenplays of all the movies because DC has to have an weird new approach to these types of movies. I’d also get Frank Quitely involved to help visualize the look of the movie. JLA EARTH 2 is one of the best Justice League stories EVER. 

DC’s superhero movies should STRONGLY exploit the PARALLEL UNIVERSE aspect of their comics’ universe. They can introduce this concept in the Superman sequel from the phantom zone technologies and wot not.

The first totally JLA movie should probably be a story involving APOKOLIPS. I’d make APOKOLIPS a PARALLEL EARTH ala Planetary #25. The villains should probably be as fleshed out as the heroes.  That’s one of the HUGE weaknesses of the Marvel movies, their villains’ stories are practically non-existent. 

The Flash movie can have Wally West or whomever the favorite Flash is at the time uses his speed force vibrator effect accidentally transport him to one of these parallel universes.

All this is just a rough road map for some really cool DC universe Motion Pictures!

A JLA movie if done right could be great. A movie about almost anything if done right could be potentialy great. And these are a great set of characters. At the very least as good as The Avengers.

Actually Marvel doesn’t have a history of making bad movies.  Unlike Warners/DC, licensed out it prorperties.  Marvel Studios didn’t begin self producing until 2005, which is why we now have the course of events to led to Avengers.

“to be honest…” “…to be honest” “to be brutally honest” Wow! What an honest guy.

i would like to see a J.L.A movie with no roll out, they could just have the league already assembled. Using that scenario the leaguers fomula of pairing up and investigating the threat would allow each member to get screen time and develope the characters in an organic way. The hollywood people could then see which characters resonate with audiences and develope solo films in between the inevitable J.L.A sequels. i feel this approach would work because of generations of fans and movie goers have already been exposed to these characters through various forms of media for decades at this point. Solo movies for various characters are difficult to turn into viable franchises because not all of our favorite heros have settings or rogues galleries that may connect with the live action film audiences and for D.C or Marvel it will only take 1 or possibly 2 for audiences to be turned away.

Iron Man 2 was as good as Green Lantern. The Incredible Hulk only did a little better than the Hulk which was deemed a financial failure by most. Captain America did OK box office, but not spectacular. Marvel Studios is by no means perfect.