The first thought: It’s tricky. Obviously, Marvel has provided a blueprint on how to create a blockbuster film that acts both as a standalone film and as a sequel to numerous other standalone films featuring the origins of the cast of your current movie (so that you don’t have to spend the first ten hours of your two-hour movie just explaining who everyone is.) They’ve shown not just that it can be done, but that you can structure the contracts to retain (almost all of) your cast and have a strong studio involvement to keep things consistent from film to film while still attracting A-list directors with unique personal styles (like Branagh, Joe Johnston and Joss Whedon.) But Marvel had a big advantage that DC doesn’t: They hadn’t made a whole bunch of movies already before coming up with the idea.
DC, on the other hand, has a high-profile Batman trilogy that isn’t even wrapped up yet, one which establishes an internally consistent mythos for the character that doesn’t involve any other superheroes. It’d be difficult to imagine Nolan and Bale’s Batman standing on the same screen with Green Lantern and Superman, even if it seemed likely that Bale would return to the role (which it doesn’t.) They have a Superman franchise whose most recent movie has been more or less entirely disavowed by the studio despite positive reviews and box-office success. And they have a Green Lantern movie that woefully underperformed both financially and critically. The Superman reboot that could serve as the beginning of a hypothetical Justice League launch is coming this year, but it’s anyone’s guess whether Warner Brothers had gotten its act together sufficiently by the time Man of Steel went into production to be able to think of their comics properties in these terms. (I have insisted, and will continue to insist, that the reason Marvel’s films have done so well while DC’s have done so poorly is because Marvel is in a position to be able to dictate terms to the studio, while DC is ultimately just “the hired help” at Warner Brothers.)
So the first thought ultimately leads to the second: There’s gonna be a lot of rebooting going on. Two of your three core members (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) need a new movie to establish themselves as part of the DC Movie Universe, and one of your second-tier members has a stinker that needs to be swept under the rug (a la Ang Lee’s Hulk.) How do you handle this?
You start by ignoring it. You’ve got an Aquaman movie, a Wonder Woman movie, a Green Arrow movie and a Flash movie to make. By the time you get through those four films, there’s a pretty good chance that you can go back and do a soft reboot of Green Lantern that isn’t so obviously an admission that the previous film tanked. Then, with five films under your belt, you can go in and do your Justice League film.
“Wait, what, five?” I hear you say? “What about Batman? What about Superman? What about the Martian Manhunter?” But honestly, I don’t think you need a movie to establish Batman and Superman before putting them in a JLA film. Batman and Superman are, at this point, such iconic characters with such iconic origins that babies practically come out of the womb knowing that Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed and he was inspired by a bat to fight evil. The last thing we need, pardon my mild frustration, is yet another goddamn retelling of the origin of Batman and Superman. (You can see how excited I am for the Man of Steel movie, aren’t you?) Just mention them from time to time in the other films, establish that they exist, and then throw them in the final flick.
As to the Martian Manhunter, he’d be filling the Nick Fury role on the DC end. He’d appear in all of the different movies, talking to the different heroes about how he’s getting them together to face a larger threat, one that he knows about as a telepathic space alien. (Maybe even one that killed off the Martian race…) This would link the various heroes together, whet interest for later films, and give audiences time to get used to the Martian Manhunter, who is definitely something of a legacy from a very different age of science fiction and comics.
So who would the villain be? Actually, surprisingly enough, I’d pick Libra. Go back to his original roots, where he was a supervillain attempting to steal the powers of the entire Justice League, and give a tip of the hat to his recent role in ‘Final Crisis’ by a) having him do so in order to better prepare Earth for the coming of Darkseid, and b) having him recruit a passel of henchmen to help him out. Then, in the Justice League movie, you pull a big surprise at the end…in the third act, after he steals the powers of Superman and the Flash and Green Lantern and seems pretty much unstoppable, you find out that the Martian Manhunter’s been recruiting a lot more than just the heroes who have movies. The final battle would have cameos by dozens of superheroes, from Zatanna to Black Canary to the Elongated Man to Steel to everyone who you haven’t gotten the rights to, all dogpiling on Libra and his Secret Society. In the end, Libra overloads himself absorbing everyone’s powers and blows up (a la his original appearance…) but the greater threat is still out there.
But all that, of course, assumes that Warner Brothers is interested in replicating Marvel’s success, something which has never been particularly clear from their actions. Certainly, it’s hard to believe that the people who made ‘Batman and Robin’ are interested either in making money or in bringing joy to the lives of others.
Related Articles
63 users responded in this post
There will never be an Aquaman movie (but I can dream).
What there might be is a Superman, a Wonder Woman, a Flash, and a GL 2. Maybe Batman again by that point. Then Justice League, which should be a more or less straight adaptation of Morrison’s first arc and include Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter, to spin off into their own things if successful.
Um, wow. So you think DC basically just copy Marvel’s films? That sounds like a terrible idea, particularly since Marvel ripped off what happened to Libra for the Cap flick.
Speaking of terrible:
“They have a Superman franchise whose most recent movie has been more or less entirely disavowed by the studio despite positive reviews and box-office success.”
I’m shocked that you’re right about critical opinion, but if the film was a success, Warner would have ignored bitching fanboys and made Superman Returns Again.
@ Joe Gualtieri
Batman and Robin was technically a box office success as it made money, but it’s post-release reputation is what killed off any further movies in the Burton-Schumacher Batman universe (well, that and they gave Batman a credit card).
The hate that came out after Superman Returns seems to have scared WB from continuing from it.
I like for the most part the idea behind your Justice League movie. Not having new origin stories for two of the DC “big three” may be somewhat problematic, though.
There have been quite a few Batman and Superman films, and I think people are going to want to know what kind of Batman or Superman they’re getting [i.e. realistic and gritty, true to the comics, etc].
I suppose the parallel for this and the Avengers would be the Hulk, who I consider very different from his first two film appearances. And I consider him one of the big guns and audiences loved him, so what do I know.
One of DC’s great difficulties with its live-action superhero films is that they’ve suffered greatly by comparison to the animated treatments of the characters — both via television and the more recent direct-to-DVD features. And this is a problem that any Justice League movie is going to have in spades.
For that reason — and because I tend to agree with Joe above about the logistics — I’d be inclined to approach a live-action JL project from almost the exact opposite direction.
I’d plan the film as a means of (potentially) launching a bunch of solo franchises rather than capstoning them. I’d look mostly to new (to film) and second-string characters, a la the period in JLA history (late ’80s, wasn’t it?) where Guy Gardner was the League’s GL, we were introduced to Vixen and Gypsy and Vibe, and the Booster Gold/Blue Beetle chemistry first clicked. And I’d link to the major DC characters by having Supes or Batman as the apparent villain of the piece, so that the rookie League has to go up against one of its icons in order to prove itself. It will, of course, turn out that Supes/Bats has been cloned/brainwashed/duped, but it’s a useful plot for this sort of team-up movie.
This has some additional commercial advantages on the back end. You don’t need an A-list cast, for the most part, and since this is a launchpad project, you will cast a new actor as Supes or Bats for the JL’s cinemaverse. And you can set up the contracts to keep the franchises you do launch at least somewhat affordable where actors’ salaries are concerned.
On the creative side, you can start with a reasonably clean slate and cherry-pick characters more or less freely from DCU continuity. And there is enough animated League material out there that — even though you’re going to build the live-action League as a brand new franchise — you can promote general familiarity with the League by re-releasing that material, augmented with teases of the new live project.
Most important, you don’t need to make the live movie an origin story. In a world/setting where superheroes are commonplace, a story about a group of heroes doesn’t need an origin any more than a story about kids in a Scout troop needs to be about how the Scouting organization was formed.
I’d start with a Justice League movie, split out a few solo movies, and then rejoin them again with a second JL movie.
Most of the characters that you would want on the Justice League don’t need a big backstory — everyone knows the origins of Batman and Superman, and beyond that, do we really need to know much more about them then the Flash is very fast, Green Lantern has a glowy ring? Wonder Woman is a bit harder, admittedly.
In fact, I’d skip the origin story of the JL as much as possible. The DC Universe isn’t filled with dark, moody heros who don’t get along, so there’s no reason that they wouldn’t have worked together in the past, although maybe not in this grouping.
It’s a lot of hero characters, so the villain has to be fairly straightforward. Bringing in Darkseid and Apokolypse would be a mistake.
So, Gorilla Grodd. Hyper-intelligent, telepathic gorilla, leading an advanced civilization of gorillas. It’s easy enough to explain — if you need an explanation, you have no sense of fun.
Spin off movies feature villains each of whom have picked up some unusual bit of gorilla technology and are using it for nefarious purposes. The Superman movie would have Lex Luthor noting that gorilla fingers are much to large for some of these buttons, and following movies start foreshadowing Darkseid.
Origins for characters can be told as flashbacks where needed, or at the beginning of the single hero movies as if it were a short film before the feature.
The second JL movie has all the heroes well defined by that point, so they can take the time to develop a larger set of villains — Darkseid, Granny Goodness, etc.
@Joe Gualteri: Hmm, let’s see. The Avengers has already made a billion dollars. (That’s “billion”, with a b…on top of what the previous five blockbusters have made.) DC/Warner is literally the only other group of people in existence with a chance at replicating that success. Do I think they should try doing that? …nah, you’re probably right. Financial success is for chumps. 🙂
As to the financial success of ‘Superman Returns’…$391 million worldwide on a $209 million budget. (Technically it wound up being $263 million, but that’s because they wound up counting the production costs on the unmade Tim Burton/Nicholas Cage version as expenses on ‘Returns’.) Those are definitely good numbers. It seems mostly to have fallen victim to studio politics; the president of the studio and the president of production didn’t like it, and their opinions count for a hell of a lot more than “bitching fanboys” when it comes to greenlighting a sequel.
I think this is the wrong way to do it. The key point for me is how the old JLA comics used to go. First, a threat is identified, and the JLA assembles to deal with it. They split up and the individual members fight the threat. They each have difficulties, so in the final act they band together and give it a proper whomping. I think that’s the right pattern for the JL movie as well.
Start with the first movie, Justice League: Secret Origin. After an opening with Aquaman that I’ll tell you about some other time (that will serve to kick the “what kind of a power is talking to fish?” critics firmly in the arse) it focuses on the POV character for this movie: Iris West. She’s a reporter following a story in Central City, home of the brand-new media darling superhero, The Flash. She convinces him it’s big, but it’s an alien threat, and he has no idea how to deal with it. He works out a way to track energy signatures, but instead picks up Green Lantern, John Stewart, operating in secret in New York. After the usual mistaken identity fight they team up. John tries contacting the Guardians, but can’t reach them. They try to find Superman, but he’s missing. Now Iris does some investigating of her own, and talks to her “deep throat” contact in the Denver police, “J”. We get the usual mistaken identities, mysterious intruders that turn out to be good guys (for example: why is there a whole bunch of human life signs at the bottom of the ocean? Oh yeah…) and the big reveal that the Batman has been tracking all this for ages and is one step ahead, and already has Wonder Woman on side but needed other superheroes to figure it out so they’d come to him. In the end, the threat is revealed: a coalition of alien races led by the Dominators. They’re planning to invade, and they already have Superman imprisoned in an impenetrable Starlag.
Now the heroes split up and have their own movies for the next two years: Flash, Manhunter, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. All are dealing with the rise of super villains powered, advised and coordinated by the invasion force. Secret origins for these heroes are presented in flashback style if at all, because the point is that these are ongoing stories. This has to resist the temptation to tweak all the heroes’ origins to be from some specific source (like the meteor rocks powering every single hero and villain in Smallville‘s early seasons) because that’s horribly un-DC.
Finally, we finish with the true team-up movie: Justice League: Invasion. This is where the heroes gather together and deal with the invasion once and for all, gathering up other heroes they’ve each met along the way. The final JL roster is huge, with the traditional seven at the core.
Then if you want a sequel, they start here: Justice League: The Dark Side when Apocalypse attacks (somewhat more impressively than the pitiful final season of Smallville) and Justice League: Crisis when we get to explore the multiverse (and Flash dies, setting up Wally West for Flash III while we’re at it).
The strength of the DC universe is the sheer number of vibrantly different heroes and villains, not all mutants and secret organisations like in Marvel. They need to draw on that, and make a whole multiverse of characters. Lots of cameos, lots of in-jokes, but plenty to make people say “hey, I’d watch the hell out of a movie about X”, where X = Plastic Man or Icon or Zatanna or the Atom or whatever. A bit like people are saying about Black Widow and Hawkeye now, in fact.
I agree with John C. Bunnell. Avengers stories are about members of the Avengers; Justice League stories are about the Justice League. The entire reason superheroes wear brightly colored costumes is so that you don’t need to introduce them – even if an audience member has never heard of the Flash, all you have to do is show the Flash in costume doing something heroic, and that audience member is ready to go. There’s no need for backstory because there are plenty of great Justice League stories that have nothing to do with any of the members’ backstories.
Gustopher, I’m impressed how close your idea is to mine, given that you hadn’t posted it when I started writing. Parallel evolution, like Krypton and Daxam.
I think Invasion is the way to go for the first big threat though. Lots of aliens, lots of interesting powers and angles (Durlans, Daxamites, Psions…) and lots of opportunity to stretch our heroes in different ways. It’s a major storytelling engine right there.
I honestly don’t think they’ll be able to pull off a Justice League movie. I mean, with the exception of Nolan’s Batman films Warner/DC’s efforts have had badly mixed results at best and they’d NEED to fix that before even thinking about doing something like the combo series Marvel has made.
I definitely agree that it’s a result of their relative levels of control over the material: Marvel’s managed to pull this all together because it’s all Marvel property being handled by their own studio. Licensing to Warner means that they’re handling everything at one remove, and that means that they just don’t have either the finesse or the control they need to make something like the Avengers work.
business wise – how did Marvel end up in this good position and DC end up so screwed. Did Disney have something to do with it? Don’t follow this sort of thing well enough to have a clue how it all came to be.
“how did Marvel end up in this good position and DC end up so screwed”
Look at the studios that have distributed the different Marvel movies — Fox, Universal, Paramount… Look at the studio that has distributed DC movies: Warner Brothers, period.
Marvel has been able to start by finding individual movie producers & directors who grok a particular character, and have them make the movie. They don’t care which studio those producers are associated with.
DC is owned by Warner, so they are forced to put up with whatever producers & directors get assigned to a movie project by WB, regardless of whether that person groks the character in question or not. This is not a recipe for success.
The short answer, Bryan, is that Warner Bros have owned DC for ages, and Disney only bought Marvel a couple of years ago. So Marvel used to sell their properties (X-Men and F4 with Fox, Spidey with Sony), and then formed Marvel Studios to basically just do it for themselves with a solid degree of creative control.
Warner Bros, on the other hand, have owned DC since… sort of since 1969, if my Wiki-ing is right – the company that bought DC merged with Warner, lots of confusing corporate stuff. So every DC movie that’s come out, more or less, since Superman, has been under Warner’s thumb.
What that means is that Kevin Feige, who’s been at Marvel since 2000, has been able to steer all of these smaller films towards Avengers (OK, Iron Man wasn’t a “small” film, but in the context of Avengers it’s tiny), and is able to say to the directors “hey, look, we’d really like you to try and point Iron Man towards this” or “Howard Stark would be a nice character, wouldn’t he?”.
Warner, on the other hand, don’t care as much. Well. I’m sure they care, but they don’t have someone involved who has a degree of control; if Warner want to make a Batman movie they’re making a Batman movie, regardless of what DC think they should do. So it makes co-ordinating something like a Justice League movie a whole load harder.
I started this with “short answer”, didn’t I?
[…] And once again mightygodking solves Hollywood’s problems, free of charge. Share this:EmailFacebookRedditTwitterTumblrMoreStumbleUponDiggPrintLinkedInLike […]
I agree that we don’t need any sort of origin reboot for Batman, but I think one is overdue for Superman.
Outside of the fandom, he often has a reputation for being dated and bland. People know the basics of his origin, but not the character those basics build into. People knew the basics of Batman’s origin as well, but “Batman Begins” framed him as a person in a way no Batman film had before.
The last time a movie really got into Superman’s origin was over thirty years ago, and it skipped the core element of the character: that Superman wasn’t forced to be a hero by trauma or circumstance, he CHOSE to be a hero because he believed it was right. Donner’s Superman has him leave home, build the Fortress, and hang out in a freaky trance until it’s time to be Superman. It ignores the whole “coming to the conclusion that being a superhero is the right thing” step. All the alter movies referenced his origin in context of that one, and while a few TV shows re-did his origin not all of them were good and they didn’t leave as big a cultural impression.
Mind you, while another Superman origin film doesn’t bother me too much I’m not exactly excited for the new movie. I’m sure Snyder will provide good action and mostly competent film-making (though the slow-mo/fast-mo stuff will get old in a hurry) but I question whether he has the subtlety to really get across Superman’s core appeal.
I like Seavey’s approach here, with a few caveats:
1) Green Arrow really isn’t needed, and with the upcoming Arrow tv series a separate Green Arrow film seems unlikely.
2) Don’t ignore Superman and Batman in the process, just don’t worry about rebooting the characters. Skip straight ahead to a World’s Finest team-up movie with the two characters, with some nods to the previous films to acknowledge that these are indeed continuations from said films, even if they have different actors (and if the Nolan fanboys get pissy about Batman now actually existing in a superhero universe, well, tough shit).
3) Martian Manhunter should indeed be the tying link between the various films, although it probably shouldn’t be obvious at first. He is, after all, a shapeshifter.
I always thought the best way to go would be to keep the first one to a ‘Trinity’ movie. No origins, throw in a few small cameos of the rest of the founders maybe and end the movie with either an impending escalated threat that will require a larger group, or just simply the big three realising that they barely triumphed and they should bring more people in. Get Bruce Timm involved somehow, and shutup and take my money.
I don’t think that DC should even bother making an Aquaman movie if they want to make a Justice League movie universe. They should do what The Avengers did with Ant Man; pretend he doesn’t exist.
I’m not saying that an Aquaman movie would be inherently bad because it’s about Aquaman, just that it would be far to difficult to pull off to be worth it. Think about it, Aquaman is easily the most ridiculed superhero in popular culture, with countless “what kind of power is talking to fish” and Superfriends jokes. Flash and Martian Manhunter are relatively unknown to the popular culture, and can therefore be introduced fresh. People walking into an Aquaman movie on the other hand already have a negative image of him. A Justice League movie project would be difficult enough without having to fight the uphill battle of making Aquaman cool in the eyes of the average moviegoer.
… not to mention the logistics involved in a live-action Aquaman movie and trying to sell people on the whole undersea kingdom of Atlantis thing.
Maybe if they went with the Golden Age “explorer gets powers from old machine that still works” origin, but then people would be left feeling betrayed or annoyed because they didn’t get something like the Silver Age version or the Peter David version.
You and I have greatly different conceptions of the meaning of the word “Joy”, Mister Bird.
*Dammit, only just read the author. Mister SEAVEY.
I would love for Aquaman to appear at the beginning of the movie, learn of the threat, tell the rest of the JL that when they need someone who can talk to fish, let him know, and then show up at the end and solve the problem through cleverness, and maybe his ability to withstand pressure changes, see well in the dark, or withstand cold (the bottom of the ocean is a harsh place).
Or stab someone with his hook, while quipping that he has a mean left hook.
But…
Marvel’s working on an Ant Man movie.
And, despite Edgar Wright being in charge, it seems like it’ll be Big Science Action! instead of a parody of the character.
It will probably be really good.
It ought to be observed that Marvel’s film efforts haven’t always been as successful as the present cinemaverse suggests. (Recall the couple of really amateurish tries at Captain America and Thor, for instance, and the mostly forgettable Spider-Man TV series.)
That said, there is one key point of divergence between the Marvel filmverse and DC’s live-action efforts. DC keeps making movies about single characters in their own solo universes. Marvel is making movies set in a comic-book universe where superheroes are an integral part of the world. Which one of these better rr-creates the atmosphere of comic-book storytelling?
I thought so….
I don’t think Nolan’s Batman is incompatible with a larger JL film. Just make sure he was the first guy to put on a costume and the rest sprouted up later. Hell, he’d make a great everyman POV in a world of aliens and Gods.
@Bret: That’s cool, but Marvel still waited to get everyone immersed in the concept of Norse gods, super soldiers, and giant green rage machines running around together before they tried to sell people on the guy who shrinks and talks to ants. If DC does want Aquaman in a JL movie, they should wait until everyone is situated.
Personally, I think that an Edgar Wright Ant Man will rock. That guy knows geekdom well.
I don’t think DC/Warners can make a JL movie at this point, at least not in any way based on the Avengers model. The Avengers relies on a pre-established shared movie universe, which DC does not (and, I think at this point can not) have. Even doing it in reverse order, with a JL movie establishing the shared universe that then spins off solo movies, isn’t going to work.
Well, ok, no. I’m wrong. It could work, but the only way to make it work is if the JL exists in a world without Superman and Batman. Neither franchise is in any state to allow them to be part of a shared universe, and if you make JL out of continuity with those franchises and recast the characters, you kill the whole shared universe idea.
So, for the JL movie, you have Wonder Woman as the central character, add the rest of the “Big 7” (minus Supes and Bats, obviously, but maybe use John Stewart for GL to a: appeal to everyone who grew up with the cartoon b: add a little diversity to the team and c: distance the JL movie from the GL movie), and then you could spin everyone off into their own movies. You could even loosely tie the John Stewart movie to the Hal Jordan movie if you really want, but, honestly, I agree that GL could use a Hulk-style reboot.
All that being said, I think anything DC does at this point with regard to the JL is going to seem like bandwagon jumping.
Even though Aquaman is one of the original founding members of the JL, I don’t think he can translate well into film medium.
The thing we gotta remember about how Marvel built up to this huge successful Avengers movie: rather than waste an hour building up hero origins, they went for a more prolonged (and slightly more profitable) approach of having each of the major Avengers – Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Cap – have their own separate origin films. They started with Iron Man to test the waters and rebooted Hulk because of the missed opportunities of the Ang Lee version. When those proved successful they could then green-light Thor and Captain, using the Iron Man sequel as stepping stones to those two characters. Basically, they started with a wanted end-result (huge Avengers film) and worked their way backward to origin films that were successful in their own right.
For JL, the franchise is kinda halfway there: everyone knows – or ought to know – how Superman and Batman got to where they are. You don’t need origin films for either: the 1978 classic and the Nolan trilogy should be sufficient. What DC needs to do now is get that damn Wonder Woman movie we’ve been waiting on for 20+ years (JUST FILM THE PEREZ POST-CRISIS REBOOT, IT WORKS), reboot the Green Lantern movie with a more likeable actor (if Fillion is too old to play Hal, so be it: go with the Hal-Becomes-Parallax story with Fillion going ebil and bring in Kyle Rayner or Jon Stewart to replace him). Create that Flash trilogy that MGK suggested a few months ago. Have J’onn (and maybe the Hawkgirl/Hawkman of Thanagar celestial police following an Nth metal MacGuffin) be a linking figure between all the movies. Have Zatanna’s origin looking for her missing father who’s become the key to godlike power threatening the universe (hello, Darkseid) as the focal point for a JL movie – Supes, Bats, Diana, Jon/Kyle, Wally, J’onn, Shayera – and that could work.
Don’t think Libra as the Big Bad could work: not as well-known a player in DC comics or comicdom in general like Vandal Savage, Darkseid, Luthor and/or Brainiac 1.0. I’d worry about using Darkseid as the Big Bad, since Avengers is clearly playing up the Marvel Expy in Thanos, but work with what you got.
One of the things that separates the DC universe from the Marvel universe is that it is generally a fundamentally brighter place. The heroes are a little bit more heroic, and a bit less conflicted.
Granted, the New 52 is trying to change all that with everyone having a weird pained look and showing off ther perfect molars at each other, but historically it’s been brighter.
So, rather than do a big budget live-action movie that attempts to ground all these fantastic characters to real life, why not do a big-budget animated movie?
CGI and stop motion animation have both had significant crossover success in the past few years, bringing in older viewers as well as kids. Don’t try to copy the success of Avengers, try to copy the success of The Incredibles.
Also, I would kill for a Claymation Plastic Man movie.
Frankly, I assumed that the upcoming Superman and (at least planned) Batman reboots were Warner Brothers’ attempt to build to a Justice League movie. Probably even using Amanda Waller to tie them into the Green Lantern movie.
Why is everyone gravitating immediately towards Darkseid as the villain?
It’s not like the Justice League doesn’t have legitimate threats aside from the New Gods. Starro. Despero. Amazo. The Key. Dr. Destiny. The Legion of Doom. Even a less Marvel-ish Dreamslayer.
Any of these could easily be the antagonist of a Justice League movie, and most of them would require far less explanation than Darkseid, because with Darkseid comes the entire Fourth World mythos. And that’s a lot off info to dump on people in a movie. In comics, there’s enough space to fit in all that information outside of any conflict with the Justice League. In a movie, it’s a whole lot more difficult to fit in the Steppenwulfs and the Fastbaks and the Source Walls.
Just because AVENGERS 2 SPOILERS doesn’t mean that AVENGERS 2 SPOILER IMPLICATIONS. AVENGERS 2 SPOILERS is a much less complex character in a lot of ways. He HAS a complex backstory… but a fairly simple motivation, and usually works alone. Darkseid doesn’t. He’s the God Emperor of Planet Hell. He’s got dozens of minions and a fairly convoluted goal that went poorly explained for decades in the comics, and then turned out to just be “I want to have mind control over people.”
In terms of movies:
Wonder Woman – They have the blueprint for how to do that, copy Thor. You make it about a combination of learning about the Amazons (and that is where the villain comes from) and you mix it with Wonder Woman learning about her place in the “real” World.
Aquaman – By having him start out as Arthur Curry who doesn’t know about his heritage, you can do the reverse of the Wonder Woman movie, having him be introduced to Atlantis, instead of having him be a fish out of water (pun intended) in the real world.
It then creates an interesting dynamic when the two join the league, as you have the outsider that is trying to integrate with human society meeting the person that is going in the other direction, trying to become more of an outsider as he adapts to his new culture/position.
Flash – With Barry, you have an easy hook. CSI gets super powers can be a clean set up, and he is sort of a Captain America type, in that he is the guy that wants to fight crime being given the ability to fight crime better, which makes him stand out from some of the other leaguers. He’s the middle ground between Batman and Superman. One was born awesome, and decided to use those powers to help. One wanted to help, so decided to become awesome. Barry was already helping when he became awesome, so he could help in a new way.
I don’t know if they would do a Green Arrow movie. They may avoid the comparison to Hawkeye by not going with their own archer. They could go with Atom (especially if it has the bonus of beating Marvel to introducing Ant-Man), which gives them a scientist type on the roster.
I totally agree on Manhunter being the ‘recruiter’ who is introduced as the thread that connects the films. They could do it with some other people (Atom, for example). Then they can do some other subtle world building stuff, like branding everything WayneTech or LexCorp, etc.
If they want to establish Cyborg as part of the Mag 7 [or 8, if you keep Manhunter in the mix] you can have the JLA movie be his origin story, and tie his origin in with Amazo, and have that as the big bad of the movie. With Amazo, you can have tons of other robots if you want a big fight, and tons of other T.O. Morrow based stuff going on.
A villain team seems like something you’d need to build towards. Once you have the first team movie in the bank, you don’t need to introduce or assemble the team, so you can spend the time on introducing/assembling/developing the villains. Also, you’d hope that there would have been time in the individual hero movies to introduce the villains that would make up the team.
I wonder if a script of George Miller’s “Justice League” movie ever surfaced.
One big problem that any Justice League movie faces is Wonder Woman. Superhero movies typically do female characters terribly (and “Avengers” was a big old sausage fest if you think about it). But a JL movie can’t do that if it wants to use Batman and Superman.
So they need a female actor who can deliver on emotional aspects and look like she can go toe-to-toe with Superman. That’s hard.
And then there is the fan reaction towards Wonder Woman, which is… mixed… at best.
I think the reason DC’s been so much more successful with cartoons than live-action movies is that their characters are so overpowered.
Super-speed, for instance, is a completely broken concept that has never, ever been used consistently. It’s easier to get away with it in comic books, but I don’t think you can make it work in a movie.
Flash should beat any villain without super-speed before the villain knows what happened (this scene from the JLU cartoon where Flash stares at a giant boomerang for an entire second before just letting it hit him is typical of how hard it is to portray his speed consistently). And any fight between Flash and a villain with super-speed should be nothing but a blur to everyone else. Either the audience sees nothing but a blur or the whole thing needs to look like a bullet-time scene with everything & everyone frozen in place while Flash fights his enemy. I doubt you can make a watchable movie in which every action scene is either a blur or a guy moving at normal speed through a frozen environment.
All this should be true of Superman (and the Martian Manhunter) as well. It’s a little easier to ignore Superman’s speed if he’s on his own, but if he’s sharing the screen with the Flash, it’s much harder. Even Wonder Woman (who can move fast enough to deflect each individual bullet from a machine gun volley) should be mostly a blur to a normal human being (including Batman).
Green Lantern and Superman and Martian Manhunter have similar problems with all their powers making it very hard to have action scenes that aren’t filled with, “Why doesn’t he just…” moments.
“Hmm, let’s see. The Avengers has already made a billion dollars. (That’s “billion”, with a b…on top of what the previous five blockbusters have made.) DC/Warner is literally the only other group of people in existence with a chance at replicating that success. Do I think they should try doing that? …nah, you’re probably right. Financial success is for chumps. ”
Copying Marvel will just put people off. Rather than a recipe for success, it’s a sure-fire way to fail.
“hose are definitely good numbers. It seems mostly to have fallen victim to studio politics; the president of the studio and the president of production didn’t like it, and their opinions count for a hell of a lot more than “bitching fanboys” when it comes to greenlighting a sequel.”
And they were right to hate it, as it was a an awful film that was a sequel to a pair of the most overrated films of all time, despite being 25 years old and horribly dated in terms of aesthetic.
Face it folks. Batman aside, Marvel has branded itself as the cool hepcats, while DC is left with the old fuddy-duddy vibe. For now anyway. Superman is their other big hitter, and what else is he but the ultimate square? Their (DC) big two is bigger than Marvel’s, but the rest of Marvel’s roster is better. Basically, DC is 1 and 2 (Bats and Supes), Marvel is 3-10.
I agree about the “JL movie needs to be a stand-alone movie that spreads into franchises” angle and with the “ideally without Supes or Batman” angle too, but I’d do it a tad differently:
I’d start with a JSA movie. It would have all your standard JSAers and it would take place in the past. I haven’t given it all that much thought, really, but as I’m winging it, I think the villain should be Vandal Savage on account that he’s immortal and also kind of a Nazi. It would end with Superman’s rocket crashing to earth and Steve Trevor’s plane falling on Paradise Island.
Then come the spin-offs. New Superman, origin story and all, New Batman, Wonder Woman, with Steve Trevor as Diana’s father figure and motivation to go out into man’s world instead of love interest, etc.
The idea would be that the spin offs relationship to the original JSA movie are not that apparent at first, but they all somehow relate their story to the previous one in one way or the other, like Lex being in cahoots with Vandal Savage or something.
Then comes the JLA movie, where they realize that Vandal Savage was being used by Starro all along! or maybe by Darkseid, as I said, I never gave it much thought. But that would be the cool one with all the heroes and stuff.
My team would be: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, John Stewart as GL, Wally West as Flash (because you need a quipster and having Superman in there makes Barry-two-shoes kinda redundant), Martian Manhunter and Aquaman-with-a-hook-and-a-beard (young justice tv show style, not captain of the seven seas style)
Again, haven’t thought all that much about it, but that’s my answer in a pinch.
I think at this point, a JL movie is premature. They *NEED* a good, solid Superman movie to restablish the character in the modern era – and to prove that they can make a good movie on the kind of level the JL needs.
If they can’t make a really spectacular Superman movie, I don’t think they should even bother with a JL one at this point, because it’ll fail. Superman has to come first.
I think they also need to have at least one truly successful non Batman movie, before trying it. Otherwise, why not just do what they’ve always done, and focus on Batman/Superman? Again, if they can’t do a good/great Wonder Woman/Flash/GL movie, they aren’t ready for a JL one.
I also think Aquaman had a better shot than people give him credit for. Most people at least KNOW Aquaman, which is more than Flash/GL/Martian Manhunter can really claim. And sure, there’s all the Aquaman jokes, but who makes them? Nerds and geeks. People who may actually read comics, and know he’s more than the jokes. Or people who knows him from Superfriends or whatever, who can accept a ‘Dark modern reimagining’ of the character (That doesn’t have to actually be dark, just serious.) Most people can draw a line between a ‘kiddy’ version, and a ‘serious’ version – like say, not everyone treating Nolan’s Batman the same as Adam West? As long as the movie was actually good, I think it would work fine (The real problem is working out exactly how Aquaman fits into a ‘serious’ DC universe).
As for the JL movie, I think they really need to keep things simple. Use the big 7 (Either the original or reboot version, though I love MM so I’d want the original) and no one else. Have a ‘big’ villain who’s enough for everyone to team up against, but don’t burn out early by going straight to Darkseid (Also: By the time a JL movie ever got around, we’d have Avengers 2 with Thanos….) or other similar characters. Go for a mid weighter, backed up by either the Society or some kind of army (Aliens, Intergang, whatever. Goons to get beat up good) I think the real problem here is finding someone people can take seriously, provides a proper threat level, and is at least somewhat well known (This is the real problem, as most of them are tied heavily to specific heroes. Still, I’d probably suggest maybe someone like Brainiac, for the same reasons he’d be a good Superman villain.)
I think if Warner Bros. want to try and capture the lightning in a bottle that was the Avengers, Mr. Seavey has hit one of the nails on the head to do so. There’s a lot of nails though, but this one must definitely look the most interesting after Avenger’s success to those at WB and DC.
I do agree with a few other posters however that taking advantage of the Martian Manhunter’s shape-shifting is a smart move. Take it even further and have him be in the film, unknown at the time and either revealed in the JL film, or at the end. His part can be either important, ala Coulson’s in Thor, or a bit part, like Coulson’s in Iron Man.
My only real wonder, beyond whether or not DC could pull something like this off, which due to WB’s interference may be difficult, is how do you translate some of these characters to the screen. Wonder Woman is, unfortunately, still new ground. Even Marvel hasn’t done a superhero film with a female hero as the lead. (Though, WB/DC, if you’re looking to steal Marvel’s thunder. This would be a good way! Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Black Canary, just DO something.) Aquaman and the Flash are likely the more difficult ones from an SFX point of view, though what we’ll get for J’onn J’onzz from the people who produced Green Lantern is anyone’s guess. (I’m guessing, not what we want.) Really though, can anyone show me a decent live-action speed effect? Because I think we’ve all mocked the Twilight one, and The Incredibles or the DCAU one likely won’t translate as easily to live-action.
With respect to various posts above, I’ll take some from column A, and some from column B.
If Warner/DC wants to do a JL movie now, I think the thing for them to do is to just leap into it. Forget the idea of an establishing movie for each character.
In the first place: that’s copying what Marvel has done. In the second place: X-Men didn’t do it a decade ago, and at the time it was considered a successful introduction of a super-team. (I think there are things to criticize that first film for, certainly; so a team movie done now ought to try to learn from some of its mistakes, but still, it does show that you can leap right to “team” in a first movie.) In the third place, it would just take too long — Warner would be looking at 5-7 years before they could have a JL movie ready, and by that time they’re not competing with The Avengers, they’re competing with The Avengers 2.
My argument is that basically, ALL of the major JL members are sufficiently on the public’s radar that you do not need individual introduction movies for them, seriously. The movie itself might not give each character a whole lot of depth, but that’s okay if you are thinking in terms of spinning off solo movies from there. (“You’ve just seen Wonder Woman! Intrigued? Find out more in her own movie…”)
It seems we’re all pretty much agreeing that nobody needs to be introduced to the concept of Batman and Superman, AGAIN. But I’d also argue that because of various pop-cultural factors, nobody truly needs to be reintroduced to any of the others, either; with a possible exception for the Martian Manhunter, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
The rest of the team are basically on the pop-cultural radar and have been for a very long time. Sometimes it’s for reasons that the movie might have to fight against (“Superfriends”), but the awareness is there, whether it’s because people have heard of the 70s Wonder Woman tv series or they know of Aquaman jokes or, yeah, they heard about that Green Lantern movie bomb.
I’m not saying that a JL movie wouldn’t have an uphill battle with some of these characters. My argument in favor of Aquaman goes like this: a character doesn’t have that many jokes made about him, if people aren’t aware of who he is and the very basics of what he is. He’s iconic, even if he has a “being taken seriously” problem. But my feeling is tha the latter is merely a writing/portrayal issue. Yes, you start off with an audience that is skeptical, but it’s entirely possible to craft a short introduction that would show (not tell) why “the guy who talks to fish” should be taken seriously as a big gun on the team. As the recent New52 title did, you acknowledge that people think he’s a joke, and then you show why he’s not, and done.
The same goes for the others. Green Lantern is also a writing problem at this point — you acknowledge to yourself that he’s fighting against the perception from his solo movie, then work to sell him to the audience in THIS film. (You’re not going to use either Aquaman or GL as major pieces in the movie’s advertising, instead waiting to sell them within the film itself.) You don’t worry about explaining every little thing about Wonder Woman, you make her kick ass and give a simple explanation that makes her background intriguing (for a future solo movie). The Flash is not that difficult to explain, although I agree with above observations that he might be difficult to execute well.
Finally, I would say that you make the first film be about mistaking the Martian Manhunter for a villain. Make the first film his introduction and the process by which the rest of the JL goes from trying to find him and fight him, to working alongside him. Save the JL’s big villains for sequels.
The thing I see as the biggest obstacle to a GOOD JL movie is the ability to decide on and nail the right tone. To take the concept seriously enough to want to do it well, but not so seriously that it collapses under the weight of humorlessness. As others above have pointed out, DC is usually a brighter world than Marvel, so take advantage of that. But given the way Warner Bros. has approached its superhero live-action films thus far, I feel like they don’t GET that.
Make no mistake — a key part of the success of the Marvel films has been their sense of humor about themselves. They get how basically ridiculous the concepts are, but they also revel in it. Meanwhile, WB’s big effort in that direction was Green Lantern, and the humor seems not to have worked nearly as well for most people. So, that’s definitely a concern.
Therefore I’m not saying that leaping right into a JL movie would be easy for WB. They’d have to make some really good choices (of writer/s, director, actors), and everyone involved would have to foremost have the conviction that it would work, they’d have to LOVE the idea of a JL movie enough that we could see that love onscreen. So it COULD be done. But I don’t know if WB has the courage of conviction needed to actually do it.
For those making the point that DC making a Justice League movie would simply be “following the leader” which would anger the fans who then won’t turn out, just note… the FANS are the ones talking about a Justice League as a response to how popular the Avengers has been to the average filmgoers.
My supposition is that the fans would be THRILLED if DC went the Marvel Method of releasing separate origin films for Wonder Woman, Flash, and even a GL reboot (I’m still not sure an Aquaman would work) leading up to a Justice League blockbuster with Superman and Batman. People are actually expecting it because of the DC/Marvel competition. (and Hollywood lives for dueling movies – just look at disaster flicks of the late 90s)
What made Avengers great is:
1. Actors who were able to utterly nail all the principle characters: Stark, Thor, Steve, Loki, and Banner are just about perfect. Fury, Barton, and Widow are very good.
2. A writer/director who knew what to do with them.
What are the odds of a single Justice League movie successfully casting equally good actors for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Manhunter in one shot? Zero.
You need the build-up movies to find which actors and which takes on the characters work.
Imagine the Avengers movie with actors / concepts that seemed to Marvel like good ideas at the time:
Ioan Gruffudd as Hank Pym, Jessica Alba as the Wasp, RDJ as Tony Stark, Ed Norton as Bruce Banner, Ben Afleck as Captain America, Ryan Reynolds as Hawkeye, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jennifer Garner as The Scarlet Witch, and Nick Cage as Nick Fury.
Watch them face the menacing team-up of Julian McMahon as Doctor Doom and Kevin Bacon as Loki!
I think the eighties Flash TV show had good speed effects. They could do better now.
For origins, these can be disposed of easily if we start with a JLA film. The heroes meet, naturally they start asking questions and getting answers (“As soon as I realized how fragile humans were compared to me, I knew I wanted to help them. And you, Flash?”). They don’t have to start with the origins. Plus giving us a universe in which super-heroes are already established would give it a silghtly different feel from the Marvel run.
I remember an Alex Ross picture where Aquaman’s standing on the back of a whale, staring down a whaling ship and a couple of dozen whales are leaping out of the water and back, very, very close to the boat … Aquaman can be made to work.
The 80s speed effects don’t look terrible, but Flash is written like a complete idiot. There’s no reason in this clip that Freeze shouldn’t be in handcuffs with his gun taken away before he even knows Flash is there. Or if Flash absolutely has to be a drama queen about it, he could show up, taunt Freeze, and then run around behind him and take the gun away before Freeze can even think about firing. The scene as filmed is ridiculous.
What if the team-up movie isn’t the Justice League, but the Legion of Doom?
Luthor can be the bonus-footage glue for the movies, but he’s talking to the recently-defeated villains. Maybe he’s got others with him — or an always-unnamed ally — when he does so. But he’s got resources and a plan, and what have they got to lose? There don’t even have to be a lot of lead-ins here.
Begin the team-up movie with the LoD taking down someone important, and then the heroes have to meet and learn each other’s blah blah blah triumphant return at the climax blah. You don’t have to spend the movie on origins for the heroes that don’t have their own movies, but you’ve got an ensemble of foils to follow, and then cheer when you see their internal alliance crack up.
Of course, this — or any other DC movie — would have to depend on the same perfect casting that Marvel got with the Avengers, as well as directors that understand the world they’re putting together, and a franchise-runner that understands even more than that, and, well, I don’t think WB’s bureaucracy can allow such a thing to exist.
Hmm. Couple thoughts.
For one, The Justice League’s origin has never been handled well. They always band together semi-randomly while fighting a generic alien threat or a poorly-rebooted Darkseid. I don’t think a JL movie needs to bother with the origin.
Secondly, the strength of the League, as a concept, lies not in interpersonal dynamics (like the Avengers or X-Men or even the Teen Titans) but in the near-mythic scope of its visuals and narrative. The scene at the end of the first episode of Young Justice, with the League descending from the sky like gods of Olympus, captures this perfectly. Think also of all the work Alex Ross has done. His paintings of the Justice League are all about the awe of seeing all these iconic characters standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
SO, I think a JL movie should start with the League already formed, and fairly large. Maybe not JLU-large, but there’s a sense that, if you’re super, and a hero, you’re part of the League or at least a reserve member. Make Wally or Kyle the POV character, nervous about replacing their predecessor and moving up to “the big League.” (For more diversity, you could substitute Ryan Choi’s Atom or Jaime Reyes’ Blue Beetle, but neither has enough cachet to headline a JL movie in my eyes.) Through the POV character’s eyes, Supes, Bats, WW, Aquaman, and J’onn are this pantheon of paragons whom it is impossible to live up to. He gets more encouragement from a more down-to-earth hero, like Black Canary. The threat at first appears to be a bunch of unconnected villains (Grodd! Black Manta! Killer Frost! Poison Ivy! Giganta! Grundy! Villains whose powers and schticks are easy to “get” just by glancing at them.) But, as it turns out, the villains have organized into a Legion of Doom led by Luthor/Braniac/Vandal Savage. Even worse, they’ve captured the League’s heaviest hitters (probably the main seven minus Batman and minus the POV character) and mind-controlled them with bits of Starro (again, stealing from the finale of Young Justice). Batman and Black Canary rally the reserve Leaguers (here’s where you have fun with cameos) to fight the mind-controlled heroes while the POV character shuts down the device allowing the Legion to control the heroes. In the end, the heroes are un-mind-controlled just in time to defend the capitals of the world from the villains’ invasion. The film thus sets up innumerable spin-offs, but (hopefully) stands on its own without requiring prior films in its continuity to set it up.
See, I disagree with the people saying don’t do a Batman or Superman tie-in film. No, whoever you get for those roles will inevtiably be stars in JL. And you need films for both of them to establish the actors as those characters. Do you have to touch on the origin in those films? No, but they need establishing movies.
As for everyone else, first let’s get a decent Wonder Woman movie past pre-production, then I’ll listen.
a couple of thoughts by someone who doesnt really know the JLA all that well:
i think what makes the JLA special is that they are just so fucking ICONIC. so i think a JLA movie should pretty much do what warren ellis did on authority.
which means, no origin stories, the team starts basically fully formed. a very simple plot, save maybe a twist or two here and there. and HUGE AWESOME visuals, plus some quippery and cleverness.
members: superman, batman, wonder woman, flash, green lantern, green arrow. aqua man and martian manhunter just seem kinda silly from where im standing. actually, green lantern is pretty silly too, but i guess hes too big a name to be ignored.
directed by jj abrams, because for all his faults, the guy knows how to create jawdropping moments.
I think Urthman hit the nail on the head — the iconic DC heroes, save for Batman, are just way too overpowered.
The Avengers are basically a guy in armor and three big strong guys, two of whom throw something. Throw in two supporting “good at fighting and weapons” heroes and ta-da.
Doing something live-action brings an inescapable literalism to the story, i.e. “this is actually happening”, and so anything purely fake (CGI Daredevil bouncing around like Q-Bert) simply won’t mesh.
The Avengers’ powers can be portrayed in a fashion that feels “realistic”. And of couse Batman does fine. But stuff like super-speed and the Power Ring is, I think, just too out there, BOTH in terms of convincing portrayal, and narrative headache (“why doesn’t he just…”)
So to make a JL movie work, I would consider significantly scaling back powers. Superman can be crazy strong, fly, have heat vision, and is maybe fast, but not faster-than-light fast. Adjust Flash so that he has super-quick reflexes, nothing more. Wonder Woman should be fine (but no invisible jet, and maybe the lasso is just unbreakable, not truth serum). Severly restrict what Green Lantern can “create”, maybe give him just flying and force beams/walls. You get the idea.
I don’t see the need for a Justice League movie, or the ability to support it now. My plan would be to go a completely different direction, and do a Legion of Super-Heroes movie first (Superman/boy/girl optional, depending on the state of the origin after the reboot.) Just to get your superhero-team-film skills down.
As for building to the JL, do it one at a time. First, a World’s Finest movie. Then a Trinity one. Then you can start thinking about Justice Leagues.
And stay as far away from Darkseid as humanly possible. Slot Starro into the origin story instead. (Or Despero. Or Amazo, or even Prof. Ivo. Darkseid can’t possibly be a classic JLA villain; he lacks that all-important last letter…)
the Power Ring is, I think, just too out there
I think that Green Lantern and the Power Ring would be among the easiest parts of the JLA to create on screen (the other is Wonder Woman, who can be portrayed like Thor with a lasso instead of a hammer). The problem with the Ryan Reynolds movie wasn’t that the effects looked bad (although the costume did) or that he powers are inherently unwieldy, but that the writing was terrible.
The main think is to decide on a limit to the size or amount of stuff his ring can easily make (with a bonus — bigger, stronger stuff if he has the opportunity to really concentrate), treat it mostly like real stuff (as in the training duel with Kilowog), and stick to it. A power-ring truck can smash (or be smashed by) enemies that can be smashed by (or smash) a real truck.
@The Unstoppable Gravy Express,
I like the idea of reducing the Flash’s power to fast reflexes, but I wouldn’t be absolute about it. Lightning speed could work in the movies if it was costly enough so that he only used it in life-or-death situations. Sort of like the Reeve Superman making the Earth spin backwards.
Of course you wouldn’t have to do much to Hawkman, in terms of bringing his powers down. He’s basically just a buff, flying dickhead with a mace.
They tried doing a powered down JLA in the early episodes of the Justice League cartoon (they even used the idea of Green Lantern rings being limited mostly to force blasts and the occasional force field bubble).
I found that really frustrating because it was like, “Why is Superman having such a hard time if Hawkgirl can defeat those dudes with her stupid electrical mace?”
Most of the “Big Guns” are ridiculously overpowered (to the point where stories should never have lasted longer than two issues because five of the seven had physics-defying superspeed powers). But depowering them to the point where having Aquaman around doesn’t seem kind of silly doesn’t feel like a good answer to me.
Also… I think a JLA movie would just make people agree with me that the team doesn’t need Batman as much as Grant Morrison wanted people to think they do.
I could totally see Batman being the Black Widow of this team because, seriously, why do you need a moody guy who is good at ninjutsu when you’ve got Superman and two people who have most of the same powers right there? That whole “he’s good at everything and he comes up with better plans” thing would be sort of hard to sell in a movie with a lot of other characters who need screen time.
@Urthman — true, when I said the Power Ring was too “out there”, I was thinking narratively… showing it isn’t the problem, I agree.
I like the idea of creating larger things requires more effort. And I think there should be a “no-moving-parts” rule (kind of like the T1000) as well. When Reynolds created that machine-cannon or whatever it’s called, and I was thinking “so is his Will creating all those individual shell casings that are flying off?”
I would think Batman would be more the Nick Fury of the team, providing resources & intel. And if you trick him out with enough gadgets he almost becomes the Iron Man. Besides, there’s always enough space in a movie for someone to say “okay everyone, here’s the plan” and then outline a wicked awesome plan.
The problem becomes more one of mood. Movie Batman works best as dark, grim, gritty, all that jazz. The whole rest of the JL is pretty upbeat. Do you “pep up” Batman, or drag the whole JL down to his gritty grim moody grimness?
I liked the later Justice League cartoons where Hawkgirl’s weapon is more like a magic mace made of uNTHobtainium. Except then the problem becomes, “In a critical situation like this, why doesn’t she hand the mace to Superman, who in the time it takes Hawkgirl to swing and miss can hit the bad guy a thousand times, each strike hitting a thousand times harder?”
I like the idea of reducing the Flash’s power to fast reflexes
Say more about how that fixes the problem because I’m not seeing it. What does he do with those fast reflexes?
Reducing powers, like Flash just has fast reflexes, just pisses off the fans, and makes things feel like the Corman FF movie where they didn’t have the budget for Johnny to flame on more than once.
I think I’m in the start with a JL movie camp.
For the most part, the JL members are easy enough to explain in concept.
Use Flash, who’s actually the most complicated, as the POV character.
Everyone who would see the movie knows who Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman is.
Green Lantern just had a movie, so even going with John (and you should go with John) is simple with a “there’s several of us” type line to get people over the Hal Hump.
Aquaman is summed up by “King of Atlantis” and you just into him being PADesque bad ass.
And you have J’onn sort of mysterious and backgroundy, possibly setting things up.
Villain is the tough bit, because DC doesn’t have much really that aren’t just too goofy. Vandal Savage with a host of others might not be a bad choice for the reason that he’s not Darkseid or Lex. Maybe go with Priest’s thing that Savage and J’onn are big enemies
Why not just forget the main DC cast and go straight to a New Gods movie? Based on the original series rather than any of the later added crap.
@Marionette: I finally got around to reading some actual Kirby New Gods stuff, and I personally would prefer that over a JLA movie.
Some of the concepts might not work as well for today’s jaded audiences (the kid from the Forever People who dressed like a cowboy, for example or the token Black guy from that group being called “the Black”), but still… I think you’re on to something there.
They might need some costume changes to appeal to a general audience, but I think some version of the New Gods could work.
Or at any rate, I’d rather watch a movie about alien hippies with really awesome PDAs than a movie featuring a bunch of Silver Age characters I have a hard time willfully suspending disbelief for.
Just for example, the Martian Manhunter makes no sense if you think about him for five minutes. Except maybe if you go with that “he’s really from the distant past” retcon they tried out for a little while. We have some idea of what Mars is like, and so far we haven’t found any telepathic shapeshifters who have Superman-type powers.
Or… How about the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans? Kid Flash would be the only one really in the “too powerful” category
“alien hippies with really awesome PDAs”… Public Displays of Affection, or Personal Data Assistants?
Either sounds good really. 🙂
Right to clear all this up, I have written an adaption to a JL movie. And to clarify other thing 1. Jeff Robinov even stated a JL film is in the works. 2. JL Origin will basically be based in flashback with the exception of Aquaman. 3 He also stated days after Avengers will be released between 2013 – 2015. For obvious reasons I can’t tell the majority of my script because it could get made who knows.
I am from Ireland and basically this is an open project anyone is applausably canaidate to pencil this movie.
This movie is basically Ailens invading, this is what WB are going for. They are going for a kick ass film what must be 2 – 3 hrs long so yeah. I penciled a 178 page script roughly 2hrs 45 mins.
But they also stated with people writing this that Batman and Superman cant take all the glory. Aquaman is to take control of situations and knock around Superman or Batman a few times. Batman can’t be thhe major part of this as a ailen with powers. GET REAL! Batman die he and another character without powers will be kinda the guys on the ground killing ailens.
Jeff Robinov stated. Its about profit 2.2 billion people were not all comic book fans they are movie goers. They wanted to see a story roughly 8% of the people who went to Avengers were comic book fans. It made no difference. Thats most writers angle, Aquaman. Let him take control, spin him off
think of him like, THOR! Just throw in your Iron Man base leadership skills, and think “Hey these people are just like us” use that as your base. If Aquaman acts like a leader badass, this will give you comic book nerds the chance to reboot him with a similar origin to the film as i said 91% of the people who saw Avengers knew nothing much about marvel story arcs. I read up on a few comics after taking this roll used wiki’s. Used my base. Afterwards 6 months later I wrote a script which would be able to triumph
anyway, Marvel have newer Origin’s for most people scrap origin from comic, comics have
room to do it over the course of a book.
Now Wonder Woman. Off the top of my head, I aint really similar with her and she sickened me to write in, needless I am certain between us writers it shall be all collaberated into one awesome script, so your expecting 1-4 writers credited. Now Wonder Woman. Make her origin after JL years before hand. Make her and her five sisters training with their mothers, give them a team name. So like Ra a Ghul and the league of shadows a tradige happens like all of them die but her she is exiled to another planet, like start of Thor she must find her way home, after defeating the villian she returns home to live life on Themyscira, sworen to protect it, like Batman.
Perfect Cast:
Before we begin note Zack Synder and Christopher Nolan stated when we were contracted for this movie don’t write it for Christian Bale and Henry Cavil.
Superman – Adam Brody/ D.J Contrana/ Armie Hammer Need a nameless actor hey even Liam Hemsworth Chris “Thor” Hemsworth’s younger Brother be perfect for the role.
Batman – Mattew Fassbender
I am a movie geek great actor, even in Ingorlouis Bast***ds
Green Lantern – Shia La Beouf
Make him any Green Lantern doesnt matter.
Martian ManHunter – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
His acting is amazing, he would be a dominate force.
The Flash – Chris Pine
This is a young version of Flash grow into the role
Wonder Woman – Megan Fox
Good actor, guys would just go to the threate to see her.
Aquaman – Sam Worthington
Long blonde hair, beard he is the leader he is basically THOR!
Namesless Character – Brad Pitt
He will be like Batman powerless turning it turn superhero also need a beard and long hair.
Guys, Multiverses is one of DC comics’ special route for Crisis storylines. It would complement their comics if they do a Multiverse in films. That would a make a bigger epic story than Marvel’s shared universe films.