Five reasons why DC films are lagging behind Marvel films

Written by Kshitij Rawat | New Delhi | Updated: October 20, 2018 8:28:16 pm

While The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently dominating the market, DC films are lagging behind.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is dominating modern pop-culture. Avengers movies, which come only once in a while, inspire anticipation among fans that has never been seen before for a movie. Avengers: Infinity War, which brought together nearly all the superheroes in the MCU, became one of the biggest movies ever in terms of box office numbers. Its sequel Avengers 4 that comes out next year is expected to perform even better.

Meanwhile, DC, by far the biggest competitor to Marvel, is languishing and only one movie so far, Wonder Woman, can be termed as a clear win. MCU, on the other hand, has not had a single commercial failure after 20 films, and only 2008s The Incredible Hulk has been a critical failure. DC Comics and Marvel Comics are still doing almost equally well, so why this disparity in movies?

Here are my reasons:

DC boarded the cinematic universe aeroplane a little too late: DC was too late in building a cinematic universe. Man of Steel, the first film in DC film universe, came out in 2013 — seven years after the first MCU film, Iron Man. By then, The Avengers had been released (in 2012) and had become a humongous success, not to mention establishing itself firmly on comic-book movie fans psyche.

Poor plan and poorer execution: DC film universe launched big guns like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman too early, and Superman and Batman already fought in the second film. Such epic encounters should have had epic build-ups. Iron Man and Captain America, before fighting, had been developed well as characters before, and there was a proper, credible reason there as to why they were fighting. DC rushed big projects like Batman v Superman and Justice League. And the result was successive catastrophes.

Zack Snyder: I have nothing against Zack Snyder as a director. I think he is talented, and has a unique visual style. But Warner Bros gave him the responsibility of the entire DC film universe. It was going to be a hit or miss when you appoint a single filmmaker to build a giant cinematic universe. It will work or it wont. As it turned out, it did not. Snyders vision of Superman as an angsty, angry god was summarily rejected, so was his Batman who branded criminals with the bat symbol so people will know they have committed a crime. No scope for reformation here. And there was no subtlety in Snyders vision.

Execs-driven approach instead of director-driven: David Ayer directed Suicide Squad but when it came out, Warner Bros was heavily criticised for interfering too much with the movie. It was rumoured that studio meddling ruined what may have been a perfectly fine movie. The same thing happened with Justice League. WBs top honcho Kevin Tsujihara mandated the films screen time to be under 2 hours. A big superhero team-up movie like Justice League with three totally new characters needed at least half an hour more of screen time, if not more. DC Films is controlled by Warner Bros execs, who just want profits and have no interest in how the film actually is. There is no Kevin Feige like figure at DC.

Lack of a Kevin Feige like figure: Kevin Feige is the head of Marvel Studios and has steered the MCU capably. Sure, MCU has had setbacks, but Feige trusts the vision of the filmmakers he hires. He is the person under whose tutelage MCU, its directors, actors and crew have built such an inexorable force.

All that being said, there is cause for hope. Warner Bros did a total shake-up at DC Films and they have announced a number of projects like New Gods, Joker and Blackhawks that are independent of the cinematic universe and are being directed by filmmakers like Ava DuVernay, Todd Phillips and Steven Spielberg.

Historically, that has been DCs strength — independent, tonally different stories that are not related to each other and are often catered towards different audiences. Yes, there is a DC universe in comics, too, and yes a DC universe in films can work too, but it should be approached like it is in comics — with patience, time and a buildup that results in payoffs, instead of just doing fan service. Audiences need time to get invested in individual characters before you finally bring them together.

• Tags:
• Marvel

For all the latest Entertainment News, download Indian Express App

Original Article