Are We Headed For Superhero Over-Saturation?

So, an interesting tid-bit has emerged that involves DC and Warner Brothers and their plans to build their Cinematic Universe. The Schmoes Know broke the story yesterday, (which you can find here,) about The WB's upcoming slate of films and their potential release dates. Now, as the article states, this information hasn't been confirmed by anyone and should be taken with a grain of salt, as the source may be slightly questionable. Regardless, it makes for interesting speculation.

So, according to Nikki Finke, formerly of Deadline.com, at this years Comic-Con in San Diego, Warner Brothers and DC are set to announce the line-up of films that they have planned in regards to their Cinematic Universe. The list is as follows:

May 2016 - Batman v Superman
July 2016 - Shazam
December 2016 - Sandman
May 2017 - Justice League
July 2017 - Wonder Woman
December 2017 - Flash/Green Lantern Team Up
May 2018 - Man of Steel 2

All I can say is, holy ambitious, Batman!

First off, what strikes me about this list is the fact that DC and Warner Brothers look to be going balls to the wall in regards to this whole thing. For the foreseeable future, their plan is to release three movies a year. Apparently, they're hell-bent on making up for lost time. The report also goes on to state that the reason that BvS was pushed back a year was not, as speculated, because the WB wasn't ready to move forward with the film, but was in fact because they were still trying to get the members of the Justice League to sign on the bottom line. Apparently, the actors will be making cameo appearances in the films leading up to the big one and they wanted to make sure that everyone was on board. (I'm not exactly sure if Sandman fits into the DCU or not, as it doesn't seem like it would, but then, I don't really know a whole lot about the character and where he fits in the comic book universe, so I can't say for sure).

The second thing that stands out, is the inclusion of a Wonder Woman stand-alone film on this list. Rumour has always been that Warner Brothers was gun-shy in regards to a female-led superhero flick, even though that female superhero in question is iconic and extremely recognizable. I would love to see a Wonder Woman movie, and given how, recently, female-driven films seem to be killing it at the box office, I can understand the WB's about face in regards to this project. I still have my doubts about how well Gal Godot is going to be able to pull off this character, however. It would have been nice if they had hired an actual actress, instead of an underwear model, but whatever. I guess the jury's out on this one until we see what she does in Batman v Superman.

The inclusion of Shazam on this list is also very interesting. He's not an extremely well known character, although, speculation is that this could be the role that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been hinting about, making it all the more intriguing. How they're going to pull this one off, I'm still not sure, but it will be interesting, to say the least. The fact that Shazam (or Captain Marvel as he was formerly known... although you can see where that could get really confusing, really fast!) spends half his time as 12-year-old Billy Batson (or 15-year-old, if you're going by the New 52 timeline), seems to be a waste of The Rock's talents. Another rumour has Johnson playing Black Adam, Shazam's arch-nemesis, turned member of the Justice League. Either way, it makes for an intriguing prospect.

I think the biggest surprise of this list is the exclusion of Batman. While the Caped Crusader will have a large part in Batman v Superman and will definitely be part of the Justice League, I am surprised that there are no plans for a stand-alone Batman movie, or franchise just yet. Either the WB thinks we're Batman'd out and doesn't want to compete with Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, or this has something to do with Ben Affleck's schedule. Either way, I find it interesting that there doesn't seem to be an immediate plan for one of their most iconic characters. This leads me to believe that Affleck's Batman will be the main character in the upcoming Batman v Superman film, his character arc needing to be relatively well developed for them to move forward.

But, overall, what does this mean for the Superhero genre as a whole? Now that both Fox and Sony have also thrown their hats into the Universe building ring, are all of these comic book adaptations going to flood the overall market? By the time that 2018 rolls around, will we be so sick and tired of Superhero movies that the bottom falls out of the whole genre? I mean, if all goes to plan, then we will be getting probably somewhere between six and seven comic book movies released every year. I guess it's possible that there could be some fatigue, although I do think it's highly unlikely. With the exception of The Amazing Spiderman 2 (let's hope that Sony has learned it's lesson, although it doesn't look like it, as there is a report out that says, while they're pushing TASM 3 back to 2017, it's only so that they can shoehorn their Sinister Six movie into its 2016 release date! Did they learn nothing with TASM2?), comic book movies just keep getting better and better. The studios are raising the bar with each subsequent release. The Winter Soldier and Days of Future Past are arguably the best Superhero releases to date... moving beyond just great genre films and into the realm of great films, period. If the studios continue to release great movies, I think that audiences will continue to flock to them. The idea of solid, strategic Universes, built around characters that we have come to know and love is very appealing. As long as the end product is entertaining, what difference does it make if it's based off a comic book or not? Besides, it's very cool to see the heroes that we grew up with on the big screen, in a manner that is fitting to their stature. It's nice to be a film fan at a time where, technologically, film makers are able to bring these larger than life characters to life on the big screen, without it looking hokey or fake. These days they are able to pull images directly from the page and transport them to a movie screen near you. It really is great to be a geek!

I guess what remains to be seen is whether or not Finke's "scoop" is actually true or not. With just a little under five weeks until Comic-Con in San Diego, we don't have long to wait and see what comes of this whole thing. It will be interesting to see how on the money she was. And what else Comic-Con has in store for us. I can hardly wait!

Justice League Light Gets An Official Title...

So, Warner Brothers stunned everyone and actually, out of the blue, dropped the official title of the Man of Steel sequel, set for release on May 6, 2016...

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Hmmm, interesting. But I will admit, I'm not a fan. First off, why are we still considering this a Man of Steel sequel, because it's clearly not. Zack Snyder can talk about it being a MOS sequel until he's blue in the face, and yet, when your film's title doesn't even suggest anything close to that, it's kind of hard to swallow. Yes, yes, I know that it's possible that Snyder and Goyer didn't actually have any say in the matter, that this was completely Warner Brothers doing what they do. Regardless, I'm still not sold.

First off, if it's his movie, why is Superman playing second fiddle to Batman? Is it an alphabetical thing? A bigger star-power thing? A character recognition thing? (Although how you can argue that one, I have no idea. I mean, yes Batman is Batman... but Superman is SUPERMAN! Probably the most recognizable superhero on the planet!) Okay, I get it. By putting Batman before the versus, it looks like he's the aggressor, the one doing the pushing. But then, how is this a direct sequel to Man of Steel? It's obvious that Batman is going to play a huge role in this movie, possibly a bigger one that most of us expected... okay, so maybe that was just me, but I was actually hoping for a true sequel to MOS. I think that Superman deserved that much, at least!... And, while I wasn't a huge fan of the first Man of Steel film, I was looking forward to the film makers exploring the ideas and threads that I did like, in greater detail in the sequel. Now, it looks like Superman is going to have to share a great deal of his screen time, and character development with a brand new Batman. And while we've seen Batman before, and know the general gist of his story, this will be a new Batman to the movie going audience, so regardless of back story or not, his character is going to have be developed to a certain degree, pulling even more screen time away from Superman. Because let's face it, the Kal-El/Superman that we saw in Man of Steel was still coming in to his own. His character was far from complete, and now instead of watching him grow and adapt to his powers and what they mean to both him and the world around him, instead of building and growing his relationship with both Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, instead of watching him struggle to keep his identity secret, we're going to get he and Batman, (instead of Zod this time) punching each other through buildings. Yes, I know that Clarke Kent/Kal-El/Superman can do all of those things with Batman hanging around, I just wish that he didn't have to.

Now, on to the "Dawn of Justice" bit. Could you be any more blatant, Warner Brothers? Why don't you smack us in the face with the fact that this is leading directly into a Justice League film? Oh wait, you already did. So, not only is Kal-El getting screwed out of his own sequel with the addition of Batman, you're also going to throw Wonder Woman and Cyborg into the mix, just for good measure. And, believe me, I'm pretty sure that we're going to hear about the addition of an Aquaman or a Martian Manhunter or a Green Lantern pretty soon, too. So, now, instead of a Superman movie or a Batman versus Superman movie, we're now talking full on Justice League territory. Regardless of the amount of screen time they get, just the addition of these extra characters changes the way that this whole thing is going to be perceived. And as their new title suggests, that's exactly what Warner Brothers wants. So what's with the charade? Let's call a spade, a spade, and stop fooling around. This is no longer a sequel to Man of Steel, it's a prequel to the Justice League. Plain and simple.

Did we learn nothing from this whole The Amazing Spiderman 2 debacle? Sacrificing your story for set-up is definitely not the way to go. And I truly hope that this isn't what's happening here. I hope that they did learn from TASM2 and are looking at alternative ways to tell a great story. And I get it, no matter what they do, they're going to be compared to Marvel, and that really does suck. If Warner Brother's starts their cinematic universe with origin stories, then they're just copying Marvel. If they try something different, then they don't know what they are doing, and why don't they do it like Marvel did? It's a no win situation for them. These days, Marvel is a well oiled machine and let's face it, they make it look easy. And it's definitely not.   

So let's hope that Superman doesn't get lost in the midst of everything going on in the background. Because I can guarantee you, when Ben Affleck gets to do his Batman solo film(s), he's not going to have to battle for screen time with anyone. He will not be second fiddle, that's for sure. I think that Warner Brother's owes it to Kal-El to treat him with the same amount of respect. Although it doesn't look like it'll be this time, maybe eventually he'll get there.