Some friends of mine and I were discussing the state of the
DC Extended Universe, the film franchise, and frankly, the films are a lot
smarter than people give them credit for.
So far there are three theatrically released films for this
creative endeavor, “Man of Steel”, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, and “Suicide
Squad”. These films have become
financial titans, but met with mixed reviews from both critics and fans alike.
I won’t go on record in saying that everything was done
right in the movies. There are pretty
significant plot holes here and there, especially in BvS, but those occurred
because they were trying to do so much in such a small amount of time. The extended version does fill in a lot of
those gaps, but if you read between lines in the film, you can actually grasp
why characters make the choices they do.
Part of what Zack Snyder, Warner Bros, and DC have been
trying to do with the films is bring an element of realism to the characters,
and that is a very difficult task, especially when you consider your main story
elements include an alien from a distant star with god-like powers, a
billionaire who dresses as a bat, and a team of semi-super powered criminals
fighting an archeologist possessed by a witch.
Trying to ground those stories is a tall order, but it’s something they
need to do. They need to alter their
formula from that of Marvel, because naturally that is who they are going to be
compared to.
Let’s hit a few of the major notes that have been debated in
the fan base since “Man of Steel” and the neck-snap heard round the world. Myth #1 “Superman and Batman don’t kill.”
Fact: Going back to
the early days of the characters, back in 1938 and 1939, Superman and Batman
most certainly did kill. They killed a
lot. This got thinned out over the
decades, but it still crops up from time to time in the modern comics. Superman feels bad about when having to kill,
he tries to avoid it, but it does happen from time to time. In the films we have two confirmed kills from
Superman: that of the lunatic Kryptonian Zod in “Man of Steel” and the African warlord
holding a gun to Lois’ head in “BvS”. In
the former, Superman is distraught by killing Zod, realizing that he’s just
killed the last of his kind to save the planet.
In the latter, we really don’t get much aftermath on Superman’s view of
the incident, but given the man’s track record as being a warlord, he probably
didn’t feel that much of an emotional punch.
That’s it for Superman.
But, I hear you say “But Batman doesn’t kill.” Who said that? Where is that written? For that matter, how has that been
established in the film universe, as BvS is the debut of this version of
Batman, and he’s been Batman for 20 years.
This is “Dark Knight Returns” style Batman, who left dead bodies all
over town.
Myth 2 “Batman doesn’t use guns.” Yes, yes he does. He has them mounted in just about every
bat-themed vehicle in his inventory.
Further Batman has been established as a master marksman. You don’t get there unless you know how to
use them. Further, again, this is “Dark
Knight Returns” style Batman, who is featured using a rifle in the comic. Again, 20 years. He’s going to use whatever gets the job done
at this point.
The thing most people gloss over, however, it the attitude
change Batman has at the end of “BvS”, because of Superman’s sacrifice. Superman had been persecuted throughout the
film, and could have easily just left when Doomsday showed up, but he stayed
and fought to protect the people who fear and hate him, and Batman had been one
of those people. A lot of critics slam
the “Martha” scene, because it felt too easy, but don’t look at it from Batman’s
point of view: look at it from Bruce Wayne’s point of view.
Bruce’s defining moment, something that we were reminded of
in the start of the film, was the death of his parents, the ultimate moment of
chaos in his life. He had no control
over it. Bruce spends his entire career
as Batman fighting for control. He needs
to be the guy running everything, and that’s where this Batman is born
from. So for him to meet something like
Superman, the guy no one can control, an alien from another planet with afore
mentioned god-like powers, he needs to dominate that. He has to have some control over it because
otherwise the world is chaos and chaos leads to innocent people dying. When Superman, even as he’s about to die,
asks Batman to save “Martha”, that gives Batman two major whammies at
once. 1) Superman has a human mother
figure, meaning he is tied to humanity, and that his mom is also named Martha,
which strikes a major cord with him and 2) He is about to die, and all he can
do is think about saving someone else.
Superman has in that one request reminded Batman of who he’s intended to
be, not who he has become.
Batman has a major heel turn in attitude at this point
because he’s been basically reset. Without
any additional scenes, this event makes perfect sense in the film. You just have to think about what is going
on.
That…that is the major problem a lot of people have with the
DCEU. Marvel doesn’t demand you think
about what is going on. Both studios
pump out hugely entertaining movies, but they do so on very different
levels.
Jump over to “Suicide Squad”. The film has been criticized for being
disjointed, giving too much exposition in some areas, not enough in others,
being jumbled and a little crazy…but that’s the Suicide Squad. The team is a bunch of supervillains, which
is just a fancy term for career criminals with powers, teaming up. That kind of thing is not going to be a
well-oiled machine and the film displays this all the way through. Personally I thought the movie was a huge
amount of fun. Yeah it had some story
telling issues, but those issues made sense when you look at the Squad itself. You don’t have a “point of view” character
because everyone is already immersed in this world. It’s actually really daring that you DON’T
have the audience avatar in the film.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, the audience avatar or
point of view character, is a central character in the film who has minimal
effect on the plot, but spends the first act of the film pointing at stuff
saying “What’s that?” so the film has to explain to them, and by proxy the
audience, the universe they live in.
Most comic book film fans will note that Wolverine in the first X-Men
film was this character…for almost the entire franchise. Suicide Squad, however, lacks this
character. We, the audience, get bits
and pieces through the first act, but the bulk of the exposition (and trailer
fodder) comes when the characters themselves are dragged into Task Force X and
given the mission briefing.
Doing it that way for “Suicide Squad” helps establish this
as a singular world. There is no realistic
reason for any of these characters to serve as our proxy because they all live
in this world, and should already be aware of the way this world works. You can’t justify having someone asking the
audience’s questions because that would mark them as being incredibly
stupid. “Suicide Squad” demands the
audience be smarter than that. The movie
is unorthodox because the situation is unorthodox and is probably about as real
as a depiction as you can get for that kind of set up.
These three films have set the tone for the franchise and I
really hope they stay the course, and I’m pretty excited to see where the next
step goes.
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