New Justice

  It’s been a while since I’ve written anything comic related so I thought I’d offer up some thoughts on Warner Brothers attempts at making a Justice League movie.

  It was reported yesterday that Ben Affleck had been approached for a directing role. However after doing some research today it’s looking rather unlikely and probably a good thing too. You see apparently Mr Affleck likes to be in the films he directs and with the scale a Justice League film would require I just don’t see that working. (There was a reason John Favreau was Happy and not Tony Stark… other than his waist size… sorry John)

  Annoyingly Justice League is at that point in pre-production where everyone likes to speculate but really there’s nothing solid to report. Other than a deadline. Which is pretty worrying. “Hey guys we’re so going to have that Justice League movie done for 2015, no idea who’s directing or who’s going to be in it but yeah should be fun.”

  It’s also quite strange that by the sound of things, or at least from Zack Snyder’s point of view, that neither Dark Knight Rises nor Man of Steel will be lead ins to the Justice League. The Justice League movie won’t be using other films as a means to introduce new characters either. They’re just going to go ahead and make the thing. Obviously if things go well they might then give the more popular characters their spin off films afterwards.

  It might just be the cynic in me but all of this smells like Warner Brothers are just doing a rush job in an attempt to cash in on overflow from Avengers 2. It’s not exactly a stupid move, money wise. After all I’m not a big DC fan but I am a fan of big ensemble movies especially ones with super-heroes so they’ve got a ticket sale right there.

  Sadly a movie that makes money isn’t the same as a movie that is good. It’s always great when these things overlap but it’s pretty rare. And from what I’m reading at the moment it just feels like this film could fall apart. People will watch and say “It was okay, but it’s no Dark Knight.” Or even worse “Where the hell was the Hulk?”

  The ghosts of past DC films could haunt this film and confuse audiences (especially those not clued up on the differences between DC and Marvel). The three-year gap might help to fix that a little but then again Spider-man had 5 years to shake off the memories of Tobey Maguire and still it was too soon for most people.

  The thing is a Justice League film has the potential to be amazing. Warner Brothers doesn’t have the same issues over character rights as Marvel does and they’re even free to do cartoon or TV tie-ins if they wanted. What it all depends on is whether or not the studio can find a good Director.

  There was a reason the entire geek community heaved a huge sigh of relief when Joss Whedon had agreed to do Avengers. He might have only had one film under his belt, one that didn’t really make a lot of money, but it was one hell of a film. He not only knew his comics but wrote for them. He could create great characters and was especially talented with ensemble pieces. But most of all he was and still is passionate about these characters and their stories.

  If Warner Brothers can find that right person, then all fears will dissipate. If the studios can learn to take a step back and let a true creative get to work then this film could be great.

  Like I said it’s all ifs and buts at this stage. So it’ll be an interesting day when a director is announced. Cross those fingers DC fans.