Justice League movie editorial

*Originally published on March 10, 2008

It's pretty common knowledge by now that DC is pushing it's Justice League movie pretty hard. Most comic fans took a sigh of relief when the writer's strike seemingly killed this project. However, much
like a Hollywood movie monster, it has come back from the dead.

I honestly can not understand what they're thinking. The only logical explanation is that they want to release it before Marvel releases Avengers. The studio execs say that they plan to use this as a way to test the waters and see if solo projects will be successful. The only problem is that they're doing it backwards. You don't do the big super team up and then go back and cover everyone's origins. Marvel is doing it right. They're developing all the characters and building the universe so that when the big team up flick happens, all the characters will be developed. The movie will be much bigger because of it, we know and care about the
characters as opposed to having a glossed over version that we really couldn't give a rat's ass about. It's why the DCAU JL/JLU series was able to work. You can't cover 7 hero origins/meetings, a
villain setup and plot in 2 hours. People complained that Spider-man 3 was too crowded (and it was) what makes you think you can juggle twice that many things in less time?

What's even more vexing is that they claim that this takes place in a wholly separate universe, yet they plan to use Talia who wants to avenge her father. Yeah, that doesn't tie into Batman Begins at all.
They would be much better off just waiting. Let Bats and Supes finish their trilogies, do a Wonder Woman, a Flash, and a GL movie, a World's Finest that shows Bats and Supes first team up and then go
to Justice League. I guarantee you that if you did it this way you would make so so so much more money then by trying to blow your wad now and then going back and doing solo flicks that don't even really
tie into the original product. Why have John in there when you won't even set up the Green Lantern mythos until the solo flick that features Hal Jordan?

From what I've seen the cast isn't all that impressive, Megan Gale notwithstanding. I can even accept Adam Brody as Wally West (though I'd prefer Ryan Reynolds) but the rest of them do not really fit the bill. Have you seen the pic for the guy playing Supes? It ain't right man. I have no clue who Armie Hammer is but he does not look like Bruce Wayne. To be fair, neither did Michael Keaton and he did a pretty good job of it. From what I've read, the guy's 6'5. If this is true then I can definitely see him being an intimidating
figure in the suit providing he gets the voice and demeanor down. Still, you have a solid Bats in Christian Bale. Nolan's doing a good job of giving us a fleshed out Batman, why would you want to
undermine or negate that with a Bats who's only development comes from acting as a foil for Superman. Why is Common playing John Stewart? I'm sure he's a fan but if you had brain one in your heads
you would cast Denzel Washington. The guy looks like John, has the acting chops and gravitas needed for the character and would lend some cred to the flick. Sure he's a pretty big name but Batman Begins had Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Katie Holmes and you had no complaints when signing their contracts.

Both Bale and Routh have expressed interest in this project given the right timing and that's really where you guys are dropping the ball. Look, I would love for the Justice League to make it to the big screen. I think that this, along with Avengers, can be the biggest superhero movie to ever hit the big screen. It needs to be
handled delicately though. If you rush this it will come out to be a big turd and you'd lose hundreds of millions in potential income.

For a while they were talking about doing this flick in Mo-Cap, like Polar Express, Beowulf, and Monster House, had they done this I would've been fine with it as well. It would make it clear that it was a separate universe and as such it wouldn't taint any of the solo franchises. Heck, you could double dip and do the CGI one now, and then 10 years from now do the live action Justice League flick that ties into the live action movies you had released between now and then. Talk about having your cake and eating it too. For some
reason though, they dropped that idea and went back to live action.

Another option would be to do an animated movie that takes place in the Dini/Timmverse. That has a strong critical and fan backing, and a whole universe of established heroes. X-Files is coming back to the big screen long after the show's cancellation. You could do the same with JLU. Long time fans would have no problem putting down more money to see their favorite characters returning. You've already got a story. The near apocalypse of '09 that was twice mentioned on Batman Beyond, but never seen on screen. Liam Neeson
was a great Ra's, no doubt, but do you have any idea how happy you would make fans if you gave them one last outing with the David Warner voiced Ra's. With The Batman being cancelled, you could once
again use the character and we could see how he nearly succeeded in bringing the world to its knees.

We comic fans can be rather protective of these characters. All we really want is for them to be shown the respect they deserve. You have plenty of evidence to show that doing that brings big returns: Spidey 1 &2, X-Men 1 & 2, Batman Begins, Hellboy, Sin City, 300 all brought huge bucks. Please for the love of Hera and The Source put this movie on the back-burner. Good things come to those who wait.
You do that and I have no doubt that the public's (even the most rabid of fanboys) opinion of this movie will change. I know you dismiss geekdom opinion as they can be rather nitpicky. I've done my best to present a case that you, as both businessmen/women and rational people can understand. I've even given you some superior alternatives. Just because the people who post on message boards are hardcore nitpicky ubernerds doesn't mean that you should schlock together a sub par movie just for poops and giggles. It's not right. This movie could, and should, happen. Just not now. Later. Later would be better.






You'd think that this would be another outdated article, but a lot of the points I raised here still stand.  The casting stuff may be obsolete, but it's still pretty relevant given recent announcements about the "Man of Steel" sequel.