DC Comics is in the midst of a movie war with Marvel Studios, and they’re losing… badly. DC is being outgunned, outmanned and the sad truth is that they’re losing at their own game.
Sure, the Dark Knight trilogy is arguably the best superhero franchise in history. Sure, “The Dark Knight Rises” stands in the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time, but what else does DC have to offer?
Other than “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” DC’s last successful movie was, wait for it, “Batman.” “Batman” had a pretty good run in the ‘80s and ‘90s with director Tim Burton(“Edward Scissorhands” and every other creepy animated movie ever made).
And before that, during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s “Superman” broke out in a big way. After “Superman 3,” the Kryptonian lay dormant for about 30 years until 2006. Something awful occurred in the world that year, yes– “Superman Returns” was released and its super-atrociousness haunted the darkest corners of everyone’s nightmares.
Something that may be fresher in the minds of moviegoers is “The Green Lantern,” which was released in 2011.
It started out so promising, especially since Ryan Reynolds is usually such a charming lead. But when it came down to it, the film was a bit of a mess, to say the least.
So, after a few bad movies that could have been avoided, it’s time to look forward into the future. The next DC Comic effort will be “Man of Steel” in 2013 and to be completely honest, everything released to the public so far promises that this will be one heck of a movie. Everything from the cast to the director and even (especially) the producers look fantastic.
The film stars Henry Cavill (who is a relatively unknown) as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Superman’s adoptive parents, Russell Crowe as the biological father and Laurence Fishburne as the Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet.
Zack Snyder is in the director’s seat and he is no stranger to superhero films, as he directed “Watchmen” for Warner Bros.
“Watchmen” was a bit underwhelming, but Snyder also helmed “300” which was both a critical and financial success so hopefully he produces something worthwhile.
Probably the most exciting thing about “Man of Steel” is that Christopher Nolan, yes, the director of the “Dark Knight” trilogy (insert girly scream here), is executive producing the project and has great creative input.
Nolan hasn’t let down comic book fans yet, so his addition puts “Man of Steel” at the very top of the summer tentpole.
Recently, Warner Bros. released a statement saying that they started to write a script for a “Justice League” movie.
Huh, it’s certainly interesting that this happened only shortly after “The Avengers” was released.
There isn’t much more information on a Justice League movie other than that, but if there is going to be one then it would probably be released in 2015 or 2016, no earlier than that.
DC has been pretty pathetic with comic-based films lately, excluding Batman. Things are starting to look up though and maybe DC will stand a fighting chance against Marvel someday… But probably not.
By: Andrew Noonan
