Thursday, October 17, 2013

FAN REACTIONS AND THE DC VS. MARVEL CONNECTION

I've about the supposed failure of boy's adventure films and I find myself revisiting those thoughts about the critical and fan reaction to PACIFIC RIM.In brief, in catering to a very niche audience it didn't work enough for someone outside those who already like this kind of material.It is too early to call it a financial failure but Hollywood overemphasizes domestic box office and it has underperformed here.Finances aside I think it's the best summer motion picture right behind Man of Steel and my inner twelve year old was sooo happy.



Man of Steel had a kind of split decision between critics and public unlike Pacific Rim where audiences and critics heaped universal praise.More people saw Man of Steel as everyone knows who Superman is even if they've never read a Superman comic.Not everyone knows what a Kaiju is.I think Man of Steel became polarizing because everybody has an idea of what Superman should be and this film may or may not have succeeded in selling the audience on their idea.For the record, it worked splendidly and I am a fan of the various versions of this character in multiple mediums.




In some ways I wish Hollywood wouldn't pay attention to the fans when attempting to adapt material.It is a losing game because no matter what is done it won't match what is inside the fan's head.The filmmakers responsible for this movie clearly have a lot of respect and love for the source and it is all up there on the screen.And yet, some fans hated this.



By hate, I mean hated the entire thing because it wasn't their picture of what Superman is to them.This is doing a disservice to the entire effort.Even as much as I like the film it isn't perfect.The destruction scenes are a bit overlong for example but that's like complaining about the cupholders in a BMW.



So, imagine what happened after the announcement of what Warner Bros wants to do as a followup to Man of Steel.It's a Superman/Batman team up film.It's 2002 again.I can see why they want to go in this direction as it gives them a chance to recast Batman and it can change the stakes for the sequel.Others pointed out that a sequel may be problematic as how do you top a planet destroying menace.With the teamup it forces an interesting question.What kind of problem would require Superman to ask for help? Fan reaction to the teamup has been just as polarizing as the reaction to Man of Steel.



DC wants to follow Marvel in success at the box office hoping for an eventual Justice League movie.Go team! But the path they are taking is odd.The teamup movie idea works but the rumors are The Flash is on the way.At the moment they are pushing for a Flash TV series by using Arrow for the backdoor pilot.A proposed TV series,Amazon, was supposed to chronicle the adventures of a young princess Diana-Wonder Woman.At the moment those plans are on hold.



I'd like everyone here to be a slightly braver and take a risk here.Superman and Batman are taken care of.They need to do an experiment on the audience.They should follow the Superman team up film with a Wonder Woman feature.There are some interesting reasons why .



You know what happened when the Hunger Games smashed box office records?Hollywood didn't understand why a FEMALE LED ACTION MOVIE made that much money.This is one reason of many why we haven't had a Wonder Woman picture yet.They treated this success like an anomaly rather than the start of a positive trend.I have said this but Diana can whether lots of interpretations.Even if Hollywood is even more risk averse than usual and doesn't know what they want when they develop a property somebody somewhere can come up with a way to translate Wonder Woman to the big screen.



I think that someone will be a fan of the source material and will have enough passion to pull through the act of God required to make a film.That passion will translate to the screen.The exuberance of Pacific Rim comes through on the screen because you can feel the director had fun making his monster mashup.Exuberance like that can overcome any preconceptions an audience has for the character.



Come on, DC & Warner Bros.Be brave.Trust the material.Trust the filmmaking team.Have faith the audience will show up.You all can make history.



POSTSCRIPT



The reaction to Ben Affleck being cast as Batman doesn't surprise me at all and I think confirms that Warner Bros and DC Comics are following their own model in producing a successful film franchise."FANS" hate this casting but I think it's brilliant.I have no hope that Diana will make any kind of showing in this upcoming sequel or a potential followup film either but Jennifer Garner would be just fine with me.
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