4

"They Need To Stop Taking Such Dumb Chances!"

Suicide Squad was the third movie that DC made in their new universe. Rather than go the route of establishing more legitimate heroes, they decided, four-and-a-half hours into their existence, that audiences would much rather see a collection of B-List villains, with Batman showing up for three 90-second segments. Many said that it was DC's attempt to replicate Guardians Of The Galaxy, but it feels less like that and more like a comic book Devil's Rejects. They're mass murderers and generally the worst people on the planet, but hey, they're always busting each other's balls, so they must be alright!

Warner Bros.

And while this paid off in the box office, the reviews added it to the ever-growing pile of Stuff That DC Has Done Totally Wrong. I rewatched all three of these movies before I wrote this column, and I don't hate them anymore. There's stuff that I really like about some of them, but Suicide Squad is painfully grating at its worst. Now That's What I Call Supervillains, Volume 1 is an incoherent screech into the winds of relevance, but the concept behind it? Sign me up for a dozen more.

The release of Suicide Squad as their third film shows me that DC is willing to take chances that are so unmeasured that they're borderline blind. And that is infinitely more interesting than the approach of "We'll release movies about the big-name superheroes first, and when they're all proven to succeed, we'll go down the list until we eventually reach Leather Boy: A Netflix Original Series."

Marvel Comics

3

"They Need To Really UNDERSTAND The Characters!"

After the release of Man Of Steel and Batman v. Superman, it was clear that the director, Zack Snyder, had some weird inclinations when it came to how classic characters should be portrayed. The immediate reaction to this discovery was "Well, Zack Snyder just doesn't understand certain characters." And because these two movies mostly dealt with the internal turmoil and external explosions of a piece of eye laser Americana, this was boiled down to "Zack Snyder hates Superman."

I get that. In Man Of Steel, Clark Kent spends the first two acts moping around the globe, trying to gain an ounce of purpose. And in the last act, when he discovers that his purpose is "Property Damage," he beats the villains through every populated building that he can find. This provided an interesting backdrop for Batman v. Superman: That dude is supposed to be the world's greatest hero, so how is he going to handle having inadvertently killed thousands? And we probably would've seen an answer to this question, had Ben Affleck's rippling trapezius not been in the way.

Warner Bros.

But Zack Snyder does not hate Superman. And he does not have a loathing for do-gooder superhero characters. In fact, what Zack Snyder does not get is the same thing that we don't get: How do you make people like Superman again?

I often fall into thinking that understanding characters and presenting them in their truest comic-book-friendly form will equal massive box office numbers, critical success, and probably a handjob in a public restroom. But would turning Superman into an unfailing Boy Scout, or totally leaning into the skid of "He's a lost god on a planet that he doesn't have a mutual understanding with" make people dig him? The first trailer for Man Of Steel played before The Dark Knight Rises. In my theater, after the inspiring music and washed-out shots of the kid in the cape, a guy yelled "BATMAN'S BETTER, THOUGH!" and the audience applauded as if he had just discovered the cure for death.

2

"They Need Action Scenes That Aren't So Explosive!"

Christopher Nolan did a lot of cool things with the Batman character. But until The Dark Knight Rises, when Batman slugged it out with Bane, fight scenes that amounted to more than a blur of editing and short strikes were a distant a dream. Thus, in Batman v. Superman, when Batman Brock Lesnar'd his way through a warehouse full of goons, all I could think was "Finally." And so many reviews had taken dumps on a decade of inadequate hand-to-hand bat combat, so I expected critics and fans to erupt in resounding high fives at the sight of a Batman who could readjust a bad guy's skeleton from the outside of his body if he wanted to.

1

"They Needed To Do Solo Character Films First!"

Batman v. Superman featured a lot of characters showing up for the first time in this universe, like Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash, and Jimmy Olsen. (RIP, BUDDY. YOU HAD MORE THAN ONE LINE IN THE ULTIMATE EDITION OF THE FILM, AND NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FROM YOU. POUR ONE OUT FOR JIMMY.) And while the introductions to half of them were clumsy, as they were mostly done through Wonder Woman watching security footage on a computer, I don't think that giving each of them a solo film before Batman v. Superman was the answer to "How many showers can we give this turd?"

We've had five Batman solo films, and while they weren't connected to Batman v. Superman, that doesn't mean that Batman suddenly becomes a mystery to us. No, we get what Batman's about. Oh, he's old now and a little angrier? That's not a foreign concept that we couldn't possibly wrap our heads around without another movie of set up. Ben Affleck's constant grimace is an effective one. It tells us that he's a little pissed off and tortured, so giving him a solo film to set that depression up is simply doing what five combined films have done repeatedly.

Warner Bros.

Wonder Woman's role in Batman v. Superman wasn't a total failure either. In fact, I'm kind of glad that she's getting a solo movie after the team adventure. She showed up, held her own with two joyless beef castles, and you didn't get to see her full potential. You were only teased it. Now, with a followup solo movie, you can. If she'd done the solo movie first and gotten a team-up later, it would've been inevitably disappointing. She got a whole movie to herself, and now she'd have to hang back while Bruce Wayne ponders at Kryptonite for a while.

Warner Bros.

We're getting a Justice League movie later this year, in which hopefully all of Batman's super pals will get some proper screen time. But thinking that the whole team should have gotten solo films to better set up a movie entitled BATMAN v. SUPERMAN is the equivalent of wishing you could eat all of the potatoes in the restaurant because it would make your steak taste better. What is making Flash more important beforehand going to do for that movie? Did we really need another guy to stand around and look sad about stuff? If there's one thing that Batman v, Superman didn't need, it's more existential bro angst.

Daniel has a blog.

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