DC Comics is one of the biggest comic book creators in the world, spawning hundreds of beloved superheroes like Superman, Batman, Watchmen … it’s considered to be mirroring Marvel Comics (Avengers, Xmen, Fantastic 4, …): the latter being upbeat and aspiring hope and quirkiness, and the former representing the gritty and edgy reality of superheroes, bearing the burden of being a symbol of hope to the people and translating the deeper meaning of being a superhero.

But now, we’re not going to talk about the paper version of the comics, we’re here to talk Cinematic Universes.

The DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE – DCEU, began with the well-crafted MAN OF STEEL, introducing Henry Cavill as the new Superman, so far so good, it had great music by Hans Zimmer, a well-crafted storyline and a kryptonian villain with relatable motives: Zod, portrayed by Michael Shannon, and last but not least, the movie was handled by the SNYDER machine itself, who became the godfather of the DCEU, it looked promising for us DC Comics fans, yet all went downhill from there, because the natural follow up to the Man of Steel, resulted in the superhero-oversaturated ‘ BATMAN v. SUPERMAN ‘.

Inspired by the Dark Knight Returns story arc. The movie was hyped as it depicted the legendary clash between the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel, but something was way off, the plot was saturated and incomplete due to the screening of the cut version of the movie, the villain was miscast, yeah I know, Jesse Einsenberg is a great actor, but why cast him as the arch-nemesis of Kal-El? the clash of power wasn’t synchronized, and the antagonist, who was meant to be cunning and mischievous, ended up sounding  cartoonish.

The movie also introduced us to the new BATMAN of the DCEU, Ben Affleck, (we all wanted Christian Bale to reprise the role, but that was the Nolan trilogy, we will talk about it down the lines) which was great until then, because the DC Comics original story arc, saw a middle aged Batman losing his patience as he became old and fed up with the current handling of Justice, and Batfleck depicted it perfectly, WONDER WOMAN was fine too, as we saw the Amazonian princess being portrayed by Gal Gadot, with a badass new theme *cue badass guitar riff*.

But this didn’t redeem the DCEU’s major core problems of the DCEU : Reckless Planning and Lack of Patience

The reason of the overwhelming success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is that it took 10 years to craft a great storyline that started with Iron Man and led to Avengers : Infinity War, it was a big intriguing puzzle with pieces scattered all over the MCU’s single movies (Thor, Captain America, Ant-man, …) and decomposed into phases, each one ending up with an AVENGERS movie.

The president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, took his time to handle the cinematic universe properly, because he knew it was worth all the wait, and if you don’t believe me, go check out the audience reaction of the Infinity War screenings worldwide. (yes, I was one of them too).

It was successful, because it introduced each hero separately so we can identify with his story, and when it’s done, it would be a great treat to see other superheroes interfere with each other’s lives, and we would understand why, because each movie has a throwback to its predecessor, a game of connecting the dots, created by Marvel for us diehard fans, and it was fun to craft theories and see them being confirmed or debunked eventually.

In Contrast, the DCEU, wanting to catch up with its rival’s success, recklessly crammed the whole Justice League into Quicktime videos on Wonder Woman’s email (Batman v Superman), it became oversaturated with superheroes in such a short time, and the audience couldn’t care less, because it wasn’t relating to each hero, and no emotional involvement was there: It was an imploding cinematic universe.

Moreover, inspired by the upbeat tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DCEU gave the whole cinematic universe an inconsistent tone, ranging from gritty and serious at times (Man of Steel, BvS) to uncharacteristically quirky and comic (Justice League, Aquaman) *sigh*

I would have preferred that the DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE  mimic Marvel’s formula, not in terms of tone, but in terms of setting up the greater image, and to focus on a gripping storyline rather than focusing on visuals and comic-translated movie frames as Zack Snyder is famous of doing.

We all loved DC’s original tone because we enjoyed the philosophical tone of the Dark Knight trilogy by Christopher NOLAN, we liked to be intrigued and be treated smartly.

We wanted to feel the DC Comics experience, as serious and real as it is, because it mimicked the true world and it was the second force of comic book equilibrium, in contrast of Marvel Comics, but unfortunately the trilogy was created before the establishment of a cinematic universe, which required a total reboot of the characters, so Christian Bales’s BATMAN and Heath ledger’s JOKER were bound to stay in Nolan’s world, and to forever set the bar higher by becoming the greatest depictons of Gotham’s forces of order and chaos.

Now, Here’s the thing, DC, why not take time casting and crafting each superhero on his own? and establish each one’s true tone so we won’t get distracted when a tonal shift occurs? why not focus on leading up the individual origin stories to the reunion arcs like Justice League as the Avengers did, and setting up the phases of the DCEU ? with each part being concluded by the rise of a supervillain like Darkseid, Braniac, Doomsday, etc. heck even merge WATCHMEN into it,  surprise us, make us wait for the biggest reveals, and trust us, DC, it wouldn’t come up as a ripoff of the MCU, because each cinematic universe has its unique atmosphere.

If only you took your time planning this thoroughly, DC, you would have witnessed the rise of a greater fanbase and the recognition you so deserved.

So tell me, guys, what are your thoughts on the DCEU? make sure to tell me in the comments ! I would love to see your feedback .. 

TNC out !