DC Cinematic Universe and Lack of Tonal Consistency
It's no secret that the DC Cinematic Universe is in a bit of trouble. Their last 2 releases; Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad were not received well by the majority of critics (despite doing well in the box office). My explanation for this is simple.
They are confused.
DC has yet to find its footing in the Colossus that is Marvel (pun intended). Just by critic reviews alone Marvel is destroying DC. Most recently the release of Logan is a new standard for a serious toned R-Rated comic book film. And while Logan isn't a full fledged Marvel movie as Fox still owns the rights to Wolverine and The X-Men, it still stands as a testament to great film making, and solid, cohesive writing.
Let's break down DC's latest trailer for Wonder Woman to use as an example and a possible red light to how this film might misstep as well. I would like to note, I don't judge an entire film based on trailers alone, however, with its recent past I have concerns after seeing this one.
Right out the gate I love the look, I love the foreshadowing and the hint of an origin. However, with such a serious tone and ominous music why keep in the joke about London?
Steve: Welcome to jolly old London
WW: It's hideous
Steve: Yeah, it's not for everybody
The serious music continues behind this joke. Meant as a light-hearted look as to Wonder Woman seeing the world outside Themyscira. The joke is good. It's cute, it shows her innocence and reminds you of the royalty/paradise she comes from, however, it falls flat and loses its charm in this trailer. After this slight misstep we get pauses and hits in the music to accentuate great lines. When she blocks the bullet, when she takes a slow motion slide and slash with her sword (a fight scene I'm greatly looking forward to). We get right back into the beautiful imagery and potential of this movie.
Then we get to the end after Wonder Woman's fantastic theme music, the scene of her trying to exit a building with shield and sword in hand. This sort of slapstick works, especially for someone like Diana who hasn't seen doors like this, however, is it fitting in the rest of the theme of this specific trailer? I seem like I'm nitpicking, I know, TRUST ME. But after being burned so badly with Suicide Squad I feel I HAVE to nitpick from now on until the DCU is redeemed.
The biggest problem DCU has had is not picking a theme/nuance to their films. To me, it was blatantly obvious that after seeing the success of Marvel, Warner Bros went into Batman v Superman(BvS) and demanded they lighten up the dark tone of the film. To which, I believe, many critics say was the issue with the film to begin with. It was too dark. I actually completely disagree. If Chris Nolan taught us anything with his Batman films, dark is just fine...if you stick with it. The Avengers movies are fun, and light, and happy-go-lucky. It's a perfect bubblegum-take-your-kids to the theater and enjoy great effects, hot superheroes, a laugh, and some excitement. But, the DC Comic universe is not like this. Why would you try to warp it into this formula? Especially when you've seen proof of 3 films previously succeeding off this model?
This is a great example of the copy-paste model in films lately. "This works! Quick! Make another!". BvS would've worked great if it was about a psychopathic Lex Luthor creating a fight between two well-known established superheroes to gain political ground. He creates a conflict between them to distract the cities from what he's really trying to do, steal alien technology. Besides the fact Luthor was grossly miscast and poorly written, the idea was there. You can see its fledgling stages throughout the film. But we wasted time giving Batman EVEN MORE BACK STORY THAT EVERYONE ALREADY FRICKEN KNOWS. Then tried to paint him as this humorous playboy, which didn't work, who on a dime switches to staunch business man.
This is the tonal problem. We have great conflict, a social backdrop of xenophobia, and it's squandered trying to be flashy and build up too much for the forthcoming Justice League film. The Flash scene? Unnecessary. Yeah, it probably will play out in JL, but was it THAT important to add? It was confusing, jarring even. It created an entire scenario that made Batman seem like a hallucinating loon, which, let's be real, the man dresses as a bat, but nonetheless. The film culminates after a wholly unnecessary battle with Superman calling out "Martha" coincidentally the 2 heroes Mother's share a name (as was in the comics too). But, being the "great detective" and Superman being the "boy-scout" why wouldn't either of them just outright say their motives to begin with? It was an inconsistency in their character that threw me off the entire film
Suicide Squad suffers the same issues. Now, SS is the product of "Oh shit, Deadpool came out and it's awesome and who knew we could do R-Rated and be successful?!" This was a film that publicly was the result of last minute plot changes (Re: Joker being the original baddy of the film but being changed at the last minute to accommodate a larger role in later films) causing the film to seem disjointed. We saw generic "I'm crazy, see?" one-liners from Harley Quinn. A Killer Croc, who although sized according to the original comics, left to semi-racist quips and clothing and playing little to no role in the final battle. Will Smith's Deadshot inconsistently teetering between "Good Dad" and "Oh guess I'm just a bad guy after all". And then a bunch of other forgettables that you probably would have to really concentrate to remember their names or back story. Here is a great video from Jenny Nicholson that reiterates these points
Where SS fails is again, tone. Is it funny? Is it an anti-hero heist film? Is it just a flashy shoot 'em up? Why is this soundtrack so fantastic but you only play the first 30-seconds of every song and back-to-back in the beginning of the film? The story was a mess. It is almost like a boot-strap paradox. Why were they being assembled and pulled out of ranks for a mission that hadn't even started yet only to be needed for a mission that was already planned? The Enchantress escaping happens AFTER they are pulled out and assembled. So, how did they know to be assembled now if there wasn't a need for them? Convenient and confusing. Plus, the whole rescue mission for Amanda was plopped in the middle of the story without any real purpose. Tonally speaking, the film was darkly lit, darkly shot, but on the verge of silly. If I didn't know any better I would say it was SyFy Channel quality plotless adventure.
My hope is Warner Bros and DCU have learned from the critics, learned from messing with films post-production and created a better cinematic universe. Wonder Woman can be a great story. It has all the elements of great action, social commentary, mythical heroics, and light humor. Just don't muck it up by adding too much. KEEP IT SIMPLE. The more you add, the worse it will be.
...Now, for that Harley/Ivy movie. Call me, I've got a great script idea.