Warner Bros CEO Jeff Bewkes has admitted that despite DC movies like Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad raking in at the box office this year, the critics’ battering of the films has him convinced that DC movies can be made a bit better, telling Variety that there is definitely room for improvements.
“The DC Comics characters have a little more lightness in them than maybe what you saw in those movies, so we’re thinking about that. The Strategy worked. The execution did deliver what we wanted to do. We’re right on course or better. The main thing was to launch DC and reinvigorate it with the fan base. The reboot of Batman with Ben Affleck was a big success.”
As comforting as the admittance to failing us is, DC movies still does have an opportunity for redemption at Warner Bros.
Firstly, it has to be said that many fans would disagree with Bewkes’ stance on the tone of the characters and how they’re portrayed. The Warner Bros CEO should know by now, we like our DC more on the Darkseid and there’s nothing wrong with that, so just the prospect of changing one of the defining aesthetics of DC comics could be their new and perfectly avoidable downfall. They should keep it in the dark.
Secondly, Warner Bros needs to get the DC casting right, as questionable casting choices such as Ezra Miller as The Flash, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and Ryan Potter as Tim Drake have fans worried, (and are they purposefully excluding a certain someone green from the Justice League film because of painful mistakes made in the past?). Casting Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke, and somehow roping in Shia LaBeouf to play Red Hood could be the best decision they could make.
Lastly, the suits need to be worked on, such as Batman’s tactical suit still resembles Watchmen’s Night Owl and of course The Flash’s suit, as it has been rumoured the current robotic-looking suit is just a prototype Barry Allen made and will be gifted with a more streamlined one during the story of the film by none other than Bruce Wayne.
