DC comics is one of the biggest comic companies in the world. They are so big that they have made their way into film. Being animated or live action, they have only been able to cover a handful of heroes. Comparing themselves to another successful comic company is something that has been done countless times because of the others success; who is better? How does the other comic company compare to DC? Why can’t DC make a decent superhero live action film?
DC comics is home to amazing heroes such as: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Cyborg, and so many more. Not to mention the villains that have helmed their way across success, like the Joker, Deathstroke, and Sinestro.
Fortunately, DC has made some decent animated films, but not so decent live action ones. The animated films are numerous because they may be easier to make, so they produce more. Plus, the audience that they consider when making these animated films are usually teenagers and children. They market them as kids or teen movies to make more money in that area.
Some good DC animated movies include: “Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox;” “Wonder Woman,” the 2009 film; “Justice League: War;” Batman: The Dark Knight Returns;” and “Green Lantern: First Flight.” (dccomics). All which, in my opinion, are good DC animated films. They are entertaining, fun to watch, mostly comic book accurate, animation is well done, and the voice acting is also well done.
Everything is up to opinion when it comes to films being good or not. There are so many reviews on these films that it’s hard to trust one. Usually, if the consensus is bad, then the movie is bad. Vice versa. When I want to watch a DC film, animated or not, or any film in general, I usually look for comments on Facebook reviewing the movie by actual fans, instead of professional critics, and sometimes the rottentomatoes website grabs my attention as well. However, you should not rely on other people’s reviews to make your own review of a film. Give it a chance and make your own opinion on it.
An example of this is going to the rottentomatoes website and looking up “Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.” You will see that the ‘Tomatoemeter’ is at 100%, but the audience score is 93%. This tells me, and others, that critics loved this film, but the audience, just general public viewers, liked it. Overall, it looks to be a great animated DC film from just the website. And it was right, I loved this film.
However, when it comes to other films on the website for DC comic films, it’s another side. “Teen Titans: The Judas Contract” isn’t very good. But the tomatometer says otherwise with an 80%. Again, this is all opinion based, so it’s hard to give a hard yes or no with this topic.
Now, when it comes to live action films, DC is very 50/50. The first of the DCU (DC Comics Universe) is Man of Steel. The film is okay. It has some bad dialogue and some bad directing, but overall, it’s a decent film. Batman v Superman is the second in the universe, and it was a big disappointment. The tomatoemeter is 28%. Although, at first glance, the film is bad. However, I watched it again recently, and it’s still a disappointment, but it’s not a terrible film. I would have agreed with it being at a 45-65%.
If we compare the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) to the DCU, then you would see that people much prefer the MCU because it’s already on its 17th film. They expanded each film for almost every character. Giving them enough time to explain their origin and develop their characters properly. Now, they have almost all the information needed for a giant film surrounding one of the biggest events in comic history: The Infinity Gauntlet. That event on the big screen is something fans thought they would ever see. Now that it is coming to life, it’s like a dream.
It’s possible that DC is trying to catch up with the MCU, for money purposes. To let them know that they have the better universe overall. They do that, and they squish so much information into one movie (Batman v Superman) that we miss key moments from the comics that many fans love. When they do that, it makes it look like they don’t care about what the fans think, they only care about the money. That is one reason that they haven’t fully succeeded into making a decent film.
With Batman v Superman, they really should have let them make a solo Batman film, a solo Wonder Woman film, and then Batman v Superman. It would have made more sense and it wouldn’t have to squish all that information into one long film. Honestly, I believe that’s the reason behind them not making a very good film. Yet, Wonder Woman is said to have great reviews and to be the best one. But, we shall see.
References
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. (2017, April 12). Retrieved May 27, 2017, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice
DCU: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. (2017, February 23). Retrieved May 27, 2017, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dcu_justice_league_the_flashpoint_paradox
Man of Steel. (2017, March 12). Retrieved May 27, 2017, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/superman_man_of_steel
Movies. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2017, from http://www.dccomics.com/movies
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. (2017, April 25). Retrieved May 27, 2017, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/teen_titans_the_judas_contract
