The Perfect Film Franchise

So this weekend my son and I went to see Captain America: Civil War and I am happy to say that the film was AWESOME and a shinning example of why the Marvel films have been so successful and why the DC films have not.

ONE WORD: Consistency.

Now we take the earlier DC films, Tim Burton Batman, and most arguably the first and most successful of the superhero movies from the early 90s. The films have the same star, same tone and feeling through out and in the end the films were fun and well planned out. Then we fall into the fiasco of the changing of the guard, Kilmer and Clooney, and the slow downhill slide of the Batman Franchise. Then we have Chris Nolan and his Dark Knight Trilogy and the reinvention of Batman. WELL DONE! Each other films are well thought out and the characters are consistent from one film to another (Yes even though Rachel was changed from one film to another the tone of the character remained the same). The films were the perfect story arch and ended on the same note that they ended, siting Chris Nolan as a genius. Now we have the DC Superman Vs Batman, a clear lead into Justice League movies and an attempt to build a Marvel style franchise. Now anyone who loves comic book movies could see the absolute failure that was about to come but let me break this down so everyone can get on board.

Problem number one:
Time

Marvel has been pumping their films for nearly ten years. They started with Iron Man and continued building through seve story lines, nearly ten movies, and character backgrounds that not only have remained true through each film but each with an Easter egg (post and mid credit scenes) that wet an appetite for things to come. Doing something like this is a task that only few movie powerhouses could pull off and love them or hate them true fans go and see each film because without each film the Avengers one and Two and Civil War could never have happened

Problem number Two:
BACKGROUND!

Civil War introduced three new characters this turn, spider man, black panther, and Crossbones. Now with Spider Man and Black Panther the director took the time to lead in characters with a little bit of story and background, enough so that the audience understands not only how they got involved but why. With Crossbones this was a continuation from the Winter Soldier movie and thus ended his story line. Other new characters like Ant-Man and War Machine had several movies to build their characters and their reasons for being there and fighting on the sides that they did. The directors took the time to include small things that go a long way to lend toward the credibility of the film and this is a constant state within all Marvel films. The problem with Batman Vs Superman is that they are attempting to cram ten years worth of film in a 120 minutes of film and that's not possible. New characters such as Auqaman, Wonder Woman, Doomsday are introduced with hardly any intro background and foundation. Further more we're supposed to be catching these characters much later in their hero ethos and the film does not reflect that because you are introducing a new universe into an already established franchise, meaning you're trying to ad more to a standard that was already pretty perfect, thus, they break the film and it turns out like crap.


Problem Number Three:
Fanboys and the Geek Nation


Now there will NEVER be a film that satisfies everyone. NEVER. There will be little problems here and there that people will fight and disagree with. This is very true with Marvel and DC but where Marvel remains consistent is the idea that these films are sticking with a certain comic book series and are leading up to an epic such as the Infinity Stone saga. Batman Vs Superman rather combined five or six different comic book series with the intention of leading up to the Justice League, the only problem is they did it badly and left huge gaps in the film that were about the size of the grand canyon. Again all of this reflects back onto time and background but it seemed that this concept was rush on behalf of the Batman Vs Superman production team. This will sadly be reflected in the Suicide Squad as it seems most people are more caught up in the Joker, a character NOT in the main set of the Suicide Squad, and more of a secondary role in the comics and the film. Let's hope that I'm wrong.

The long and the short of it is Marvel and Disney have dedicated YEARS to these films and are producing gold. From Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Ant Man and Guardians of the Galaxy each film has complemented the last and has inevitably led up to Thanos and the Infinity Stones. The films have set records, broke those records, and set more. The concept of the story, background, and character arcs are firmly grounded in the formula of success and I'm afraid that this will be one that Dc WONT be able to copy.

Any, just my opinion

J.