‘Superman & Batman’ movie will follow ‘Man of Steel’

Since it's coming from Nikki Finke it's unlikely that it's complete BS. And two years, give or take, is not too much of a rush for a film like Shazam!

That said, a story like this is certainly click-bait for her new site so one has to take that motive into account.

 

A Green Lantern Flash team-up would be an absolute dream come true. If that's the case though, it would indicate that they're going to use Hal in Justice League, instead of John as many have speculated. Any team-up between Green Lantern and Flash has to be Hal and Barry. John and Barry would make no sense.

 

Well, they can combine Hal and John.

Neither Hal nor John have strongly dramatic personal backstories, but maybe introducing them in Justice League rather than doing more origin stuff will sidestep that.

 

Well they certainly got a lot of mileage out of Barry and John Stewart on JLU.

 

Kinda surprised there's no mention of a solo Affleck-Batman movie in there. Much as I was hoping for a MOS sequel, I thought for sure we'd see another Batman movie before we ever saw another solo Superman movie.

 

Sure. And if they're looking for more diversity in casting the Justice League and DCU movies there's no logical or in-story reason that Hal Jordan has to be a white guy. That said, there's also no reason that John Stewart and Barry Allen can't be close pals.

I want to see some variation of of New52's Hal calling Barry up to tell him about being in a fight with Batman - Barry reacted with "Batman? He's real?" and Hal responded "Yeah, and he's a real asshole."

 

I guess what I was asking you to do was technical criticism repair, so to speak. What are the creative solutions to solve some of the creative problems? (Though, obviously, some disagree with what are or are not creative problems.

For me, high expectations means, I'm walking in with, "this is going be a GREAT movie..." and then it's not (Prometheus...). I guess for me, I have a desire to see a film working on all levels. I think MOS works mostly on a visual level. I think the visuals are really great, certainly at a technical level. It's where Snyder excels. But, for me the emotional core of the movie is seriously lacking. And I don't think that's a high expectation thing.

Interesting. For me, I think the best ones aren't just vapid thrill rides... or at least, the ones that stick with me that I want to return to again and again have something that rises above just thrill ride--or they are making the thrill ride click on more levels than just "it's a ride!"

Dark Knight I think is a great movie and not just because there's a guy dressed as a bat... though we spend more time with him as Wayne... I think it's a great crime story, I think it's a tense thriller.

Looking at MOS, I think the cinematography wanted me to think and feel this is a serious movie and not just a theme park ride... and in the end what I got was a theme park ride.

Maybe by your definition that is high expectations, I don't know.

 

JLU Flash was Wally.

I'm not saying that they can't make John and Barry friends, but it would just feel wrong. It would be like if Batman v. Superman were continuing on from The Dark Knight Rises, and Superman first met John Blake instead of Bruce Wayne.

 

Exactly so. I don't see anything that badly needs fixing in the movie. Some people just liked it and some people didn't like it.

I loved Green Lantern. In retrospect I could tell you what I think were the big problems with that movie (no, not the casting). I can't tell you whether changes to those things would have made it a big success, however.

Nolan's movies are among the few exceptions, because he seems to have had a pretty free hand to make fairly ambitious films with themes that interested him. The first Captain America movie rather touched me. Other than those...meh, there's not a lot. At least Snyder's movies aren't cookie-cutter affairs.

 

Oh, I don't think there's anyway to predict whether something will be a big success or not. Personally, I disliked Green Lantern, (a part of it was the casting), but, like you, I don't think the changes would've suddenly turned the box office around. Not with the budget that it had.

No, on the flip side, I think it's easier to see whether something or not will flop. (Catwoman anyone?)

I agree. And I also liked the 2nd Cap movie because it took on some strong themes about the world around us. I also really liked IM3, because tonally it was so different than the previous two, I liked Shane Black's work on it, a lot.

They aren't like everyone else's, I agree, but, I just wish there was more substance to his work. It's all flash and not much else for me. I found it really hard for me to get connected emotionally to his characters. They all seem like puppets going through really visually appealing sequences... but, because I don't care... I just... don't care in the end.

His work leaves me cold.

 

Which is how I feel about most of the Marvel Universe movies, including the two (other than Captain America) that I liked - the first Iron Man and Avengers.

 

I don't have anything to back it up, but I'm thinking they might hold off on the Batman solo outing until the next reboot. That could be way off base, but they've concentrated on Batman so heavily over the last several years that it would be tough to separate the Nolan films from this new mythology.

As for a GL/Flash teamup? Hal has always been my favorite Lantern, but I can think of a couple of actors who could do John Stewart. And with Barry Allen in the new tv series, switching to a Wally West Flash for the movies might be confusing to general audiences. I'm hoping they stick with the classic characters.

Again, I could be way off but that's what makes sense to me.

 

John Stewart is "my" Green Lantern because of the Justice League cartoon, so I'd be happy to see him in there. Obviously Barry's gonna be Flash (grumble grumble) but I've no reason to think a Barry/John friendship couldn't work very well or be significantly different than a Barry/Hal friendship.

The idea of a Shazam movie intrigues me - depending on how they do it could DC actually strike first with the supernatural/magic heroes instead of Marvel with Doctor Strange? Granted they don't really have much of anything in common; Doctor Fate's the closer DC analogue to Strange.

 

Does anyone else see Patrick Warburton as the Big Red Cheese?

 

Shazam! should have been made in the 80s.

 

I was thinking Channing Tatum, but he looks a bit "rough" to be the good-natured Captain,

 

I really hope they don't make a Captain Marvel movie (I will never call the pre-New 52 version "shazam"). Pre-Reboot Captain Marvel is my favorite DC superhero, but DC has basically reversed his personality completely in the new comics. That means any movie would him would probably have him as the horrible, greedy, mean spirited teenager from the newer comics, instead of the hero who was more of a boy scout than Superman that was around from his creation until 2011 (not counting the stupid "evil" turn in Countdown, which was complete BS and he had no control over anyway).

He was actually interesting as a orphan with a heart of gold who could become a hero by saying a magic word. The 90s Power of Shazam series did a great job with keeping to that idea at its core while developing Billy and his supporting cast into better developed characters. Generic angry teenager "Shazam" is bad enough in the comics, but I know any movie would use that version, because having nice, actually heroic heroes is something DC loathes in movies and comics nowadays. I'm betting her never gets a movie anyway, they'll be too busy screwing up characters non comic fans have a higher chance of recognizing. Then again, angsty, mean spirited teenager seems like something DC would love to do in a movie, so I can see it happening. I'll just hope any rumors of a Shazam movie turn out to be nothing more than rumors, just like the last time rumors like this were being talked about.

 

Agreed. As entertaining as the Marvel movies can often be, I can't say I've ever found myself all that emotionally connected to the characters in them. It's fun to watch them do what they do, and the actors do their best to make them as believable as possible, but in the end they still come across as just slightly more dimensional comic book characters.

Whatever it's other faults, I actually thought MOS did a better job at humanizing its character than most other superhero movie I've seen. Cavill's Clark certainly felt more like a real, lived-in person than most of the quippy, comic booky Marvel characters out there.