QFT
I managed to bury my own lead in my concerns around DC/WB in the SS review thread talking at first about the suitability of the DC films to younger viewers. Though, clearly, my concerns there are not shared by others (puritanical me?), the point I was aiming at was rather DC does not know what it wants from its properties, but it does want MONEY. So, it plays both sides of the card - appealing to the adult comic book generation with its grim look, high end gun and psycho-sexual violence AND then dripping it in juvenile teen-style angst and wobbly (at times stereotypical and racist) humour, advertising it to help bring in the younger set to help sell their toys and merchandise. So you end up with products whose tones are ever shifting creating a patchwork products that feel disjointed, fragmented and without a grace.
MoS is by far the best try out of the three released so far, though it (like the other two films) turns into a mess of violence, disaster porn and, more importantly, weird character actions well out of the established wheelhouse of the character.
BvS is the classic example of WB desperately wanting it all - convoluted detective story, high minded ethical drama, prequel to Justice League, monster movie, AND superhero wrestling match. Sadly it all falls apart under its own weight and the extended cut, while edited better, in fact highlights that the film doesn't really have a centre and doesn't know how to combine everything into a contiguous whole.
SS is a mess top to bottom and the more I think on it the worse the taste in my mouth. Ayer has been revelling in 80's machismo his entire career, but without any notion of self deprecation or realisation how much he repeats the same themes again and again (Shane Black is a better example of this form of storytelling, but he understands how ridiculous it is and highlights it in his films). Ayers' toxic masculinity pervades every scene in every film. Sometimes he has something interesting to say (Training Day, End of Watch) but most of the time he simply seems to find thrill in ribald masculism. And yet, clearly WB have put a yoke on him as a million bullets are fired and barely a flesh wound to be found. Another faceless, non human monster that can be obliterated with machine gun to the face with no blood. Like a A-Team episode ramped up to 11. But that is the least of the films problems, with paper thin characters, a wafer-thin plot that actually doesn't make any sense when reviewed, very poor action direction and terrible editing. And the more I think about how he handled Harley (the worst portrayal of a Domestic Violence victim I have seen on screen in a very long time) the worse I feel.
For me, DC/WB needs to figure out what it wants to be. Does it want to be the "grown up" comic book film franchise, or does it want to play in the same sandpit as Marvel, who for all its faults, has found a formula that works, makes money, well received by fans (overall) and gets plenty of positive press. So far, the evidence suggests that they want it both - they want every dollar from the kids as well as the adults, but their storytelling currently does not hit any sweetspot on either front. I appreciate that these are money making machines, but with the MASSIVE pools of cash that are being thrown at these series up upfront, with half finished scripts, poorly judged characterisations, misshapen tones and morals, it screams of a production company throwing everything it has at the wall hoping it will not only stick, but somehow turn into art as it runs down the wall.
I still have hopes for WW. There's a script by Geoff Johns, a strong female TV director, a great cast and a great character that they have (thus far in her limited exposure) found a good balance on. More than anything, I hope Patty Jenkins can bring a complete singular tone to her piece (perhaps a feminist counterpoint to Ayers work), and the studio releases a preferred directors edit of the film rather than wrestle control after shooting.
Marvel has had its fair share of "troubled" directors/visions each of those films are problematic (IM2, Thor 2, Ultron, Ant Man) and each is a lesser film of the franchise, but Kevin Feige's Iron clad grasp over the MCU has given at least structure to its film making and a cohesive tone and a pantheon of pretty damned good comic-book characters that have actually become the cultural icons that Superman and Batman used to be.
Hugo - awaits the onslaught
