Post Suicide Squad: 5 Tips to Make the DCEU Work Better
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After watching Suicide Squad, a film that I enjoyed for the most part, my immediate thoughts went to the future of the DCEU. We won’t have another film from them till Wonder Woman next year and so now seems like the best time to take stock of what has been presented to us. In particular, I’ve noticed some areas of the DCEU that could use some shaping up so I came up with 5 tips to help the DCEU.
Brighten up (the cinematography/image that is)
EYE AM TAHD (I am tired) of these movies being shot as if rich colors and sunny scenes don’t exist. In Suicide Squad, 90% of the crucial scenes take place at night and in dark places. The entirety of Batman v Superman feels like it takes place at night outside of maybe 2 scenes. I know that the DCEU wants to be the darker, or gothic to use Affleck’s words, alternative to Marvel, but we want to see your heroes fighting! I recently re-watched The Avengers and all of the big scenes take place in the day time and not in the elements. This allows us not only to see the fighting but to fawn over the costumes, the $100 million effects and set pieces. I’m not saying you can’t have night scenes (the actual Batman v Superman fight was awesome) but give us more interesting visuals.
Have heroes who enjoy being heroes.
Yes power can be a burden, but would it kill DC to actually have it’s big guns liking the fact that they’re heroes? Superman, in particular, suffers from his woe is me storyline. I know he has a tough job, but he’s using his powers for good and many people like him. How about some smaller adventures in Metropolis? Is he only going on globe trotting, world engine missions? We see Batman dealing with Gotham scum and yet the only thing Superman seems apt to do is globe trot saving people from huge disasters and mope about how people don’t like him. Most of the best moments of this DCEU are when the characters dig into their powers in contained moments a la Headshot’s exquisite shooting in the alley way, Superman’s elation at being able to fly, Batman’s takedown of the gangsters to save Martha. More moments where we can focus on their powers and have the heroes use them in heroic ways.
I also think it’s a mess to tell an audience that characters will eventually grow into the ones we know and love after a certain point. When your movies are 2.5+ hours long and we still aren’t to a place where you’ve pushed a characters to a new place…This was made even more painfully clear on my rewatch of The Avengers as Steve Rogers is a completely different guy from the square dude we met, but his desire to be a hero and save lives is still there.
Find a groove and dig in.
In a way, I’m not a fan of “course correction” when it comes to these movies. Minor tweaks yes, but even though I liked Suicide Squad, course correcting Suicide Squad away from the hard R rated film it should have been took some teeth from the story. The trailer for Justice League shows that WB is trying to bring more humor into the universe, but almost too much humor. Does anything about Bruce Wayne feel real in that trailer? It’s too much.
You can’t copy the Fox or Marvel of movies with these heroes, so it’s best to find a way to use the gothic nature of these heroes and craft the stories around them. I don’t need Justice League to be a laugh fest; I just need it not to suck.
Make smaller films
I think that Suicide Squad was a good idea in this respect, in theory, we have a smaller, less known group of heroes going on an individual adventure within a bigger cinematic universe and I hope DC sees the huge box office as encouraging more risk taking. One of the year’s biggest films, Deadpool worked so well because it was an individual story, had a tiny budget for a superhero film, and a brilliant marketing campaign (and a perfectly placed release date). I’d like to the DCEU bolster itself through interesting journeys into their universe, cause these big movies have been a mess. And WB/DC could easily thrash Marvel this way because unlike Marvel, they own the rights to all their characters. Potential films starring Booster Gold, Midnighter, Nightwing, or even a Young Justice movie (ok this one isn’t small but could be interesting!) can help flesh out the universe, provided every film doesn’t have world ending stakes.
Introduce the multiverse concept ASAP.
This is going to seem antithetical to the above point but stay with me. When I read Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War, which was a part of the New 52 reboot, there’s a moment where the Guardians mention that the reason Earth is constantly attacked is because it is the center of the 52 universes. On that single page, everything that has been causing me strife about the DCEU was illuminated and a solution presented itself.
By the end of Justice League, there had better be a mention of alternate universes and how they can be opened. This will do so much for the next set of films because it opens up the entire cinematic world for more things. For story reasons, a multiverse would be a blessing in disguise. Think about it: want instant resets whenever you have an issue with a film? Check. More characters at your disposal? Check. And most importantly a strong universe driven reason why Earth is the planet that continues to be the hotbed for this activity. It can also explain the Green Lantern absence if they are fighting in parallel universe or provide a better location of where villains are coming from more than just “outer space.”
What are some things you’d like to see in the DCEU?
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