I’ll just get this out of the way at the top — I like Zach Snyder. I’ve liked a few of his movies, including Watchmen, and he seems like a nice dude. Like many of you, I was really excited to see Justice League when it came out and was pretty disappointed with the results. It sucks that Snyder never got to finish the film because of a family tragedy and I’m glad that he, and the fans, are getting his version of Justice League. I’m also aware that lots of people liked the movie upon it’s premier, which again, that’s great! I hope the recut version heightens that experience for you.
But…
What does it say about the movie business when HBO is willing to throw $20-30 million dollars at a largely unsuccessful comic book movie?
DC’s cinematic universe has all but fallen apart in the wake of this Justice League. Aquaman did well at the box office and has a fair share of fans, but I wouldn’t say it’s considered in even the top half of this era of superhero movies. Not that she can’t be recast, but Amber Heard is second on that call sheet for that franchise.
Wonder Woman did great critically and commercially, but that was before this movie undercut most of the momentum WW gave the series following Batman v Superman — I don’t believe there’s any cogent defense that can be made for BvS, even the extended cut. There’s issues with BvS that I will never be able to work around. I think it has plenty of solid elements and good incarnations of Superman and Bruce Wayne, but otherwise is a complete mess.
Ben Affleck has been pretty clear about not playing Batman again. And it sounds like Henry Cavill needs a few dump trucks of money wheeled up to his house to be in for another DC adventure — which I’m sure will happen, but still I think fans should be concerned that the role that gave Cavill his career is a complete turn off to him by this point.
There’s also a general franchise fatigue that’s set in since Endgame. Whether you’re talking about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Jurassic World, etc… People are increasingly weary of the nonstop retreads in these series. It’s impossible to say what box office numbers would have been for any of these films this year, so I’m more referring to what I see on this sub and other film discussion forums.
But here’s my point — $20-30 million dollars is going to make a new cut of Justice League, and not going to a movie, or multiple movies, that are original and possibly better. And the fact that HBO is the one handing out this money, having been one of the steadfast spots for high end original content for decades before the last few years, concerns me even more.
Let’s just be honest with ourselves — Justice League was not $30 million dollars away from being a really great movie. I’m not gonna say “you can’t polish a turd” cause I don’t think the movie is turd-level bad… And this isn’t even really about Justice League — I’d be concerned about this no matter what movie was in question.
In a world where fewer and fewer original stories make their way to the public, the fact that HBO is willing to spend this amount of money on a mediocre film, in a dead end franchise, while they already face down criticism for shallow storytelling that heavy on spectacle, is concerning. I get that they have to figure out how to get people on to HBO Max, but hey, idk, maybe spend that money making some original movies or shows that will actually add to the cultural conversation.
I think Snyder’s statement on the matter sums my thoughts pretty well, except for that fact that he’s talking about a wholly corporate product that added very little to it’s source material or film in general: “I want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and allowing their true visions to be realized…”
There’s nothing brave about throwing $30 million more dollars at a movie that already cost $300 million to make. That’s literally the opposite of bravery. It would be brave to find young, talented, undiscovered voices that offer something new to cinema.
What could possibly be added to the conversation by doing this? Even if the Snyder cut is the new Citizen Kane, then what? We get a new cut of The Rise of Skywalker? 8-part miniseries cut of Dark Phoenix? Where’s it end?
This is just bad for movies. It’s bad for the movie business and sets a bad precedent moving forward, as far as original content is concerned. The obsession with recycling content within this industry has never been more brazen and at this point we’re all just munching on member-berries.
Thanks for letting me vent.
TLDR: it’s great that DC fans will get to see the movie Snyder intended to make, but the big losers here are smaller/original movies that are increasingly hard to come by.
Submitted May 25, 2020 at 04:37AM by TwainTheMark https://ift.tt/3d1Mypx