So it looks like we have a solid line up for the upcoming Justice League movie. I can’t take the credit for this one as one of my Twitter buddies, Ed Torres (@ed_pool), hit me with this scoop from Variety last night. In an interview with Jeff Robinov, president of Warner Brothers motion picture group, Robinov stated that the Justice League movie would focus in on the main core of the super hero team, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash. I like the idea of keeping the initial team limited as to not overly confuse the casual audience. The Justice League’s roster is pretty deep, but not all of those characters hold the recognition of a Superman or a Wonder Woman. Introducing too many characters would probably leave the casual viewer dizzy trying to keep up with all the characters at once. There would likely be too much action and too many storylines going on if they also brought in Aquaman, Cyborg, Hawkman and whoever else. Keeping to these main characters will help audiences to keep them all straight in their head and help them to focus in on the story itself instead of trying to keep up with who is who and what their powers are and so forth.
Marvel did this quite well with their Avengers movie, by keeping to a limited roster they were able to help casual fans enjoy the experience instead of trying to keep track of who is who. Going back to the grandmother reference I made a few months back, could you imagine a grandmother taking her grandkid to see the Avengers and having to remember Ant Man, Wasp, Ms. Marvel and Luke Cage as well as the roster we did get? Though I would love to see more back up characters from the Justice League, I’m sure that if the movie goes to a sequel we would see a more fully flushed out Justice League.
Not so fast though, even if there is a solid line up here, the Variety report also says the Justice League movie could all hinge on one thing, how Man of Steel performs. Warners hasn’t had the best of luck with their DC properties. Aside from Batman, Superman returns and Green Lantern were critical and commercial flops so it may be wise to see how Man of Steel does before committing to a Justice League movie, which would take place in a shared movie universe akin to Marvel’s movie universe. Now this would be a stretch, but there is one division that has done very well with DC, and that’s the animated division headed up by Bruce Timm, a godsend to us animated superhero fanatics. My advice would be to pull him into the creative phase of the Justice League movie and maybe even letting him run with the ball on the whole DC movie universe. I don’t know of Timm’s live action credentials, but the man knows how to deliver epic animated movies, and I believe he could pull off great stories in the live action realm. I know it’s a stretch, but he could take a role similar to Mark Millar’s with Disney/Marvel.
So there it is folks, if you want a JL movie go out and see Man of Steel. I am not a Superman fan really, but I will see Man of Steel and I’ll think of it as a donation towards what I really yearn for, a Justice League movie.
Follow Christopher on Twitter @AUDone44 and The Nerd @nerdfollowing
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