Warner Brothers and DC continue to have problems with the DC Extended Universe, and if things don't turn around soon the ambitious slate of films may get scrapped. There is still no director attached or finalized script for the The Flash movie which is expected for 2018, and after a turbulent month or so during which Matt Reeves, who was the front-runner, withdrew his name only to re-enter it has officially been attached to direct the stand-alone Batman film. Star of this proposed Batman film, Ben Affleck has yet to debunk rumors that he no longer wants to portray the Caped Crusader. Varying reports suggest his contract covers two Justice League films, not a solo Batman film. I also suspect, with the popularity of the character, Warner Brothers would like Affleck for cameos in nearly every other DCEU film. Why do I suspect such a scenario? Justice League Dark from DC was first published in 2011 and starred characters with supernatural powers including John Constantine, Swamp Thing, and Zatanna, as opposed to the mainstream characters whose powers come from scientific mishaps, billions of dollars, Greek mythology, or alien origin. Now, look at the recently released Justice League Dark animated movie. Batman was never the focal point of the comic, yet he is vital to the plot of the film and front and center on the poster. Remember the Suicide Squad trailer that made it seem as if Batman played a key role in the film. Remember how heavily the Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice trailers were skewed toward Batman, they even put his name first. Maybe I'm just braining out loud but it's reasonable to assume WB would love to have Batman in as many movies as possible.
The DECU was doomed from the start, if you ask me. First, they balked at the idea of a connected cinematic universe like Marvel has effortlessly accomplished, then they hurriedly scrambled together their hodge-podge of a concept when Marvel made all the money ever printed. The problem was they didn't have a well thought out plan, they didn't have a producer to oversee the entire DCEU project like the practically omniscient Kevin Feige at Marvel, and they continue to make baffling bad decisions. For example, not much is known about their planned Shazam (2019) film other than the casting of mega-star and highest paid actor of 2016, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson......as the villainous Black Adam, instantly turning titular hero Shazam into the proverbial second fiddle. Then they announced that Johnson would star in a Black Adam movie and congratulations, Shazam is now completely irrelevant.As if Warner Brothers didn't have enough issues with their struggling DCEU, they now must admit defeat from a better Batman movie. The Lego Batman Movie drew over $53 million its opening weekend with an impressive 38% drop its second weekend. Batman v Superman did open with a massive $209 million box office but dropped a whopping 69% its second weekend. The critics have overwhelming enjoyed The Lego Batman Movie accumulating a certified fresh 91% on rottentomatoes, and this is most likely where Warner Brothers and DC feel it the most, Batman v Superman, on the other hand, has a dismal 27% rotten. True, The Lego Batman Movie is from the same studio and Warner Brothers is cashing in the checks, but when a spin-off of a children's movie based on toy building blocks is in all aspects better than the crown jewel of their cinematic universe it's got to sting a little.
Moving on to another mess of a film franchise, producer and co-writer Simon Kinberg of the disastrous 2015 Fantastic Four from 20th Century Fox recently said there may be some interest in a sequel or perhaps another reboot and added "... we want to make sure we get it 100 percent right, because we will not get another chance with the fans.” First of all 20th Century Fox has attempted three times to make a Fantastic Four movie; the so-bad-it-was-never-released film directed by Roger Corman from 1994, the laughably awful and poorly executed 2005 film as well as its 2007 sequel, and of course the steaming pile of garbage directed by Josh Trank & Studio Interference in 2015. 20th Century Fox should not get another chance and any interest in doing so is just the studio stubbornly refusing to allow the rights to revert back to Disney/Marvel. So if you're one of the nerds certain that Fox and Disney/Marvel will make nice and come to an agreement to share characters like Disney and Sony have with Spider-Man, I got some bad news for you. As unlikely as it seems, 20th Century Fox has made another decent mutant movie. Logan, opening this Friday, March 3rd is a hit with the critics, scoring a stellar 95% certified fresh on rottentomatoes and expects to open around $60 million. The studio's other decent mutant movie Deadpool retains an 84% score and holds a box office record for the month of February. I would say Fox has finally hit its stride with the X-Men franchise, except X-Men Apocalypse, which came out after Deadpool, was an awful mess with a lousy 48% rating, ruining the streak. Perhaps they tried really hard this time knowing that star Hugh Jackman would be retiring from the role of Wolverine after 17 years and 9 films. Patrick Stewart unexpectedly announced at a screening of Logan that he would also be retiring from the role of Charles Xavier aka Professor X. Maybe Fox had a premonition about Stewart's decision and that is why they finally put in the effort to craft a decent X-Men film. Or was it abandoning the puzzling timelines and confusing continuity, by setting Logan in the future without the other X-Men(apart from Prof. X) that gave the film freedom to breath? Deadpool definitely benefited by separating itself from continuity, the R-Rating is not what made the movie so good and I suspect the R-Rating is not crucial to the critic's love affair with Logan. Whatever happened Logan is one the most anticipated comic book movies of the summer and looks to be a fitting farewell to Wolverine as well as an exciting introduction to X-23, the female clone of Wolverine.
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