Say what you like about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or the MCU, for short) — and I do, frequently — but you can’t deny that it has a grim efficiency. The MCU impressively herds tens of millions of unsuspecting moviegoers into theaters to watch the latest incomprehensible special effects behemoth, with a wildly overqualified and suitably embarrassed cast.
As I write this, the latest installment to threaten audiences is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Now I don’t know what Quantumania is, and I will be perfectly happy to never find out. But as the previous film, Ant-Man and the Wasp (the titles lack a certain finesse), made more than $600 million at the box office, I accept I might be in the minority.
Yet before I can return to my Stanley Kubrick and David Lean boxsets, my attention has been diverted by Marvel’s rival, DC Studios. Under the aegis of Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad director James Gunn, they are now attempting to keep up with their adversary and have announced a new slate of films. DC, the home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, et al, has been underperforming for the last decade, with a few exceptions: Matt Reeves’s almost comically grim The Batman, a kind of watered-down remake of Fincher’s Se7en, did the business at the box office, and there has been all sorts of fun and games with the ridiculous Aquaman character, cheerily incarnated by Jason Momoa.
But by and large, compared to the clinical success of Marvel, the films have tanked: Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984 and the recent Dwayne Johnson flop Black Adam have failed to capture audiences’ imaginations.
Gunn’s strategy, therefore, is to let filmmakers go wild, or, as he puts it, “One of the things that’s very important for me in all of these movies and TV series is that the director’s vision and the vision of the writers and all of the creators is unique and something special. Storytelling is always king. That’s all that matters to us.” Noble words, but given that Warner Bros. — which owns DC Studios — canceled the recent Batgirl film to save taxes, denigrating it as “not releasable” as they did so, it is hard to believe that Gunn is truly on the side of the artistes against the bean-counters. And what’s coming up looks deeply peculiar.
There might be a market for a film about a long-suffering Bruce Wayne’s run-ins with his son Damian, but it sounds like a throwaway joke from Curb Your Enthusiasm or Arrested Development. Alas, no: The Brave and the Bold is going to focus entirely on this dynamic, presumably not starring Larry David. Confusingly the Robert Pattinson incarnation of Batman is going to return in 2025 in the originally titled The Batman Part II. Hopes are high that this time Reeves chooses to remake Fight Club or Zodiac with the Caped Crusader; less so that he serves up the Dark Knight version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Mank.
There’s another Superman film, this time without poor old Henry Cavill and a Supergirl picture. And the new Indiana Jones director, James Mangold, is apparently desperate to make a Swamp Thing movie. There’s a reason why Mangold lives in a considerably bigger house than you and I, and Swamp Thing is its name.
Connoisseurs of behind-the-scenes drama, however, care little about any of this. Instead, they want to know what’s happening with The Flash, which features Ezra Miller as the titular character. Miller’s personal behavior has been “challenging” over the past year, to say the least. (A recent article was simply titled “Ezra Miller’s Allegations and Mental Health: A Timeline.”) Gunn’s assertion that The Flash is “one of the greatest superhero films ever made” had better be true, from the studio’s perspective, given that its non-binary star is currently undergoing some very heavy-duty treatment. Its release later this year comes accompanied by a weight of expectation that’s both artistic and tabloid-prurient: will Miller fall off the wagon and do something outrageous before release? But it will also act as a litmus test for the relaunched DC Studios.
If The Flash is good and does the box office business, all will be well, and Gunn’s new slate — grandiosely entitled “Gods and Monsters” — will be greeted with anticipation. But if it, too, stiffs, then this will look like another round of deck-chair arranging on the Titanic. Then, DC Studios will have to look on enviously at the all-conquering Marvel, Quantumania and all, and sigh as the dollars flow into their coffers and their coffers alone.
