DC Comics Film Legacy

Nipping at the heels of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is the DCEU, striving to bring DC Comics’ legacy of heroes and villains to the big screen in a connected universe. While Warner Brothers continue to hammer out this cinematic world, still stumbling and trying to find its footing, they have a more vibrant history of movie adaptations, many of them iconic and Oscar-nominated productions. There were astounding results for films that had to adopt an invincible alien and a man who dresses up like a bat for general audiences.

Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) set the tone for how a comic book movie should be done. There was a tremendous respect that Donner had for the superhero, striving to make an adventurous picture that was never too childish for adults or too gritty for kids. Christopher Reeves portrayed the hero from Krypton with heroism, charm, and flaws. Donner had the budget and dedication to go ahead with depicting Superman’s origins with a grand vision of Krypton’s demise, complete with Superman’s father played by Marlon Brando with a surprising amount of dignity for what could have been a silly role for an esteemed actor. Gene Hackman did an exceptional job as Lex Luthor, perfectly embodying the bald nemesis of Superman with smarts, smugness, and shouting. The special effects were terrific, the adventure exciting and the plot very clever for toying with Superman’s powers and the fate of Lois Lane.

Warner Bros. seemed to know they had a hit on their hands when they agreed to shoot a sequel at the same time as the first film. Unfortunately, Donner’s vision didn’t match what the producers wanted, and he left the 75% of filming he had completed to be finished by director Richard Lester for Superman II (1980). Despite being a worthy sequel with the inclusion of the Kryptonian villain Zod (Terence Stamp), the direction still suffered a few issues that made it contrary to the template Richard Donner had established. Fortunately, he would have his version finally finished in 2005 for what is now known as the Richard Donner Cut.

The Superman franchise went downhill from there. Richard Lester would return to direct Superman III (1983), but it was a strangely weak film better built for Richard Pryor than Christopher Reeves. And by Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), produced by the cheap and low-quality Cannon Films, the high-concept fun of Superman had been replaced with a bargain-bin parody of the character. Quest for Peace is considered one of the worst for its ill-fitting plot of Superman destroying all nukes, the villain being the goofy Nuclear Man, and featuring some of the worst visual effects of the series without question. The Superman that astounded audiences with his ability to catch missiles and fly through the air had been replaced with a lesser hero that could rebuild walls with his eye beams.

But another DC Comics hero was gearing up to dominate the 1990s. The prospect of a Batman movie had been going on for years, even though we kind of already had one with Adam West’s campy Batman hitting the big screen before Superman. The grittier version all the comic book readers knew of the caped vigilante was finally placed on the big screen with Tim Burton’s rendition of Batman (1989). The dark knight of Gotham City was no longer that silly dancer of the Batutsi but the dour crime-fighter that lurked in the shadows. Michael Keaton was a controversial choice for the role, but he served the more severe version of the character well. Jack Nicholson played the Joker about as well as you’d expect him to play the clown prince of crime. And despite some random scenes and the ridiculous song “Bat Dance” sung by Prince, it was a stylish and noirish take on Batman that redefined superhero films for the 1990s, leading to darker depictions with Darkman (1990) and The Crow (1994).

But Batman was far from avoiding the same mistakes Superman had made. Burton went overboard with the darkness in Batman Returns (1992), leading to a canceled promotion with McDonald’s. The film featured Batman unable to save a woman being murdered by bats, a disgusting Penguin (Danny DeVito) biting off noses, an S&M Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) whipping the heads off of mannequins and so much somber death shot in the grim shadows. Warner Bros. decided to shift Batman in a lighter direction, leading to the colorfully lukewarm Batman Forever (1995) and the overblown ridiculousness that was Batman & Robin (1997). The muddled and rushed productions with questionable box office would eventually lead to Warner Bros. ramping down their superhero films, scrapping a Superman project that was already facing some odd issues.

While the Batman movie franchise was struggling, something interesting was going on with Batman on television. Bruce Timm and his team of writers and animators were developing Batman: The Animated Series, undeniably one of the best comic book TV series ever made, which is saying something for a cartoon that shared the same afternoon block as Tiny Toons. The show was so successful that Warner Brothers decided to throw Timm a bone and bump their direct-to-video Batman movie, Mask of the Phantasm (1993), into theaters.

If you haven’t heard of this gem of a Batman movie, don’t worry; few people did when it was released. With such an abrupt shift to theaters, Phantasm suffered lacking promotion and was unleashed into a few theaters unceremoniously on Christmas of 1993. Once it went to home video, however, it received loads of positive reviews for being a somewhat adult tale of one antagonist’s quest for revenge on some mobsters. This was a much more believable story than a villain striving to control Gotham City and made the film shine all the brighter when compared to the live-action Batman movies of the time.

While Warner Bros. animation division would not return to theaters again, they did continue to amaze with their many DC Comics animated series (Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League) and would still produce animated movies for home video of surprising faithfulness to the source material. Worth noting is the animated take on Suicide Squad (Batman: Assault on Arkham) that proved to be a better film than the live-action movie.

While the DC Comics franchise lay mostly dormant (*cough*Catwoman*cough*) as Marvel began to take center stage with their X-Men films, Batman would return in a big way. Christopher Nolan’s reboot of Batman proved to one of the most revered superhero trilogies. He started from the ground up with Batman Begins (2005), starting the character from his origins that would transform him into the caped crusader. Nolan’s Batman was still dark and gritty, but with a more gravely delivery by Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. The supporting cast was terrific, including the likes of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman. Gotham City felt more real, appearing more like Chicago with a few additions to the skyline. Aside from Mask of the Phantasm, the other Batman films felt as though they only understood part of the character and his world. Nolan proved he knew what made Batman cool and refreshing.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. gave Superman another go with Superman Returns (2006) but didn’t take the same risks as Batman Begins. True, it was a darker tale of the man of steel, sometimes referred to as Passion of the Clark for the more-than-obvious Jesus allegories, but it came off more as a tribute film than its own thing. Brandon Routh did his best to emulate Superman, and Kevin Spacey put on the same goofy smugness for Lex Luthor. There was nothing new to explore with Superman, and his outing was ultimately an expensive and forgettable film. His meeting with Batman would have to wait.

While Batman Begins set the table for how Batman should be done, The Dark Knight (2008) featured Nolan firing on all cylinders with the best of everything; the best Batman movie, the best comic book movie and one of the best films of 2008. Heath Ledger stole the show as The Joker, playing the character with smeared makeup and an uneasy titter. It also carried a twinge of sadness for this being Ledger’s final full performance, passing away before the film debuted. Even worth noting is the addition of Aaron Eckhart as D.A. Harvey Dent, the man who would let his anger get the better of him to become the half-scarred villain Two-Face. The Dark Knight became that most widely-received of any comic book movie, garnering a record-breaking box office gross, lofty praise from the critics and several award nominations.

While Nolan’s success with the film would ultimately lead to the satisfying conclusion of The Dark Knight Rises (2012), despite Tom Hardy’s goofy accent as the masked villain Bane, there was a worry about the future of DC Comics movies. They had attempted to adapt Jonah Hex (2010) and Green Lantern (2011), but both proved to be messy disaster from a production, commercial and critical standpoint. Considering Christopher Nolan would not be returning to direct a fourth Batman film, Warner Bros. would have to pursue a new route for the future of their movies.

They decided on Zack Snyder, the action-oriented director known previously for the remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004) and the comic book adaptation of 300 (2006). He made his mark on DC Comics by attempting to adapt the unadaptable story of Watchmen (2009). He didn’t do the best job of bringing the iconic anti-hero tale to the big screen, considering comic book writer Alan Moore continued his stance on denouncing film interpretations of his work, but he seemed to please enough people to allow him to take take a whack at Superman.

Unlike Superman Returns, Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013) was not interested in replicating what had already been done with the character, despite retelling the story of Zod, now played by Michael Shannon. For the first half of the film, Snyder sought to portray Superman (Henry Cavill) as a confused man struggling to find himself and understand his powers, almost a dark artistic movie at times. The second half, however, was the biggest, loudest action ever staged for a Superman film, with the hero pulling big punches and leveling cities to stop the evil Zod. It became controversial, but it was at least a different and more unique version of Superman rather than just a Christopher Reeves homage performance.

With Marvel’s movie franchise kicking its connected universe writing into full gear, DC Comics started adopting this strategy for the future of their films as well. Snyder began to conceive his next DC Comics film, foregoing a Batman film and going straight for the first movie meeting of the franchise’s biggest names: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). But, no, he also wanted to include Wonder Woman, the Doomsday Superman story, and force in references to other members of the forthcoming Justice League. That’s a lot for one film to take in, to say nothing of the relentless violence, grim atmosphere, and heavy religious allegories.

I fear that Warner Bros. may be repeating the same mistakes they have made before. Consider their reworking strategies. When they found out Batman v. Superman’s biggest complaints were that it was much too serious and dark for its own good, they quickly began to make their films lighter, reformatting Suicide Squad (2016) to be more acceptably fun and rewriting Wonder Woman (2017) to be a more traditional superhero film. And the trailers for the new Justice League (2017) suggest more quips and comedy as well to balance out whatever heavy themes Batman v. Superman may have harped on for too long. Sound familiar? Remember how eager Warner Bros. was to make their Batman films less dark? I can only hope they won’t risk in the other direction by transforming future DC Comics ventures into the candy-coated cartoon that was Batman & Robin.

DC Comics films have had their hills and valleys, but their highs were extraordinary for becoming trendsetters of the comic book movie scene. And considering they seem to be replicating Marvel’s tactics at the moment, I hope they’ll return to making more extraordinary renditions of their classic heroes rather than reformatting them for the biggest bucks.

Mark McPherson is a guest writer for The Blog. You can follow his movie taste here.