The Rock views his partnership with DC as a business venture, to stay relevant in the big box office game, and to have "stock" as it were in a resurgence of Cavill as Superman. When Cavill got ousted, the Rocks plans went to shit. Depending on what the Rock does, or says, next will make him look better than Gunn, or petty that they're rehauling all of DC. DC made a partnership with the Rock, then when the box office numbers didn't come back as they would've hoped, they promoted Gunn and ****ed the Rock. Depending on how you feel about the Rock you may approve of this or hate it. The Rock will be fine besides his ego being hurt, but Gunn could be ousted just as fast if his first projects woefully underperform, which after he pissed on fans of Cavill and the other current cast for scrapping everything, they might sit his movies out and just watch spoilers and pirated copies online.
Gunn is already saying his movie will be a young Superman, which would pair perfectly with Pattinson and Reeves Batman, but then Gunn came out and threw cold water on that on Twitter, so either he was lying or he's just done with it all and is going to reboot the whole damn thing. You could say that maybe Reeves' Batman's dark tone doesn't fit what Gunn wants to do with the character, but I think you need to differentiate your ecosystems between Gotham, Metropolis, Star City, etc. My guess is he's going with 20 and 30 year olds and staying away from anyone that's over a certain age, which Pattinson likely falls into that 40+ range.
On a side note, it could be WB rehauling the entirety of the universe to get out of the contract with HBO Max as well. They probably signed a bad contract detail but have found a loophole out of it for future films if they go with different actors or something like that, could be all future money based to get away from Streaming to boost up Box Office numbers now that movie goers are going back to the theaters. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tredadda:
Should be interesting. I wonder if it will work. Starting to think Marvel burnout might be a thing. If so could that affect DC? Or are they not dependent on each other?
Marvel built up a great story, but started missing a bit towards the end, and under-performed a little with the finale. That would have been ok, because the finale was still good, but a lot of bad decisions have really hurt the franchise:
They'd oversold Iron Man because Downey, Jr. had become the central point, then they let him go, which leaves a huge hole in the lineup.
They started trying to force more lesser groups/stories into higher prominence, probably because of the success of Ant Man and the GOTG.
They got more and more woke, and fucked up the follow ups in part because of it.
As part of the increased wokeness, and just in general, they started making more casting and story-line mistakes.
I finally watched it on HBO Max last night. It wasn't a great movie but I was entertained.
The good:
-Black Adam is a savage character and I can appreciate the type of dude who has no issues with brutally murdering people. I love me some Spider-Man and Batman, but their unwillingness to kill borders on reckless to a certain point.
-The Black Adam fight scenes against random jamokes were awesome. Watching him basically smite mercs left and right was pretty satisfying.
-Pierce Brosnan was awesome.
-I actually enjoyed the twist in the origin with the Champion being his son, Hurut, which explains why Black Adam is a shithead.
The bad:
-The kid was terrible. Terrible actor, stupid skateboard.
-Forgettable big bad villain and laughably weak minions. Seriously. Those hell spawns were getting killed by 56 year old rando citizens with baseball bats.
-Wooden acting, particularly from The Rock, which I'd expect.. but still..
-It's hilarious to watch this flick, which is supposed to be a part of the DCEU after the news that literally all of it has fallen apart within the last week.
Originally Posted by tredadda:
The other guy looked like a G rated version of Deadpool mixed with Ant Man..
:-) My literal first thought after his first scene. Looked like the exact eyes and mask they use for Deadpool. [Reply]
Also, how hilariously shitty was the JSA's diplomacy?
They show up to Kahndaq and within 5 minutes of meeting Black Adam they're like "you're either coming with us as a prisoner or you DIE" :-) Wtf?
They didn't bother to even try to reason with the dude or anything, just straight up, "you're not supposed to be here so fuck off". It was literally the dude's home country.
On top of that, Hawkman keeps preaching about how heroes don't kill, whole time he's employed by... *checks notes*.. Amanda Waller or whatever her name is. That chick is the shadiest person in the entire DCEU which includes guys like Lex Luthor.
Lastly, and I think this is a combination of superhero trope fatigue alongside DC lagging behind Marvel on the big screen, but I feel like everything in this movie, I'd already seen before, often from the MCU.
Black Adam is killing dudes with lightning - saw it in Thor.
Black Adam is given magical powers, is he worthy/unworthy? - saw it in Thor and Shazam.
He's dashing between jamokes at the speed of light - saw it in Man of Steel.
Atom Smasher's mask and grows big - saw it in Deadpool and Ant-Man.
Dr. Fate - he's awesome but I saw him in Dr. Strange.
The black chick with wind powers - already saw Storm in X-Men.
Hawkeye's mansion and jet that takes off from the underground courtyard - saw it in X-Men.
Black Adam is a man displaced in time - saw it in Captain America.
Heroes fight but then team up to face the true threat - saw it in Civil War, Avengers and Batman vs Superman.
They even had the sky beam and minions that conveniently die as soon as the villain is killed. That's all a real shame for DC too, because they were first in creating a lot of these heroes and the tropes that come with them.
Marvel was the frontrunner with the whole extended universe. They made it big and did it right. They're only now starting to struggle to hold our attention with their C-list properties. DC caught the wave late and now we're struggling to enjoy their A-list characters. [Reply]
I’ve done a complete 180 on how I view the rock over the last couple years. He’s just a complete egomaniac who thinks he can bully his way into getting what he wants. It would have made all the sense in the world to do a Shazam movie. But no, it has to be about him and Superman.
I have faith in James Gunn to right the ship with DC. Just give Matt Reeves his own universe and start fresh on everything else [Reply]
Originally Posted by Gravedigger:
The Rock views his partnership with DC as a business venture, to stay relevant in the big box office game, and to have "stock" as it were in a resurgence of Cavill as Superman. When Cavill got ousted, the Rocks plans went to shit. Depending on what the Rock does, or says, next will make him look better than Gunn, or petty that they're rehauling all of DC. DC made a partnership with the Rock, then when the box office numbers didn't come back as they would've hoped, they promoted Gunn and ****ed the Rock. Depending on how you feel about the Rock you may approve of this or hate it. The Rock will be fine besides his ego being hurt, but Gunn could be ousted just as fast if his first projects woefully underperform, which after he pissed on fans of Cavill and the other current cast for scrapping everything, they might sit his movies out and just watch spoilers and pirated copies online.
Gunn is already saying his movie will be a young Superman, which would pair perfectly with Pattinson and Reeves Batman, but then Gunn came out and threw cold water on that on Twitter, so either he was lying or he's just done with it all and is going to reboot the whole damn thing. You could say that maybe Reeves' Batman's dark tone doesn't fit what Gunn wants to do with the character, but I think you need to differentiate your ecosystems between Gotham, Metropolis, Star City, etc. My guess is he's going with 20 and 30 year olds and staying away from anyone that's over a certain age, which Pattinson likely falls into that 40+ range.
On a side note, it could be WB rehauling the entirety of the universe to get out of the contract with HBO Max as well. They probably signed a bad contract detail but have found a loophole out of it for future films if they go with different actors or something like that, could be all future money based to get away from Streaming to boost up Box Office numbers now that movie goers are going back to the theaters.
Maybe put out another Batman movie with Pattinson growing into the role and instead of a third one do a team up with Pattinson being the "old man" of the group, which would fit in well with Batman's personality anyway. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Urc Burry:
I’ve done a complete 180 on how I view the rock over the last couple years. He’s just a complete egomaniac who thinks he can bully his way into getting what he wants. It would have made all the sense in the world to do a Shazam movie. But no, it has to be about him and Superman.
I have faith in James Gunn to right the ship with DC. Just give Matt Reeves his own universe and start fresh on everything else
The Rock has been torching his goodwill as of late with his "brand". [Reply]
