So with playing Injustice, my mind has turned to my secret love and true dream, the hope of one day seeing a Justice League movie.
They have just announced that Batman is going to be featured in the next Man of Steel. Also there's going to be a Flash movie in 2016 and finally they have said that the Justice League movie is going to happen in 2017. I'm okay with this. I want this movie to be done right and I'm okay with waiting that amount of time to get it done right.
But as excited for this movie as I am, I am a little discouraged by my own fear: what if it sucks?
I'm going to divide this post into two sections. I'm going to first talk about the hoops that Zack Snyder, Christopher Nolan, and any body else who is going to be involved with this project is going to have to jump over to make this movie awesome and get rid of the stereotype that DC movies suck unless you're Batman. The second part will be my look at the characters I want in the Justice League movie and who I think should play them. Man of Steel was a good start but its no secret that Marvel is kicking ass in the superhero realm. As a loyal fan of DC, I know we're better than that.
Trials
1. Marvel - Up until the point when I saw Man of Steel, I had almost totally switched sides. I didn't think I was going to get my Justice League movie or an awesome Superman film so I just cut my losses and joined team Iron Man.
But even with the new Man of Steel, there's a huge shadow that Marvel has cast when it comes to franchise films like this.
To begin, Marvel just have their shit together more than DC. Yeah they don't have all the characters under on studio and that sucks that we can't have Wolverine, Spider man, X-men and the Avengers in one universe... yet. But the movies that Marvel has come out with have just made those complaints background noise. Also, they started their franchise early. From the very beginning they started this Avengers road in Iron Man. The purpose wasn't totally to make an Iron Man movie, it was to start the journey to the Avengers. Marvel was careful with their movie selection and only released a film if it was directly connected to the Avengers.
DC is already failing at this. They released the Green Lantern without any direction. And even if that movie had had some direction, it was sloppily made and puts Warner Brothers in a hard place. Do they reboot it, make a whole new movie, or do they just cut their loses and go with what they've got. I will talk about this more later.
But even with Man of Steel, there wasn't any confirmed green light for Justice League. They wanted to wait until they heard how Man of Steel did. Sure they had hints in the movie like the hints towards Lex Luthor and Wayne enterprise but there was no post credits scene, there was no inkling of any kind for a Justice league movie.
2. Our expectations - Me, you, everyone who has seen the Avengers has huge expectations for DC. The fact of the matter is, we want to see DC do what Marvel did. We want to see a competition. We want to hold the Justice League DVD and the Avengers DVD in our hands and have arguments over the internet about which one is better.
We expect nothing short of awesomeness and with DC's already hurting popularity, its going to be a miracle to bring the band of heroes people can't quite seem to jump on board with to the level of Marvel, the movie franchise geniuses.
3. DC characters - A few years ago, Joss Whedon was brought on to write a Wonder Woman movie. Warner Brothers wasn't a fan and it never went through. Due to his success with the Avengers he was asked about DC and the possibility of a Justice League movie. In short, Whedon said that with the exception of Batman, all the DC characters are gods and are harder to be relatable.
Whedon is right. Justice League characters are, an alien from a faraway planet, a woman born on an island of Amazon women who was granted powers by the Greek Gods, a man who obtained a magic ring from a interstellar group of peacekeepers and the King of Atlantis. Really with the exception of Batman, who Whedon adds salt to the wound by saying he's the Marvel character of the DC universe, these are all gods. They are larger than life people and that's harder to relate to audiences then a teenage boy in New York who gets the abilities of a spider, or a school of people who's genetic makeup makes them born with powers.
A Justice League movie is just going to be hard. It has trials its going to face. But I am a dream who thinks it can be done. I think with people like Zach Synder and Christopher Nolan, this dream can be a reality.
There are more trials Warner Brothers is going to have to get through to make this movie happen, however I want to talk about the movie itself. I want to talk about who I want to see in this movie and I want to get your opinions.
I'll start with the obvious:
Superman
I'm not going to indulge on this too much. Henry Cavill has confirmed he's going to be playing Superman for a while. It'd be stupid not to keep him in the role... enough said.
Green Lantern
Now this one is a little complicated.
Like I said before, the Green Lantern movie was quite a mess. I need to re-watch it, it's been a while, but I remember it being just a little dull and not quite what it should have been. However, the problems with that movie didn't lie with Ryan Reynolds. From what I remember, Reynolds was an awesome Hal Jordan. And the world the movie had created was a world that Superman and Batman could exist. It didn't specify that it did, but it possibly could.
So Warner Brothers is in quite the predicament. Do they go with Reynolds despite the not so great Lantern movie? Or do they reboot it and replace Reynolds with a new actor.
Ryan Reynolds: Again, he wasn't bad. He was funny, he brought a cockiness that I think will be needed in this Justice League movie. It can't be just totally serious, there needs to be a comic relief character. This has to be either the Green Lantern or the Flash. If they go with Reynolds, he fits that bill perfectly. I'm not totally opposed to rebooting the character but I feel they already have Hal Jordan set up. Why reboot it? Take what you got and go.
Other actors: I feel like they will try to reboot it. I'm trying to think of actors who could play Hal Jordan. My top choice is Nathan Fillion. I feel like this is something Warner Brothers should jump on before Joss Whedon calls on his buddy to do a Marvel movie.
Fillion could bring the funny side of the Justice League through Hal Jordan and he could do it. Now I may be in the band wagon of nerds that want Nathan Fillion to do EVERYTHING, but we will stop saying it when he starts getting his name out there in film.
If they don't go with Fillion, I might say Chris Pine. But if they don't go with Fillion I kind of want them to go with John Stewart Green Lantern. My top choice for that would be Will Smith. He'd be able to bring that comedic side. Yes he's done Hancock but I think Will Smith could do more in the Superhero realm.
Now I haven't read too much of the comic books so I don't know if John Stewart is a comedic element to the justice league and if he's not, Will Smith probably isn't the right choice. I've heard another choice for John Stewart would be Idris Elba.
I'm a fan of Elba's work but I don't think he'd be a great choice for John Stewart. However, if it happened, I'd be okay with it.
The one thing that makes me feel like the Green Lantern should be the comedic role is the fact that he's getting power from a magical ring. Now there are a lot of people who could suspend belief and be okay with that concept, but one thing the Green Lantern movie did right was make Ryan Reynolds a funny character who brings up elements of the concept that are very silly and the movie can joke about itself while keeping the story going.
So my top choices are:
- Ryan Reynolds/ Nathan Fillion
- Will Smith
- Chris Pine
- Idris Elba
Let me know what you think.
Wonder Woman
Now Warner Brothers is in a unique position. There is a very low quantity of good female superhero films out there... in fact, I can't really think of a good superhero movie with a female lead. Elecktra was boring, Barb Wire was movie about a stripper, and Catwoman is one of the most atrocious movies ever made.
Again, I'm not a huge comic book reader, I don't know the mythology of Wonder Woman that great but I understand that there are a few versions of her origin story. In one version she was born out of clay, in another version she is the demigoddess daughter of Zeus... or some other Greek God. Her origin story is mixed with the Greek legends and she could potentially arc as Thor did in his movie. Whatever way they go with him, Warner Brothers has a very unique situation they're in. Nobody has ever done a Wonder Woman movie and it needs to be good. If it is good, it will break the curse of the female superhero movie. That will be the one thing DC will have over Marvel... if they are able to do it.
One thing they need to do with Wonder Woman is give her a respectable costume.
I get that the iconic look is that she isn't wearing practically any clothes whatsoever, but again, DC needs to do what no other Superwoman movie has ever done. They need to give respect to the role. Wonder Woman doesn't need to be a sex object and she doesn't need to be a "strong independent woman" who has a "I don't need no man" attitude. I could go into a whole new post on Strong Female characters (in fact I might just do that) but the point is, give Wonder Woman a respectable costume, I suggest the #600 costume above (leather jackets kick ass) and give her depth. I don't care how you do it Warner Brothers but I want Wonder Woman to be a top character in the Justice League movie, none of this Black Widow crap.
For actresses to play Wonder Woman, my top choices are Olivia Wilde and Yvonne Strahovski.
These are just my choices, I don't know if they'll be good choices but we need an attractive actress to take on this role. I think its those two.
It's the one possible advantage DC has over Marvel. Marvel has Black Widow but they're not going to give her her own solo film. My guess is that they're going to introduce Wonder Woman in the Justice League movie and do a solo film after. But they need to do a solo movie. If DC can do a solo movie with Wonder Woman before Marvel pulls out a heroine to do their own solo movie, DC could finally be the first do something.
So for Wonder Woman:
- Olivia Wilde
- Yvonne Strahovski
The Flash
Again, I've never read the Flash comics. I don't know the character that well. I only guess he could be the comic relief element. I can't say too much about the Flash because I don't know the origin that well. I will probably guess that they will do the Barry Allen storyline of the police officer who is slow but then comes in contact with chemicals which make him able to vibrate his body to a hyper level and allow him to run at super speeds.
Now they have potential to have him go back in time... but I don't know about that.
It sounds like the Flash is going to be the last solo movie before the Justice League. Its set to come out in 2016. Like all these movies, the actor needs to be good. I'm thinking they could use Ryan Reynolds, keep him in the DC family... maybe, that could possibly confuse people though. Otherwise they could use Chris Pine, Ryan Gosling. I saw a picture today of suggesting Neil Patrick Harris.
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I personally love the idea of getting NPH into the comic book movies... however I don't think many people will like that idea like I do.
Batman
Finally the Caped Crusader. This is the third time I've mentioned this today but the rebooted Batman is going to be in the next Man of Steel. We don't need to have another movie to go over the origin of Batman, we've seen it a billion times. But we need an actor who can play Bruce Wayne, the playboy millionaire who's parents were killed in an alley of Gotham, learned the art of stealth, martial arts, and master tact to dawn the cowl of Batman.
The only member of the Justice League, he'll have to prove himself mightily in the Man of Steel Sequel. But which actor can do that?
I've mentioned before, I'd like to see Michael Fassbender. He may be occupied as Magneto in Days of Future Past but I think he'd make a fantastic Bruce Wayne in contrast with Henry Cavill. A choice that I just now saw that I think would be just as good as Fassbender if not better would be Richard Armitage. Best known as Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit, Armitage has that dark manner about him that would make an intimidating opponent to Henry Cavill's Clark Kent.
He could be intimidating enough to be a rival to Batman, but a hero enough to be the caped crusader.
Right now, he's my top pick because I know Fassbender can't do it due to his conflicts with X-men.
So there it is. My lineup is:
Superman: Henry Cavill
Green Lantern: Ryan Reynolds (if they go with Green Lantern movie), Nathan Fillion (if they reboot Hal Jordan) Will Smith (If they go John Stewart)
Wonder Woman: Olivia Wilde
The Flash: Neil Patrick Harris
Batman: Richard Armitage
I'm sure to get a lot of flame on my choices and chances are half of them are wrong... if not all of them (besides Superman) but that's the fun part. Predictions make the time go faster until we finally get to proven wrong together.
So what do you think? Do you like my lineup? Who do you think should be in the Justice League?
This has been a very long post but I'm excited. I want to see a good Justice League movie with good actors. I feel like a lot of people are in the same boat. Let's make it happen.
2017 here we come!
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